History of the British salt tax in India
Encyclopedia
Taxation of salt has occurred in India
since the earliest times. However, this tax
was greatly increased when the British East India Company
began to establish its rule over provinces in India. In 1835, special taxes were imposed on Indian salt
to facilitate its import. This paid huge dividends for the trade
rs of the British East India Company. When the Crown took over the administration of India from the Company in 1858, the taxes were not repealed.
The stringent salt taxes imposed by the British were vehemently condemned by the Indian public. In 1885, at the first session of the Indian National Congress
in Bombay, a prominent Congress Leader S.A.Swaminatha Iyer raised the issue of the salt tax. There were further protests throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries culminating in Mahatma Gandhi
's Salt Satyagraha
in 1930. This sathyagraha was followed by other sathyagrahas in other parts of the country. After the arrest of Gandhi, Sarojini Naidu
lead the sathyagrahis to Dharasana Salt works
in Gujarat and was arrested by the police. C. Rajagopalachari
broke the Salt Laws at Vedaranyam
, in Madras Province in the same year. Thousands courted arrest and were imprisoned in large numbers. The administration eventually relented and invited Mahatma Gandhi to England
to attend the Second Round Table Conference. Gandhi's Dandi March got wide news coverage and proved to be a turning point in the history of India's independence movement
.
The salt tax, however, continued to remain in effect and was repealed only when Jawaharlal Nehru
became the President of the Interim Government in 1946.
scholar M. J. Schleiden in his book Das Salz said that there was direct correlation between salt taxes and despots. This has been evidenced by history which stands testimony to the fact that highly despotic civilizations are the ones which tax salt production and trade.
Salt tax originated in ancient China
. Guanzi, a book written in around 300 BC recommends taxation of salt and propounds different methods for this purpose. It is quite well known that the recommendations of Guanzi became the official salt policy of early Chinese Emperors. At one point of time, salt taxes constituted over one half of China's revenues and contributed to the construction of the Great Wall of China
.
Salt was also important in the Ancient Roman Empire
. The first of the great Roman road
s, the Via Salaria
, Salt Road, was built for transporting salt. However, unlike the Chinese, Romans did not monopolize salt.
In Britain, there are references to salt taxes in the Domesday Book
but they had died out before patents were given in Tudor
times. Reintroduced in 1641 in the Commonwealth
period there was such outcry that were withdrawn on the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 and not reinstated till 1693 under William III
, with duty set at two shillings a bushel on foreign salt, one shilling on native salt with exemption for fishery salt. In 1696 the tax was doubled and remained in force till abolished in 1825. There were probably 600 full-time officials employed in the collection of the taxes.
in the west coast of India for the past 5,000 years. The Rann of Kutch is an extensive marshland which is cut off from the rest of the Indian subcontinent during monsoons when the seas inundate the low-lying areas. However, when the sea water evaporates during summer, it leaves behind a crust of salt which accumulate as salt pans. This salt is collected by laborers called malangis.
In the eastern coast, salt could be obtained extensively along the coast of Orissa
. The salt produced by the salt pans called khalaris in Oriya is of the finest quality in all India. There has always been a demand for Orissa salt in Bengal
. When the British took over the administration of Bengal, they too felt its need and traded for salt. Gradually they monopolized Orissa salt all over Bengal. To check smuggling and illegal transportation, they sent armies into Orissa resulting in the conquest of Orissa in 1803.
. The Arthashastra which describes the different duties of the people says that a special officer called lavananadhyaksa was appointed to collect salt tax. Taxes were also imposed on imported salt. However, they accounted for 25 percent of the total value of the salt.
In Bengal, there was a salt tax in vogue during the time of the Mughals
, which was 5% for Hindus and 2.5% for Muslims.
, the British East India Company came in possession of land near Calcutta where there were salt works. Utilizing this opportunity to make money, they doubled the land rent and imposed transit charges on the transportation of salt.
In 1764, following the victory at the Battle of Buxar
, the British began to control all the revenues of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. Robert Clive, who returned as Governor-General
in 1765 made the sale of tobacco
, betel nut
, and salt apart from other accessories and essential spices and condiments, the monopoly
of the senior officers of the British East India Company. Contracts were given to deliver salt to depots. Merchants then had to buy all their requirements from these depots.
Outrage was expressed by the authorities in England who declared:
Clive responded by offering the Company 12,00,000 per annum from the profits made.
However, the authorities in England were stubborn and due to the pressure exerted by them, monopoly of tobacco and betel nut was stopped on September 1, 1767. This was followed by the annulment of the monopoly of salt on October 7, 1768.
