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EAST INDIA (ABKARI DEPARTMENT).
HC Deb 30 April 1889 vol 335 cc817-77817
MR. S. SMITH (Flintshire) I rise for the purpose of calling attention to the motion which stands in my name, and of moving the following resolution— That, in the opinion of this House, the fiscal system of the Government of India leads to the establishment of spirit distilleries, liquor and opium shops in large numbers of places where till recently they never existed, in defiance of Native opinion and the protests of the inhabitants, and that such increased facilities for drinking produce a steadily increasing consumption, and spread misery and ruin among the industrial classes of India, calling for immediate action on the part of the Government of India with a view to their abatement. I make no apology for again calling the attention of the House to this most important question. It will he in the recollection of hon. Members that the question was raised last year in a somewhat confused form. It was raised upon a Motion dealing with another question, and the result was that the House was not able to pass a clear and distinct judgment upon it. I was told by some hon. Members that owing to that fact they were not able to vote for the motion last year, but I hope that they will be able to give their support to the Resolution which I am about to submit tonight. The question is now raised in a distinct form. We challenge the whole policy of the Indian Government in regard to the administration of the Excise laws; and it is now my duty to call attention to a Despatch issued in 1887, which forms the official justification of the Indian Government for the system which now prevails in that country. That Despatch is altogether incorrect and misleading. I believe that I shall be able to show that the figures on which it is founded are altogether fallacious, and it will be my duty to traverse the whole of the allegations contained in it. One would be disposed, upon reading the Despatch, to suppose that the Indian Government are a great temperance society, and that their main object has been to diminish as far as possible the evil of intoxication; that the revenue has been quite a secondary consideration, and that what was mainly thought of was the moral condition of the people.
The Despatch, which is dated August 8th, 1887, says:— Your Lordship is aware that few subjects connected with Revenue Administration have of recent years obtained greater attention at the hands of the Government than questions relating to Excise Administration. In each of the three larger Governments, Bombay, Madras, and Bengal, the Excise system has, within the last six or seven years, been completely examined in its operation and in its effects. These examinations have been made under the instruction of the Local Governments, and in direct communication with us; and the principles on which they have been based, and which have been unanimously accepted by all the authorities concerned, have been these; that liquor should be taxed and consumption restricted, as far as it is possible to do so without imposing positive hardships upon the people and driving them to illicit manufacture. The facts now placed on record show that in this policy the Local Governments have been completely successful, and that the great increase of Excise Revenue in recent years, which the Congress take as evidence of the spread of drinking habits, really represents a much smaller consumption of liquor, and an infinitely better regulated consumption than the smaller revenue of former years. I believe that I shall be able entirely to shatter that statement to pieces. There has been an increase of revenue in recent years from £2,300,000 to £4,200,000, and the contention of the Indian Government is that that increase of revenue is obtained from increased duties and a decreased consumption. These are the things upon which we desire to join issue. The despatch says:— Drunkenness, in the English sense of the term, hardly exists in India. Writers, whose comparisons are based on Orient al experience, describe as drunkenness and as spread of misery and ruin a condition of things which, if it existed in England, would be regarded almost as a millennium of temperance. The average consumption in India is only a bottle or a bottle and a-half of spirits a year for every adult male, and in some provinces is even less than that. These two paragraphs will give the 819House some idea of the substance of this despatch. The statements contained in it are utterly unfounded and altogether opposed to universal public opinion in India. Three years ago I travelled there and met all classes and conditions of people, but I never met one who did not lament the rapid spread of the consumption of intoxicating liquors. The hon. Member for Barrow (Mr. Caine) was there last year, and will be able to confirm all that I say. Every opinion confirms the astonishing increase in the consumption of spirits within the last few years, and the statistics collected by the Government of India itself utterly confute the statements contained in the despatch of 1887. In proof of my allegation I will, first of all, cite the statement of the late Keshub Chunder-Sen, the great social reformer, who said— It is indeed harrowing and painful to contemplate the extent to which sensuality, profligacy, and brutal revels on the one hand, and irreligion, blasphemy, and practical atheism on the other, are making ravages among all classes of the native community in consequence of the spread of drunkenness, and undermining the religious and moral life of the nation …. In short, the use of intoxicating liquor has done more than anything else to degrade the physical, moral, and social condition of my countrymen, and has proved a stupendous obstacle in the path of reformation. Contrast that statement with the one made by the Government of India to the effect that drunkenness in a European sense does not exist in India. Let me now quote the opinion of an English gentleman, Mr. Hudson, secretary of the Behar Indigo Planters Association, in evidence which he gave before the Government of Bengal Commission in 1884. He said— The upshot of the inquiries I have made amongst the planters and of my personal observations during a residence of 20 years, is that drunkenness has greatly increased during the last few years. I attribute this principally to the fact that 20 years ago, and up to a few years past, it cost a man four annas to get drunk on spirit; now he can make himself dead drunk, thik nissa, as it has been expressed to me by a ' habitual,' for one anna. Also by the fact that, whereas it used to be most difficult to get spirits anywhere except at the distilleries, it can now be procured within reach of nearly every hamlet. One anna represents a penny. This extraordinary cheapening of liquor is one of the main causes of the increase of drunkenness, and is one of the consequences of the policy adopted by the 820Bengal Government. Out of a great number of letters I have received I will read a few extracts. The House knows that the tea industry is now one of the most important in India. The custom is to bring a large number of coolies from other parts of India, and get them to reside in the tea gardens. It is a kind of arrangement that needs great care in order to prevent it from degenerating into a species of servitude. We allow the coolies to be taken from their homes, and surely it is our duty to protect them, as far as possible, from all temptations. I will read to the House an extract from a letter which affords a good specimen of a large number of letters I have received containing complaints as to the condition of these coolies. This letter is from a plantation in which I have some interest myself, and I have therefore the means of knowing that the information it contains is reliable. The writer says:— I regret to state the sad fact that drunkenness among garden coolies has spread to an alarming degree since its promotion and encouragement by this outstill system. Any attempt to abolish, or even lessen, this growing evil will be hailed with pleasure. Since the introduction of this odious system in 1883, the consumption of country spirits has, I am certain, increased sevenfold (possibly more), and. it is increasing yearly, judging from the new stills that periodically spring up here and there all over the districts. The Local Government allow and cherish these stills contiguous to our gardens and bazaars.
