A Gandhian Touch in Revisiting Liquor Prohibition

With the Nagaland Liquor Total Prohibition (NLTP) Act 1989, an Act that makes Nagaland a ‘dry state’, taking the centre stage in public discourse, there is much to pore over the pertinency of Gandhiji in our present time. On his 155th birth anniversary, much as we celebrate his life and legacy, let us also commit to honour his ideas and principles.

Gandhi and Temperance

Gandhiji needs no praise and his role in bringing about India’s independence is well documented. However, his commitment to temperance as an integral part of his vision for independent India is less known.

A lifelong teetotaler, Gandhi championed the Temperance Movement in India- a socio-political movement to curb the use of alcohol and address public health risks and social problems thereof. This campaign, closely tied with the Freedom Struggle, helped Gandhiji accentuate prohibition as a priority of the INC, a priority that ultimately echoed in the Constitution as one of the Directive Principles (Article 47).

Currently, Bihar, Gujarat, Mizoram and Nagaland have a blanket ban on alcohol. The Government of India also observes dry days during Republic Day, Independence Day and Gandhi Jayanti.

The Crisis of Value

Upon examining the Act, one would agree that it has substantial provisions and the state has the wherewithal to ensure total prohibition. None to judge but human experiences are limited and relative. Supposing, corruption and bribery have been the business of the many in empowered positions.

To dismay, while there should be growing concern on public health and social issues, the state government, lured by excise tax revenues and license fees the alcohol industry would generate, has only compounded the problem, equally interested to cater for the vices of its people.

The greed of the government aiming for revenue potential would exploit human capital as multimorbidity, lower life expectancy, mental impairment, and loss of productivity are linked, the reason why the WHO and JAMA Network recently cautioned that no amount of alcohol consumption has health benefits.

Revenue from liquor is an extremely degrading form of taxation- destroying peace and prosperity of many. What profit would the government make by enslaving and victimising its citizens to a habit of drinking?

A betrayal to the Idea of Mahatma

“Generations to come, will scarce believe that such a man as this one ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth” was said on Gandhi. Yet, a prophet in his own country always runs the risk of being distorted or ignored. The 1989 Act, brought with good intentions and for good, today, stands against the heavyweights of calculated hedonists who devotedly pursue the rather ephemeral and costly pleasure.

According to Gandhi, drinking is not only immoral but also fatal. He remarked ‘drink makes a man forget himself … loses control over his tongue and limbs’. It pricks one’s conscience in licensing the ‘evil’ to disarray the fabric of our benign society and send down increased incidents of broken homes, rape cases- inside our homes and on our streets, fatal road accidents (drunk driving), shrinking of human resources and a bad precedence of politics (tomorrow NLA could encourage homosexuality, and other social evils as anyway would be in fashion).

The early temperance experiences as to what actually necessitated prohibition in the first place remain relevant today. More so, given the current trends in alcohol consumption and the stalling of reforms that continue to engender violence against women, and prey on our children and familial and social harmony and prosperity.

The government is not only being impudent to temperance lessons and Article 47 but also temerously playing with fire, the consequences of which would be borne especially by women and children, and the poor.

In Letter and in Spirit

The strongest element in the Gandhian approach was the cohesion between theory and action. If non-violence and truth were the doctrines, he launched satyagraha. If brotherhood was a principle, he served the Harijans. If simplicity was the answer, he adopted the loin cloth. He took up spinning, narrowing mental and physical labour. Gandhiji not only unified precepts and practice but also equated that without right action there is no right precept. It is qualming that the NLTP Act reveals helplessness in action even when principles and precepts seem quite clear.

With the addicts themselves wishing for total prohibition, the temptation to be put away, the government of the day cannot afford to lift the act anywise. Instead, measures to strengthen the Act must be solicited. Certain sections (16, 17, 18) of the Act that provide exemptions must be revisited in favour of total prohibition. Ethical and attitudinal orientation to officials, localisation and devolution of powers to grassroots level as ‘the future of India lies in its villages (wards and colonies)’. If the top-down model has failed, go the participatory, inclusive and bottom-up approach.

Gandhiji also gave a clarion call that the articulate public, especially voluntary organisations with the support of women and students, launch comprehensive campaigns against liquor. This illegal business will not prevail in the face of a united and enlightened opposition.

To the Satyagrahis

Bapu, shrouded in white with a supportive stick, has walked us to voice against evil and injustice nursing truth and non-violence. A satagrihi according to Gandhi is highly steeled, disciplined and morally superior. One who would not resist evil with evil nor have hatred for those he resists, nor resort to violence- physical or mental, but use satyagraha as a means to his end.

On visiting a school, Gandhiji heard a boy tell a lie; he declared that he would fast to atone the boy’s sin. Sages and saints, conscious of the ungratefulness of mankind towards God, offer vicarious reparations- acts of penance for sins done by others.

Gandhian principles are easier to admire than follow but ensured, a Gandhian revolution guarantees rights and freedoms of others more than of its own. It takes a man like Bapu to manumit not just the prisoners but the jailers as well.

Celestial it is that from a bare handful of bones, an ounce or so of flesh and blood housed a heart and a mind to the reaches of the sky and depth of the ocean. Gandhiji continues to be a possible answer to the crisis of human values and other unresolved contradictions. Instead of engaging in a masochistic exercise, let us honour the didactic wisdom of the Father of The Nation. Peradventure, the 11 (eleven) Naga Delegation is to call on him again, Gandhiji would ask to consider TEMPERANCE AS THE GREATEST MORAL MOVEMENT.

Rampisinang Pipi Newme

(A Gandhian from Samziuram, Peren)