The Great Hedge of India

Back in the 19th century, eastern India was separated from the west by an impenetrable belt of trees made up of mostly thorny plants such as the Indian plum and prickly pear, as well as bamboos and babool trees. They formed a man-made barrier, more than a thousand kilometers long, that snaked all the way from Layyah in Punjab (now in Pakistan) to Burhanpur, on the banks of Narmada. Photo: Richard Barnes/Shutterstock.com The Great Hedge of India was planted by the British in the 1840s to strengthen the Inland Customs Line that the colonial rulers set up to exploit one of the most basic ingredients of every Indian food—salt. Historically, salt was produced on the west coast of India along the Rann of Kutch, a vast salt marsh on the northern extreme of India’s coastline on the Arabian Sea. On the east coast, salt was obtained extensively along the coast of Orissa. Because salt production was restricted to the coastal areas, nearly ever empire that ruled across the country, dating back to Chandragupta Maurya’s time (1st century BCE), enforced a salt tax on imports of this commodity into the interior of the country, as a way to increase the state’s revenue. By the late 18th century, the British East India Company had a stranglehold on India’s salt trade. The salt works were leased out to the highest bidders, who in turn had to sell salt to the Company at a fixed rate. The East India Company then sold the salt in the open market at greatly inflated prices that very few could afford. This forced many people to stealing from warehouses and others to smuggling salt from the princely states which remained outside of direct British rule. In order to curb this salt smuggling, a series of custom houses and barriers were constructed across major roads and rivers in Bengal to collect tax on traded salt as well as duties on tobacco and other imports. Eventually, this Inland Customs Line extended all the way into Punjab in the north.