Gandhi, Indian Nationalism, and Temperance Resistance against the Raj

Chapter 7 follows Mahatma Gandhi’s embrace of prohibitionism as resistance against Britain’s “narco-military empire,” first in South Africa and then in India. Gandhi understood that the British system of imperial dominance was built upon trafficking addictive opium and alcohol, the revenues from which paid for military occupation. Nationalists Gandhi and C. Rajagopalachari adopted temperance tactics such as picketing liquor stores as part of their noncooperation activism. Their Prohibition League of India—a “social” rather than “political” organization—provided organizational safe haven for nationalists of the Indian National Congress when the British clamped down on Gandhi’s nationalist efforts. Making common cause with transnational temperance norm entrepreneurs such as “Pussyfoot” Johnson added greater legitimacy to both Indian nationalism and prohibitionism, which became utterly synonymous in Gandhi’s quest for independence.