Assam supported Gandhi’s Salt Satyagraha when leaders like Hemchandra Barua, M. Tayebullah, Bishnuram Medhi and Ambikagiri Raychoudhury gathered at Judges’ Field in Guwahati to show solidarity. Under their leadership, the Civil Disobedience Movement soon became a mass movement in the state. Committees were formed to raise funds, boycott foreign goods and spread anti-opium and anti-liquor campaigns.
Students at first did not respond actively, but two events changed this:
i. The arrest of Gandhi and Nehru, which led to huge student protests.
ii. The Cunningham Circular, which forced students and parents to promise not to join politics. This angered students, and many joined the movement.
The Assam Chhatra Sanmilan started picketing government offices. About 3,117 students left their institutions in 1930, and picketing soon spread to shops selling opium. Peasants also joined the movement, demanding a 50% reduction in land revenue, and forest laws were openly violated in places like Bijni and Chapapur. Students of Surma Valley participated as well.