Mapping Alcohol Prohibition Policy in Bihar A Gendered Analysis

Abstract

This thesis undertakes a comprehensive and interdisciplinary investigation of the Bihar newlineProhibition and Excise Act, 2016, a landmark policy that introduced a complete ban on the newlinesale, consumption, and distribution of alcohol across the state of Bihar. While the policy was newlineframed as a socially progressive intervention, aimed particularly at curbing domestic violence newlineand promoting women s safety, its impacts have been deeply contested. Drawing on feminist newlinetheory, political philosophy, and empirical social science, the research interrogates whether the newlineprohibition policy has achieved its stated moral and social objectives or instead served to newlineentrench structural inequalities and political populism. The thesis does not evaluate prohibition newlineas a binary success or failure, but as a moral-political instrument implemented through deeply newlineembedded social cleavages, gendered hierarchies, and ethical traditions. newlineThe history of alcohol prohibition is a deeply entrenched yet contested terrain of political newlinemorality, social reform, public health, and gender justice. This is nowhere more evident than newlinein Bihar, India, whose 2016 enactment of a comprehensive state-wide prohibition law, the newlineBihar Prohibition and Excise Act represents a watershed moment that resonates with ancient newlinetraditions, philosophical debates, grassroots activism, and modern governance challenges. This newlinethesis offers a multidisciplinary and gendered analysis of Bihar s alcohol prohibition policy, newlineexamining its historical roots, philosophical underpinnings, social mobilization, and newlinemultifaceted socio-economic impact.