C. Rajagopalachari

His colleagues, Gandhi believed, should have the courage of their convictions.

Speaking at the same time, Rajagopalachari, who advocated cooperation with the British, particularly when it came to the war, declared, Our cooperation is available if the British do the right thing.

So that cooperation, that participation in the war, this is what wins the day with the Congress Party, would be leverage.

That they would become part of the war effort, but only on the understanding that India could only participate in the war as an independent nation or a prospective independent nation.

The British, however, were willing to do nothing.

If Rajagopalachari and friends were able to stifle me in their close embrace, Linlithgow, the Viceroy of India, wrote to Amory, I feel quite sure that the Mahatma would emerge once again upon the stage to give the coup de grace to British influence in India.

Given the evident strains within the Congress, the British government felt it was best to carry on with magisterial inactivity.

In the wake of British reversals in Southeast Asia, Nehru realised that Britain was already a second-class power.

For one, for instance, the consumption of medicated wines had had come to occupy or enjoy a place of prominence among middle-class women especially women who had just given birth they saw it as vital for convalescence similarly drinking these wines had also become associated with therapeutic value among the middle classes, including women.

This proved so embarrassing, in fact, that Rajaji, Rajagopalachari, had to issue a series of statements saying, emphasizing that medicated wine was not to be confused with medicine and that it was foremost alcohol.

This also prompted a change to policy with, for instance, the advertisements of medicated wines coming under fire.

So there were attempts to censor these advertisements, and the rationale provided was that even women are being lured into seeing these substances as medicine, which is a wrong message to put forth.

I think the best example of this would be that during prohibition's first run, that was between 1947 to 43, we see a situation wherein Madras City was conspicuously left out of the purview of prohibition law.

And this is striking because Madras City had come up time and again as having surfaced the greatest rates of alcoholic drinking.

When pressed as to why this very important site was being left out of prohibition law then, Rajaji made the argument that, and he actually said this, I'm quoting from him, he said, "...the bottle needs to be corked, but there is a right time to cork the bottle." This is not the time to be cocking it.

We will get to it.