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‘The drinking habits of our countrymen’: European Alcohol Consumption and Colonial Power in British India

2012; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 40; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/03086534.2012.712379

1743-9329

Harald Fischer–Tiné,

Decadence, Literature, and Society

Abstract Drinking did not only play an important role in the social life of the Raj, it also provides a useful lens to look at the structure of British colonial presence in the Indian subcontinent and the ideological constructs designed to legitimise it. The article looks specifically at the patterns of alcohol consumption of the middle and lower social classes of Europeans in India during the period between the suppression of the 'Mutiny' and the outbreak of the First World War and analyses the problems they entailed for colonial administrators. Case studies of alcohol abuse among European pilots, sailors, planters and 'loafers' reveal the existence of multi-layered drinking codes and throw the class divisions existing in British India's 'white society' into stark relief. They also suggest that the drinking habits of 'low Europeans' in particular were seen as a vital threat to British rule as they debunked the myth of a British 'civilising mission' based on moral superiority and hence triggered various attempts by the colonial élites at inculcating virtues of temperance into the 'white subaltern' groups. [T]he drinking habits of our countrymen of all classes, are making a very injurious impression on the natives of India.Footnote 1 Than the loafer, the vagrant, the drunken uneducated or debased European, whose passions are under no control, and who is amenable to no public opinion, nothing can be more sad to the Christian and more alarming to the statesman. Footnote 2 Western Civilization, the greatest blot on which has been its drinking proclivities, has risen to condemn the habit on social and political grounds; and … social workers in India and Calcutta may seek illumination from the Temperance events transpiring in Europe and America.Footnote 3 Notes Reverend J. Wilson in Proceedings of a Meeting for forming a Temperance Society, p. 10. The Friend of India, 8 Nov. 1860. Herbert Anderson, Calcutta Gazette, Oct. 1916. See, for instance, van den Bersselaar, King of Drinks; Akyeampong, 'What's in a Drink?'; Ambler, 'Alcohol, Racial Segregation'; Diduk, 'European Alcohol'. The concept is introduced in Fischer-Tiné, Low and Licentious Europeans, see esp. 5–18. For ample examples of alcohol-induced 'white violence' targeted at various segments of the Indian population, see, for instance, Bailkin, 'The Boot and the Spleen', 3. Mofussil, provincial town or 'up-country station' in the hinterland. See, for instance, Mills, Cannabis Britannica and Madness, Cannabis and Colonialism, 43–65; Shamir and Hacker, 'Colonialism's Civilizing Mission'. See, for instance, Markovits, 'Political Economy of Opium Smuggling', 89–111; Farooqui, Opium City; Winter, Anglo-European Science; Richards, 'Opium Industry in British India' and 'Opium and the British Empire'; Trocki, Opium, Empire and Global Political Economy. The only work to date that provides a comprehensive overview of a broad variety of psychoactive substances in an empire context is the extremely helpful Mills and Barton, eds, Drugs and Empire. Hardiman, 'From custom to crime'; Gilbert, 'Empire and Excise'. Fahey and Manian, 'Poverty and Purification'; Palaniappan, 'Temperance Movement and Excise Policy; Carroll, 'The Temperance Movement in India' and 'Origins of the Kayastha Temperance Movement'. See, for instance, Wald, 'Intemperance and Control'; Holmes, Sahib, 