Hooch tragedy and prohibition promises hark back to chaotic days in Nilgiris under the British

Hooch tragedy, prohibition demands, historical context, and liquor regulations in Nilgiris district during British rule.

The recent hooch tragedy that claimed 67 lives in Kallakurichi; the demand for closure of the TASMAC liquor outlets; the promises made by political parties, including the ruling DMK, to introduce prohibition; and the latest amendments to the Prohibition Act. All this hark back to a situation that prevailed in the Nilgiris district at the end of the 19th Century and the beginning of the 20th Century. Back then, there was also a demand for toddy-tapping. The British government agreed to it, considering the local culture.

Drunkenness caused problems, but the British government, like the modern day governments, permitted breweries since the abkari revenue included income from the country spirit (arrack), foreign liquor, beer, and hemp-drugs. When there were many complaints, the government reduced the number of shops selling liquor. But it could not implement total prohibition.

According to the Nilgiris District Gazette by W. Francis, drunkenness among the native people was more noticeable in Ootacamund (Ooty), especially on shandy days, or Tuesdays, when the big weekly market gathered. “Shandy day is a kind of general holiday in the town, and domestic servants belonging to the plains, who are ever under the temptation to fortify themselves with strong waters against the unaccustomed cold and wet of the hill climate, take advantage of the fact; the cartmen who have travelled up with merchandise from the low country, tired and ill-clad as they are, fall with even greater readiness,” he writes in the book, which has been republished by the Tamil Nadu Archives and Historical Research Department. The book was first published in 1908.

Liquor shops situated on the main thoroughfares were used by Europeans. Drunkenness was thus brought to their notice. In 1856, the ‘Nilgiri abkari’ contract was, for the first time, sold separately from that for the rest of Coimbatore district. The price was ₹24,500 a year for a term of five years.

In 1860, drunkenness among the domestic servants of Europeans at Ootacamund was so noticeable that the residents held a public meeting. Attended by influential persons, the meeting adopted resolutions urging the government to legislate on the matter. The Board of Revenue consulted the Improvement Committee and the other residents of the town. The number of shops was reduced by 12.

“The smaller beer shops were put down, and a person who, under cover of a licence to sell ‘good wholesome beer’, was retailing a highly spirituous liquor which he styled ginger wine ‘was suppressed’,” writes Francis, who revised the District Manual of Nilgiris written by ICS officer H.B. Grigg in 1880. The reduction in the number of shops, however, failed to offer any solution. In 1892, drunkenness among the workers again attracted attention, and three more liquor shops were closed near the market. The district was not free from illicit liquor either. It was smuggled from Ernad taluk of Malabar into O’Valley, or Ouchterlony Valley, since it was cheaper. The government closed the three liquor shops at the request of the planters.

Writing about the district, Francis says one of the first things which struck the early visitors to the Nilgiri plateau was the possibility of making beer which in those days was regarded almost as a necessity and was imported all the way from England in bottles. “They saw that barley was already cultivated in large quantities and that the climate was cool enough for brewing. As early as 1826 extremely good beer was brewed on the Nilgiris from the barley malt of native manufacture and English hops,” he says.