Sixty Years Of Independence - Role Of Salt
I am really proud to be associated with the Central Excise Department, for this was one department closely associated with India's freedom movement. Mahatma Gandhi was violating the Salt Act, the predecessor to the Excise and Customs Acts.
Salt was more precious than gold. In fact the word, salary came from the word salt as salaries used to be paid in salt. And so did the phrase "worth his salt". As we celebrate the sixty years of freedom and as the babus are hoping for a huge rise in salaries, it is time to question whether they are worth their salt.
Sir John Banks, a businessman from Kent as Governor of the East Indian Company in 1672, was able to arrange a contract which included a loan of £20,000 and £30,000 worth of saltpetre for the King 'at the price it shall sell by the candle' - that is by auction - where an inch of candle burned and as long as it was alight bidding could continue. In 1673, Banks successfully negotiated a contract for 700 tons of saltpetre at £37,000 between the King and the Company. So urgent was the need to supply to the armed forces in the United Kingdom, America and elsewhere that the authorities sometimes turned a blind eye on the untaxed sales. One governor of the Company was even reported as saying in 1864 that he would rather have the saltpetre made than the tax on salt.
The coastal village of Dandi is a small village in the district of Valsad, Gujarat. It shot into worldwide prominence in 1930 when Mahatma Gandhi selected it to be the place for the Salt Satyagraha. He marched from Ahmedabad to Dandi to protest against the imposition of a tax on salt.For his civil disobedience campaign, Gandhi chose to contravene the Salt Acts because they not only appeared to be basically unjust but also because they symbolized an unpopular, unrepresentative and alien government.
When Gandhi began his campaign, revenue realized from the Salt Tax amounted to 25,000,000 pounds sterling. The salt tax had a long and ugly history. The British East India Company considered this taxing of a necessity, salt, as an excellent way of earning revenue. The salt tax initially was imposed in the form of 'land rent' and 'transit charges' before it was consolidated into duty in 1762.
To corner the salt market, the English began to tax Indian salt which drove the price of salt still higher. Even this was not enough because the English introduced the Salt Act which gave a monopoly on salt production to the government. Violation of the law was punishable with the confiscation of salt and six months imprisonment.
Gandhi understood that salt was the only relish which the teeming poor in Indian villages could afford to their monotonous diet. Next to water and air, it was perhaps the greatest necessity of life, the only condiment of the masses and indispensable for land, life and several industries.
This tax on a natural product from the sea water and consumed by every person was symbolical of human oppression and Gandhi could easily add salt to the British wounds.