Prohibition , once widespread in India, is now only fully enforced in Gujarat and some of the northeastern hill states, although Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and some other states retain partial prohibition in the form of "dry" days, high taxes, restrictive licences, and health warnings on labels ("Liquor - ruins country, family and life," runs Tamil Nadu's). Even in areas where alcohol is readily available, dry days are often observed once a week (usually Thursday), and liquor shops remain shut.

 

Most Indians drink to get drunk as quickly as possible, and this trend has had a terrible toll on family life especially among the working classes and peasantry. Because of this, politicians searching for votes have from time to time played the prohibition card. The government in Haryana introduced prohibition in 1996 which, in a state that produces huge amounts of liquor, led to lost revenue and, as is common in all prohibition areas, the rapid growth of a highly organized illicit trade, but no evidence of less drinking. Haryana is no longer dry, but in states like Tamil Nadu, which persist with these policies, every now and then papers report cases of mass contamination from illicit stills that have led tragically to an extraordinary number of deaths.

Alcoholic enclaves in prohibition states can become major drinking centres: Daman and Diu in Gujarat, and Pondicherry and Karaikal in Tamil Nadu are the main ones. Goa, Sikkim and Mahé (Kerala) join them as places where the booze flows especially freely and cheaply. Interestingly, all were outside the British Raj. Liquor permits - free, and available from Indian embassies, high commissions and tourist offices abroad, and from tourist offices in Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta and Chennai, and even at airports on arrival - allow those travellers who bother to apply for one to evade certain restrictions in prohibition states like Gujarat.

Beer is widely available, if rather expensive by local standards. Price varies from state to state, but you can usually expect to pay Rs40-70 for a 650ml bottle. A pub culture, not dissimilar to that of the West, has taken root amongst the wealthier classes in cities like Bangalore and Mumbai and also in Delhi. Kingfisher and Black Label are the leading brands, but there are plenty of others. All lagers, which tend to contain chemical additives including glycerin, are usually pretty palatable if you can get them cold. In certain places, notably unlicensed restaurants in Tamil Nadu, beer comes in the form of "special tea" - a teapot of beer, which you pour into and drink from a teacup to disguise what it really is. A cheaper, and often delicious, alternative to beer in Kerala and one or two other places is toddy (palm wine). In Bengal it is made from the date palm, and is known as taddy . Sweet and nonalcoholic when first tapped, it ferments within twelve hours. In the Himalaya, the Bhotia people, of Tibetan stock, drink chang , a beer made from millet, and one of the nicest drinks of all - tumba , where fermented millet is placed in a bamboo flask and topped with hot water, then sipped through a bamboo pipe.

Spirits usually take the form of "Indian Made Foreign Liquor" (IMFL), although the recently legitimized foreign liquor industry is expanding rapidly. Some Scotch, such as Seagram's Hundred Pipers, is now being bottled in India and sold at a premium, and so is Smirnoff vodka amongst other known brands. Some of the brands of Indian whisky are not too bad and are affordable in comparison; gin and brandy can be pretty rough, while Indian rum is sweet and distinctive. In Goa, feni is a spirit distilled from coconut or cashew fruit. Steer well clear of illegally distilled arak however, which often contains methanol (wood alcohol) and other poisons. A look through the press, especially at festival times, will soon reveal numerous cases of blindness and death as a result of drinking bad hooch (or "spurious liquor" as it's called). Licensed country liquor, sold in several states under such names as bangla , is an acquired taste. Unfortunately, the Indian wine industry, though slowly improving with vineyards such as Grovers, is not up to scratch and the wines are pricey, while foreign wine available in upmarket restaurants and luxury hotels comes with an exorbitant price-tag.