Views will always vary when we look at the Total Prohibition Act from different standpoints. To a teetotaler, the prohibition might seem quite successful seeing that Nagaland does not have any wine stores. Bootleggers trying to smuggle liquor are caught, their picture posted in the front pages of local dailies and the liquor destroyed in front of the administration, elders, NGOs and whoevernots. We have a decent check on the flow of liquor in the state. The Prohibition Act must be successful to some extend.
To someone who craves for a pint of any alcoholic drink, he must simply reach out for his wallet and pay some extra amount. A double fold amount is paid for the spurious liquor. “Life and Liquor” (Title of a previous related article) here becomes expensively “Shorter life with spurious liquor”. For, to a regular drinker, he will obtain his drink whether the Total Prohibition Act is re-enacted or lifted. Liquor will always be available, only that he pays some extra cash for the inferior liquor.
Religion plays the most important role in maintaining the morality of the society. We cannot imagine a world without a Godly religion. As Matthew Arnold puts it, “Religion is ethics heightened, enkindled, lit up by feeling”. It is in the adherence to moral values taught by religions that has brought this world thus far. We cannot imagine a world otherwise.
Liquor as it is, is not evil or immoral. Rather, it is used as medicine when taken in doses. The vice lies in the abuse of the substance by the user. Man is endowed with free will which even religions cannot deny. It is his will either to consume liquor or to keep away from it. If the NBCC and different local churches/NGOs so adamantly consider consumption of liquor as the greatest vice, they should nurture their church members and let them keep away from liquor by choice and not by imposition. Church cannot impose compulsive sanctions to its members. It is against the Bible as we know that God has given us a free will. It is the duty of religious leaders to teach the young minds and souls of what is right and wrong, good and bad, of morality and religiosity, and the will to choose what is good.
Church has played a powerful role since the inception of Christianity. It is the Romans (who killed Jesus) themselves that propagated Christianity and made it the state religion. Church has sometimes been as powerful, if not more powerful, as the state. It is ethically good when the NBCC/ Mothers’ Associations preach and encourage the society to keep away from liquor. However, rather than keeping its purview in nurturing a soul, its fight against the legislation of lifting the Total Prohibition Act is no more than a power play between the church and the state. The state is reluctant in lifting the ban because of the powerful role that the church enjoys. The role of church in a state is necessary and appreciated. However, it needs to view reality as it is and not dwell in some utopian idealism.
Legislatures might possibly be considering the lifting of the Act. Not because they are concerned about the availability of spurious liquor and the hazardous affect on health thus, but to add a few crores of Rupees to its exchequer. Whatever the reason, it is high time that the Prohibition Act be properly reviewed. Individuals and the state will benefit more by lifting the ban on Prohibition.
Imotemjen
Lake View Colony