In 1772, the then Governor-General Warren Hastings
brought salt trade once again under the Company's control. However, the salt works were leased out to farmers who agreed to deliver salt at a fixed rate to the Company. The Company sold the leases to the highest bidders. However, corruption dealt a severe blow to the Company that the revenue from salt trade had fallen to 80,000 rupees by 1780. This along with the exploitation of the malangis or salt workers by their landlords forced Hastings introduce a new system in 1780.
In 1780, Warren Hastings brought salt trade once again under Government control. The salt works were divided into Agencies each under an Agent. These Agencies were governed by a Controller. This system persisted with minor modifications till India's independence in 1947. According to this new system, the malangis sold the salt to the agents at a particular price. Initially, this price was fixed at 2 rupees a maund with a tax of 1.1 to 1.5 rupees a maund. This new system was a success. In 1781-82, the salt revenue was 2,960,130 rupees. The Company received a revenue of 6,257,750 rupees from salt in 1784-85.
From 1788 onwards, the Company took to selling to wholesalers by auction. Due to this move by the British East India Company, the tax increased to 3.25 rupees a maund
. The wholesale price of salt increased from 1.25 rupees to about 4 rupees a maund. This was an exorbitant rate and few could afford the privilege of having their food with salt.
On 1 November 1804, the British monopolized salt in newly conquered Orissa. In return, they advanced money to the malangis against further salt production. As a result, the malangis eventually became debtors of the British and were virtually brought down to the level of slaves. The Orissa Zamindars who earlier controlled salt trade were alarmed at the monopolization which resulted in a sudden loss of income and tried to bear upon the malangi not to work for the British but to no avail.
In the early 19th century, to make the salt tax more profitable and stop the smuggling, the East India Company established customs check points throughout Bengal. One Mr. G.H.Smith established a "Customs Line". This was the boundary across which transportation was salt involved payment of high customs duties. In the 1840s, a thorn fence was erected along with western frontiers of Bengal province to prevent smuggling of salt. Eventually, after 1857, the thorn fence grew to be 2,500 miles long all along India's eastern frontier and Orissa.
which followed the demise of the Company. The construction of a fence to prevent smuggling of salt which was commenced during the Company's rule was completed during this period. Sources indicate that by 1858, British India derived 10% of its revenues from its monopoly of salt. However, by the end of the century, the tax on salt had been considerably reduced. In 1880, income
from salt amounted to 7 million pounds
.
In 1900 and 1905, India was one of the largest producers of salt in the world with an yield of 1,021,426 metric tons and 1,212,600 metric tonnes respectively.
In 1923, under the viceroyalty of Lord Reading, a bill was passed doubling the Salt tax. However, another proposal made in 1927, was subsequently vetoed. It was one of Finance Member Basil Blackett's first deeds when producing his first budget in February 1923.
In 1835, the Government appointed a salt commission to review the existing salt tax. It recommended that Indian salt should be taxed to enable the sale of imported English Salt. Consequently, salt was imported from Liverpool
resulting in the increase of salt rates. Subsequently, the Government set up a monopoly on the manufacture of salt by the Salt Act. Production of salt was made an offense punishable with six-months imprisonment. The committee also recommended that Indian salt be sold in maunds of 100. However, they were sold in much lesser quantities. In 1888, the salt tax was enhanced by Lord Dufferin as a temporary measure. Cheshire
salt imported from the United Kingdom
was available at a much cheaper rate. However, Cheshire salt was of highly inferior quality than those made in India. India's salt imports reached 25,82,050 metric tons by 1851.
In 1878, a uniform salt tax policy was adopted for the whole of India, both British India as well as the princely states. Both production as well as possession of salt was made unlawful by this policy. The salt tax which was one rupee and thirteen annas per maund in Bombay, Madras, Central Provinces
and the princely states of South India
was increased to two rupees and eight annas and decreased from three rupees and four annas in Bengal and Assam to two rupees and fourteen annas and from three rupees to two rupees and eight annas in North India.
Section 39 of the Bombay Salt Act which was the same as Section 16-17 of the Indian Salt Act empowered a salt-revenue official to break-into places where salt was being illegally manufactured and seize the illegal salt being manufactured. Section 50 of the Bombay Salt Act prohibited the shipping of salt overseas.
The India Salt Act of 1882 included regulations enforcing a government monopoly on the collection and manufacture of salt. Salt could be manufactured and handled only at official government salt depots, with a tax of Rs1-4-0 on each maund
(82 pounds
).
deficiency.
Abhay Charan Das in his The Indian Ryot published in 1881 has written:
The Salt Tax was criticized at a public meeting at Cuttack
in February 1888. In the first session of the Indian National Congress held in 1885 in Bombay, a prominent Congress member, S. A. Saminatha Iyer pleaded against the salt tax.
