Cities Chennai

Published: March 17, 2015 00:00 IST | Updated: March 17, 2015 08:20 IST

The hedge that denied Indians their daily salt

B. Kolappan

There were times a rural labourer in India had to pay through his nose for salt and it cost him two months of his salary.

Any insignificant thing in Tamil is dismissed as uppu peratha visayam (not worth its salt).

But there were times a rural labourer in India had to pay through his nose for salt and it cost him two months of hissalary. The wholesale price of salt increased to Rs. four a maund (a unit of weight). All this occurred at a time famineand unemployment swept Bengal in 1770. When an agricultural labourers wage was, if he were employed, Re. one orRs. two per month, wrote Roy Moxham in his book, The Great Hedge of India, released in Tamil as Uppu Veli byEzhuththu on Sunday.

The translation is by writer Cyril Alex and the book reveals in shocking details the methods adopted by the British tomonopolise salt manufacturing.

Mr. Moxham quotes Indian Civil Service Officer Sir John Strachey: There grew up gradually a monstrous system, towhich it would be almost impossible to find a parallel in any tolerably civilised society.

The Malangis, coming from a family of traditional salt-makers for generations, suddenly found their businessexpropriated and were forced to work for pitiful wages.

To prevent smuggling of salt to Bengal, where salt tax was punitively high, a custom line was established stretchingacross the whole of India, which in 1869 extended from the Indus to the Mahanadhi in Madras, a distance of 2,300miles. It was guarded by 12,000 men.

A.O. Hume, one of the founders of the Indian National Congress, and the Commissioner of Customs likened the hedgeto the Great Wall of China.

It was by chance that Mr. Moxham discovered the existence of the hedge when he bought, Rambles and Recollectionsof an Indian Official by Major General Sir W.H. Sleeman in a second-hand book shop in London. In one chapter, hefound Sir John Stracheys minute details of the hedge. Thus began his arduous journey to India.

The hedge probably took roots in the 1840s and remained till 1879. It was a combination of live or dry shrubs and wasnearly an impassable barrier to smugglers.

As creating a dry hedge demanded phenomenal labour, it was decided to establish a live hedge, because once reared,it only needed ordinary care.

Almost every description of indigenous thorny shrubs has been tried, wherever peculiar difficulties were experienced.Many tons of best seeds have been systematically and carefully collected. Sowings have been repeated not once, butdozen times on different systems, Hume recorded.

The hedge was nowhere less than eight feet high and four to five feet thick. But in places it was twelve feet high andfourteen feet thick at the bottom. It fell into disrepair after salt tax was equalised in 1879.

There were times a rural labourer in India had to pay through his nose for salt and it cost him twomonths of his salary - Roy Moxham

A book that gives a graphic account of how British monopolised salt manufacturing is translated intoTamil

Printable version | Mar 17, 2015 9:27:28 AM | http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/the-hedge-that-denied-indians-their-daily-salt/article7001352.ece

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