A panel of historians talk about antivice campaigns through the first halftime 1900s. Like crusadse against oipium and prostitution. Reform groups often had competing tactics. This was hosted by the american historical association. It is about an hour1 2. Welcome. It is my great privilege to be the moderater of this panel. We have three really fine papers and a comment today. Well just go in the order in the program and i will introduce each person before they speak. So if were ready, well get going. Our first presentation is by harle fisher, professor of modern global history at the Swiss Federal Institute of technology. The author of many wonderful stories including san scrist sociology ant zpw peerism. Race class. And the editor of limits of british control in south asia. The title of the talk today is eradicating the scourge of drink and the unpardonnable sin f inleaget sexual enjoyment. Thank you for these kind words. Thanks to the audience for coming out in this weather. As the time regime will be mercilessly implemented today, i will start with the presentation without further adieu. Both in the popular imagination and in the existing literature. Antivice campaigning is constructed as a euroamerican phenomena. It is understood as a middleground and melting pot for evangelical missionary zeal, and early forms of the organized womens right movements. So accordingly, the average testimony prance campaigner would probably look like this combination. You probably know the lady with the hatchet the is a loan crusher. To be sure, supt a conceptualation allows for its interpretation as a transnational phenomenon but one whose Operational Center are clearly located in the west. With my talk today, i want to complicate this slightly euro centric picture and point to the fact that antivice agendas have become a truly global occurrence by the turn of the 19th century. They transcended religious scultral boundries as well as the infamous divide separating the colonizing from the colonized. Gandhi is one of the handful of political leaders from this formally colonized world who has become an iconic figure in the west. Admittedly he is mostly not known as a zealous fighter against the unholy trinity of drugs, drink and debauchery but rather as a spokesman and symbol of anticolonial nationalists. Yet at the same time gandhi tarted to cultivate an obsession with health that seems closed to the concerns of many purity crusaders. It made him engage in active campaigning against the very same eagles evils for decades. Born in the small coastal town in western india, young gandhi had been exposed to the fluences of hinduism and other religious trends on the abstinence, vegetarianism and sexual discipline. The years he spent as a student law in london, 188891 even reinforced these principles. Like many of his fellow students, he apparently was ver tempted by the pop music calls and brothels. As gandhi and others have shown the future ma hat ma preferred to spend his time with the english members of the vegetarian and temperance movements. You see him as a student. He his stance was confirmed during the two decades of his residents in south africa. Both among the local black working classes but also among the indians he represented as a lawyer during these years he could witness the ways in which the terrible scourge of drink ruined people morally, physically and economically. When commenting on the situation in india, however, he made it clear that he considered the drink evil decidedly not to be a national vice. He understood alcohol abuse and addiction primarily as a result of western influence. The impact of modern civilization and expansion had to spread to places like south africa and the indian subcontinent. Especially india, being largely intact and innocent because in his view alcohol had barely any roots in precolonial south and Southeast Asian societies and if so only with the lowest classes. I will come to this later. This was not only due to the alleged moral superiority about south asian religions but also because he held the conditions to be opposed to the drink habit. As an environmentalist here as well. It is note worthy that western obetweens that shared his ed ustrialization mediate while in the circumstanceles of joe hansburg he met the architect who had been raised and educated in east president busha. As a practicing gymnast and body builder he shared his obsession with disciplining the body and controlling dangerous physical aptites of all kind. Together they founded the experimental rural communal farm. The prohibition of alcohol, strict vegetarianism and the policing of sexual chassty prevailing in the ash ram are not only remindful of similar experiments by the life Reform Movement in europe and other places, they also show that vice control and physical selfoptization formed elements in the training of political elites. Then later on this idea of selfpurifyication or selfempowerment through selfpurifyication is projected on the to the entire nation of india. Like many christian crusaders against alcohol abuse, the opium trade or state regulation of prostitution, gandhi believed in what can be termed the domino theory of vice. He viewed that alcohol consume sn seen as the root of all evil led to sexual debauchery, smoking, gambling, crimes, and other forms of immoral and harm 68 behavior. He linked the rapid global thread of bing drinking to the revolution, his manifesto written on board a steamship he claimed famously that railways were a sinister western invention that would only serve to prop gate evil. Gandhis antivice attitude thus converged with his staunch antiwesternism which ironically drew on the argument of cultural pessimist intellectuals and religiously minded conservatives in both europe and north america. They equated western civilization or industrial civilization with a new kind of modernism. The modernism they feared that would erode society then families with its values of instant gratification, pleasure and egoistic individualism. Given these affinities it is hardly surprising