At the Allahabad
session of the Indian National Congress in 1888, Narayan Vishnu, a delegate from Poona vehemently opposed the Indian Salt Act. A resolution was passed wherein the delegates present declared 'That this Congress do put on record its disapproval of the recent enhancement of the salt tax as involving a perceptible increase to the burden of the poorer classes, as also the 'partial adoption, in a time of peace and plenty, of the only financial reserve of the Empire.' The 1892 session at Allahabad concluded thus: '... We do not know when the tax will be reduced. So that there is every necessity for our repeating this prayer in the interests of the masses, and we earnestly hope that it will he granted before long'. A similar sort of protest was also issued at the Congress session at Ahmedabad
.
The Salt Tax was also protested by eminent people like Dadabhai Naoroji
. On August 14, 1894, he thundered in the House of Commons:
In 1895, George Hamilton stated at a session of the House of Commons that:
When the Salt tax was doubled in the year 1923, it was sharply criticized in a report by the Taxation Enquiry Committee which was published two years later. This raise also evoked sharp reactions from Indian nationalists. In 1929, Pandit Nilakantha Das demanded the repeal of the Salt Tax in the Imperial Legislature but his pleas fell on deaf ears. In 1930, Orissa was close to open rebellion.
In 1909, Mahatma Gandhi wrote in his Hind Swaraj from South Africa urging the British administration to abolish the Salt tax.
See also Salt sathyagraha
At the historic Lahore
session of the Indian National Congress on January 26, 1929 in which Purna Swaraj
was declared, a passing reference was made to the infamous and oppressive salt law and resolved that a way should be found to oppose it. In the first week of March 1930, Gandhi wrote to Lord Irwin apprising him of the prevailing social, economic and political conditions in the country.
On March 12, 1930, Mahatma Gandhi embarked on a sathyagraha with 79 followers from Sabarmathi Ashram to Dandi
on the Arabian Sea
coast. This march known as the Dandi March was highly sensationalized by the international press and video clippings and pictures of Mahatma Gandhi relayed in distant corners of the world. Gandhi reached Dandi on April 6, 1930. After his morning bhajan
, he waded in to the sea shore and picked up a handful of salt proclaiming that with the handful of salt he was proclaiming the end of the British Empire. The police arrived and arrested thousands of national leaders including Gandhi. Gandhi's bold defiance of the Salt law encouraged other Indians to break the law as well.
, Gandhi intended to lead a pack of sathyagrahis to Dharasana Salt works
in Gujarat but was arrested by the police. A few days later, Congress leader Abbas Tyabji
was also arrested. So, the mantle fell upon Sarojini Naidu
to lead the sathyagrahis at Dharasana. The sathyagrahis marched to Dharasana where they were confronted by a deportment of the police who stopped them. The non-violent sathyagrahis proceed to confront the police and were beaten down. American journalist Webb Miller
who witnessed the gruesome scene counted around 320 bodies.
In April 1930, Congress leader Chakravarti Rajagopalachari lead a salt sathyagraha in Madras province. The satyagrahis reached Vedaranyam
on the east coast of India on April 28 where they prepared salt illegally on April 30.
, the finance member of the Viceroy's Executive Council, to remove the oppressive salt tax. Rowlands formally issued an order abolishing the salt tax, but the order was vetoed by the Viceroy
, Lord Wavell
. The Salt Tax continued in force until October 1946, when it was abolished by the Interim Government of India
headed by Jawaharlal Nehru
.
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
since the earliest times. However, this tax
Tax
To tax is to impose a financial charge or other levy upon a taxpayer by a state or the functional equivalent of a state such that failure to pay is punishable by law. Taxes are also imposed by many subnational entities...
was greatly increased when the British East India Company
British East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
began to establish its rule over provinces in India. In 1835, special taxes were imposed on Indian salt
Salt
In chemistry, salts are ionic compounds that result from the neutralization reaction of an acid and a base. They are composed of cations and anions so that the product is electrically neutral...
to facilitate its import. This paid huge dividends for the trade
Trade
Trade is the transfer of ownership of goods and services from one person or entity to another. Trade is sometimes loosely called commerce or financial transaction or barter. A network that allows trade is called a market. The original form of trade was barter, the direct exchange of goods and...
rs of the British East India Company. When the Crown took over the administration of India from the Company in 1858, the taxes were not repealed.
The stringent salt taxes imposed by the British were vehemently condemned by the Indian public. In 1885, at the first session of the Indian National Congress
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...
in Bombay, a prominent Congress Leader S.A.Swaminatha Iyer raised the issue of the salt tax. There were further protests throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries culminating in Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...
