Essay on “To Drink or Not to Drink” Complete Essay for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

Prohibition

Or

To Drink or Not to Drink

Or

A Battle Against the Bottle

Or

The Curse of the Liquor

                “Nothing but ruin stares a nation in the face that is a prey to the evil of drinking.”

—- Mahatma Gandhi

                Mahatma Gandhi ,  the Father of the Nation, was strongly opposed to the use of intoxicants in any form.  He considered the habit of drinking to be suicidal not only for the individual but also for the nation.  He was quite right because drinking is a social evil.  Too much of drinking disrupts family life.  It impairs physical and mental faculties.  It leads to quarrels, clashes and murders.  It has been rightly said,” More men have been drowned in a cup of wine than in all the oceans of the world.”  Everybody admits:” When wine is in, the wit is out.”  A drunkard loses all sense of discrimination between a wife and a whore.  He loses respect in society.  He is a bad example to children.

                Various committees have been appointed from time to time to study the various aspects of the problem of introducing prohibition in the country.  A Prohibition Enquiry Committee appointed by the Planning Commission in 1954, recommended total prohibition in India from 1958.

                The Tek Chand committee, in its report in 1964, recommended that India should go dry by 1975-76 , When the Janata Government came to power in 1977, a Central Prohibition Committee recommended a time-bound programme for complete prohibition in India from 1958.

                The prohibition programme got a big setback during the tenure of Mrs. Gandhi.  Mrs. Gandhi firmly believed that prohibition, if necessary, must come through persuasion.  It could not be enforce by law.  Some states relaxed controls and withdrew certain laws enforcing prohibition.

                There are many sections of our people which are opposed to the idea of prohibition.  These people assert that prohibition by law is likely to give rise to corruption in police, illegal distillation on a large scale and underground sale of cheap quality drinks.  Drinking, they argue, has become an indispensable part of life.  The failure of the Prohibition policy in Haryana has given credence to all such people who feel that it is not possible to introduce prohibition in the country.

                The battle against the bottle is a difficult one.  Prohibition will have to be introduced in a very cautions manner.  The best way to discourage people from drinking is by propaganda, persuasion and education.  If prohibition is introduced by stage, the battle can surely be won.

                Prohibition is sometimes condemned on the ground that it involves a big loss of revenue. But the Justice Tek Chand committee appointed to go into the question of prohibition a few years ago, proved the hollowness of this theory.  The Committee proved that every rupee that a bottle brought cost the country four rupees because it gives birth to various other problems of crime and disorder.  The findings of this Committee were confirmed by another committee set up by the Haryana Government when it introduced prohibition in the state in 1996.

                In a poor country like India, nothing short of total prohibition can save the masses from total ruin.  No soft and easy going policy can cope with the tremendous evil.  All social, cultural and political organizations must join hands and banish the evil of drinking from this land of the gods.