that he put drink as the opposing symbol. Not only prominently on the agenda of the International Congress but that he also frequently collaborated with western testimony prance gencies. Early strategies included not only picketing but also projected tem prance campaigns among the drinking classes using posters such as this. He also had an axe cutting down palms from which palm vine would be produced. These classes were defined as industrial workers, low caste drivers and untouchables. He was very outspoken socially describing who was attempted by drink. As early as 1924 he announced an even more radical strategy to fight the drink evil. He wrote, not that we shall ever make drinkers sober by legislation but we ought to meanize the habit by closing working shops and make it as difficult to indulge in it. After the congress was in power and the provencial level in the late 1930s local governments prom gated laws of prohibition. There has been copious literature on the class antagism and in the logic of gandhi and other aspiring nationalist elites. It could only be convinced to give up their vicious habits through harsh legal interventions. Needless to say that such an agenda clashed with the letters claimed with autonomy over their bodies and practices. It is less known that his prejudice also cut in the other direction. Often rebuked the air stocksy and members of the high society for being negative role models. In 1929 he caustically remarked about a dinner in the club in deli all but one or two indians drank champagne to their fill. As a champion of liberty civilization culture and the like he makes himself almost irresistable. It is therefore a good thing that it is a part of the program. Llowing the logic of the domino theory he continued to opium. An intox cant which many associated with asian rather than western societies. The spread of opium organized by the british perfectly land itself for another forceful character of western civilization. Considering the affinties it appears logical that a christian comrade in arms supported the Indian Nationalist leaders opium campaign. The clergyman, longtime friend and supporter published many articles and pamphlets against the opium trade and consumption that even served on a Congress Inquiry into the matter. Interestingly, the fight against opium apparently inspired gandhis crusade against cigarette smoking. In a speech to College Students in 1927 the ma hat ma warned his audience about the dangers of nicotine addiction. Cigarette smoking is like an oipyat. They get to your nerves and you cannot leave them. It is hence not very surprising that he considered it an outright hue millation when cigarette manufacturers introduced the label ma hat ma gandhi in 19 21 containing his portrait on the jacket. Unfortunately, i couldnt find a portrait but i guess this will do. The logic of the domino theory left gandhi to cast gate practices other than the consumption. He wrote about a dozen articles on gambling, race horse betting, a bit more deal than drinking. The puritan leader of the Freedom Movement displayed particularly missionary zeal when it came to castgation of ill lissyilt sex and prostitution. The figure of the base here, the prostitute, was an important met foric drove in his pet toir. However, the ma hat mas preoccupation with prostitution was not restricted to the level of figurative speech. He was also concerned with the social reality of the existence of hundreds of thousands of fallen sisters as he termed it in india, which he perceived as a matter of deep shame for the nation. Much like in the case of opium and particularly alcohol, gandhi also blamed the west and particularly to British Colonial rule. Described the paris and london as Global Centers of debauchery seething with the vice, a kind of rhetoric that was used by terrorists recently after the terrorist attacks almost in the same words. While simultaneously expressing prostitution had been limited to the elite. He sums up the pivotal importance of a wall on facets of vice for indias political struggle with the stunning lament. If i have the power of persuasion, i would certainly stop women of ill fame from acting as actresses. I would prevent people from drinking and smoking. And i would most decidedly stop the obseen literature and portraits that soil our magazines. The example of gandhis nationalistic puritanism is instructive primarily because it adds layers of complexity to our understanding of global antivice activism. Clearly the fight against social diseases and vicious habits was not the prerogative of christian eformers, western feminists and imperialists. As we have seen nonwestern elites added their own critteeks seamlessly into creating antivice campaigns with their struggle. That being said, it would be misleading to posit the existence of an alternative indiginous testimony prance ideology existing isolated. To be sure gandhi often invoked the teachings and sacred scriptures like the geeta or the presipt of hindu sages many his pamphlets against alcohol opium and the unpardonnable sin of ill legitimate sex for enjoyment as he termed it. He tried to establish links to local cultural traditions. Nevertheless his agenda remained safe by the exchanges interactions with individuals and organizations from the west and creative appropriation of their knowledge discourses and practices. Before i close let me illustrate my argument with a few more examples. It is striking that gandhi found allies throughout the wide spectrum of western antivice campaigners, missionaries, medical men or social high jenists. For instance, the ma hat ma gave a speech at the testimony prance Association Using one of the oldest institutional platforms for antialcoholagetation that existed. In india the pta had been founded by christian missionaries in the 1830s. A few years earlier he addressed a huge meeting organized by the womens christian temprans union where the chair announced him as indias greatest tem prance advocate. Other western antivice organizations attempted to recruit gandhi who had become a global