's Salt Satyagraha
Salt Satyagraha
The Salt March, also known as the Salt Satyagrahah began with the Dandi March on March 12, 1930, and was an important part of the Indian independence movement. It was a campaign of tax resistance and nonviolent protest against the British salt monopoly in colonial India, and triggered the wider...
in 1930. This sathyagraha was followed by other sathyagrahas in other parts of the country. After the arrest of Gandhi, Sarojini Naidu
Sarojini Naidu
Sarojini Naidu , also known by the sobriquet The Nightingale of India, was a child prodigy, Indian independence activist and poet...
lead the sathyagrahis to Dharasana Salt works
Dharasana Satyagraha
Dharasana Satyagraha was a protest against the British salt tax in colonial India in May, 1930. Following the conclusion of the Salt March to Dandi, Mahatma Gandhi chose a non-violent raid of the Dharasana Salt Works in Gujarat as the next protest against British rule. Hundreds of satyagrahis were...
in Gujarat and was arrested by the police. C. Rajagopalachari
C. Rajagopalachari
Chakravarti Rajagopalachari , informally called Rajaji or C.R., was an Indian lawyer, independence activist, politician, writer and statesman. Rajagopalachari was the last Governor-General of India...
broke the Salt Laws at Vedaranyam
Vedaranyam
Vedaranyam is a municipality in Nagapattinam district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.-Geography:Vedaraniyam is located at . It has an average elevation of .-Demographics:...
, in Madras Province in the same year. Thousands courted arrest and were imprisoned in large numbers. The administration eventually relented and invited Mahatma Gandhi to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
to attend the Second Round Table Conference. Gandhi's Dandi March got wide news coverage and proved to be a turning point in the history of India's independence movement
Indian independence movement
The term Indian independence movement encompasses a wide area of political organisations, philosophies, and movements which had the common aim of ending first British East India Company rule, and then British imperial authority, in parts of South Asia...
.
The salt tax, however, continued to remain in effect and was repealed only when Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru , often referred to with the epithet of Panditji, was an Indian statesman who became the first Prime Minister of independent India and became noted for his “neutralist” policies in foreign affairs. He was also one of the principal leaders of India’s independence movement in the...
became the President of the Interim Government in 1946.
Taxation of salt
The GermanGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
scholar M. J. Schleiden in his book Das Salz said that there was direct correlation between salt taxes and despots. This has been evidenced by history which stands testimony to the fact that highly despotic civilizations are the ones which tax salt production and trade.
Salt tax originated in ancient China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. Guanzi, a book written in around 300 BC recommends taxation of salt and propounds different methods for this purpose. It is quite well known that the recommendations of Guanzi became the official salt policy of early Chinese Emperors. At one point of time, salt taxes constituted over one half of China's revenues and contributed to the construction of the Great Wall of China
Great Wall of China
The Great Wall of China is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in northern China, built originally to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire against intrusions by various nomadic groups...
.
Salt was also important in the Ancient Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
. The first of the great Roman road
Roman road
The Roman roads were a vital part of the development of the Roman state, from about 500 BC through the expansion during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. Roman roads enabled the Romans to move armies and trade goods and to communicate. The Roman road system spanned more than 400,000 km...
s, the Via Salaria
Via Salaria
The Via Salaria was an ancient Roman road in Italy.It eventually ran from Rome to Castrum Truentinum on the Adriatic coast - a distance of 242 km. The road also passed through Reate and Asculum...
, Salt Road, was built for transporting salt. However, unlike the Chinese, Romans did not monopolize salt.
In Britain, there are references to salt taxes in the Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
but they had died out before patents were given in Tudor
Tudor dynasty
The Tudor dynasty or House of Tudor was a European royal house of Welsh origin that ruled the Kingdom of England and its realms, including the Lordship of Ireland, later the Kingdom of Ireland, from 1485 until 1603. Its first monarch was Henry Tudor, a descendant through his mother of a legitimised...
times. Reintroduced in 1641 in the Commonwealth
Commonwealth of England
The Commonwealth of England was the republic which ruled first England, and then Ireland and Scotland from 1649 to 1660. Between 1653–1659 it was known as the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland...
period there was such outcry that were withdrawn on the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 and not reinstated till 1693 under William III
William III of England
William III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...
, with duty set at two shillings a bushel on foreign salt, one shilling on native salt with exemption for fishery salt. In 1696 the tax was doubled and remained in force till abolished in 1825. There were probably 600 full-time officials employed in the collection of the taxes.
