The Indian Scenario on Prohibition: From Constitutional Directive to State Experiments

India’s relationship with alcohol prohibition is a study in contrasts. While the Constitution itself encourages states to ban intoxicating drinks, the reality on the ground has been far more complicated. Revenue concerns, enforcement challenges, and varying political priorities have meant that most Indian states have avoided implementing prohibition-despite constitutional guidance to do so. Yet, some of the most powerful social movements in post-independence India have emerged from this very tension, with rural women leading historic struggles against alcohol that reshaped state policies.

The constitutional directive and state reluctance
Early prohibition experiments
The anti-arrack movement in Andhra Pradesh: a case study
Origins in Dubagunta village
Economic devastation driving the movement
Role of participating organizations
Campaigns, communications, and the media catalyst
Eenadu’s transformative role
Movement outcome

The constitutional directive and state reluctance

Article 47 of the Indian Constitution places a clear responsibility on the state to improve public health and work toward prohibiting intoxicating drinks and drugs harmful to health, except for medicinal purposes. The framers of the Constitution viewed alcohol and drug abuse as social evils undermining health, productivity, and morality. This directive emerged from Gandhian principles-Gandhi himself wrote that alcohol makes a person incapable of doing anything useful and ruins both the individual and their family.

However, Article 47 falls under the Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP), which means it provides moral and policy guidance rather than being legally enforceable. For most states, implementing prohibition has proven extremely difficult because liquor revenues consistently contribute a substantial share of state government revenue.

Currently, only a handful of states maintain prohibition: Gujarat, Bihar, Mizoram, Nagaland, and the union territory of Lakshadweep have total prohibition, while some others have partial restrictions. Gujarat has maintained prohibition since 1960 when Bombay State was bifurcated into Maharashtra and Gujarat. Bihar introduced its prohibition law in 2016 under Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

Early prohibition experiments

India’s first prohibition experiment occurred in the Madras Presidency under C. Rajagopalachari. He introduced the Prohibition Act in September 1937-the first time prohibition was ever implemented in India. To offset revenue losses, Rajagopalachari also introduced sales tax for the first time. Prohibition first came into force in his home district of Salem on October 1, 1937, and gradually expanded to other districts.

Rajagopalachari’s prohibition lasted until 1971, when Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi of the DMK government lifted the ban, citing that unless prohibition was imposed across India, Tamil Nadu was missing out on revenues while other states profited. The state has since oscillated between prohibition and regulation, with TASMAC (Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation) eventually becoming the sole retailer of alcohol and contributing significantly to state revenues.

Haryana and Andhra Pradesh also experimented with prohibition at various points, but these experiments were eventually abandoned due to revenue pressures, enforcement difficulties, and the flourishing of bootlegging operations.

The anti-arrack movement in Andhra Pradesh: a case study

One of India’s most significant grassroots movements emerged from the villages of Andhra Pradesh in the early 1990s. The Anti-Arrack Movement of 1992 brought together thousands of rural women across caste, class, and religious divides in a unified struggle against country liquor (arrack) that was devastating their households and communities.

Origins in Dubagunta village

The movement began in Dubagunta, a small village in Nellore district. A woman named Rosamma took a stand that would inspire thousands. Like many women in rural Andhra Pradesh, she had witnessed firsthand how alcohol consumption was destroying families. Men would spend their meager earnings on cheap arrack, leaving families hungry and destitute.

According to village accounts, 90 percent of men in Dubagunta were alcoholics during 1988-92. The problem had become so severe that other villages would not marry their daughters into Dubagunta families. Domestic violence, poverty, and malnutrition were rampant, with men sometimes bartering household provisions for drinks.

The spark that ignited the movement came from an unexpected source: the mass literacy campaigns of the National Literacy Mission. The literacy classes became forums for critical discussion, where women began analyzing the causes of their suffering. Stories like “Seeta Katha”-about a woman who committed suicide after failing to reform her alcoholic husband-were used to spark awareness and motivation for collective action.

Economic devastation driving the movement

The economic dimensions of the alcohol problem were stark. Nearly 70-80 percent of male income was being spent on liquor in affected households. The state government had a monopoly over arrack production and was actively promoting its sale to augment revenue. Women spent approximately ₹830 of their average annual income of ₹1,840 on alcohol-related expenses, completely crippling family economies.

