Nagas are killing themselves along with the economy

Mongsen Longkumer 
Kohima 

More than 30 years have passed since the infamous Nagaland Liquor Total Prohibition Act, 1989 or the NLTP Act was put into motion by the state government which made it illegal to sell any form of Indian manufactured foreign and local liquor overnight. Since that fateful decision, a lot has changed in our society for better or for worse and as we contemplate over what is the current state of affairs, one thing is for certain, which is that alcohol consumption and its effects has not gone down by any significant margin. 

In a lot of ways, it has irrevocably changed the social fabric of our society and continues to haunt our homes in a more sinister way through the black market and its creeping affects socially and economically. 

The crusade against the evil consequence of alcohol is not a new phenomenon by any stretch of the imagination. Moral preachers, social activists and religious leaders have been pursuing this objective across many different periods in our history and across various cultures as well. In what they deem as the cause for the decay of a society, their pursuit for a utopian world in which none of these immorality exist, has done more harm than good toward the people they seek to liberate. 

Throughout the last century, there has been a long list of countries that have attempted at banning the sale of alcohol and have failed miserably in their pursuit, countries such as Hungary, Canada, South Africa, Russia, Philippines, Norway, Iceland, Finland and the United States to name a few. And the most memorable one that comes to mind when discussing about how prohibition backfired on a society aiming to morally police its people is of the United States and the prohibition era of 1920-1933. First being passed in Congress (national legislative body in US) in 1917, and then becoming a Constitutional Act (18th AA) in 1919 known as the Volstead Act. For almost a decade and a half, the country launched a campaign against alcohol producers and consumers alike with little to show for their endeavor. 

Instead, it gave rise to organized crime fuelled by gang violence as they were profiting off of the sale of illegal liquor in the black market and cost about $11 billion dollars in tax revenue for the federal government. It also cost the government about $300 million dollars to enforce the act throughout the period. 

The reasons why it failed were many however it did not mean that the government did not try to put in place measures to prevent people from drinking. In fact, a lot of stop-gap measures were tried and tested to prevent the consumption of alcohol, to the point that citizens were jailed if found to have distillers inside their homes. Goals short of total abstinence from all that could intoxicate and less coercive means—such as self-help, mutual support, medical treatment, and sober recreation—had been tried and, prohibitionists agreed, had been found wanting (Am J Public Health, 2006). 

Churches and social organizations too were actively involved in the fight against the sale and consumption of alcohol. However, people continued to drink nevertheless and crime skyrocketed like never before. 

One glaring point that the government and those social organizations seemed to have ignored before advocating for prohibition was not focusing on individuals but rather sought to see it from a societal point of view. And this is where we come to our own story. 

The support for total prohibition of alcohol is an inherited legacy of our American Baptist roots which is the dominant sect of our state. Prohibition too was largely supported in the American Baptist dominated South and it is no surprise why it is put in place in our state today. On a religious stand point, the debate over whether drinking alcohol is considered an offence in the eyes of God remains somewhat vague, especially among the different denominations but especially among Protestants and Catholics. However, that is not the point of this article. 

Because you see, leaving aside the religious discourse over whether or not alcohol is a sin, on a purely rational point of view, it is impossible to put a blanket ban on the sale of alcohol simply because we do not live in a vacuum. There are neighboring states from where it can be easily purchased and smuggled across on a daily basis. And that has been the case for over 30 years now. There is a huge syndicate operating across our border in Assam where business is flourishing for those who sale alcohol to our state. Funnily enough, there are rumors that they themselves do not want the ban to be lifted because it could harm their business prospects and the huge profits they generate. 

The aim of reducing drunkenness and domestic violence through the ban hasn’t been fulfilled as well. As till today, there are no such reports indicating the correlation between prohibition and decrease in drunkenness or domestic violence. Instead, there has been a sharp rise in public drunkenness all over our society over the same period, and this is exacerbated during election season when alcohol flows like the Nile River across villages and towns.

The menace of alcohol poisoning and its related ill effects too hasn’t subsided either but instead has increased tremendously over the past decade as in an independent report by Senior Specialist Naga Hospital Authority Kohima (NHAK), Dr Angto stated that a total of 4,051 patients were admitted with alcohol related ailments and a total of 473 patients died from it between 2013-2018. This is but a fraction of the number of actual deaths and ailments caused by alcohol as it did not count private hospitals and clinics which are the main centers where people go for treatment. 

An additional consequence is that a large number of non-locals too are employed in the sale of alcohol, and making a fortune out of it in the black-market which they have taken great advantage of owing to our lack of will-power to shut their illegal businesses. Thousands of such small shanty shops are open all over Dimapur and Kohima catering to our Naga citizens who will gladly hand over their hard-earned money to these non-locals who will in return, go back to their respective states and build their private homes and buy cars and other goods for their families and relatives. 

The underground too has profited from this very trade which they oppose against in the open yet collect huge taxes from the traders and sellers alike. 

Everyone has a lot to gain through the enforcement of this ban except for the ordinary citizens who continue to lose out on a lot of opportunities. And for which they suffer heavy consequences not just in loss of lives but also financially. 
The manner in which this ban has been implemented says a lot about our willingness to curb it as can be seen from our actions. The police, organizations or the Assam Rifles can post as many news stories about destroying IMFL as they want, but everyone can see through that façade clearly. Alcohol is here to say and it will never leave our shores until the day of judgement comes. 

Although advocates for legalization have been demanding that the act be repealed for many years now, the stubbornness among one section of the society, who continues to turn a blind eye in the face of reality, continues to press the brakes over it. Our state government too has been silent over this issue this whole time till the COVID-19 Pandemic hit and they woke up from their delusions.

As the pandemic inducing lockdowns showed how economically and financially vulnerable we are, the government has started to weigh in on the option of a partial upliftment so as to shore up our revenue losses. It is hoped that sanity prevails over whatever decisions they make in this regard. 

Compromises and adjustments can be made, restrictions and implementation of areas where it can be sold can also be negotiated. Quality control measures and stopping the sale of spurious liquor should be at the forefront. Cost benefit analysis need to be carefully studied as well. So too does giving of legal licenses to bona fide individuals be one of the solution towards increasing employment opportunities for our Naga citizens. 

As for whether or not it is morally acceptable to drink or not, the only thing left to say is, “To each his/her own.”