There are cases on record of proprietors and managers having laid. the matter before the Local Government, clearly demonstrating the injury the industry and the health of the coolies had and. were receiving at their hands from the propagation of such a system, but the said Local Government only lent a deaf ear. There are cases where managers have objected to allowing a still in the grants under their charge, but to no purpose—they were enforced. The manufacturing places are chosen and fixed by the Local Government. These outstills are put up to auction yearly, and. the right to manufacture and sell country spirits knocked down to the highest bidder. They are readily disposed of at high prices to eager competitors, bent on aggrandizement at the expense of our tea gardens and coolies' health, by making and selling them a venomous compound, at four annas per quart bottle-, and termed by the Local Government wholesome country spirit. Before these outstills were created, shops where spirits could be procured by coolies were few and far between, and the said spirits could not be purchased at less than one rupee per bottle. During these times the coolies-had little or no temptation to drink, and were, although earning less money, in a much better pecuniary state than at present. The roadside and bazaar outstill absorbs their surplus 821cash, aye, and more, because food and clothing are often curtailed to provide the grim firewater. Sunday is, of course, the great day for drinking, and driving by I have come across coolies lying literally dead drunk at intervals in the road, covered with mud from head to foot, and have had to have them rolled on one side to clear the way for my trap. One of my best men got leave one day, bought six bottles of country spirits at a shop about four miles away, and, on his way home, fell across the railway line, smashing his bottles, and lying insensible until, luckily, picked up by another coolie. It is needless to say that the drinking leads to rioting and wife beating; eases, however, seldom come before the notice of the Government. Were they to do so, coolies would be constantly absent from the gardens, so the planter, as a rule, settles these matters himself. I have collected an immense mass of materials which have accumulated in my hands during the last three years—papers and letters almost without end — and I could quote hundreds expressing views almost identical with these. Perhaps the House will expect me to describe the method by which the Government carry on their liquor policy in India. They farm it out to contractors.
Sir J. GORST: No.
The hon. Gentleman says "No," but I believe I shall be able to prove the truth of my assertion. The system is to farm it out to the men who will pay the largest annual sum for the privilege of supplying the liquor, and the traffic sub-divides itself into two minor heads, one of which is called the Central Distillery System. The distillery belongs to the Government. The contractor goes to the Central Distillery and takes, say, 100,000 gallons, engaging not to charge the public more than a certain price; but he may sell it as cheap as he likes. If he finds that he can only sell 80,000 gallons, he will offer the remaining 20,000 gallons dirt cheap—almost for nothing—rather than have it left on his hands. There is also the outstill system, which is still worse. The contractor receives power not only of selling by retail, but of manufacturing himself. He pays for the outstill a certain fixed sum, and he contracts with the Government to pay a lump sum for the use of the outstill. This outstill system was introduced in Bengal in 1876. Upon the introduction of the outstill system into Bengal in 1876, consumption of drink and revenue there from was nearly doubled in five years. An enormous stimulus was given to the manufacture and consumption of strong drink. So terrible were the effects, so loud was the outcry, that the Government were obliged to appoint a Commission of Inquiry into the working of the system. Now I must ask the House to listen to one or two quotations on this subject. First, I quote the evidence of Mr. C. S. Metcalfe, Additional Commissioner of Patna, a district which had suffered most from this out-still system.
Source : https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1889/apr/30/east-india-abkari-department
India’s Northeast in UK Parliament: The 19th century debates reveal how the policy of encouraging liquor consumption for more excise revenue ruined tea garden workers
(The material Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.https://www.parliament.uk/site-information/copyright-parliament/open-parliament-licence/and has been published with the permission of Parliamentary Archives, UK Parliament, London. https://archives.parliament.uk/)
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