Lilian Shiman kindly gave me a clipping from the Boston Globe, 15 Dec. 1996,
apparently reprinted from the Los Angeles Times, that describes the drink
situation in contemporary India.  It is a story of contrasts.  Village women,
aroused by alcohol-induced wife-beating, have led a temperance movement that
has taken the form both of direct action (smashing liquor store bottles with
broomsticks, shaving the heads of sleeping drunkards) and legislation.  In 1995
Andhra Pardesh (population 60 million) went dry; in 1996 another state,
Haryana followed.  Gujarat has been dry since 1947.  Other states that are so
characterized (or vaguely as "imposing limits") are those of Kerala, Meghalaya,
Orissa, and Nagaland.  Yet there is more drinking than ever before, with
illegal drink shops abundant.  The article reports that in 1995 India consumed
200,000 million cases of "legal hard liquor" and an estimated 20 million cases
of what is described as "country liquor."  Although drunkenness is widespread
among poor rural men, there is a taste for alcohol too among the growing middle
class which regards  drinking as fashionably modern.
  David Fahey (Miami University) [log in to unmask]