Lecture on salt tax at PU

Tribune News Service

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Chandigarh, February 25

The Department of Gandhian and Peace Studies in collaboration with UNESCO Network Chair organised a special lecture of Elisabeth Jorgensen S on “Salt and Salt tax and the Customs Line in India in the 19th Century”, here today.

The Chairperson of the Department Dr Manish Sharma introduced the invited speaker and informed the audience that Elisabeth had already published 22 books on different topics and her recent work is on “Oh….India! Twelve Stories” in 2015 and her latest book is on biography of Bhagat Puran Singh of Pingalwara launched in 2020.

Elisabeth mentioned that the present research paper is based on the book published by Roy Moxham on “The Great Hedge of India” and of Mark Kurlansky’s “Salt – A World History”.

She also mentioned that Gandhi choosed salt as the right choice for the Satygraha as salt is common to all wheather he is rich or poor. And in the end she mentioned that about the preposterous salt customs hedge, only very scant information can be found in the official archives. Originally, there must have been tons of documents about this disgraceful undertaking which employed so many thousands of people during so many years, and generated such vast sums of money – for the Company, and later for the British government. One might suspect that the ignominy of it has urged someone in high places to call for its total obliteration from history.

The lecture was also attended by Prof Nandita Singh, Dean International Students, and various Chairpersons of the Social Sciences Departments and a large number of research scholars and students of various departments.