History of the salt tax in British India

An early mention of salt taxation is found in Guanzi, a book written in China BCE, which proposes various methods for its implementation. The recommendations of Guanzi became the official salt policy of early Chinese Emperors. At one point, 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 times especially in rome Roman Empire. The first of the great Roman roads, the Via Salaria, or Salt Road, was built for transporting salt. ==Taxation of salt in India==

Salt-producing areas in India Salt has been produced all along the Rann of Kutch on the west coast of India for the past 5,000 years. In Bengal, there was a salt tax in force during the era of the Mughal Empire, which was 5% for Hindus and 2.5% for Muslims. However, by the end of the century, the tax on salt had been considerably reduced. In 1900 and 1905, India was one of the largest producers of salt in the world, with a 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, resulting in an increase in 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 inferior quality compared to India's salt. India's salt imports reached 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, were made unlawful by this policy. The salt tax, which was one rupee and thirteen annas per maund in Bombay, Madras, the 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 Rs 1-4-0 on each maund (82 pounds). In 1944 the Central Legislative Assembly passed the Excises and Salt Act (Act No. I of 1944), which, though modified in India and Pakistan, remain in force in Bangladesh. A new salt tax was introduced to the Republic of India, via the Salt Cess, 1953, which received the assent of the president on 26 December 1953, and was brought into force on 2 January 1954: ==Early protests against the British salt tax==

Since the introduction of the first taxes on salt by the British East India Company, the laws were 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 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 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 be 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 14 August 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 had written his first article on the salt tax 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. ==Mahatma Gandhi's Salt March==

and other satyagrahis during the Dandi March At the historic Lahore session of the Indian National Congress on 31 December 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, Mahatma Gandhi wrote to Lord Irwin apprising him of the prevailing social, economic and political conditions in the country. On 12 March 1930, Gandhi embarked on a satyagraha with 78 followers from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi on the Arabian Sea coast. This march, known as the Dandi March, was sensationalized by the international press; film clippings and pictures of Mahatma Gandhi were relayed to distant corners of the world. Gandhi reached Dandi on 5 April 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. Mahatma 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 satyagraha at Dandi, Gandhi intended to lead a pack of satyagrahis to the 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 marchers at Dharasana. They marched to Dharasana, where they were stopped by a detachment of police. The non-violent satyagrahis confronted the police and were beaten. American journalist Webb Miller, who witnessed the gruesome scene, counted around 320 bodies. His reporting on the violence at the Dharasana Salt Works was later credited for helping turn world opinion against British colonial rule of India. In April 1930, Congress leader Chakravarti Rajagopalachari led a salt satyagraha in Vedaranyam, Madras province. The satyagrahis reached Vedaranyam on the east coast of India on 28 April, where they prepared salt illegally on 30 April. ==Aftermath==

The British authorities turned a deaf ear 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 6 April 1946 that Mahatma Gandhi made a formal request to Sir Archibald Rowlands, the finance member of the Viceroy's Executive Council, to remove the oppressive salt tax. The tax, applied at a rate of 14 paise per 40 kg of salt produced, was criticised for its low collections, with the government spending twice as much to collect the tax as it earned from it. This was replaced in 2017 by the Goods and Services Tax overhaul, which officially places salt in the 0% taxation category. In Pakistan, raw table salt is taxed while iodised salt is not, which has been criticised by salt manufacturers as they need to pay tax on the salt that they later iodise and sell tax-free. ==See also==