Actor and comedian Kal Penn’s experience with immigration is fairly recent; his family came to America in the 1960s and Kal was born and raised in suburban New Jersey. He was influenced by his maternal grandfather who marched with Gandhi in the Salt March, a protest against British imperialism. 

In 1858, the British Crown took control of India from the East India Company, a company created by the British government to establish trade in the East Indies. During its reign, the British exploited India’s resources and imposed a harsh and violent rule over the Indian people. Britain maintained control until India established its independence in 1947. 

India’s nationalist and spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi helped to inspire India’s independence movement. Gandhi was an activist who promoted nonviolent civil disobedience while seeking to end British rule and establish independence for India. 

In March of 1930, Gandhi led the Dandi March (also called Dandi Satyagraha or the Salt March) from his ashram near Ahmedabad 240 miles south to Dandi. The 24-day march was in protest to the British salt tax which prohibited Indians from making and selling their own salt; forcing them to buy heavily taxed salt from the British government. The march gained huge support from the Indian people. Gandhi started with less than 100 followers and ended up with 50,000 at Dandi. In Dandi, Gandhi defied the law and asked that all Indians participate in making salt. He continued along the coast, gathering support, and was arrested in early May before the second protest at the Dharasana Salt Works in May of 1930. At Dharasana, 2,500 nonviolent protesters were attacked by the British police. The scene was especially brutal as the protestors were passive as they were savagely beaten. The protest and the beatings garnered worldwide attention and empowered the Indian people to move toward independence. 

The British government received so much negative attention from the Salt March and the Dharasana protest and beatings that they were forced to negotiate with Gandhi and eventually withdrew from India in 1947.