PRESENTATION

ON
SALT SATYAGRAH

Submitted Submitted
by:
to:
Archana(256
Sudhansu 6)
 Abstract
After Bihar and Orissa, it's now West Bengal where people have
resorted to panic buying of salt over rumours that it would
disappear from markets.
This panic buying led to its price hit an unprecedented high at
Rs.100 per kg in Darjeeling.
Inflation is the biggest problem in India.
As per the media, every middle class person faces problems
because of inflation.
In November 2013, the State Government appealed to the people
not to purchase salt from the black market by paying four to ten
times its original price.
Today such type of news makes us think of Mahatma Gandhis Salt
March. He wrote that the tax levied on salt in India has always
been a subject of criticism.
The main objective is to make people aware about the importance
and production of salt in India as well as think about the reasons
for Gandhis Salt March.
 Introduction
Salt is one of the basic elements of our body.
Without salt we could not exist for a moment.
At the fundamental level of the physical body, we
are a walking, breathing, salty ocean. It is the
sodium present in salt that the body requires in
order to perform a variety of essential functions.
Salt helps maintain the fluid in our blood cells and
is used to transmit information in our nerves and
muscles. It is also used in the uptake of certain
nutrients from our small intestines.
The body cannot make salt and so we are reliant
on food to ensure that we get the required intake.
Institute of Medicine recommends people to
consume half a teaspoon of salt each day to get
sufficient levels of sodium for the body.
 Introduction(contd)
Sodium is an electrolyte that helps maintain
muscle function and hydration. If sodium
levels are not replenished, then there is a
possibility that the blood pressure will drop
which could make a person feel dizzy.
So salt is needed by the body in order for it
to function optimally.
But one thing which should be kept in mind
is that you should consume salt as needed
and not over eat it.
 Salt Production:
Salt production declined by 2.1% in 2012 versus the previous year
due to lower US and Canadian volumes. Winter in North America
was mild which caused decline in production.
Several countries also supplied less salt to the world market in
2012, while there was no significant increase in output of any
particular country or region.
China is the leader in the market with 26.1% share. USA
contributes 14.4% of the global volume. Germany, India and
Australia add 6.6%, 6.1% and 4.2% to the number, respectively.
Other producers are minor and do not influence the salt market.
Salt is a Central subject in the Constitution of India and appears as
item No.58 of the Union List of the 7thSchedule. Salt has been
produced all along the Rann of Kutch on the west coast of India for
the past 5,000 years.
India is the third largest Salt producing Country in the World after
China and USA. Global annual production being about 230 million
tones.
 Salt Production (contd)
The growth and achievement of the Salt Industry over the
last 60 years has been spectacular. When India attained
Independence in 1947, salt was being imported from the
United Kingdom & Aden to meet its domestic requirement.
But today it has not only achieved self-sufficiency in
production of salt to meet its domestic requirement but is
exporting surplus salt to foreign countries.
The production of salt during 1947 was 1.9 million tones
which have increased tenfold to a record 22.18 million tons
during 2011-12.
India exported salt to the tune of about 35 lakh tones during
the year 2011-12.
Other major countries importing salt from India are Japan,
Bangladesh, Indonesia, South Korea, North Korea, Malaysia,
U.A.E., Vietnam, Quatar etc.
 Historical Background of Salt
Tax:
Taxation of salt before British rule:
Salt is a commodity which has been taxed in India ever since the time of
the Mauryas
Taxes on salt have been prevalent even during the time of Chandragupta
Maurya.
Taxation of salt by the British East India Company:
In 1772, the then Governor-General Warren Hastings brought the salt
trade once again under the Company's control.
In 1780, Warren Hastings brought the salt trade once again under
government control.
From 1788 onwards, the Company took to selling to wholesalers by
auction. On 1 November 1804, the British monopolized salt in newly
conquered Orissa.
In the early 19th century, to make the salt tax more profitable and stop
its smuggling, the East India Company established customs check points
throughout Bengal.
 Salt tax(contd)
Taxation of salt by the British authorities:
The taxation laws introduced by the British East India
Company were in vogue during the ninety years.
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 tons respectively.
In 1923, under the viceroyalty of Lord Reading, a bill
was passed doubling the salt tax.
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.
 Effect of Salt Tax
The high price of salt made it unaffordable to the common man
resulting in a number of diseases arising due to iodine deficiency.
Abhay Charan Das, in his The Indian Ryot published in 1881,
wrote:Then again there is a still more wretched creature,
which bears the name of labourer, whose income may be
fixed at thirty-five rupees per annum. If he, with his wife
and three children, consumes twenty-four seers of salt, he
must pay a salt duty of two rupees and seven annas, or in
other words 7 per cent income taxes.
