Read the passage and answer the question :
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 neighbourhood 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.
According to Gandhi the salt monopoly is a fourfold curse, which of the following is NOT True of this "fourfold curse" :
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → A Tax of more than 2000 percent is exacted from starving people.
The passage is from Gandhiji’s writing on why salt was chosen as the symbol of protest. He goes on to call the salt monopoly a fourfold curse and lists the four parts of it.
Option (1) It deprives people of a valuable easy village industry. Correct statement. This is the first curse: the monopoly deprives the people of a valuable easy village industry, since the public is not allowed to make salt.
Option (2) It involves wanton destruction of property that nature produces in abundance. Correct statement. This is the second curse: the Government destroys the salt that nature produces in abundance and that it cannot sell profitably.
Option (3) Destruction itself means more National Expenditure. Correct statement. This is the third curse: salt officers are posted only to carry on the destruction, so the destruction itself means more national expenditure.
Option (4) A Tax of more than 2000 percent is exacted from starving people. Incorrect statement. The fourth curse, in Gandhiji’s words, is “an unheard-of tax of more than 1,000 per cent” exacted from a starving people, not 2000 per cent.
NCERT: Themes in Indian History Part III — Chapter 11: Mahatma Gandhi and the Nationalist Movement (2026-27)
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