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Dati dalle informazioni generali inglesi.Modifica per tradurlo nella tua lingua.
Of all the multifarious problems in India, the drink evil is at once the oldest and the gravest.
Citazioni
Dati dalle informazioni generali inglesi.Modifica per tradurlo nella tua lingua.
It must be reiterated, then, that at the beginnings of our history, the Aryan peoples indulged in spirituous liquors, perhaps to excess, but the evil consequences and baneful results demonstrated to the thoughtful the necessity of repressing this growing habit, and brought about a revulsion of feeling, so that the later Vedas prohibited the use of spirits for the gratification of the senses, saying, “ wine is unfit to be drunk, unfit to be given, unfit to be accepted ”. A step in the right direction was thus taken, and though the use of spirits could not entirely be done away with, they were employed solely at religious ceremonies. This is the first example in history where the right of drinking alcoholic liquors was disputed and denied.
It must be confessed that where the terrorism of Manu failed, the love of Buddha succeeded, for the weapons of this crusade were the very essence of Buddhism—a spirit of toleration with the erring ; of sympathy with the weak ; a spirit of humanity, of love for all.
THe advent of the East India Company provided a fresh stimulus for intemperance. The habits of its employees in the eighteenth century were so condemnable, their lives so riotous, that it is difficult to gauge the extent of the demoralising effect they had on the lives of the people.
It is apparent that, under all systems, measures are devised rather to ensure the proper taxation of spirits than to restrict the consumptions of liquors or lower their strength.
The Government of India is particularly happy and rich in its choice of words, phraseology, and pecksniffian platitudes: on paper, the resolutions breath the highest resolve and purest motives; in practice they are not worth the price of a dried blade of common grass. Nowhere is this better seen than in its excise policy, and nowhere so clearly as in its policy of the location of shops.
A judicious and careful method of licensing, wherever tried, has resulted in turning inveterate drunkards into almost sober people. Except for total prohibition, the system of licensing is the safest and best device for lessening the use of drink, for minimising temptation to those who do not drink, and for preventing excesses among those who do. It can, and has, effected wonders.
The stoppage of the export of opium to China in 1913–14 was followed by an intensive activity in neighbouring countries, notably Japan, Hongkong, and the Straits Settlement, regardnig the purchase of opium and the manufacture of cocaine. Whilst imports of opium are not permitted in China, there was no edict against the importation of Cocaine ; and with the remarkable sagacity of British enterprise, the habit of cocaine injection has been stimulated among the Chinese people. […] These huge and sudden increases can only be accounted for by the fact that the opium was manufactured into cocaine which was smuggled or exported to China.
The opium policy of the Government seems to be more thorough than the drink policy, for there has been a steady, unbroken increase in revenue for the last eighteen years.
The use of hemp for medicinal purposes has been known in India from ancient times when it is highly probable that it was also used in a restrictive way, as an intoxicating drug. Under muslim rule, however, intoxicants from hemp resin were more commonly used. This drug, indeed, produces the most pleasing form of intoxication. In small doses it produces increase of appetite and promotes cheerfulness. Larger doses produce sleep and hallucination. It is this dreamy state which is the delight of the consumer, when, it is said, the imagination brightens, becomes vivid and clear, and rapidly shifting ideas sport themselves.
A frequent use of this [hemp], however, brings about different and opposite results. The imagination becomes clouded and obscure, horrible and ghastly pictures arise before the mind—grisly phantoms, corpses and skulls, dangers and difficulties, till the poor wretch subsides in a flood of tears, cowers before an imaginary giant or supplicates a fancied enemy, or implores on bended knees forgiveness from a person he has never seen, for a crime he has never committed.
The policy of taxation pursued seems to be that those drugs to which the people are strongly addicted are taxed as high as possible without fear of diminishing the sale ; and those drugs which are not in demand are taxed relatively lightly. THe policy is based on strict business principles: where the sales are certain the maximum tax is levied, but where the sales are small—or new articles introduced—they are taxed as lightly as possible to increase the demand and capture the market.
Why excise lamentably fails as a proper means of taxation is—not to speak of the sin of it—because it accelerates the increasing poverty and chronic starvation of the people. As a doctrine it is fallacious and unsound, as a policy it is ruinous and immoral.
Ultime parole
Dati dalle informazioni generali inglesi.Modifica per tradurlo nella tua lingua.
Whatever the Government may or may not do ; it is the paramount duty of every man to immerse himself in that wave of purification which is passing over the land.