NATIONAL BOURGEOISIE 35 into action: "From violence done to the foreign ruler, violence to our own people whom we may consider to be obstructing the country's progress is easy natural step."11 The CDM was supposed to be fought by a streamlined and limited batch of people in an isolated corner of the country. Gandhi, in a letter to the Viceroy on March 2, explained that he had to move since otherwise the forces of violence would take over and that he surely would not harm a single Englishman or any of his legitimate interests in India.12 The colonial government accordingly decided not to take action against the Dandi marchers. The Home Department informed the administration in Bombay that it "was advantageous to the government" and that the only question was "whether the movement will be discredited gradually or die down without action being taken against them".13 Nevertheless, when the salt march was over, and Gandhi instructed the civil disobedience activists to restrict themselves to the violation of the salt laws in the villages, to the picketing of foreign cloth shops and liquor shops by women, and to the boycott of foreign cloth by men as well, a mass movement broke loose throughout the country. It found its/most dramatic expression in the Chittagong Armoury Raid and in the Peshawar Mutiny of the Garhwali soldiers. As the power of the CDM developed, the authority of Gandhi over the masses, so as to keep them within the prescribed limits, dwindled. This, as the government expressed in a communique, was the reason for arresting him on May 5, 1930.14 The Attitude of the Bourgeoisie After the arrest, strikes, mass demonstrations and violence erupted all over the country. Walchand Hirachand, a leading entrepreneur-cum-merchant, and a founder of the Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce in 1928, thereupon renounced his titles. With this symbolic act, he wanted to impress upon the government that by removing "the great apostle of peace and non-violence", it was removing the only check on destabilising forces, and that, unless it acted quickly, it would lose all support in the country: "The interests of India, England and the rest of the civilised world alike demand an early and fair settlement."15 Ten days later a meeting of 60 commercial bodies in the city asked Thakurdas and Husseinbhoy Laiji, a leading merchant, shipowner and mill agent, to resign from the proposed Round Table Conference if Gandhi would be excluded.16 The Indian Merchants Chamber did not participate, but instead proposed to send a deputation to Gandhi in order to bring about negotiations, and openly requested the government to revise its policy "with a view to allay theTwide-spread discontent" prevalent throughout the country. An amendment suggesting that the discontent