Read the passage and answer the questions:
Why was salt the symbol of protest? This is what Mahatma Gandhi wrote:
The volume of information being gained daily shows how wickedly the salt tax has been designed. In order to prevent the use of salt that has not paid the tax which is at times even fourteen times its value, the Government destroys the salt it cannot sell profitably. Thus it taxes the nation's vital necessity; it prevents the public from manufacturing it and destroys what nature manufactures without effort. No adjective is strong enough for characterising this wicked dog-in-the-manger policy. From various sources I hear tales of such wanton destruction of the nation's property in all parts of India. Maunds if not tons of salt are said to be destroyed on the Konkan coast. The same tale comes from Dandi. Wherever there is likelihood of natural salt being taken away by the people living in the neighborhood of such areas for their personal use, salt officers are posted for the sole purpose of carrying on destruction. Thus valuable national property is destroyed at national expense and salt taken out of the mouths of the people. The salt monopoly is thus a fourfold curse. It deprives the people of a valuable easy village industry, involves wanton destruction of property that nature produces in abundance, the destruction itself means more national expenditure, and fourthly, to crown this folly, an unheard-of tax of more than 1,000 percent is exacted from a starving people.
This tax has remained so long because of the apathy of the general public. Now that it is sufficiently roused, the tax has to go. How soon it will be abolished depends upon the strength of the people.
Why did Gandhi consider the salt tax more oppressive than other taxes?
A. It revealed the most oppressive side of the colonial rule.
B. Salt was consumed by rich and poor alike.
C. It earned profit twenty times more than its value.
D. It was a national property, so needed to be destroyed.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → A, B only
A. It revealed the most oppressive side of the colonial rule. Correct. The salt tax was taken from a starving people, and Gandhi calls the salt monopoly a “fourfold curse”. The state monopoly over salt was deeply unpopular, so by making it his target Gandhi hoped to mobilise a wider discontent against British rule.
B. Salt was consumed by rich and poor alike. Correct. In every Indian household, salt was indispensable, yet people were forbidden from making salt even for domestic use and had to buy it from shops at a high price. A tax on salt therefore fell on everyone, the poorest included.
C. It earned profit twenty times more than its value. Incorrect. Gandhi writes that the tax was at times even fourteen times its value, not twenty times.
D. It was a national property, so needed to be destroyed. Incorrect. Gandhi condemns the destruction: valuable national property is destroyed at national expense and salt is taken out of the mouths of the people.
NCERT (2026-27): “3.1 Dandi … Soon after the observance of this ‘Independence Day’, Mahatma Gandhi announced that he would lead a march to break one of the most widely disliked laws in British India, which gave the state a monopoly in the manufacture and sale of salt. His picking on the salt monopoly was another illustration of Gandhiji’s tactical wisdom. For in every Indian household, salt was indispensable; yet people were forbidden from making salt even for domestic use, compelling them to buy it from shops at a high price. The state monopoly over salt was deeply unpopular; by making it his target, Gandhiji hoped to mobilise a wider discontent against British rule.”
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