When Drinking was an Evil

Drinking

When I was in my village – 35 years ago, there were people who used to drink. But, the number of men who drank was very small-hardly a few. They too did that with great hesitation and had great fear for the society and the law. If they come to know a police man was found walking a few miles away towards his village, they would run to hide and return only the next day morning. They hated themselves for the habit they have acquired, their families and the society too was not favorably disposed towards them.
When the prohibition was in force, the people found drunk were jailed. The people in the habit of drinking would not get suitable brides and simply they were looked down upon. All these were there because Gandhian influence was there for at least three to four decades after his death. Today the spread of alcohol is complete and the shops are run by the government. Drunkards have no qualms and the society is very well convinced that ‘only the brave can drink and hence he drinks’.
 But still majority of the Indian women don’t approve of their male members’ drinking habits and hence force them to drink outside and return to their homes. They don’t allow them to drink at homes. The result is the evening time traffic is manned by drivers who are drunk to the brim and to their heart. Every shop that sells liquor gets hundreds of vehicles and the people drink and drive nonchalantly. In road mishaps India is number one and none in the world can shaken the position ever.
As I’m a Gandhi worshipper, I’d take his help to support me always. Here too.

“Ignorant poor people will drink if drink is made accessible to them. If there is any spot on earth where total prohibition is easy of accomplishment, it is India, for the simple reason, that the drink habit, thank god, has not yet acquired any respectability. It is still considered to be a degrading habit. I would like India to become a pauper, rather than that India should have lakhs and lakhs of drunkards in her midst in order to educate her children, or I would have Indian children illiterate rather than have drunkenness in the land as the price for their education. …. There is nothing so sinful as this kind of revenue. No ruin, no financial crisis will befall on India if prohibition is introduced in India. If we allow this drink problem to continue the posterity will curse us.”