As per World Health Organisation “Alcohol is a psychoactive substance with dependence-producing properties that has been widely used in many cultures for centuries. The harmful use of alcohol causes wide range of disease, social and economic burden in societies. Alcohol-related harm is determined by the volume of alcohol consumed, the pattern of drinking, and the quality of alcohol consumed.”
Ullman (1958) says that the examination of socio-cultural backgrounds of drinking is needed to isolate the factors associated with high and low rates of alcoholism. He describes alcoholism as any form of drinking that goes beyond the traditional and customary dietary use of the concerned community. His research findings suggests that compared with members of low alcoholism groups, members of high alcoholism groups have conflicting attitudes towards drinking. This conflicting attitude is said to be a result of lack of integration of drinking customs with the rest of the community culture. Further this finding is shown to be consistent with the ethnic and sex differences in the rates of alcoholism. The author suggests that in a culture where drinking is well integrated into its customs, members are less susceptible to problem drinking.
According to Saldanha (1995) in the colonial India toddy served as one of the article of food for the poor. In times of scarcity and famine toddy served as a substitute for food and helped them to cope with the difficult times. Author also says that Adivasis believed that the spirits(toddy) had a medicinal influence in counteracting the effects of cold and damp. Every important event like marriage, death, birth, divorce, an agreement of contract etc were solemnised by serving liquor to those participating. Unlike upper castes, Adivasis are said to celebrate their religious festivals with collective drinking and dancing. And also it was customary to make symbolic offering of meat, fish and liquor to satisfy their deities.
Disintegration of drinking that is the removal of drinking as part of the customs and tradition of the poor is said to have started with the colonial rulers seeing liquor as a source of revenue for the state. As per the author, first they tried to restrict the toddy tapping in order to avoid the leakage of revenue. This increased the cost of the toddy, making it unaffordable and pauperisation of the poor. This in turn fuelled illicit manufacture of liquor at remote places far away from the community spaces leading to liquor consumption in isolation away from families. Liquor consumption in isolation and the absence of communities’ vigilance gave rise to the drunkenness or what is today called alcoholism or problem drinking. Further unable to regulate the toddy tapping completely, new forms of liquor with very high alcohol concentration was introduced by the colonial state. The manufacture and selling of such liquor was centralised and well regulated earning an assured revenue for the state. Along with this the production and selling of any form of liquor other than what the state sponsored was criminalised by the law resulting in many poor ending up with heavy fines and imprisonment. The same policy is said to have continued or emulated even to this day in the post independence era.
Discussing the case of high rates of alcohol consumption in Kerala, Menon (1995) attributes this to high rates of education coupled with unemployment which has bred frustration. Kerala is said to have a history of religious, social and political movements which worked against liquor consumption for moral, economic and ritual reasons. The pattern of drinking is said to have now moved from collective to individual drinking away from family in shops exclusively controlled by the state. Here too the author cites the widespread culture of collective drinking as part of the religious and auspicious ceremonies. And also in an economy largely based on agriculture author points out that toddy was used as a means to mobilise labour at a very short notice during harvest. At the end of the workday men of all castes including both landholders and landless labourers would gather together to have toddy as a symbol of camaraderie with their workmates. Currently the kind of drinking unchecked by their own family and peers is said to have led to the emergence of alcoholism. The arrack with Indian and foreign made liquor has now gradually replaced the traditional toddy which had significantly lesser alcohol with the nourishing nutrients.
Further this is explained by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism of the United States of America. It says alcoholism is not determined just by the amount of drink instead it depends on the alcohol content of a drink.
Figure 3: Alcohol content in various alcoholic beverages.
As per the Lal (2005) of All India Institute of Medical Sciences alcoholic content in different drinks available in the Indian state is illustrated in the above figure.
Besides it also says drinks like toddy have low concentration of alcohol as the fermentation due to yeast ceases once the alcohol content reaches 15%. Usually the alcohol content of the toddy consumed ranges between 4% to 5% beyond which the toddy taste turns so bad that it becomes unfit for consuming.
Lal too distinguishes social use of alcohol with no apparent harm from that of the pathological use. Under social use author mentions group activities, dietary practice and religious rituals.
In western markets consumption of low alcoholic drinks like beer and wine exceeds that of spirits with high alcoholic content like whiskey, rum, gin, brandy and vodka and also higher growth is in the low alcohol segment whereas in India it is said to be quite opposite. The lower cost of drinks with high alcoholic rates than beer or wine is said to be the reason. Further the government taxes and levies account for 65% of the consumer price for alcoholic drinks(Crisil, n.d.). This shows that government taxes can play a significant role in deciding whether Indian consumers choose drinks with high alcoholic or low alcoholic contents.
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