Longest Hedge to protect the Lowliest Crystals

In a Tamil movie, a granite merchant would compare his stones with diamond saying that big stones like his bring little money while small stone s(diamond) bring big money. We Indians were caught up in a controversial whirl pool of the small stone Kohinoor the whole of April 2016.  While the government was arguing that it was gifted to the British  by the ruler of Punjab, Dulip Singh, for helping him in the Sikh war there were umpteen numbers who claimed that it was  stolen by the British.  As if  this does not suffice Afghanistan and Pakistan too make a claim on that stone as their own!

Without going into dispute of a valuable diamond, it is a proven fact that the British indeed had the acumen to change even  worthless stones of India into a biggest cash cow. What are those worthless small stones of India?

It is indeed an interesting story and I will start at the very beginning!

All of us know the importance of salt for a normal human existence.

It was believed that at some point of the Roman regime the Roman soldiers were paid their salary by salt and the word salary itself is derived from salt. Jesus said " You are the salt of the earth"   The Tamil poets too eulogized the importance of salt by declaring that a food without salt is to be thrown out as a worthless item.

You may wonder where I am heading to recounting the significance of salt. The small stones I mentioned before relate to this little white salt crystals. The salt which was taken for granted  in  Indian food, which had no innate power to affect any one's budget  became a profitable trading item in the hands of the British East India Company replenishing its coffers to 10% of the total revenue!

The modus operandi  to get this cruel revenue from the wretchedness of the Indians was an unanticipated deed from the people of a supposed to be a civilized nation.

All of us would have heard about the Great wall of China, measuring about 8850 odd kilometers long, constructed by the Chinese emperor  to prevent the Mongols from invading China. The Adrian wall by the Romans from North Sea to the Irish Sea was  built to prevent the Picts of North Scotland from invading into England occupied by them measured 117 km. And the Berlin wall  which divided Germany into two to prevent emigration was 140 km long. But could  you imagine a wall as long as 4000 km, a wall in North India which was called the Great Hedge of India otherwise known as Indian Salt Hedge?

 This Salt Hedge was created to avoid smuggling of salt from one part of the country to the other.

When the British East India Company which came into India to promote its trade metamorphosed  into the conquering Company most part of North India came under its control and along with it the salt planes of Gujarat Bengal and Orissa too. Many  check points with long stretches of bushes between them were created throughout North India. What started as a fence with made of dead, thorny material such as the Indian plum eventually evolved into an impenetrable living hedge that grew up to12 feet (3.7m). The scale of this man made barrier and its impact on the lives of millions of people were indeed beyond words

 The exorbitant  rate at which salt was taxed by the British East India Company could be gauged by this comparison: While the rich and prosperous UK citizens paid 1.5pounds per maund of salt, the poor and needy  Indians were compelled to pay 20 UK pounds per maund (1 maund is 37.3 kg). To simply put it an ordinary labourer had to spend two months of his salary for buying the salt for his family!

Due lack of iodine and the vital necessity of salt for the blood system people took ill. An estimated 15 million persons had died due to paucity of salt in their food.   The first cholera pandemic  began in Bengal, and then spread across India and another 23 million died.

This unnecessary sacrifice of human lives was due to the avaricious and greedy attitude of the British in a colonial exploitation. South India escaped this wrath since the system of the toll collection through the check points was abolished by the time the British occupied the place.  The British instead imposed a tax on salt  which prompted the Dandi March by Mahatma Gandhi.

Remnants of this malicious, impenetrable tree wall could be seen in UP even today !

While there is  a fight over our own Kohinoor diamond, millions of Indians sacrificed their lives for the sake of our own little salt crystals!

While we ask for the return of the Kohinoor diamond  how are we going demand a reparation for this colossal  loss?