A new innovation in 1986 made matters worse: Varuni Vahini, small polythene sachets used to pack arrack, delivered by peddlers to consumers’ doorsteps. This made alcohol even more accessible, reaching villages without arrack shops and dramatically increasing consumption among the poor.

Role of participating organizations

While rural women initiated and drove the movement, it was sustained and amplified by a diverse coalition of organizations. Most of the groundwork was done with local initiative, with women collectively protesting against arrack in their villages. Political parties entered only at the very last stage.

Non-governmental organizations like the Adarsh Mahila Mandal and the Nellore District Rayalaseema Prohibition Committee provided organizational support and helped coordinate activities across different regions. The Jana Vignana Vedika (science forum) played an active role in spreading literacy that enabled the movement. In northern Telangana, CPI-ML groups including the People’s War Group had been agitating against arrack since the early 1980s.

Political parties, initially caught off-guard, gradually offered support. The Telugu Desam Party, then in opposition, saw an opportunity to challenge the ruling Congress party. Renuka Chowdhary of the TDP and other women’s organizations called for a meeting to form a Joint Action Forum pressing for total prohibition. Crucially, however, the women maintained their independence and refused to be co-opted by any single political group.

Campaigns, communications, and the media catalyst

The movement employed powerful symbolic actions and grassroots communication strategies. Women physically prevented men from going to arrack shops, publicly shamed contractors and sellers, attacked liquor shops, and set fire to arrack barrels and sachets. In Nellore alone, they stalled auction sales 36 times. The women used household items like brooms and chilli powder as tools of resistance, even threatening to refuse cooking at home or to divorce their husbands.

Traditional folk media proved highly effective. Street plays, burrakathas (a traditional narrative form), and puppet shows portrayed the ill effects of arrack consumption, reaching rural audiences through culturally familiar formats.

Eenadu’s transformative role

Eenadu, the largest circulating Telugu daily in Andhra Pradesh, played an unprecedented and sensational role in spreading the movement. When neo-literate women in Dubagunta attacked the excise jeep bringing arrack into their village, Eenadu was the first newspaper to report the incidents in its Nellore district tabloid.

In October 1992, the paper started a special page titled “Saara pai samaram” (The War Against Arrack) devoted entirely to movement coverage, political responses, and reports of deaths due to illicit liquor. Eenadu dedicated two pages every day to cover each and every aspect of this movement. The paper’s regular political cartoonist, Sridhar, suspended his usual feature and began a new series called “Saaraamsam” that continued until the government imposed a ban.

Beyond mere reporting, Eenadu took upon itself the task of coordinating and guiding activists, supplying paraphernalia like a flag, a pledge, slogans, and songs. The newspaper conducted poetry and drawing competitions on anti-arrack themes and even organized a contest inviting readers to design a flag for the movement. On January 2, 1993, Eenadu organized a massive gathering in Hyderabad presided over by editor Ramoji Rao and attended by the Governor, Chief Minister, and leaders of different political parties.

Movement outcome

The sustained pressure forced the state government to ban arrack on October 1, 1993. Banning arrack became a major election issue, with the Telugu Desam Party building its entire campaign around it. When N.T. Rama Rao’s TDP came to power with a thumping majority in December 1994, he dramatically signed the total prohibition bill within minutes of assuming office on January 16, 1995.

This was a historic victory-a women’s issue had become a major political issue, and grassroots mobilization had successfully reshaped state policy. However, prohibition was eventually lifted in 1997 due to enforcement challenges and revenue pressures, demonstrating the ongoing tension between public health goals and fiscal realities that continues to define India’s approach to alcohol regulation.

What do you think? Can grassroots movements like the Anti-Arrack agitation create lasting policy change, or do economic pressures inevitably undermine prohibition efforts? How might states balance the constitutional directive of Article 47 with their revenue needs in the 21st century?

References

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The Indian Scenario on Prohibition: From Constitutional Directive to State Experiments

Table of Contents

The constitutional directive and state reluctance 🔗

Early prohibition experiments 🔗

The anti-arrack movement in Andhra Pradesh: a case study 🔗

Origins in Dubagunta village 🔗

Economic devastation driving the movement 🔗

Role of participating organizations 🔗

Campaigns, communications, and the media catalyst 🔗

Eenadu’s transformative role 🔗

Movement outcome 🔗