Leo Mirani digs up a brief history of the bane of Mumbai’s nightlife.

Don’t let Independence Day catch you by surprise. Despite the best efforts of your neighbourhood wine shop – putting up a hastily scrawled blackboard outside the premises the day before warning that drought is nigh – dry days have an alarming tendency to sneak up on you. The more obvious ones, such as Independence Day, Republic Day and Gandhi Jayanti, are easy enough to remember, as are big Hindu festivals such as Ganeshotsav. But who can remember to stock up for Martyrs’ Day and Ashadi Ekadashi? Who decides what days should be dry? Whose idea was it in the first place?

On October 2, 1975, at the height of the Emergency, prime minister Indira Gandhi introduced a 12-point programme for prohibition brimming with moral concerns about liquor consumption. As it is the government failed to distinguish between social drinkers and alcoholics. Apart from issuing a list of dry days, the programme banned alcohol advertising and drinking in public places, and decreed that liquor shops could not be set up near highways, shrines and educational institutions. In addition, public servants were discouraged from drinking, revenue ceased to be a criteria for granting fresh licences and pay day was made a dry day. That’s why, until a decade ago, the tenth of every month was dry in Mumbai. However, foreigners are exempt from dry day restrictions, ostensibly to protect tourism.

In recent years, the number of dry days has decreased. Pay day is no longer a dry day, and Prohibition Week, which lasted from October 2-8, doesn’t exist anymore. It was first reduced to three days, then to two and, is now restricted only to Gandhi Jayanti. At one point, they even tried shifting it to the second week of April. Prohibition Week was meant to “intensify the drive against alcohol consumption”, said Shankar Adivarekar, former Director of Prohibition in Maharashtra. “But it just didn’t work.”

The Collector is empowered to impose a dry day if he feels that the situation merits it. That’s why the Ganesh festival sometimes sees three dry days instead of one, and why the day of voting in elections is preceded by two dry days. The dates for these unforseen dry days often are announced with only a day’s notice because, according to UG Mohan, a salesman at Kanishka Wines in Khar, “The government is afraid the bar and wine shop owners will get a stay order on it.”

The popular argument against dry days is that those who want to drink will stock up and drink at home anyway. But that’s not the point, according to Krishna Sulalke, the superintendent of state excise for Mumbai. “The only thing prohibited on a dry day is the sale of liquor and its consumption in a public place.” That begs the question: Why do we continue to have dry days? Especially when Union Territories as well as the state of Punjab have relaxed dry days to such an extent that even Independence Day and Republic Day are dry only between the hours of 11am and 7pm.

Adivarekar, a Gandhian and freedom fighter, believes that dry days are important as a continuing effort to dissuade people from drinking. But even he admitted, “It has no meaning at all anymore. People store liquor the previous day.” Dippender Singh Sachdev, owner of Khar’s H2O nightclub and advisor to the All India Hotel and Restaurant Association, contends that the reason is purely political. “It’s for the women’s lobbies,” he said. “To attract votes. But what the government fails to realise is that in cities like Mumbai, the women are as much a part of the whole scene as men are.”

Sachdev keeps his nightclub shut on dry days, losing an entire day’s revenue. The blow is particularly harsh if the dry day falls on a Friday or a Saturday. Sachdev said that he has sent numerous requests and memorandums to the authorities asking for an end to the dry day system. “They said they will take it under consideration,” he said.

Dry days

Republic Day – Jan 26
Martyrs’ Day – Jan 30
Maharashtra Day – May 1
Ashadi Ekadashi – July 7
Independence Day – Aug 15
Ganesh Chaturthi – Aug 27 (not yet officially declared, but likely to be dry)
Gauri Visarjan – Sept 2 (not yet officially declared, but likely to be dry)
Anant Chaturdashi – Sept 6
Gandhi Jayanti – Oct 2
Kartiki Ekadashi – Nov 1

Photography Vikas Munipalle