The great hedge of India Salt, smuggling, tariffs, trade, oppression, taxes and death and independence
The Indian equivalent of the Great Wall, the Customs Hedge, which is not mentioned in history books, was grown to prevent the smuggling of salt in response to the East India Company's oppressive Salt Tax. Composed of thorny trees and shrubs, this barrier covered 2500 miles and was attended by 12,000 men for 50 years before it was finally abandoned in 1879.
The Great Hedge of India or Inland Customs Line was a customs barrier across India from the 1840s to the 1880s built by the British rulers to facilitate collecting the heavy salt tax. The barrier consisted of fences, stone walls, and above all a nearly impenetrable barrier of trees, thorny bushes, and hedges, with periodic guard stations.
Unlike sugar, salt is not a luxury. Although those with high blood pressure are warned to limit their salt intake, humans in general cannot survive without salt in their diet. The human body contains about six ounces of salt--salt is critical for the body processes. Every day, the body loses salt it must replace. Failure to replace the lost salt leads to everything from delirium and fainting to death.
The Great Hedge was forgotten in India and in Britain, until its existence was unearthed by Roy Moxham, a conservator at the University of London Library.
According to Moxham, the customs line was an instrument of exploitation employed by the most powerful empire in the world to extort money out of its poorest subjects, by depriving them from the most basic food item.
From the book:
I was deeply shocked by what I discovered about salt. When I had the idea of finding the remnants of the Customs Hedge, I had imagined the barrier as a piece of British whimsy constructed to collect a minor tax. I had assumed it was merely a flamboyant boundary, perhaps fashioned by administrators with fond memories of English hedgerows. It was a terrible discovery to find that it had been constructed, and ruthlessly policed, so as to cut off an affordable supply of an absolute necessity of life.