415-25, Peers, 'Imperial Vice' and 'Sepoys, Soldiers and the Lash'; Stanley, White Mutiny. Peers, 'Imperial Vice', 43–46. On the widespread trope presenting British soldiers as inveterate drunkards, see also Harrison, Drink and the Victorians, 332. Chatterjee, The Nation and its Fragments. See also Valverde, Diseases of the Will. Anonymous, Proceedings of a Meeting for forming a Temperance Society, held in the Town Hall of Bombay etc., Bombay, 1834. The term 'darkest England' was introduced by Salvation Army founder William Booth in 1890 to describe the life-world of the denizens of Britain's urban slums. Booth, In Darkest England. White, Efficiency and Empire, 98. See also Greenaway, Drink and British Politics, ch. 2. Williams, A Few Remarks, 6. Until it became the official term for the Indo-British 'mixed race' population in 1911, 'Anglo-Indian' was used to refer to the British (or more broadly: Europeans) living in India. It is used in this sense throughout the present article whereas the term 'Eurasian' is reserved for people of mixed parentage. Love, Vestiges of Old Madras, 71. Ghosh, Social Condition, 122–26. Pryor, 'Indian Pale Ale'; Mathias, Brewing Industry in England, Harrison, Climates and Constitutions, 50–52. On European mortality rates, see also Travers, 'Death and the Nabob', 87–89. Spear, The Nabobs, 17. Ernst, Mad Tales from the Raj, 41. Gilchrist, General East India Guide, 116–24, 151–54. Ibid., 125. Levine, 'Discovery of addiction'. Mair, 'Medical Guide for Anglo-Indians', 238. See, for instance, Vernède, British Life in India, 163–73; Hobbs, John Barleycorn Bahadur and It Was Like This!; Gilmour, The Ruling Caste, 135–37; Thornton, Light and Shade, 30–31. Arrack was an umbrella term used for a variety of local brews. In southern India it mostly referred to spirits distilled from the fermented sap of palms, whereas in Bengal it generally denoted a liquor made out of sugar cane molasses. Punch (from Persian panj = five) was a less fiery drink consisting of the following five ingredients: Arrack, sugar, lime juice, spices and water). See Yule, and Burnell, Hobson-Jobson, 737–38. Arnold, 'Deathscapes'. Gilchrist, General East India Guide, 125–26. It is interesting to note how this contrast between the varieties of drink consumed by the lower classes and those preferred by the elites mirrors the metropolitan discourse. See Coffey, 'Beer Street', 669–92. 'Europeans in India 1800–1803', Bengal Law Consultations, 24 Aug. 1800; Govt. Magistrate of Calcutta to Henry Barlow, Chief Secy, IOR, O/5/6, Asia, Pacific and Africa Collection, British Library (henceforth APAC). Letter by an anonymous traveller to the editor of the Calcutta Gazette dated 10 June 1837, In Raychoudhury, ed., Calcutta, 20–21. Kincaid, British Social Life in India, 36. Ghosh, Social Condition, 123. See also Seton-Karr, ed., Selections from the Calcutta Gazettes, 68–69. Report on the State of the Police 1862–63, 4. Courtwright, Forces of Habit, 190–93. See also Williamson, East India Vade-Mecum, 162, 165. On the punch houses as institutions corrupting the morals of Europeans, see Spear, The Nabobs, 45. Hobbs, John Barleycorn Bahadur, 44. Williamson, East India Vade-Mecum, 165. Letter by one 'Positive Fact' to the editor of the Bengal Hurkaru dated 10 June 1837, in Raychoudhury, Calcutta, 20–21. See also Bengal Hurkaru, 22 Sept. 1842. For the entanglement of the temperance and 'sexual purity' movements, see also Hunt, Governing Morals, 94–103. For an exhaustive account, see De, Marginal Europeans, 63–73. See also Fischer-Tiné, Low and Licentious Europeans, 50–54; Kerr, Building the Railways, 149–50, 198–200; Arnold, 'European Orphans and Vagrants', 114–15. Ballantyne, Orientalism and