Yet the avowed goal of the government is prohibition, to police pleasure, to drag the citizenry back to the tragic Gandhian age. Think of Gujarat, and, the neo-convert, Bihar. Drinking used to be a social indulgence but today it is an antisocial exercise that is hammered with exorbitant sin tax. To put a number around India’s love for alcohol, we went through an annual quantity of over 3 billion litres of spirit and 28 million bottles of local wine to quench their thirst as per a market study conducted in 2014.
Ordinary Indians-make it, men-love to drink liquor but not many would be keen to read about its spirited history in the country. But it is an interesting story that you should not miss out. And Magandeep Singh’s The Indian Spirit: The Untold Story of Alcohol in India (Published by Penguin | Viking, Pages 233, Price Rs 599) offers you enough kick to enjoy your next drink with more awareness and less of a hangover.
It would not surprise you that the first mention of alcohol in India that is Bharat appears with the Vedas when Rig Veda talks about intoxicants like soma and prahamana. Singh says that Charaka Samhita, the most exhaustive tome of the day on medicinal sciences, has detailed accounts of alcohol and its consumption but the real revelry starts in India with colonialism and, specifically, the Raj. Whereas the statesman and politician Shashi Tharoor says the one real, positive fall out of the Raj was tea, Singh finds that Indians owe their secular drinking habit to the British-gin, The India Pale Ale, scotch and the English Punch- and the Portuguese who brought along their wines and left us with feni.
In his retracing of liquor route in India, Singh says punch was introduced to the West by India but then you have to read it correctly. He says the word punch originates from the Sanskrit paanch, meaning five, alluding to the five basic constituents a punch.
That may be a heartening thought but Singh sobers you by pointing out that although India is considered the largest consumer of scotch whisky in the world, the most of the Indian whisky is not actually whisky. A lot of the scotch imported into India is not for direct consumption but used as flavouring and added to locally produced patent still neutral spirits to make them as close a resemblance to whisky as possible.
The one thing that Singh fails to explain is that why north India loves whisky and south India swears by brandy. It may take a further spirited effort.
After delving into the history Singh then gives us an overview of the prevailing spirit scene in India. In the chapter The Whiskey Connection he lists out the best and popular brands in the segment. In Spirits: White and Dark, the country’s best rum, brandy and vodka choices are listed out. A certified sommelier, Singh gives us an excellent history of wine in India and leaves us with his top selections. He does the same for beer as well evoking nostalgia for some of the forgotten brands in the wake of India Made Foreign Beer and takes a peek at the emerging craft beer scene. Most readers would find the short sections such as how to judge a beer, judging spirits, tasting technique and, finally, drinking etiquette quite useful. So, go, raise the bar.