Right to Manufacture Salt - The Tribune India

IF the facts related are correct, it is easy to see the connection between the recent rise in the salt tax and rioting in Bhola. The village people, who enjoyed the right of manufacturing their own salt and even of selling part of it to those who could not manufacture it, found that salt manufacture, even in the crude form they had adopted, was now more profitable to them and some of them could even see visions of prosperity. For this very reason, the attention of the excise authorities was roused and they found a plausible excuse for interference and prevention. If the situation had been properly studied by the authorities, they could have taken more convincing methods of preventing the sale of salt and could have restricted its manufacture to home consumption only. But the local officials relied on terrorising the people and took armed police instead. We hope that further inquiries would be made and steps taken to prevent similar conflicts between people and the authorities. We cannot doubt the existence of the habit of manufacturing salt for domestic consumption, which is to be found to this day in other parts of India, especially in Madras and Bombay presidencies along the sea coast. Whether the excise authorities recognise or not this right of the people in certain villages, the practice continues to some extent, though there have been cases lodged against those who infringe the Excise Act. It is easy to see the effect of the doubling of the salt tax on the poor people, far removed from towns and thrown upon their own local resources to obtain salt for home consumption. If some of them are found to sell it to their neighbours, it is because they find it is only a matter of village economy — just as they find it convenient to sell or barter many other articles of domestic need instead of making every one of them for themselves.

Adblock test (Why?)

Read Again https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiVWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnRyaWJ1bmVpbmRpYS5jb20vbmV3cy90aGlzLWRheS10aGF0LXllYXIvcmlnaHQtdG8tbWFudWZhY3R1cmUtc2FsdC01MDM0OTfSAVVodHRwczovL3d3dy50cmlidW5laW5kaWEuY29tL25ld3MvdGhpcy1kYXktdGhhdC15ZWFyL3JpZ2h0LXRvLW1hbnVmYWN0dXJlLXNhbHQtNTAzNDk3?oc=5

Bagikan Berita Ini