Suchergebnisse

The green revolution brought prosperity to Haryana, but much of the increase in disposable income, instead of being ploughed back into infrastructure development, was frittered away in alcohol consumption, leading to major domestic problems all over the State, with wife beating and alcoholism, according to one study, seen to be inseparable. An anti alcohol movement, spearheaded by women, took root in this fertile soil, and spread. Though the political establishment sought to gain mileage by imposing prohibition, a mafia emerged to fill the void, and the consumption of liquor and related problems did not disappear. The women who spearheaded the anti liquor movement did not however raise their voices in protest, due to a number of reasons. When men usurped the frontal roles, they were inhibited by purdah and social mores, they lacked the resources to sustain the movement, they were adversely affected when the State turned enforcer and their menfolk were sent to jail, they were stymied when patriarchy reasserted itself via links with the mafia, which the women were not able to withstand, and there was no social support for the agitators, who came to be blamed for the fall in government revenues. Yet the anti liquor movement helped women organise themselves, and brought their voices into the political limelight.

The paper profiles an ethnic group-the Meos, whose homeland is centered in the backward and neglected region of Mewat, now in Haryana. Though the Meos had converted to Islam by the time of Babur, they had strong roots in Hindu culture, and a centuries-old amity existed between the Hindus and Muslims of the area. It was in the early 20th century that the Meos were infected by communal Hindu-Muslim hatred. Though this was eclipsed by a rising wave of patriotism and nationalism, it resurfaced in the surcharged atmosphere of the pre-partition days. Post-independence, in the wake of the Babri-Masjid demolition, there was communal rioting and retaliation, and a hardening of attitudes. As the case of the Meos shows, there is a need to facilitate the participation of ethnic groups in the process of nation building.