Salt-producing areas in India
Salt has been produced all along the Rann of KutchRann of Kutch
The Great Rann of Kutch, also called Greater Rann of Kutch or just Rann of Kutch , is a seasonal salt marsh located in the Thar Desert in the Kutch District of Gujarat, India and the Sindh province of Pakistan....
in the west coast of India for the past 5,000 years. The Rann of Kutch is an extensive marshland which is cut off from the rest of the Indian subcontinent during monsoons when the seas inundate the low-lying areas. However, when the sea water evaporates during summer, it leaves behind a crust of salt which accumulate as salt pans. This salt is collected by laborers called malangis.
In the eastern coast, salt could be obtained extensively along the coast of Orissa
Orissa
Orissa , officially Odisha since Nov 2011, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC. The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April...
. The salt produced by the salt pans called khalaris in Oriya is of the finest quality in all India. There has always been a demand for Orissa salt in Bengal
Bengal
Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous...
. When the British took over the administration of Bengal, they too felt its need and traded for salt. Gradually they monopolized Orissa salt all over Bengal. To check smuggling and illegal transportation, they sent armies into Orissa resulting in the conquest of Orissa in 1803.
Taxation of salt before British rule
Salt is a commodity which had been taxed in India ever since the time of the Mauryas. Taxes on salt have been prevalent even during the time of Chandragupta MauryaChandragupta Maurya
Chandragupta Maurya , was the founder of the Maurya Empire. Chandragupta succeeded in conquering most of the Indian subcontinent. Chandragupta is considered the first unifier of India and its first genuine emperor...
. The Arthashastra which describes the different duties of the people says that a special officer called lavananadhyaksa was appointed to collect salt tax. Taxes were also imposed on imported salt. However, they accounted for 25 percent of the total value of the salt.
In Bengal, there was a salt tax in vogue during the time of the Mughals
Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire , or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...
, which was 5% for Hindus and 2.5% for Muslims.
Taxation of salt by the British East India Company
In 1759, two years after its victory at the Battle of PlasseyBattle of Plassey
The Battle of Plassey , 23 June 1757, was a decisive British East India Company victory over the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies, establishing Company rule in South Asia which expanded over much of the Indies for the next hundred years...
, the British East India Company came in possession of land near Calcutta where there were salt works. Utilizing this opportunity to make money, they doubled the land rent and imposed transit charges on the transportation of salt.
In 1764, following the victory at the Battle of Buxar
Battle of Buxar
The Battle of Buxar was fought on 22 October 1764 between the forces under the command of the British East India Company, and the combined armies of Mir Qasim, the Nawab of Bengal; Shuja-ud-Daula Nawab of Awadh; and Shah Alam II, the Mughal Emperor...
, the British began to control all the revenues of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. Robert Clive, who returned as Governor-General
Governor-General
A Governor-General, is a vice-regal person of a monarch in an independent realm or a major colonial circonscription. Depending on the political arrangement of the territory, a Governor General can be a governor of high rank, or a principal governor ranking above "ordinary" governors.- Current uses...
in 1765 made the sale of tobacco
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
, betel nut
Betel nut
The Areca nut is the seed of the Areca palm , which grows in much of the tropical Pacific, Asia, and parts of east Africa. It is commonly referred to as "betel nut" as it is often chewed wrapped in betel leaves.-Description:...
, and salt apart from other accessories and essential spices and condiments, the monopoly
Monopoly
A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
of the senior officers of the British East India Company. Contracts were given to deliver salt to depots. Merchants then had to buy all their requirements from these depots.
Outrage was expressed by the authorities in England who declared:
Clive responded by offering the Company 12,00,000 per annum from the profits made.
However, the authorities in England were stubborn and due to the pressure exerted by them, monopoly of tobacco and betel nut was stopped on September 1, 1767. This was followed by the annulment of the monopoly of salt on October 7, 1768.
In 1772, the then Governor-General Warren Hastings
Warren Hastings
Warren Hastings PC was the first Governor-General of India, from 1773 to 1785. He was famously accused of corruption in an impeachment in 1787, but was acquitted in 1795. He was made a Privy Councillor in 1814.-Early life:...
brought salt trade once again under the Company's control. However, the salt works were leased out to farmers who agreed to deliver salt at a fixed rate to the Company. The Company sold the leases to the highest bidders. However, corruption dealt a severe blow to the Company that the revenue from salt trade had fallen to 80,000 rupees by 1780. This along with the exploitation of the malangis or salt workers by their landlords forced Hastings introduce a new system in 1780.
In 1780, Warren Hastings brought salt trade once again under Government control. The salt works were divided into Agencies each under an Agent. These Agencies were governed by a Controller. This system persisted with minor modifications till India's independence in 1947. According to this new system, the malangis sold the salt to the agents at a particular price. Initially, this price was fixed at 2 rupees a maund with a tax of 1.1 to 1.5 rupees a maund. This new system was a success. In 1781-82, the salt revenue was 2,960,130 rupees. The Company received a revenue of 6,257,750 rupees from salt in 1784-85.