Now we leave it to our readers to judge, whether the ryots
and the labourers can procure salt in the quantities they
require. We can positively state from our own experience,
that an ordinary ryot can never procure more than two-
thirds of what he requires, and that a labourer not more
than half.
 Effect of Salt Tax(contd)
In South Africa, Mahatma Gandhi had written his first article on
the salt tax in 1891 in the periodical The Vegetarian.
He wrote in The Indian Opinion:'The tax levied on salt in India has
always been a subject of criticism.
This time it has been criticized by the well-known Dr. Hutchinson
who says that 'it is a great shame for the British Government in
India to continue it, while a similar tax previously in force in Japan
has been abolished. Salt is an essential article in our dietary. It
could be said that the increasing incidence of leprosy in India was
due to the salt tax.' Dr. Hutchinson considers the salt tax a
barbarous practice, which ill becomes the British Government.
In 1909, Mahatma Gandhi wrote in his Hind Swaraj from South
Africa, urging the British administration to abolish the salt tax.The
Salt March, which took place from March to April 1930 in India was
an act of civil disobedience led by Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)
to protest against the salt tax levied by the British on Indian.
 Salt March: Background
Britain's Salt Acts prohibited Indians from collecting or selling
salt, a staple in the Indian diet.
Citizens were forced to buy the vital mineral from the British,
who, in addition to exercising a monopoly over the
manufacture and sale of salt also exerted a heavy salt tax.
Although India's poor suffered most under the tax, Indians
required salt. Defying the Salt Acts, Gandhi reasoned, would be
an ingeniously simple way for many Indians to break a British
law nonviolently.
British rule of India began in 1858. After living for two decades
in South Africa where he fought for the civil rights of Indians
residing there, Gandhi returned to India in 1915 and began
working for Indias independence.
Gandhi declared resistance to British salt policies to be the
unifying theme for his new campaign of satyagraha, or mass
civil disobedience.
 Salt March: 1930
On 12th March 1930, Gandhi set out from his ashram, or
religious retreat, at Sabarmati near Ahmedabad with
several dozen followers on a trek of some 240 miles to
the coastal town of Dandi on the Arabian Sea.
There, Gandhi and his supporters were to defy British
policy by making salt from seawater.
All along the way, Gandhi addressed large crowds and
with each passing day an increasing number of people
joined the salt satyagraha.
By the time they reached Dandi on April 5, Gandhi was at
the head of a crowd of tens of thousands.
He spoke and led prayers and early the next morning
walked down to the sea to make salt.
 Salt March(contd)
He had planned to work the salt flats on the beach, encrusted with
crystallized sea salt at high tide, but the police forestalled him by crushing
the salt deposits into the mud.
Nevertheless, Gandhi reached down and picked up a small lump of
natural salt out of the mudand British law had been defied. At Dandi,
thousands more followed his lead, and in the coastal cities of Bombay
(now called Mumbai) and Karachi, Indian nationalists led crowds of citizens
in making salt.
Civil disobedience broke out all across India, soon involving millions of
Indians, and British authorities arrested more than 60,000 people.
Gandhi himself was arrested on May 5, but the satyagraha continued
without him.
On May 21, the poet Sarojini Naidu (1879-1949) led 2,500 marchers on the
Dharasana Salt Works, some 150 miles north of Bombay.
Several hundred British-led Indian policemen met them and viciously beat
the peaceful demonstrators. The incident, recorded by American journalist
Webb Miller, prompted an international outcry against British policy in
India.
 Salt March: Aftermath
In January 1931, Gandhi was released from prison.
He later met with Lord Irwin (1881-1959), the then
viceroy of India, and agreed to call off the
satyagraha in exchange for an equal negotiating
role at a London conference on India's future.
In August of that year, Gandhi traveled to the
conference as the sole representative of the Indian
National Congress.
The meeting was a disappointment, but British
leaders had acknowledged Gandhi as a force they
could not suppress or ignore.
 Conclusion
We can conclude that in the present scenario middle
class and poor Indians are faced with various problems
related to price hike.
Price hike or inflation is a necessary evil of a growing
economy such as ours. This could be tamed through
suitable and sustainable measures.
It is the duty of the Indian Government and the
Economists to bring it under control.
The only alternative available is to throw away the
neo-liberal model of growth and adopt a people centric
development model.
The need today is to apply Gandhian values in all
aspects of life.
Thanks
!!!