Race, 44–48; Collingham, Imperial Bodies, 121–24; Hyam, Britain's Imperial Century, 155–66. See Hall, 'Lords of Humankind Revisited', 473–74. See also the by now classical Kiernan, Lords of Human Kind. The Friend of India, 2 June 1871, 628. Ibid., 8 Nov. 1860, 1060. Martin, Statistics, 330. On the history of the Bengal Pilot Service, see also Beattie, On the Hooghly. Government of Bengal [GoBeng], Marine Department Proceedings [Marine Dept Proc.] 1861, Sept. 1861, A – Nos 56–59, IOR, P/173/8, APAC. For similar cases see also GoBeng, Marine Dept Proc., 1862, May 1862, A – Nos 66–68, IOR, P/173/9, APAC. Sāhib pānī men gir jātā in Hindi can be roughly translated as 'The Sahib falls overboard'. Government of India [GoI], Home Department Proceedings [Home Dept Proc.], Marine, 1865, Feb. 1865, A – Nos 1 and 2: 'Report regarding late Licensed mate Pilot H. Williams', letter no. 1416: J. G. Reddie, Master Attendant at Calcutta, to A. Eden, Secretary to GoBeng, 8 July 1863, IOR, P/213/57, APAC. Marshall, 'White Town of Calcutta', esp. 309. To put these figures into perspective, it is helpful to recall that the overall population of the city exceeded 300,000 at this point. Chevers, On the Preservation of the Health of Seamen, 39. Anonymous, 'Sailor Life in Calcutta', 461–63. For the politics of segregation in colonial Calcutta, see also Chattopadhyay, 'Blurring Boundaries'. Nair, History of Calcutta's Streets, 501. The atmosphere of these boarding-houses has been captured in Kipling's famous 'Ballad of Fulta Fisher's Boarding House'. Kipling, Collected Poems, 43–44. Europeans in India 1787–1792, 11–13, Bengal Consultations, 23 Jan. 1788; Superintendent of Police to Governor-General Cornwallis, 22 Jan. 1788, IOR, O/5/2, APAC. See, for instance, letter by 'Aclaus' to the editor of the Calcutta Journal, 27 April 1820. In Das, ed., Selections from the Indian Journals, vol. 2, 169–70 and Choudhury, ed., Glimpses of Old Calcutta, 14, 68, 106. Brief History of the Cyclone, 3. See also Ghose, 'Scientific Study in Calcutta', 199. For a detailed survey of the effects of the cyclone, see also Gastrell and Blanford, Report on the Calcutta Cyclone, and GoBeng, Marine Dept Proc., 1864, A—13–43, Nov. 1864, IOR, P/173/, APAC. Brief History of the Cyclone, 12. See also Reddie, Annual Report of the Marine Department and Dockyard. For a detailed account, see Fischer-Tiné, 'Flotsam and Jetsam of the Empire?'. GoI, Home Dept. Proc., Marine, 1866, No. 18, May 1861; G. B. Malleson, 'The State of Sailors in Calcutta', IOR, P/437/29, No. 18, Feb. 1866, IOR, P/437/29, APAC. G. B. Malleson, 'The State of Sailors in Calcutta', IOR, P/437/29, No. 18, APAC. See also Harrison, Climates and Constitutions, 153–203. See, for instance, Conley, From Jack Tar to Union Jack, 77–78; Lloyd, The British Seaman, 254–56. That this trope was not restricted to the British discourse on seamen is evident from Heimerdinger, Der Seemann, which analyses a strikingly similar discourse in the German context. See also Conley, From Jack Tar to Union Jack, 77. Chevers, On the Preservation of the Health of Seamen, 37. See also Sykes, Calcutta through British Eyes, 47–48. Malleson, 'The State of Sailors', 3. See also Chevers, On the Preservation of the Health of Seamen, Appendix B, 'Adulterated Liquor sold to Sailors and Soldiers in the Bazars of Calcutta', 62–64. Smyth, The Sailor's Word-Book, 253. Joyce, An Exposure of the Haunts of Infamy, 3. Ibid., 2. This decision was disputed as the 366 licensed liquor shops which existed in the city in 1862 were an important source of income for the government. Report on the State of the Police, 1862–63, 4. See also Meyer, ed., Memorandum on Excise Administration, for definitions and