From 1788 onwards, the Company took to selling to wholesalers by auction. Due to this move by the British East India Company, the tax increased to 3.25 rupees a maund
Maund
The maund is the anglicized name for a traditional unit of mass used in British India, and also in Afghanistan, Persia and Arabia: the same unit in the Moghul Empire was sometimes written as mun in English, while the equivalent unit in the Ottoman Empire and Central Asia was called the batman...
. The wholesale price of salt increased from 1.25 rupees to about 4 rupees a maund. This was an exorbitant rate and few could afford the privilege of having their food with salt.
On 1 November 1804, the British monopolized salt in newly conquered Orissa. In return, they advanced money to the malangis against further salt production. As a result, the malangis eventually became debtors of the British and were virtually brought down to the level of slaves. The Orissa Zamindars who earlier controlled salt trade were alarmed at the monopolization which resulted in a sudden loss of income and tried to bear upon the malangi not to work for the British but to no avail.
In the early 19th century, to make the salt tax more profitable and stop the smuggling, the East India Company established customs check points throughout Bengal. One Mr. G.H.Smith established a "Customs Line". This was the boundary across which transportation was salt involved payment of high customs duties. In the 1840s, a thorn fence was erected along with western frontiers of Bengal province to prevent smuggling of salt. Eventually, after 1857, the thorn fence grew to be 2,500 miles long all along India's eastern frontier and Orissa.
Taxation of salt by the British authorities
The taxation laws introduced by the British East India Company were in vogue during the ninety years of British RajBritish Raj
British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...
which followed the demise of the Company. The construction of a fence to prevent smuggling of salt which was commenced during the Company's rule was completed during this period. Sources indicate that by 1858, British India derived 10% of its revenues from its monopoly of salt. However, by the end of the century, the tax on salt had been considerably reduced. In 1880, income
Income
Income is the consumption and savings opportunity gained by an entity within a specified time frame, which is generally expressed in monetary terms. However, for households and individuals, "income is the sum of all the wages, salaries, profits, interests payments, rents and other forms of earnings...
from salt amounted to 7 million pounds
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
.
In 1900 and 1905, India was one of the largest producers of salt in the world with an yield of 1,021,426 metric tons and 1,212,600 metric tonnes respectively.
In 1923, under the viceroyalty of Lord Reading, a bill was passed doubling the Salt tax. However, another proposal made in 1927, was subsequently vetoed. It was one of Finance Member Basil Blackett's first deeds when producing his first budget in February 1923.
Salt laws
The first laws to regulate the salt tax were made by the British East India Company.In 1835, the Government appointed a salt commission to review the existing salt tax. It recommended that Indian salt should be taxed to enable the sale of imported English Salt. Consequently, salt was imported from Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
resulting in the increase of salt rates. Subsequently, the Government set up a monopoly on the manufacture of salt by the Salt Act. Production of salt was made an offense punishable with six-months imprisonment. The committee also recommended that Indian salt be sold in maunds of 100. However, they were sold in much lesser quantities. In 1888, the salt tax was enhanced by Lord Dufferin as a temporary measure. Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
salt imported from the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
was available at a much cheaper rate. However, Cheshire salt was of highly inferior quality than those made in India. India's salt imports reached 25,82,050 metric tons by 1851.
In 1878, a uniform salt tax policy was adopted for the whole of India, both British India as well as the princely states. Both production as well as possession of salt was made unlawful by this policy. The salt tax which was one rupee and thirteen annas per maund in Bombay, Madras, Central Provinces
Central Provinces
The Central Provinces was a province of British India. It comprised British conquests from the Mughals and Marathas in central India, and covered parts of present-day Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra states. Its capital was Nagpur....
and the princely states of South India
South India
South India is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of India's area...
was increased to two rupees and eight annas and decreased from three rupees and four annas in Bengal and Assam to two rupees and fourteen annas and from three rupees to two rupees and eight annas in North India.
Section 39 of the Bombay Salt Act which was the same as Section 16-17 of the Indian Salt Act empowered a salt-revenue official to break-into places where salt was being illegally manufactured and seize the illegal salt being manufactured. Section 50 of the Bombay Salt Act prohibited the shipping of salt overseas.
The India Salt Act of 1882 included regulations enforcing a government monopoly on the collection and manufacture of salt. Salt could be manufactured and handled only at official government salt depots, with a tax of Rs1-4-0 on each maund
Maund
The maund is the anglicized name for a traditional unit of mass used in British India, and also in Afghanistan, Persia and Arabia: the same unit in the Moghul Empire was sometimes written as mun in English, while the equivalent unit in the Ottoman Empire and Central Asia was called the batman...
