Gandhi and Simon Commission

Gandhi stayed out of the limelight for most of the 1920s, preferring to resolvethe wedge between the Swaraj Party and the Indian National Congress, and expanding initiatives against untouchability , Alcoholism, ignorance and Poverty. he went to jail in 18 March 1922 in Yervada Jail and released in February 1924 after an operation for appendicitis. He returned to the fore 1928. The year before , the British Government appointed a new constitutional reform commissionunder John Simon , with not a single Indian in its ranks. The result was a boycott of the commission by Indian Political Parties.   

The Indian Statutory Commission was a group of seven British Members of Parliament of United Kingdom that had been dispatched to India in 1928 to study constitutional reform in Britain's most important colonial dependency. It was commonly referred to as the Simon Commission after its chairman, Sir John Simon. One of its members was Clement Attlee, who subsequently became the British Prime Minister and eventually oversaw the granting of independence to India and Pakistan in 1947.

Gandhi pushed through a resolution in Calcutta Congress in Dec 1928calling the British Governmentto grant India Dominian Status or force a new campaign of non-violence with complete independence for the country as its goal.Gandhi had not only moderated the views of younger men like Subhas Chandra Bose and Jawaharlal Nehru , who sought a demand for immediate independence, but also modefied its own call to a one year wait, instead of two.The British did not respond . On 31 Dec 1929, the flag of India was unfurled in Lahore 26 January 1930 was celebrated by the Indian National Congress, meeting in Lahore as India's Independence day this day was commemorated by almost every other Indian Organisation. Making good on his word Gandhi launched a new Satygraha against the tax on salt in March 1930, highlighted  by the famous Salt Match to Dandi (Dandi is a village in the Jalalpore district, Gujarat, India. It is located on the coast of the Arabian Sea near the city of Navsari. It shot into worldwide prominence in 1930 when Mahatma Gandhi selected it to be the place for the Salt March) from March 12 to April 6, marching 400 kms from Ahmedabad to Dandi, Gujrat to make Salt himself. Thousands of Indians joined him on this March to the sea. This campaign was one of his most successful at upretting British rule, British responded by imprisoning over 60,000 people.
(Gandhi picking up grains of salt at the end of his march)
The Indian Statutory Commission was a group of seven British Members of Parliament of United Kingdom that had been dispatched to India in 1928 to study constitutional reform in Britain's most important colonial dependency. It was commonly referred to as the Simon Commission after its chairman, Sir John Simon. One of its members was Clement Attlee, who subsequently became the British Prime Minister and eventually oversaw the granting of independence to India and Pakistan in 1947.
Almost immediately with its arrival in Bombay on February 3, 1928, the Simon Commission was confronted by throngs of protesters. The entire country started a strike, and many people turned out to greet the Commission with black flags. Similar protests occurred in every major Indian city that the seven British MPs visited. However, one protest against the Simon Commission would gain infamy above all the others. On October 30, 1928, the Simon Commission arrived in Lahore where, as with the rest of the country, its arrival was met with massive amounts of protesters and black flags.In the Madras Presidency excluding the Chief Minister,P. Subaroyan the remaining 2 other Ministers resigned - Dewan Bahadur R.N.Arogyaswamy Mudaliar and A.Ranganatha Mudaliar. The Lahore protest was led by Indian nationalist Lala Lajpat Rai, who had moved a resolution against the Commission in the Legislative Assembly of Punjab in February 1928. In order to make way for the Commission, the local police force began beating protestors with their sticks. The police were particularly brutal towards Lala Lajpat Rai, who died later on November 17, 1928.