details on the exact distribution of European and 'native' liquor stores. For a helpful discussion of similar endeavours back in Britain, see Conley, From Jack Tar to Union Jack, 66–98. The Friend of India, 6 April 1865, 393. Chevers, On the Preservation of the Health of Seamen, 38. Levine, Prostitution, Race and Politics, 285-86. Chevers, On the Preservation of the health of Seamen, Appendix C, 'The Dangers to which Soldiers and Sailors are exposed in the Bazars of Calcutta', 68. See also GoBeng, Judicial Department Proceedings [Jud. Dept Proc.], 1862, A–74, March 1865, letter no. 1666, 15 Feb. 1864, A. Turnbull, Secy to the Justices of Peace of Calcutta, to S. C. Bailey, Secy to GoBeng, IOR, P/173/9, APAC. See Fischer-Tiné, Low and Licentious Europeans, 212. Levine, Prostitution, Race and Politics, 85–86; Whitehead, 'Bodies Clean and Unclean', 41–42. See also Tambe, Codes of Misconduct, 34–35. In the five years from 1856 to 1861 altogether 1522 seamen were sentenced to imprisonment in the Calcutta House of Correction for 'refusal of duty' alone. See GoBeng, Jud. Dept Proc., 1862, A–77, IOR, P/173/9, APAC. Report on the State of the Police, 1855, 3. The issue of special penitentiaries for Europeans is dealt with in depth in Fischer-Tiné, 'Hierarchies of Crime and Punishment?', 41–65. APAC, IOR, P/147/4; GoBeng, Jail Department Proceedings, Nov. 1864, No. 82, 'Statement of Prisoners in the European Jail Ootacamund'. Report on the State of the Police, 1861–62, 3. See also GoBeng, Jud. Dept Proc., No. A—113–17, 6 Jan. 1859, 'Prevention of Sailors from going out with their knives', No. 113–17, 6 Jan. 1859, West Bengal State Archives (henceforth: WBSA). For a more general discussion of Victorian perceptions of the interrelations between alcohol intoxication and violence, see also Rowbotham, 'Only When Drunk'. Cotton, Calcutta Old and New, 222. Report on the State of the Police, 1855, 16. Banerjee, Dangerous Outcast, 52. For an example from Bombay, see Bombay Samachar, 9 June 1868, in Report on Native Papers Published in the Bombay Presidency [RNPBom], 1868. Bombay Samachar, 9 June 1868, in RNPBom, 1868. Proceedings of a Meeting for forming a Temperance Society, 10. See also Spear, The Nabobs, 59–60; Raychaudhury, 'Transformation of Indian Sensibilities', 7. See, for instance, Fischer-Tiné, 'Stadt der Paläste?', 241–42. Anonymous, Brahmins and Pariahs. The conflicts between the European planter community and colonial administrators came to a head in the wake of the so-called 'Blue Mutiny' in the early 1860s. See Kling, Blue Mutiny. Kolsky, Colonial Justice, 57–63 and 'Crime and Punishment on the Tea Plantations', 272–98. Olcott, Old Diary Leaves, 420. I should like to thank my doctoral student Maria Moritz for providing me with this extremely interesting source. An EIC record compiled in 1827–28 meticulously lists all cases of misconduct by non-licensed Europeans or ex-soldiers that had occurred in the previous decades. It relates a total of 532 cases in the thirty years from 1793 to 1823, or an annual average of about 18. Most of the misdemeanours were committed by European soldiers. See APAC, IOR, O/5/25, vol. 24. See also Kolsky, Colonial Justice, Chapter 1. See, for instance, Jam-e-Jamsed, 19 June 1868, Bombay Samachar, 23 June 1868 and Rast Goftar 21 June 1868, all in RNPBom, 1868. See also De, Marginal Europeans, 109–14; Fischer-Tiné, Low and Licentious Europeans, 163–65. Government of Bombay, 8. Government of Madras Public Proceedings, 1900, No. 861, Aug. 1900, letter no. 1626, 18 Aug. 1900, H. Dobbs, Secy to the Chief Comm. of Coorg to GoMad, IOR, P/5990, APAC. Hervey, The European in India, 97; Arthur, Reminiscences, 229–33. Arthur, Reminiscences, 235. Packman, Remarks, 