<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Pub incident: This is a civilisational war</b>
Dina Nath Mishra
Tauba tauba karta chal, khali jaam bhi bharta chal; Allah Allah karta chal, khaali jaam bhi bharta chal. This is the sum and substance of the Government policy on prohibition. We routinely celebrate the prohibition day by large advertisements in visual and print media. Yet liquor excise revenue goes up by leaps and bounds every year and Governments do everything to get more revenue. In many States, the Governments themselves trade in liquor. The kitty of liquor barons balloons in each State and their influence also heightens proportionately in politics.
People, the world over, are addicted to one thing or the other. But society, in general, has always decried it. Addiction is considered a very bad habit. <b>Till the British Raj, the Indian society did not consume liquor in a significant quantity. It was limited to a section of the elite. Of course, people relished bhang. </b>After the British left, bhang fell out of favour. It was given a bad name and was included among drugs. Contrary to it, earlier, a religious glamour was associated with it for it being the booti of Lord Shiva. <b>During Rajiv Gandhiâs regime it was banned. The ban gave impetus to liquor consumption which was already gathering momentum.</b>
Laboratory test results clear bhang of any adverse health hazards. For thousands of years Indians have been consuming it. On the contrary, liquor has definite ill-effects on the general health of the consumer. But drinking liquor has become a fashion nowadays. <b>Media has made drinking hours as happy and joyous hours and even sexy and worth celebrating.</b>
<b>A few decades back drinking was only an urban phenomenon. When a liquor shop licence was given in a village, it was opposed by women in the most organised manner. </b>Demonstrations against sale and consumption of liquor by women and children were very common and usually successful. T<b>ransformation of liquor from a hated thing to a fashionable one for the whole society involves a number of cultural, economic and sociological complexities. </b>A society like ours cannot adopt the Western culture of âEat, Drink and be Merryâ. India has not as yet accepted this culture. Many people may be consuming liquor, but they have it with a sense of guilt. Even children of a drunkard are looked down upon in society. Instinctively, even marriage parties, where liquor is consumed in a neo-rich society, are looked upon disparagingly.
What happened at the Mangalore pub, about which lot of hullabaloo has been going on, is connected with politics. <b>In the Mangalore pub, some boys and girls of an elite University were drinking. A small contingent of an insignificant organisationâs youth attacked the boys and in the scuffle, some girls were also roughed up. </b>A number of speeches and editorial comments were written to tarnish the image of the Sangh Parivar, particularly the BJP, the ruling party of Karnataka State.
There is not an iota of truth in the allegation that a Sangh Parivar organisation in any way was related with the incident or organised the alleged attack. <b>A large chunk of surrounding villages had a very bad image about things going on in this pub. The pub culture does not get along well with its rural surroundings. </b>The very sight of boys and girls drinking liquor together and behaving inappropriately is quite repelling to them. The media jumped into it with gusto. The feminists, too, ferociously entered into it â âWe have right to go anywhere. We have a right to drink or do whatever we like. Who gave these hooligans the powers of moral policing?â But, the villagers consider this a taboo. Teenagers drinking and making merry is an absolute no-no for them.
The Ram Sena too has its own arguments. There are a large numbers of people who want to be liberal, even promiscuous and at par with the West. Market forces are subjecting the society to cultural assault much more vigorously than it could be imagined.
There are people who want to defend Indian civilisation and cultural traditions. But our politicians are in the habit of injecting high doses of controversy in everything. Take, for example, this Mangalore Pub incident. Renuka Chowdhary, a Congress Minister, Veerappa Moily and dozen of Congressmen invaded the TV channels and made a mountain out of the molehill.
<b>This provided the Congress a full dose of national publicity, painting BJP as âanti-modern and obscurant partyâ.</b> This also provided a talking point to the Congress from where Veerappa Moily is likely to contest the Lok Sabha election. Renuka Chowdhary who was so quick to condemn the Pub incident and got political mileage out of it. What forces her to keep mum against those TV channels who have been prominently showing extreme vulgarity and corrupting minds of teenagers?
