Vol. 4, Issue 12, Part G (2018)

Abstract
This paper argues that it was not tobacco itself, but the Indian innovation of the hookah, that transformed smoking into a powerful social ritual. Tobacco, a foreign substance, entered India in the seventeenth century and was debated at the Mughal court. Yet its spread alone cannot explain how smoking became embedded in community life. The hookah, with its large base and flexible hose, made smoking a shared activity, turning it into a symbol of unity, brotherhood, and exclusion. Sitting together around the hookah created bonds of trust and belonging, while denial of hookah and water (hookah-paani bandh) became a form of social boycott. Drawing on historical accounts and sociological frameworks of purity, boundaries, and community discipline, this paper shows how the hookah carried forward older Indian norms of inclusion and exclusion, making it one of the most enduring symbols of social life.