In the eastern region of India, the Civil Disobedience Movement received momentum soon after the termination of the Dandi March and Gandhi's call for the commencement of the satyagraha. Soon the salt satyagraha, the picketing of shops dealing in wines, intoxicants and foreign goods and other forms of agitation commenced all over Bengal, Bihar, Orissa and Assam. The intensity of the movement in these regions depended largely upon the organization of local leadership and the enthusiasm shown by the satyagrahis at various levels.
In Bengal, unprecedented response was in evidence on all sides. To celebrate the first day of the National Week, a largely attended public meeting was held on 6 April 1930 at the Shraddhanand Park in Calcutta. Its president, Lalit Mohan Das, made a fervent appeal to the people to join the national movements and make it a grand success. Another mammoth public meeting was held at Wellington Square under the chairmanship of J.M. Sen Gupta. He exhorted the people to participate in the movement in large numbers and carry on the fight, in a non-violent way, till salt tax was abolished. He directed the Congressmen to go to the villages and carry on vigorous propaganda to rouse the masses. Besides, in a large meeting of the Bengal Students' Association attended by seven hundred delegates at the Albert Hall, he advised the student community to join the movement, en masse with ‘restrained patriotism’ as their guide and without letting their passion either of adventure or of cowardice to sway their imagination and judgment.
On the same day, Satish Chandra Das Gupta made Sodepur Khadi Pratisthan a satyagraha camp. From there, he led the first batch of thirty volunteers to Mahisbathan to break the salt law. After finishing their operations, the satyagrahis returned to their base victoriously, jubilantly shouting the slogan 'the salt law is broken'. Every day a chosen batch of them-marched singing national songs to the place selected for saiyagraha where they broke salt law. The Amrita Bazar Patrika reported the details of the Civil Disobedience Move¬ment under several banner headlines such as, 'Bengal Astir, Grim and Fearless Determination', 'Salt Preparation at Mahisbathan in Large Scale', which created excitement all over the country in favour of the movement.