This incident involved a whole gamut of cultural onslaught on India. It was also a significant part of civilisational war. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Dina Nath Mishra
Tauba tauba karta chal, khali jaam bhi bharta chal; Allah Allah karta chal, khaali jaam bhi bharta chal. This is the sum and substance of the Government policy on prohibition. We routinely celebrate the prohibition day by large advertisements in visual and print media. Yet liquor excise revenue goes up by leaps and bounds every year and Governments do everything to get more revenue. In many States, the Governments themselves trade in liquor. The kitty of liquor barons balloons in each State and their influence also heightens proportionately in politics.
People, the world over, are addicted to one thing or the other. But society, in general, has always decried it. Addiction is considered a very bad habit. <b>Till the British Raj, the Indian society did not consume liquor in a significant quantity. It was limited to a section of the elite. Of course, people relished bhang. </b>After the British left, bhang fell out of favour. It was given a bad name and was included among drugs. Contrary to it, earlier, a religious glamour was associated with it for it being the booti of Lord Shiva. <b>During Rajiv Gandhiâs regime it was banned. The ban gave impetus to liquor consumption which was already gathering momentum.</b>
Laboratory test results clear bhang of any adverse health hazards. For thousands of years Indians have been consuming it. On the contrary, liquor has definite ill-effects on the general health of the consumer. But drinking liquor has become a fashion nowadays. <b>Media has made drinking hours as happy and joyous hours and even sexy and worth celebrating.</b>
<b>A few decades back drinking was only an urban phenomenon. When a liquor shop licence was given in a village, it was opposed by women in the most organised manner. </b>Demonstrations against sale and consumption of liquor by women and children were very common and usually successful. T<b>ransformation of liquor from a hated thing to a fashionable one for the whole society involves a number of cultural, economic and sociological complexities. </b>A society like ours cannot adopt the Western culture of âEat, Drink and be Merryâ. India has not as yet accepted this culture. Many people may be consuming liquor, but they have it with a sense of guilt. Even children of a drunkard are looked down upon in society. Instinctively, even marriage parties, where liquor is consumed in a neo-rich society, are looked upon disparagingly.
What happened at the Mangalore pub, about which lot of hullabaloo has been going on, is connected with politics. <b>In the Mangalore pub, some boys and girls of an elite University were drinking. A small contingent of an insignificant organisationâs youth attacked the boys and in the scuffle, some girls were also roughed up. </b>A number of speeches and editorial comments were written to tarnish the image of the Sangh Parivar, particularly the BJP, the ruling party of Karnataka State.
There is not an iota of truth in the allegation that a Sangh Parivar organisation in any way was related with the incident or organised the alleged attack. <b>A large chunk of surrounding villages had a very bad image about things going on in this pub. The pub culture does not get along well with its rural surroundings. </b>The very sight of boys and girls drinking liquor together and behaving inappropriately is quite repelling to them. The media jumped into it with gusto. The feminists, too, ferociously entered into it â âWe have right to go anywhere. We have a right to drink or do whatever we like. Who gave these hooligans the powers of moral policing?â But, the villagers consider this a taboo. Teenagers drinking and making merry is an absolute no-no for them.
The Ram Sena too has its own arguments. There are a large numbers of people who want to be liberal, even promiscuous and at par with the West. Market forces are subjecting the society to cultural assault much more vigorously than it could be imagined.
There are people who want to defend Indian civilisation and cultural traditions. But our politicians are in the habit of injecting high doses of controversy in everything. Take, for example, this Mangalore Pub incident. Renuka Chowdhary, a Congress Minister, Veerappa Moily and dozen of Congressmen invaded the TV channels and made a mountain out of the molehill.
<b>This provided the Congress a full dose of national publicity, painting BJP as âanti-modern and obscurant partyâ.</b> This also provided a talking point to the Congress from where Veerappa Moily is likely to contest the Lok Sabha election. Renuka Chowdhary who was so quick to condemn the Pub incident and got political mileage out of it. What forces her to keep mum against those TV channels who have been prominently showing extreme vulgarity and corrupting minds of teenagers?
This incident involved a whole gamut of cultural onslaught on India. It was also a significant part of civilisational war. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->