The Parsi Dealers

The Parsi Dealer

Worse by far than the urban Shahukar was the Parsi dealer. In Gujarat, the liquor dealers were almost all Parsis. Drink was important to adivasis in a large number of ways as they accorded great honour to spiritous drinks. They believe that their deities were extremely fond of "daru" and "toddy" and that they could be appeased by such offering. It was common to pour a libation before starting to drink. Alcohol was considered a "food of the gods" and drunkedness occurred during the act of worship was seen as a form of intoxication by the divine spirit. In local legend liquor was believed to have been given originally to the people by gods. Such beliefs ensured that drinking was considered a respectable act in adivasi culture. Drinks were served to celebrate births, a few drops were put in the mouth of the new born baby in the belief that this would bring luck in later life. No wedding would be celebrated without plentful supply. Man and women would drink before dancing. At funeral, the corpse was given a drink and mourners drowned their sorrows with daru and toddy. Large quantity of daru were consumed during festivals. On a more daily basis drink provide a welcome relief to the adivasis after a hardwork day in the field and helped to revive their strength. They believed that it was beneficial to health and it was taken as medicine during illness, providing protection against malaria, cholera and plagues. Anyhow, drink lubricated the whole cycle of their life. Toddy is the fermented juice of a palm-tree, the most productive period is from November to March. Daru was made chiefly from flowers of the mahna tree which flowered generally for a couple of weeks in April. During this period the adivasis worked all-out, gathering the sugary-sweet and highly scented white flowers. The flowers are spread in the sun to dry. The dried Mahna was used in part as food as it may be as the main ingredient of their diet during the monsoon and winter months. It was also used for the distillation of daru. Liguor was made by first soaking the flowers in a big earthen pot for about a week. Fermentation occurred and a mash was produced. This was then boiled in a pot, the neck of which was sealed around a tube of bamboo. The vapour from the boiling mash passed through a tube into another pot which was immersed in water as to cool and thus liquify the vapour which become liquor containing 15-30% of alcohol. By law, however, the manufacture and sale of liquor was permitted only to those who had been given permission by a government liquor-farmer. The liquor rights for a large area were sold for a period of one year. The successful bidder, invariably a Parsi, was responsible for selecting village-level dealers who distilled and sold country liquor and collected and sold toddy. The village dealers were generally Parsi. In the mid nineteenth Parsi established through act the adivasi trust. Although the liquor was very cheap, the adivasis tended to be in debt to the Parsi.In many cases the land of the villages was mortgaged or even sold to liquor vendors . He took in exchange for his liquor, generally, cloths and grain. During part of the colonial time, heavy taxes were imposed on palm-trees. The significant cause of the impoverishment of the adivasis was, in addition to the liquor consumption, the ever-increasing exploitation made possible by the legal liquor permitting and tax system imposed by the colonial state.