The Drink and Drug Evil in India.
HASSAN, Badrul (foreword by Mahatma Gandhi)
Madras: Ganesh & Co.. 1922.
Description:
First edition. Small 8vo. 182x120mm. pp. viii, [2], 161, [1]. Folding table with a statement showing excise revenue. Front free endpaper has ink-stamp "For Favour of Review". Original green cloth, lettered in white to upper cover and spine. Corners a little worn and spine slightly discoloured and with head and foot a little frayed. Internally very good but with some toning to the edges. Rare in commerce.
Badrul Hassan was a leading figure in the Indian nationalist movement, founding the Hyderabad Book Depot as a gathering place for campaigners against British imperial rule. He worked closely with Gandhi in the Non-Cooperation movement and contributed articles to Gandhi's journal Young India, becoming its editor in 1925. Among his many lines of attack against the British was his argument that the colonial government was deliberately encouraging alcohol and opium use in order to increase revenue from excise tax. The Young India articles were expanded into this book which is a searing attack on drink and drug misuse: "The habit of drinking leads to neglect of family, to forgetfulness of all social duty, to distaste for work, to want, theft and crime". Gandhi, who wrote the preface to this book agreed. Temperance was to be a tool of resistance.
Description:
First edition. Small 8vo. 182x120mm. pp. viii, [2], 161, [1]. Folding table with a statement showing excise revenue. Front free endpaper has ink-stamp "For Favour of Review". Original green cloth, lettered in white to upper cover and spine. Corners a little worn and spine slightly discoloured and with head and foot a little frayed. Internally very good but with some toning to the edges. Rare in commerce.
Badrul Hassan was a leading figure in the Indian nationalist movement, founding the Hyderabad Book Depot as a gathering place for campaigners against British imperial rule. He worked closely with Gandhi in the Non-Cooperation movement and contributed articles to Gandhi's journal Young India, becoming its editor in 1925. Among his many lines of attack against the British was his argument that the colonial government was deliberately encouraging alcohol and opium use in order to increase revenue from excise tax. The Young India articles were expanded into this book which is a searing attack on drink and drug misuse: "The habit of drinking leads to neglect of family, to forgetfulness of all social duty, to distaste for work, to want, theft and crime". Gandhi, who wrote the preface to this book agreed. Temperance was to be a tool of resistance.