International Journal of
Indian Science and Research

When Women United: Anti-Arrack Campaign in Nellore District

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(Article - 8, Volume -1, Issue -3, September 2022, Pages 78 - 88)

 

Author(s)

 

Dr. Jeedigunta Chalapathi Rao

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Affiliation

 

Assistant Professor, Department of History, Kasthurba College for Women, Villianur Puducherry- 605 110.

Email: anjalichalapathirao@gmail.com

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Abstract

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               The consumption of liquor is considered as a vice as per the Hindu Canon. Due to the men’s growing consumption of liquor, the womenfolk had suffered a lot. In 1991 women from Dubagunta, Nellore District in Andhra Pradesh drove the liquor contractors out of their village. The women chose to stop the sale of liquor by attacking the shops and above all the local godown. This is said to have been the beginning of the so-called Anti-Arrack Movement (Saara Vyathireka Udyamam), which finally led to the prohibition of alcohol in the state on 16 January 1995. It has generally been assumed that the local state administration, the literacy campaign and the newspaper Eenadu were the key factors behind the spread of the movement to other parts of Andhra Pradesh. Drinking of arrack or toddy by schedule castes does not carry any social stigma. In fact, the women who are protesting against arrack are not faceless poor but mostly scheduled caste women who are the direct sufferers. The main participants in the early struggle were poor, rural women, predominantly from Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes supported by voluntary organizations and later on by politicians from the opposition parties. The study focuses the process whereby the political and private endeavours of individuals were integrated into a broader social movement. It also discusses discourses on gender and household relations in rural Andhra Pradesh and the involvement of urban activists as organizers, leaders and translators of the struggle in Nellore District.

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Key Words   

 

Scheduled Castes, Backward Classes, Broader social movement, Hindu Canon, Nellore District

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DOI:   10.5281/zenodo.7793899