soma
Several states in India have imposed a prohibition policy to discourage the working class from consuming alcohol. The intention is to control crime, to improve the safety of women and to ensure men use their earnings towards the welfare of their families.
What happens when we are intoxicated? I created this series in an attempt to explore those inhibited feelings we yearn to bring to the fore in our state of oblivion.
I asked each individual why do they like to drink? Their responses are imprinted on the image on the right. I have attempted to build this body of work with an aim to represent an inebriated state of mind.
Rgveda 8.48.3:
We have drunk soma ; we have become free from death.
We have attained the light; we have been found to the gods!
What now can joylessness do to us?
What truly, can the evil of mortality do?
O you who are free from death?
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The series is made in a small town in Bihar after the government there passed a new law prohibiting alcohol consumption.
The carpet symbolises the confines within one’s head.
The blur symbolises an intoxicated state of mind and
the colours symbolise a fantastical view of the world when one is high on alcohol.
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- Whoever, in contravention of this Act or the rules, notification or order made thereunder – (a) consumes liquor or intoxicant in any place; or (b) is found drunk or in a state of drunkenness at any place; or (c) drinks and creates nuisance or violence at any place including in his own house or premises; or (d) permits or facilitates drunkenness or allows assembly of drunken elements in his own house or premises; – shall be punishable, Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act, 2016
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- “Despite prohibition, police stations have become hub of brokers involved in illegal business of liquor. Police patronise sale of illegal liquor in their areas and only those who are weak are being falsely implicated under the law. Prohibition has been a failure in the State,” Sushil Kumar Singh – BJP Member of Parliament