celebrity as a clabt tor as well. In 1924 william mckiven founder of the organization the wide cross, wrote a long letter to the Congress Leader trying to win his support. His organization orchestrated a protracted anlt opium campaign to save the world from, the coming narcotics armageddon as one of the pamphlets had it. Gandhi of course was in full sympathy with this agenda and assured him that, the white cross may rely upon indias cooperation and its noble work. The extent to which a consciousness of the Global Dimensions and ramifications of the antivice drug characaterizes the campaign as striking. He referred to the experiment in the United States even more importantly, the publicication of western antivice campaigners were regularly recycled in his speeches and writings. In 1906 he reprinted an entire article by experts onts evils of tobacco. He stuck to this message for decades. A piece that appeared late in the 30s contained a long excerpt from the influential book,ly cor control, that was published in new york in 1931. These are only a few examples antivice nt the activism that crystalized in south africa and india was made over by the exchanges and dialogues cark tryst 86 of the age of globalization. Although it might sound strange then for our purpose it is certainly rewarding to derstand gandhi for once not primarily as an Indian Nationalist or hindu socialist reformer but a member of the. Ansnational cultural thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is jessica who is an associate professor of womens history at texas university. Her book policing sexuality. The man act and the making of the f. B. I. She has also published in the journal of womens history, the journal of the guilded age and the journal of the history of sexuality. Immoral quarnt the f. B. I. s hite slave division 19101917. Were having some technical ifficulties. So i want to thank robert for taking the time to organize the panel. Also harold for organizing the conference that actually gave birth to our collaboration ogether. N the 11th of december 1d11, vilea had arrived in her washington, d. C. D. C. Brothel. The bureau, which would be renamed the f. B. I. Quickly dispatched a special agent from its White Slave Division to interview as part of its on going census of sex workers. The 21yearold told the agent that her name was maud martin so she quickly admitted that wasnt her birth name. When questioned about her entry she said that she had started practicing prostitution in detroit 18 months earlier and had been in d. C. For about one month working in a different brothel. The special agent noted her physical description and her familys national origin. The inquiry into her entry into prostitution and the demand that she list all the houses that she had ever worked in she only spoke in the vaguest of terms slaved the purpose of ensuring that the they were ot sex slaves. To confirm that all americas prostitutes voluntarily engaged in sex work, they launch a plan in 1911 to make a census of the women engaged in the business of prostitution. After her interview and enume ration sheet that the special agent had filled out completed, maud martin as a native born citizen was free to continue practicing prostitution in the nations capitol. Yet the investigating special agent couldnt help pondering the unknown and unshared details of her life, writing, from the examination of this girl, it was developed a well educated woman, a apparently a graduate of a very refine manner and undowdly was driven into a life of shame by some circumstances that would be interesting to know. Although she has not been in the business for a very long time the chances of her reformation are hopeless. No evidence could be secured showing that her coming to washington and entering into a house of ill fame was in violation of the white slave traffic act. It also appears that while she made several efforts to return to a decent life something drove her back to the life that she now leads. The bureaus White Slave Division called upon the mandates or its own mandates to enforce the white slave traffic act as a justification for conducting this census. Past in 1910, to address the perceived growing incidents of sex trafficking, the federal law made it illegal to take a woman or girl over state lines for the purpose of any immoral purpose and fell to the department of justice to enforce this law. Though white slavery had captured the attention, most consider the topic within the narrow gaze of u. S. Culture and society ignoring that they could be found on both sides of the atlantic and they forged transnational ties with one another. Organizations like the abolitionist federation sought to shape policy as well as to influence the ways that policy against sex trafficking could be coordinated in International Agreements like the 1904, 1910, and 19 21 conventions. Though american white slavery activists eagerly followed the developments of the European Movement and participated in to scombrags meanings address the problem, policy makers did not share the global orientation of antiwhite slavery reformers. Nor their enthusiasm for sustaining or maintaining transnational and international cooperation. U. S. Policy makers in contrast conceived it to be a threat that was foreign in nature and thus responded by increasing Border Patrol policies and practices while launching a Regulatory Regime to catalog prosttuths in the United States. From the u. S. Perspective, the global problem of sex trafficking did not so much require Global Solution but rather required state building solutions. Concerns about prostitution and sex trafficking have been percolating since the 1880s as reformers stoked the fires of Public Opinion about women working in brothels. But these did not become a mainstream political affair until 1907 when the Chicago Tribune and other newspapers began to publish stories. Under the heading of white slavery. From 1907 until the outbreak of world war one American MediaPopular Culture and progressive activists routinely invoked the specter of white slav