Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

From Anti-arrack to Total Prohibition: The Women's Movement in Andhra Pradesh, India

2000; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 4; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1177/097185240000400109

1940-1175

Rekha Pande,

Optimism, Hope, and Well-being

In Andhra Pradesh, India, an anti-arrack movement was created which grew out of the awareness brought about by the mass-literacy campaigns of the National Literacy Mission (NLC). It began as a spontaneous movement against alcoholism in a remote village in Dubaganta, supported by the NLC in Nellore and adopted by the other districts of Andhra Pradesh. It is noted that there was no organized leadership to start with in the anti-arrack movement. Most of the groundwork was done with local initiative, with women collectively protesting against arrack in their villages. With the movement gathering momentum, political parties entered at the very last stage. Eventually, the movement resulted in the declaration of total prohibition of liquor in India. In addition, it provided a change in the party in power in the state, with the Congress losing to the Telugu Desam Party. It also showed a feminist way of looking at issues, especially politics, thus aligning women's issues to the larger issues of state and society.