(82 pounds
Pound (mass)
The pound or pound-mass is a unit of mass used in the Imperial, United States customary and other systems of measurement...
).
Effects of the salt tax
The high price of salt made it unaffordable resulting in a number of diseases arising due to iodineIodine
Iodine is a chemical element with the symbol I and atomic number 53. The name is pronounced , , or . The name is from the , meaning violet or purple, due to the color of elemental iodine vapor....
deficiency.
Abhay Charan Das in his The Indian Ryot published in 1881 has written:
Early protests against the British Salt Tax
Since the introduction of the first taxes on salt by the British East India Company, the laws have been subjected to fervent criticism. The Chamber of Commerce in Bristol was one of the first to submit a petition opposing the Salt tax:The Salt Tax was criticized at a public meeting at Cuttack
Cuttack
Cuttack is the former capital of the state of Orissa, India. It is the headquarters of Cuttack district and is located about 20 km to the north east of Bhubaneswar, the capital of Orissa. The name of the city is an anglicised form of Kataka that literally means The Fort, a reference to the...
in February 1888. In the first session of the Indian National Congress held in 1885 in Bombay, a prominent Congress member, S. A. Saminatha Iyer pleaded against the salt tax.
At the Allahabad
Allahabad
Allahabad , or Settled by God in Persian, is a major city of India and is one of the main holy cities of Hinduism. It was renamed by the Mughals from the ancient name of Prayaga , and is by some accounts the second-oldest city in India. It is located in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh,...
session of the Indian National Congress in 1888, Narayan Vishnu, a delegate from Poona vehemently opposed the Indian Salt Act. A resolution was passed wherein the delegates present declared 'That this Congress do put on record its disapproval of the recent enhancement of the salt tax as involving a perceptible increase to the burden of the poorer classes, as also the 'partial adoption, in a time of peace and plenty, of the only financial reserve of the Empire.' The 1892 session at Allahabad concluded thus: '... We do not know when the tax will be reduced. So that there is every necessity for our repeating this prayer in the interests of the masses, and we earnestly hope that it will he granted before long'. A similar sort of protest was also issued at the Congress session at Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad also known as Karnavati is the largest city in Gujarat, India. It is the former capital of Gujarat and is also the judicial capital of Gujarat as the Gujarat High Court has its seat in Ahmedabad...
.
The Salt Tax was also protested by eminent people like Dadabhai Naoroji
Dadabhai Naoroji
Dadabhai Naoroji , known as the Grand Old Man of India, was a Parsi intellectual, educator, cotton trader, and an early Indian political leader. His book Poverty and Un-British Rule in India brought attention to the draining of India's wealth into Britain...
. On August 14, 1894, he thundered in the House of Commons:
In 1895, George Hamilton stated at a session of the House of Commons that:
When the Salt tax was doubled in the year 1923, it was sharply criticized in a report by the Taxation Enquiry Committee which was published two years later. This raise also evoked sharp reactions from Indian nationalists. In 1929, Pandit Nilakantha Das demanded the repeal of the Salt Tax in the Imperial Legislature but his pleas fell on deaf ears. In 1930, Orissa was close to open rebellion.
Mahatma Gandhi and the Salt Tax
Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi wrote his first article on the Salt Tax way back in 1891 in the periodical The Vegetarian. While in South Africa, he wrote in The Indian Opinion:In 1909, Mahatma Gandhi wrote in his Hind Swaraj from South Africa urging the British administration to abolish the Salt tax.
Dandi March
At the historic Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
session of the Indian National Congress on January 26, 1929 in which Purna Swaraj
Purna Swaraj
The Purna Swaraj declaration, or Declaration of the Independence of India was promulgated by the Indian National Congress on January 26, 1930, resolving the Congress and Indian nationalists to fight for Purna Swaraj, or complete self-rule independent of the British Empire...
was declared, a passing reference was made to the infamous and oppressive salt law and resolved that a way should be found to oppose it. In the first week of March 1930, Gandhi wrote to Lord Irwin apprising him of the prevailing social, economic and political conditions in the country.
