ALCOHOLISM, DRUG ABUSE & CORRUPTION : NON-NATIVE TRAITS , BUT IMBIBED THROUGH EUROPEAN CONTACTS !!!!

Indians were not corrupt to the extent British & Marxist Historians made the general public believe. In fact the moral and material standards of Indians, were much higher than that of Europeans. The

following account by Abbe J A Dubois, vividly describes how Indians were made corrupt, while coming into contact with Europeans. The Abbe is very candid, that contacts with Europeans did not benefit Indians. On the other hand he insists that it DESTROYED their MORAL & MATERIAL well-being. 

Quote “It is, I believe, generally admitted, that the invasions and conquests which the Europeans, prompted by avarice and an unextinguishable thirst of dominion, have not ceased to make in the old and new world during the last three or four centuries, have, in most cases, proved rather a curse than a blessing, and have, on the whole, produced more evil than good. Not to speak of the flood of blood through which those conquests were made, and the European dominions established, the invaders, among many other evils, have supplied the savages with fermented poisonous liquors, with the use of which they were formerly unacquainted, arid which have increased their natural ferocity to a considerable extent.

They are become the general carriers, and almost the exclusive monopolists of that poisonous drug called opium, whose effects are to produce complete madness ; and from an insatiable thirst for gain, they have shamelessly smuggled that poison all over Asia; in open violation of the wise prohibitions of the rulers of several countries to prevent so pernicious an article from being introduced into the states under their sway. They have had the horrid distinction of teaching the half, civilized people their infernal system of warfare, and supplied them with the most destructive kind of weapons, the more effectually to destroy each other. They have, in general, by their bad examples, polluted their minds, and vitiated the simplicity of their manners. They have poisoned their bodies by loathsome and incurable diseases, till then unknown to them; but, perhaps, with, a few exceptions, they have to this day operated no material improvement in their morals or religion; on which points, the conquered are found to be, at present, rather in a worse condition than they were when their fierce invaders, stepping .over the immense barriers by which nature seemed to have separated them for ever, and violating their territories and their natural rights, made their first appearance among them.”

All Excerpts From
Jean Antoine Dubois. “Letters on the State of Christianity in India: In which the Conversion of the Hindoos is ...” Longman, Hurst, Rees , Orme, Brown and Green, 1823. iBooks. ( pages 107-8 of 198, Print pages 116, 117)

CASTE SYSTEM vis-a-vis ALCOHOLISM - Indian Experience

Having lived for 38 years among the natives of India as a Planter, the writings of Robert H. Elliot (1837-1914) offers a peek into the social life of India (Mysore)  during his time.  He recorded that , caste-laws produced a wholesome  effect  over Indian society.  Here he  notifies us, how caste laws and customs  prevented the abuse of alcohol, and men fearing loss of caste, refrained themselves for coming under alcohol’s baneful influences. Mr Elliot reminds us that since, - “a large proportion of the population of India are absolutely compelled to abstain from the use of alcohol, and that these being the very best, or at least equal to the very best, of the community, must always have exercised a large influence in discouraging the excessive use of intoxicating drinks,” -  the use of alcohol was  confined to only a few, maybe on the margins. Contrast this pre-modern period, to that of the  all pervasive abuse of alcohol and other intoxicating substances, even by  children , in  MODERN TIMES.  The situation has become much ugly and preposterous that MODERN GOVTS like that in the Indian State of Kerala and TN  almost exclusively depend on  revenue  got from the sale of liquor.

 

Excerpts- “ Having thus briefly glanced at caste law, as controlling the connection of the sexes, let us now look at it from another pointof view, which I venture to think is, as regards its ultimate

consequences, of even still more importance. If there is one vice more than another which is productive of serious crime, it is the abuse of alcohol; and there is no doubt that, to use the words of an eminent statesman, "if we could subtract from the ignorance, the poverty, the suffering, the sickness, and the crime now witnessed among us, (ie the English) the ignorance, the poverty, the sickness, and the crime caused by the single vice of drinking, this country would be so changed for the better that we should hardly know it again." Regarding it, then, in all its consequences, whether physical

or mental (and how many madmen and idiots are there not bred by drinking?  I observe in the Administration Report for Mysore, 1867-68, that nearly all the cases in the lunatic asylum were traced either to drinking or bhang-smoking), it is difficult to estimate too highly the value of caste laws that utterly prohibit the use of those strong drinks that are injurious in any country, but are a thousand times more so

under the rays of a tropical sun. And when we come to consider that a large proportion of the population of India are absolutely compelled to abstain from the use of alcohol, and that these being the very best, or at least equal to the very best, of the community, must always have exercised a large influence in discouraging the excessive use of intoxicating drinks, it is impossible to refrain from coming to the conclusion that this single fact is more than sufficient to counterbalance all the evils that have ever been said to arise from caste.”

 EXCERPT FROM

Robert H. Elliot. “Gold, Sport, and Coffee Planting in Mysore.” iBooks.
This material may be protected by copyright. (From Chapter VIII.  CASTE)

( note. This book/resource is freely available on the net.)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8557215.stm