I mean sin. The drinking of liquor is one of the five deadly sins which the Smritis have laid down and that was not a matter of bigotry or prejudice but the result of vast experience. Today go to America. I met a number of people who genuinely regretted that they were not able to make prohibition a success. Why were they not able to make a success of it? Simply for the reason that they have gone on too long imbibing the poison and it is too late now for them to go back. But the section of the people who have the good of the community and of their country at heart still desire that it were possible to stop the deterioration of the human race, which is sure to be brought about by the use and by making the use of intoxicating drinks respectable in society. So, though a sin both for the Hindus as also for the Muslim, after the advent of the British the use of intoxicating liquors became a sign of being fashionable, a sign of progress and culture. It is quite true that it is perhaps impossible to eradicate from the face of the earth for good and forever these three vices – the use of liquor in one shape or other by some few people, the evil of gambling and the evil of prostitution: but it shall be the endeavour of every civilised government to prevent all these three cankers of human society, if it is their object that society should be healthy and happy and moral.
