When the British built a 4,000-km wall of thorns across India to tax a kitchen ingredient
'The Great Hedge of India' was a vast network of thorny bushes, trees, brushwood, customs posts and patrol routes.
In 19th-century India, the British Raj imposed heavy taxes on salt, causing traders to buy cheaper salt in one region and sell it for a higher price in areas where taxes were more expensive. This led to the creation of the Great Hedge of India, a 4,000-kilometre wall of thorny bushes, trees, and brushwood designed to stop untaxed salt from entering British-controlled areas.
The hedge, constructed with babool, karonda, Indian plum, prickly pear, bamboo, and other thorny plants, stretched from Multan (present-day Pakistan) to Orissa (now Odisha). It employed around 12,000 people and had 1,727 customs posts, maintained by guards, inspectors, gardeners, and labourers. The hedge collected around ₹1.25 crore in salt tax in the 1869-70 financial year and became one of the colonial government's most lucrative sources of income.
However, by the late 19th century, the system became less necessary due to uniform tax rates, and the Inland Customs Line was formally abolished in 1879.
Written by urgent.news from Hindustan Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
