Prelude to a Pinch of Salt
Mahatma Gandhi’s Dandi March – a nonviolent protest against the British monopoly on salt production in March – April, 1930 marked a turning point in the Indian independence movement. It played a major role in India’s subsequent freedom from British rule.
But much before this (42 years back) Madhusudan Das, the architect of modern Orissa, better known as Madhu Babu, framed a mass protest around salt in Cuttack.
When Gandhi was 22 years old, he wrote his first article on Salt in The Vegetarian as early as February 14, 1891. He described salt as ‘heavily taxed’ for the people of India who lived on bread and salt amidst complete poverty.
Madhu Babu was 40 years old when he orchestrated the protest against the salt tax by way of a large public gathering at the Cuttack Municipality Market on February 11, 1888. It is believed to be the first public meeting in India to protest the salt tax.
It was pointed out that poor Indians had a tax burden several times bigger in comparison to the people of England. The tax on salt was termed "unjust," because the taxed salt was all imported from abroad and reduction in salt tax was pressed for.
Madhu Babu addressed the huge gathering in Oriya and pointed out that the total tax per head in England was Rs.8 against the per capita income of Rs.300 whereas in India it was Rs.16 against the per capita income of Rs.20 per annum.
The salt law was chosen by Madhu Babu for mass protest as salt farming was one of the principal trades in Orissa and both native salt manufacturers and consumers were hit hard by it.
In the ‘Cuttack District Gazetteer’, O Malley had recorded that the best quality of salt was then being manufactured in the Orissa coast. Revenue realised by the East India Company from the Salt in Odisha through monopoly amounted to about Rs 18 lakh per annum.
Orissa salt became a British monopoly in 1804. The private sale of salt was completely prohibited. Those who had salt in their possession had to sell to the salt department immediately at a fixed price. Subsequently, the manufacturing of salt by anyone other than the government was declared illegal.
Instead, the salt department in Orissa advanced money to salt labourers for salt production. The Orissa salt had a ready market in neighbouring Bengal. The British in Bengal traded in Orissa salt too.
While clandestine manufacture of salt continued the salt manufacturing families were further ruined when the administrative control of the Orissa salt department was transferred, to Madras.
Though in the Allahabad Session of the Congress of 1888 a mild protest was raised against the salt tax, Madhu Babu felt restricting protests to mere resolutions would little serve the purpose.
Soon after the Allahabad Session Madhu Babu convened the huge public meeting with the support of the Utkal Sabha in the Cuttack Municipal Market. He attacked the salt tax and demanded the restoration of the Odisha Salt department to the administrative control of the Government of Bengal from the Madras Government to save the salt industry in Orissa.
Eminent author Surendra Mohanty in his monograph on Madhusudan Das published by National Book Trust in 1972 wrote: “As a consequence of this popular movement, the salt department in Orissa was ultimately transferred from Madras to Bengal. Since then, rationalisation of salt tax continued to feature as an important economic and political programme of Madhusudan; and this was 42 years before 1930 when Gandhiji gave a revolutionary orientation to the anti-salt tax campaign and the issue if salt tax came to acquire a new significance in Indian politics”.
Orissa was the most distressed region due to the British salt policies. But Gandhi chose the West coast for his salt satyagraha. It is said Gandhi’s choice was so because he felt closest to the salt makers of Gujarat.
