History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c96.s2.37.2

v7.c96.s2.37.2

When something is prohibited or becomes rare, many feel a fascination in breaking the law or trying to possess what is rare. Illicit liquor produced and kept under the most unhygienic conditions is being sold on a large scale and persons knowing this dare not inform the police for fear of being stabbed or killed by distillers of illicit liquor2640a Minister's cook was found engaged in manufacturing illicit liquor. In the present author's opinion prohibition has turned out to be a dismal failure, it tends to corrupt the police, it reduces revenue much needed for development purposes, illicit distillation has become a cottage industry and boot-leggers have acquired a vested interst in prohibition. Why horse-racing and betting are not prohibited by law is inexplicable, except on the supposition that many people entertain that Government is afraid of displeasing rich people who indulge in it. Wine and gambling have been besetting sins from the times of the Ṛgveda. Vasiṣṭha pleads for forgiveness of sins from Varuṇa in Ṛgveda VII. 86.6 saying that 'it is not one's own power that leads one to commit sin, it is fate, wine, anger, dice (gambling) and thoughtlessness'. In Ṛg. X 34 a gambler laments over his own frailty. Therefore, all that can be reasonably attempted is temperance and reducing the spread of the drinking habit; otherwise new and greater evils not contemplated in the ardour for suppression emerge. Vide p.