3. GoI, Home Dept Legislative Proc, No. 9, Oct. 1868, letter no. 867, 4 Feb. 1868, J. R. Baldwin, Secy to Allahabad District Charitable Organisation, to E. C. Bailey, Secy to GoI, IOR, P/436/55, APAC. Ibid. The prescription consisted of five grains of sulphate of iron, 10 grains magnesia, 11 drachms of peppermint and one drachm of spirit of nutmeg. The mixture was to be given twice a day. Ibid. See also Heron, Booze, 139–45. Maharashtra State Archives (henceforth MSA), GoBom, Jud. Dept Proc., vol. 25, 1868, letter no. 4, Comm. of Police, Bombay, to GoBom, Jud. Dept, 23 July 1868. MSA, GoBom, Jud. Dept. Proc., vol. 25, 1868, letter no. 423, J. Connor, Senior Mag. of Police, Bombay, to the GoBom, Jud. Dept, 17 Sept. 1868. For a rather typical example, see the case of one Mrs Mac Erlane, a woman of Irish origin 30 years of age, admitted to Bombay's female workhouse in late 1885. 'Born in Dublin, Ireland, 25 March 1855. Married to Gunner James Mac Erlane on 25th Nov. 1870. She has three children who are in charge of her husband who is still in India with his Battery. Came to India with her husband's Battery in May 1880; was removed from the married establishment of the Battery for misconduct and deported by Government in March 1884. Returned to India at her own expense in June 1884 and has lived in Bombay since that date. Obtained shortly after arrival a situation as "bar maid" in the Grant Road hotel, which she quitted in August 1885 being ill from the effects of drink. She was received to the J. J. Hospital, has twice suffered from delirium tremens.' MSA GoBom, Jud. Dept Proc., vol. 47, 1886, letter no. WF 15, P. Cooper, Governor, Government Female WHBom, to GoBom Jud. Dept, 10 March 1886. Williams, A Few Remarks, 12. GoI, Home Dept Proc., Public, A-303-306, Aug. 1917, National Archives of India [NAI], 'Grant of Rs 120 per mensem for the upkeep of a European Vagrant named Elizabeth Mahon still pending the ultimate disposal'. Ibid. For insightful observations on the popular Victorian discourse on 'fallen women', see also Logan, Fallenness, 1998. Rowbotham, 'Only when Drunk', 165. See also Fischer-Tiné, Low and Licentious Europeans, ch. 3. The Friend of India, 24 May 1866, 607. MSA, GoBom, Jud. Dept Proc., vol. 13, 1867, letter no. 419, R. B. Barton, Chief Mag. of Police to C. Gonne, Secy to GoBom, Jud. Dept, 10 Dec. 1866. Thus, a temperance activist touring the British empire declared in a speech he gave in 1864: 'Drink is the source of all crimes; it fills the prison cells; it loads the convict ship, it throngs the workhouse, it crowds the lunatic asylum, it guides the footsteps of the robber; it nerves the red hand of the murderer, and peoples the scaffold with haggard victims of despair.' Chapple, Temperance. For a detailed description of the workhouse regime, see also Fischer-Tiné, 'Britain's Other Civilising Mission', 316–26. MSA, GoBom, Jud. Dept Proc., vol. 59, 1874, 'Report of the Working of the European Vagrancy Act for 1873'. letter no. 4/48, Captain Walshe, Governor GWHBom, to the President of the Committee of Management, 18 Feb. 1874. MSA, GoBom, Jud. Dept. Proc. vol. 59, 1884, letter no. W. 34, Captain W. P. Walshe, Governor, GWHBom to GoBom Jud. Dept., 21 Feb. 1884. Mills and Barton, eds, 'Introduction' to Drugs and Empire, 1. This argument has been most strongly made in Hutchins, Illusion of Permanence. The title of a somewhat outdated account of the European elite: Mason, Men Who Ruled India. Briggs et al., Crime and Punishment in England, 194. Orwell, Burmese Days, 37. Orwell's marvellous novel is full of references to the drinking culture of the white community in a rural outpost in British Burma. Jayasena, Contested Masculinities, 112.