Prohibition of Alcohol

What is Prohibition of Alcohol?


Prohibition is the legal act of prohibiting the manufacture, storage in barrels, bottles, transportation and sale of alcohol including alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to periods in the histories of countries during which the prohibition of alcohol was enforced.

Evils of Alcoholism

*Alcohol is a depressant; it slows the function of the central nervous system and alters a person’s perception, emotion, movement; vision and hearing.
*Small amounts-can make a person feel more relaxed or less anxious.Bigger amounts lead to intoxication by causing greater changes in the brain.
*Overconsumption: loss of coordination, staggering, slurred speech, feeling of confusion and disorientation and a dramatically slowed reaction time. It can make someone very friendly and talkative or aggressive and angry.
*large amounts taken in less time which can result in violent vomiting, extreme sleepiness, unconsciousness, difficulty in breathing, dangerously low blood sugar, seizures and even death.

Impact of Alcoholism on women

• Donald E. Meeks says in Alcoholism and the Family, “An alcoholic’s family is often seen as both the cause and victim of the drinking problem. While it may be true that family pressures had hand in early development of the alcoholic, it is also true that the family shares in suffering the consequences.”

Impact of Alcoholism on women

• Every member of the family struggles to cope with drinker and also find it difficult to live with him/her in society.
• Donald E Meeks write.” Often families undergo drastic internal re-organization in attempting to cope with a problem drinker in midst.

Banning of Alcohol and progressive era

The Progressive Movement

• Legislative reforms were passed in the areas of labor, child labor, education, prisons, banking, and public safety.
• Most reforms ignored minorities.

Temperance Movement(1920- 1933 )

• Goal: Prohibition –banning of the manufacture, distribution, & sale of alcohol. • To improve the lives of Americans. People thought drinking was a cause of corruption, crime, domestic abuse, and poverty. • The government called this their "Noble Experiment."

Organizations behind temperance movement

• Anti Saloon League
• Woman’s Christian Temperance Union

Prohibition Failure Reasons:-

• • Speakeasies
• • Moonshine
• • Smuggling
• • Bootlegging

Prohibition repealed-1933

• President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (USA) repealed prohibition with 21st amendment to constitution
• But after prohibition repealed, not all the states obliged to abandon prohibition for ex:- Missouri ended state prohibition only in 1966, almost 35 years after National Prohibition was repealed.

Prohibition of Alcohol in India

Women continue their struggle


• The women organized "rasta roko" and road blockades of the collectorate.
• Women in Kotala village took their husbands to local temples and made them vow that they would give up liquor and a vow broken would be penalized with Rs.2000/- fine.
• Many women went into slum areas to create awareness.
• Hyderabad became a meeting point of all groups in the Districts. Many meetings were held and dhranas given and slowly an awareness campaign built against arrack.

Anti-Arrack movement

• Anti +arrack movement means movement against alcoholism. An anti- arrack movement was created in a remote village in Dubagunta, in Andhra Pradesh in 1972.

Anti arrack as the women’s movement

• This movement began in 19th century as a social reform movement.
• In post independence period- It was believed that the status of women will improve. When this did not happen many movement arose.

Contractors And Arrack

• Liquor barons rule the roost in A.P, dominating politics, society and cultural life. Under political patronage contractors have become full time politicians making policy decisions.
• Maintenance of monopoly through bribed police & excise officials with impending gangs is done with Arrack earnings.

Impact of arrack on families

• The illiterate, marginalised, exploited village women did not understand politics of arrack industry .She only saw a connection between day to day struggle for survival and men drinking.
• It had eroded family economy.
• Men became parasites of the family.

Women’s agitation against
arrack.

• The existence of liquor shops made it difficult for women to stop their husband from drinking
• They made a simple demand, “No selling of arrack in our village”.
• Women wanted to know from the Government why their villages with no schools ,proper wages etc... had only arrack shops.

Ban of Arrack



• Finally bowling down to pressure, the Government took a bold decision of banning arrack from 1’st October 1993, even bearing a revenue loss of more than Rs.600 crores per annum.

• Excise department entrusted with job of preventing smuggling of arrack from neighboring states. Given magisterial powers to deal with boot leggers.

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