On March 12, 1930, Mahatma Gandhi embarked on a sathyagraha with 79 followers from Sabarmathi Ashram to Dandi
Dandi, Gujarat
Dandi is a small village in the Jalalpore district, Gujarat, India. It is located on the coast of the Arabian Sea near the city of Navsari.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 with...
on the Arabian Sea
Arabian Sea
The Arabian Sea is a region of the Indian Ocean bounded on the east by India, on the north by Pakistan and Iran, on the west by the Arabian Peninsula, on the south, approximately, by a line between Cape Guardafui in northeastern Somalia and Kanyakumari in India...
coast. This march known as the Dandi March was highly sensationalized by the international press and video clippings and pictures of Mahatma Gandhi relayed in distant corners of the world. Gandhi reached Dandi on April 6, 1930. After his morning bhajan
Bhajan
A Bhajan is any type of Indian devotional song. It has no fixed form: it may be as simple as a mantra or kirtan or as sophisticated as the dhrupad or kriti with music based on classical ragas and talas. It is normally lyrical, expressing love for the Divine...
, he waded in to the sea shore and picked up a handful of salt proclaiming that with the handful of salt he was proclaiming the end of the British Empire. The police arrived and arrested thousands of national leaders including Gandhi. Gandhi's bold defiance of the Salt law encouraged other Indians to break the law as well.
Other salt satyagrahas
Soon after the conclusion of the Salt sathyagraha at DandiDandi, Gujarat
Dandi is a small village in the Jalalpore district, Gujarat, India. It is located on the coast of the Arabian Sea near the city of Navsari.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 with...
, Gandhi intended to lead a pack of sathyagrahis to Dharasana Salt works
Dharasana Satyagraha
Dharasana Satyagraha was a protest against the British salt tax in colonial India in May, 1930. Following the conclusion of the Salt March to Dandi, Mahatma Gandhi chose a non-violent raid of the Dharasana Salt Works in Gujarat as the next protest against British rule. Hundreds of satyagrahis were...
in Gujarat but was arrested by the police. A few days later, Congress leader Abbas Tyabji
Abbas Tyabji
Abbas Tyabji was an Indian freedom fighter from Gujarat, who once served as the Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court. Mahatma Gandhi appointed Tyabji, at age seventy-six, to replace him as leader of the Salt Satyagraha in May, 1930 after Gandhi’s arrest. Tyabji was arrested soon afterward and...
was also arrested. So, the mantle fell upon Sarojini Naidu
Sarojini Naidu
Sarojini Naidu , also known by the sobriquet The Nightingale of India, was a child prodigy, Indian independence activist and poet...
to lead the sathyagrahis at Dharasana. The sathyagrahis marched to Dharasana where they were confronted by a deportment of the police who stopped them. The non-violent sathyagrahis proceed to confront the police and were beaten down. American journalist Webb Miller
Webb Miller (journalist)
Webb Miller was an American journalist and war correspondent. He covered the Pancho Villa Expedition, World War I, the Spanish Civil War , the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, the Phoney War, and the Russo-Finnish War of 1939...
who witnessed the gruesome scene counted around 320 bodies.
In April 1930, Congress leader Chakravarti Rajagopalachari lead a salt sathyagraha in Madras province. The satyagrahis reached Vedaranyam
Vedaranyam
Vedaranyam is a municipality in Nagapattinam district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.-Geography:Vedaraniyam is located at . It has an average elevation of .-Demographics:...
on the east coast of India on April 28 where they prepared salt illegally on April 30.
Aftermath
The British authorities turned deaf ears to the massive protests against the Salt tax which rocked India during the early 1930s. The Dandi March was only partially successful. Though it forced the British rulers to come to the discussion table, the salt tax continued. It was only on April 6, 1946 that Mahatma Gandhi made a formal request to Sir Archibald RowlandsArchibald Rowlands
Sir Archibald Rowlands GCB MBE was a British civil servant. After serving as private secretary to three Secretaries of State for War, he was Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Air Production during the Second World War...
, the finance member of the Viceroy's Executive Council, to remove the oppressive salt tax. Rowlands formally issued an order abolishing the salt tax, but the order was vetoed by the Viceroy
Governor-General of India
The Governor-General of India was the head of the British administration in India, and later, after Indian independence, the representative of the monarch and de facto head of state. The office was created in 1773, with the title of Governor-General of the Presidency of Fort William...
, Lord Wavell
Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell
Field Marshal Archibald Percival Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell GCB, GCSI, GCIE, CMG, MC, PC was a British field marshal and the commander of British Army forces in the Middle East during the Second World War. He led British forces to victory over the Italians, only to be defeated by the German army...
. The Salt Tax continued in force until October 1946, when it was abolished by the Interim Government of India
Interim Government of India
The interim government of India, formed on 2 September 1946 from the newly elected Constituent Assembly of India, had the task of assisting the transition of India from British rule to independence...
headed by Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru , often referred to with the epithet of Panditji, was an Indian statesman who became the first Prime Minister of independent India and became noted for his “neutralist” policies in foreign affairs. He was also one of the principal leaders of India’s independence movement in the...
.