A Quick Peak at the History
​“Since a few so-called elites of my country declared the Mahuva uncivilized, my people started feeling uncivilized too.” - Dr Jitendra Vasava.​
Yes, the history of Mahua is of agony, of anguish. What should have been and once upon a time was actually, a matter of pride banished to perish. Dr Jitendra Vasava’s opening line of the poem Asabhya Ghoshit Mahuva (‘Mahua Declared Uncivilized’), written in Dehwali Bhili language (of his book of the same name) tells that story.​​
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With the enactment of Bombay Abkari Act, 1878 and Mhowra Act, 1892, the Britishers started regulating the indigenous-made liquor. In this process, they also stigmatized these liquors (mahua was one of them) as unhygienic and lowly booze. However, on the other hand, they introduced imported liquor from abroad.
The agenda was to earn a fat revenue which was impossible with a decentralized indigenous liquor production-consumption system. So, they dismantled it. Cleverly. ​​​
​This colonial ploy that disparaged mahua, unfortunately lingered further into our social psyche during the temperance movement led by Mahatma Gandhi. Though the target of this movement was never mahua liquor, nevertheless, the movement found a collateral victim.
Culminated all these events to a state of despair in our Adivasi communities. And that’s what reflected in Natabar khura (uncle)’s choked voice. He might not be aware of the background, but a feeling of ‘uncivilized’ indeed engulfed them all.
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A few noteworthy research works on the same can be found in the Repository > Research Works > History section.
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However, things have started to change around mahua. Check out our Special Segments covering these aspects.
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Also, don’t get downhearted by the difficult times mahua had been through, celebrate the magic of Mahua too. The Featured Articles section curated a few noteworthy articles covering many facets of the mahua-verse.​​
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