The salt satyagraha began on 12 March and ended in Dandi with Gandhi breaking the Salt Act on 6 April. On 12 March 1930, Gandhi and 80 satyagrahis, set out on foot for the coastal village of Dandi, Gujarat, over 390 kilometers from their starting point at Sabarmati Ashram.
These satyagrahi “Volunteers”, working all day in the hot sun, produced two teaspoonfuls of very bad salt. From Gandhi’s point, (and from the public point of view) his salt making campaign was not to get salt, but to defy the Government, and to convey to the masses the idea that an unjustifiable charge was being levied on a necessity of the poor.
Three centuries before Christ, Indians were paying a salt tax to the Hindu monarch Chandragupta, who heavily penalized contraband production (Kautilya’s Arthasastra, Shamasastry, Book II, ch. 12.). They paid salt tax to all their rulers ever since. It is the only tax that the whole people can and do pay. It amounted to six and three-quarters of an American cent per capita per annum. in spite of this tax, India’s per capita consumption of salt increased 50% cent between 1880-1930. The British government used to manufacture about 35 per cent of the Indian product, and made no profit whatever thereby; 35% was privately manufactured, 30% imported.
A uniform duty, used for revenue, used to be imposed by all countries. The then France, Germany, Holland, Bulgaria, Brazil and Venezuela levied tax on salt. In Japan, Italy, Greece, Spain, and several other countries salt used to be a government monopoly. It is probably the easiest and fairest tax that can be levied on any people.
As per GST Law, there is no GST on Salt, all types. Allow me to explain with an example: If you’re purchasing items that are subject to the GST, the prices of salt will change.
It the price of sugar increases by around 18% due to GST it means that the cost of cereal, Biscuits etc., will also go up. Similarly, the price of salt will also increase by around 18%. This means that the cost of food items like masala dosa etc., will also go up as a result. Yet we say, no tax is levied on Salt?
We have understood the Dandi March politically well.
About the Author
Dr. K. Raja Gopal Reddy is a seasoned internationally qualified Insurance professional.
What you are reading here, may not answer all the questions we have, but has the absolute power of asking unsettling questions which increase the interest in the strange world, and show the contradictory wonders lying just below the surface of the commonest things of life. Look at this disturbing but beautiful thought of Friedrich Nietzsche “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him”.
Dr. Reddy can be reached at: raja66gopal@gmail.com
