Prohibition in Bombay

Prohibition in Bombay was a decades-long experiment in state-enforced morality that, far from curbing vice, became the engine of the city's modern underworld. Rooted in Mahatma Gandhi's and the Indian National Congress's agenda, the policy criminalized alcohol and, in doing so, created a vast illicit economy that enriched bootleggers, spawned 'aunty joints,' and gave rise to powerful criminal figures such as Jenabai Daaruwali. The policy's repeated imposition and failure illustrate a recurring pattern in Mumbai's history, where state action designed to impose virtue instead sowed the seeds for larger crimes and transformed the city's social and criminal geography.

Origins and Implementation

Prohibition had always been central to Mahatma Gandhi's and the Congress's agenda, and it was first introduced in the city on 1 August 1939, two years after the first Congress ministry was created in the Bombay province. The implementation was immediately contentious, with clashes between groups for and against prohibition occurring for a whole week in the very first week of enforcement. To enforce the act, the home minister at the time, Barrister K.M. Munshi, carried out an intensive recruitment programme in the police force, creating an exclusive cadre called the X Division headed by a DCP, Prohibition. New sub-inspectors were trained for special prohibition duty, and men from the Excise Department were brought into the city police department.

However, the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 diverted this mammoth prohibition force to security measures at the docks, and the implementation of prohibition suffered. After the Nazis were defeated in 1946, the Congress government returned to power and reimposed prohibition on Mumbai. Veteran politician and then chief minister of the Bombay province Morarji Desai, who was staunchly against the selling and consumption of alcohol, declared complete prohibition in liquor sales in Bombay from 6 April 1950, by passing the Bombay Prohibition Act of 1949. Before this order fell into place, the Christian and Koli communities distilled their own liquor, like jambul, jira, and moha, while most other alcohol available was imported from the West, particularly England.

The Rise of the Bootlegging Economy

Prohibition did nothing but sow the seeds for bigger crimes in Mumbai, opening the gateway for bootleggers and smugglers. A number of 'aunty joints' sprung up to quench the thirst of the alcohol-deprived population. Poor Goan Christian women brewed liquor in their backyards and kitchens, selling it discreetly for a good price. Since their patrons found it difficult to pronounce their names, they were nicknamed according to their physical attributes, such as Gori Aunty, Chikni Aunty, and Baidewali Aunty. Bootlegging was seen as a most lucrative business with profits running into thousands of rupees, and these aunty joints soon became part of Mumbai culture.

Jenabai Daaruwali thrived during this period, amassing enormous wealth as a bootlegger and quickly learning the tricks of the trade under Vardharajan Mudaliar, Haji Mastan, and Karim Lala. Her closeness to some of the city's most hardcore smugglers enhanced her importance by leaps and bounds, and people would often approach her for advice and help in settling disputes. The increase in her wealth gave her confidence, and she became abusive and overbearing. Her success was partly due to her ability to manipulate the police; she would often place photographs of gods and goddesses in the corner of her room, hiding her liquor stock in a chest or box below those photos. During raids, the police would assume the space was sacred and refrain from searching that area properly.

Enforcement and Its Failures

During this time, the government and the police were again trying to implement prohibition effectively across the city. Besides the X Division, a special Prohibition Intelligence Section was created, headquartered at Palton Road (where Haj House stands today), responsible for effectively implementing 'daaru-bandi' in the city. The police learned about Jenabai's bootlegging business and raided her room several times but did not manage to gather anything from such raids, simply because she knew how to manipulate people. However, after facing severe criticism for being lackadaisical about her illegal business, the special Prohibition Intelligence Section finally arrested her, and she served a few weeks in jail.

The policy's legacy extended beyond the bootlegging economy. The same pattern of state-imposed morality and its violent enforcement would recur in other forms, such as the 2005 Maharashtra dance bar ban, which similarly criminalized an industry and pushed it further into the shadows. The prohibition era also established a template for the relationship between the police and the underworld, where figures like Jenabai developed friendly relations with law enforcement, including police constable Ibrahim Kaskar and his wife Aamina, Dawood Ibrahim's parents, who were like family to her, with their children treating her like a second mother.

Legacy and Significance

The failure of prohibition in Bombay is a testament to the limits of state power in regulating personal morality. The policy, intended to promote virtue, instead created a lucrative criminal economy that empowered figures like Jenabai and reshaped the city's underworld. The same logic of criminalization and its unintended consequences would later be seen in the stringent MCOCA law, promulgated by the Maharashtra government in 1998 after the abrogation of the TADA, which was formulated because the state did not have any firm law with which to fight organized crime. The prohibition era thus stands as a foundational moment in the history of Mumbai's underworld, demonstrating how state action can inadvertently create the very criminal structures it seeks to eliminate.