Excise Department and Mahatma Gandhi

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar, Professor, Editor and Linguist

Gandhi International Study and Research Institute, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09404955338, 09415777229

E-mail- [e-mail];

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Mailing Address- C- 29, Swaraj Nagar, Panki, Kanpur- 208020, Uttar Pradesh, India

 

 

Excise Department and Mahatma Gandhi  

 

 

 

You six thousand people are in danger at present. What would you do with a municipality? It is a white elephant which the Government has imposed on you. An expenditure of twelve thousand rupees for a population of six thousand! You must wind up such a municipality. It does not serve you in any way. It provides education, but we must boycott that education. How can we receive alms from the unworthy? I need funds for a Vidyapith, but should I run it by begging from harlots? Should I run it with profits from liquor shops? I tell you that the money for our education comes from liquor shops. When we demand that the excise department be closed down, we are told that but for the revenue received by this department our schools will have to be closed down. Those lawyers, barristers and scholars who have been educated with the help of money obtained through the sale of liquor, of what service can they are to the country? 1

I always remember one part of the learned speech of Babu Bhagwandas. He said that when our rulers rule as traders, nay, when they go further and trade in intoxicants like bhang and ganja, they become rulers of the lowest order. We should keep away from them. This Empire has turned India into an unholy land. The Excise Department is continually expanding. Men like Gokhale had raised their voice for increasing the number of schools, but the position is that, whereas in 1857 there were 30,000 schools in the Punjab, there are 5,000 today. The Government did away with the rest. It has the power of organization. Do we have it? The Government, however, has kept us deluded. What lesson in swaraj can it teach us? What lesson in swaraj can we learn in the Councils? If you want to get the strength for swaraj, go to the Arabs, go to the Boers. I assert that we have such strength even today but, though lions, we imagine we are lambs. Can anyone intimidate a man who has a soul in him? When you have acquired this spirit, your education will have been to some purpose. Only after you have had such education can you get education for other, general purposes. At present you have been receiving education which will tighten the chains on you. Being enamored of degrees, we have been demanding “charters” all the time. Why do we refuse to learn under these trees? Why should we want such palatial buildings? When large numbers in the country do not get enough to eat and women are unable to take a bath for days together for want of a garment to change into, do you demand big palaces in which you may study? If you do, better stop thinking about non-co-operation. If you feel for the country, if the fire which has been raging in me also rages in you, forget everything about buildings and take to non-co-operation as I have been advising. If you do so, I repeat here in this sacred place the pledge I gave elsewhere that we shall have swaraj within a year. 2 

Government is not sincere; that the people have really no hand in the matter, and that the transfer of excise revenue to the elected representatives is itself proof of the Government’s insincerity. Education is a transferred subject and the financial assistance given to them is from the excise revenue. The Government has thus created a tie. If the accredited representatives shut up liquor shops, they must starve education or impose fresh taxation upon a people who are in no way able to bear the weight even of existing taxation. The remedy, therefore, is, if the position stated above is correct, for the Government to keep the excise department themselves and carry the prohibition policy through and recoup themselves for the loss of revenue by cutting down the military budget. They have as much right to raise revenue through liquor as they would have to raise revenue through legalized prostitution. 3

Owing to my illness your letter has remained unanswered all this long time. Do you still desire to leave the Excise Department? And are you prepared to go to the Ashram and submit to its discipline without any pay? Though you do not know cooking, it will be necessary for you to take part in the kitchen work. What you do not know will be taught to you. If you are admitted you will be expected to learn Hindi. You will be expected to get up at 4 o’clock in the morning and from 4 o’clock till 7-30 in the evening you will be expected to take some part in the joint work at the Ashram. Of course necessary leisure for ablutions, etc., is provided. Thus you will see that before 8 o’clock in the evening you will have little time for doing private reading. There will be an hour’s rest during the day; but after strenuous labour, you will hardly feel up to reading anything. 4

I should be inclined to agree with the advice received by you from an English friend and quoted at the end of your letter. If there was really no better way, there was certainly nothing wrong in your having written to me. For, part of my public work consists in sharing, where I cannot solve, difficulties such as you have mentioned. I can appreciate all you say about the good qualities of Englishmen and even add to what you have said in your letter. But in spite of the ample food I have received during the past seven years for reflection, my opinion of the system not only remains unaltered but has received further confirmation. And the Excise Department is among the blackest spots in the system. I could not therefore be reconciled to your being in if I can in any way help you to be out of it. Your letter attracts me to you. I would like to have you in some of the departments of national service which I am more or less controlling. And if you can get some privilege leave, I would like you to overtake me wherever I may be so that I can see you face to face and discuss all the questions you have raised in your letter. I am in Mysore up to the 15th of August and my headquarters will be Bangalore till that time. I expect to be away from time to time from Bangalore, but within the Mysore State and therefore not more than a few hours’ journey from Bangalore where the keeper of the house I am staying will direct you. 5

The Government provides for your education from the income received through the excise department. The 25-30-crores that make up the income of this department are extracted from the poor; in other words, the education imparted to you is from the money collected by sucking the blood of the poor. 6 It is not by means of the power of intellect that people are able to observe vows they take. There must be a thorough change of heart and faith in God, which alone could give them the necessary strength. I have been defeated in prohibition campaign as a man and therefore I have asked women to help the movement. If anybody could melt the heart of drunkards it is woman. I have often asked Ministers in charge of Excise Department to put a stop to drink traffic. They have replied that I must find out for them new sources of revenue. I have told them to stop giving education to boys but they would not adopt the suggestion. If in swaraj we have liquor traffic, our President will have to face a similar problem afterwards. We are also not as adventurous as Americans, who are successfully making America dry. We have become emasculated and therefore I appeal to you to tackle this question first. 7

What are the implications of the prohibition which is in force in Bhavnagar? For how long has it been in force? What is the result? Is the loss in revenue through prohibition made good through the improved condition of the people? I won’t be perturbed if the result has been contrary to my expectations. Nor would I be surprised if the result has been according to my expectations, for any other result is impossible where the constructive work which should accompany prohibition is carried out. It will be enough if you entrust this job to any officer of your Excise Department and he writes to me. I certainly don’t want this matter to weigh on your mind. 8 This is a scandalous abuse of authority for raising revenue. Let us hope that now that the Government is representative in C. P., as elsewhere, this abuse will be set right. 9

 

References:

 

1. Navajivan, 7-11-1920
2. Navajivan, 5-12-1920
3. Letter to Muriel Lester, April 25, 1927
4. Letter to C. Narayana Rao, May 15, 1927
5. Letter to D. C. Bose, July 13, 1927
6. Prajabandhu, 13-1-1929
7. The Bombay Chronicle, 6-5-1930
8. Letter to Prabhashanker Pattani, September 24, 1937
9. Harijan, 17-11-1946