Question

Why was salt the symbol of protest? This is what Mahatma Gandhi wrote: The volume of information being gained daily shows how wickedly the salt tax has been designed. In order to prevent the use of salt that has not paid the tax, which is at times even fourteen times its value, the Government destroys the salt it cannot sell profitably. Thus it taxes the nation’s vital necessity; it prevents the public from manufacturing it and destroys what nature manufactures without effort. No adjective is strong enough for characterising this wicked dog-in-the-manger policy. From various sources I hear tales of such wanton destruction of the nation’s property in all parts of India. Maunds, if not tons, of salt are said to be destroyed on the Konkan coast. The same tale comes from Dandi. Wherever there is likelihood of natural salt being taken away by the people living in the neighbourhood of such areas for their personal use, salt officers are posted for the sole purpose of carrying on destruction. Thus valuable national property is destroyed at national expense and salt taken out of the mouths of the people. The salt monopoly is thus a fourfold curse. It deprives the people of a valuable, easy village industry, involves wanton destruction of property that nature produces in abundance, the destruction itself means more national expenditure, and fourthly, to crown this folly, an unheard-of tax of more than 1,000 per cent is exacted from a starving people. This tax has remained so long because of the apathy of the general public. Now that it is sufficiently roused, the tax has to go. How soon it will be abolished depends upon the strength the people. THE COLLECTED WORKS OF MAHATMA GANDHI (CWMG), VOL. 49

Why was salt destroyed by the colonial government? Why did Mahatma Gandhi consider the salt tax more oppressive than other taxes?

Answer 1

1. The colonial government wanted to maintain its monopoly over the production and sale of salt.
2. If people produced salt themselves, the government could not collect the salt tax from them.
3. Therefore, salt made naturally or produced without paying tax was often destroyed by government officials.
4. Gandhi considered the salt tax especially oppressive because salt was a basic necessity used by everyone.
5. Rich and poor people both needed salt, but the tax affected the poor much more heavily.
6. Gandhi also pointed out that the government sometimes charged a tax that was many times higher than the actual value of salt.
7. The salt laws prevented people from making or collecting salt even when it was naturally available near them.
8. Gandhi believed this was unfair because the government was taxing something that nature provided freely.

Therefore, salt became a powerful symbol of protest because the issue affected almost every Indian household.