Prohibition in Kerala

This forum is the place to have more serious discussions about politics and religion, and your opinions thereof. Be courteous!

Moderator:Forum Administrators

Forum rules
When a registered user insults another person (user or not), nation, political group or religious group, s/he will be deprived of her/his permission to post in the forum. That user has the right to re-register one week after s/he has lost the permission. Further violations will result in longer prohibitions.

By default, you are automatically registered to post in this forum. However, users cannot post in the politics forum during the first week after registration. Users can also not make their very first post in the politics forum.
vijayjohn
Language Forum Moderator
Posts:27056
Joined:2013-01-10, 8:49
Real Name:Vijay John
Gender:male
Location:Austin, Texas, USA
Country:USUnited States (United States)
Contact:
Prohibition in Kerala

Postby vijayjohn » 2014-09-07, 19:38

I don't know whether anybody's interested in this topic, and I don't even necessarily know any more about it than (some) other people on this forum, but my parents have brought it up at least twice, so I thought I'd post about it. (By the way, today is September 7 for me, and September 7 is Onam, i.e. the day of the traditional Malayalee harvest festival. Happy Onam! :)).

The government of Kerala is attempting to completely prohibit alcohol in Kerala. IIRC, it has already closed down several palm wine/toddy shops. I have seen at least a few sources claim that Kerala has the highest alcohol consumption rate in India (at 11 liters per capita, according to this).

I see a few potential problems with what the local government is trying to do here:

1. Five-star hotels are still allowed to serve alcohol. That just seems hypocritical to me.

2. When has prohibition ever actually worked? Even in Muslim countries where alcohol is prohibited on religious grounds, people (at least Malayalee migrants there) seem to drink a lot as soon as they get the opportunity.

3. I wonder whether there is a deeper issue that this fails to address. Consumption of alcohol has already long been stigmatized in Malayalee society, so I don't see what prohibition is going to add here. A toddy shop is not the same thing as a bar in the Western world. My understanding is that you don't go to a toddy shop to hang out with friends; you go to a toddy shop because you are really miserable, perhaps even suicidal, and are attempting to drown your sorrows in alcohol. Several years ago, the teenage alcoholism rate was climbing in Kerala, and (again, IIRC) alcoholic teenagers are especially likely to commit suicide. Is the issue here really the alcohol itself, or could it be the high expectations that people (especially poorer people) in Kerala are generally held to?

User avatar
TeneReef
Posts:3074
Joined:2010-04-17, 23:22
Gender:male
Location:Kampor
Country:HRCroatia (Hrvatska)

Re: Prohibition in Kerala

Postby TeneReef » 2014-09-24, 17:42

Mahé is engulfed by Kerala, what's the problem?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D7SfVFruPc
विकृतिः एवम्‌ प्रकृति
learning in 2019: (no-nn)

vijayjohn
Language Forum Moderator
Posts:27056
Joined:2013-01-10, 8:49
Real Name:Vijay John
Gender:male
Location:Austin, Texas, USA
Country:USUnited States (United States)
Contact:

Re: Prohibition in Kerala

Postby vijayjohn » 2014-09-24, 23:09


Varislintu
Posts:15429
Joined:2004-02-09, 13:32
Country:VUVanuatu (Vanuatu)

Re: Prohibition in Kerala

Postby Varislintu » 2014-09-25, 12:35

vijayjohn wrote:2. When has prohibition ever actually worked? Even in Muslim countries where alcohol is prohibited on religious grounds, people (at least Malayalee migrants there) seem to drink a lot as soon as they get the opportunity.


And it seems to make things worse, often. In Finland, it's nowadays pretty accepted from a social history point of view that the alcohol prohibition years (and the restriction year) in Finland pretty much created our unhealthy drinking culture. We went from a culture of pretty occasional beer-drinking (occasional because beer was brewed out of excess grain and this was a rather famished country!) to a binge-centered booze culture due to the prohibition and the preceding sobriety-hysteria of the higher classes. The myth of the boozing common Finnish man was pretty much manufactured in a moral panic, but then he sadly enough became real as a side-product of the prohibition.

So yeah, it's sad to hear it's being implemented again somewhere.

User avatar
OldBoring
Language Forum Moderator
Posts:6152
Joined:2012-12-08, 7:19
Real Name:Francesco
Gender:male
Location:Milan
Country:ITItaly (Italia)
Contact:

Re: Prohibition in Kerala

Postby OldBoring » 2015-04-01, 7:16

Does anyone know about the prohibition in the USA in the 1920s?

vijayjohn
Language Forum Moderator
Posts:27056
Joined:2013-01-10, 8:49
Real Name:Vijay John
Gender:male
Location:Austin, Texas, USA
Country:USUnited States (United States)
Contact:

Re: Prohibition in Kerala

Postby vijayjohn » 2015-04-01, 7:20

Yes, of course. Why?

User avatar
OldBoring
Language Forum Moderator
Posts:6152
Joined:2012-12-08, 7:19
Real Name:Francesco
Gender:male
Location:Milan
Country:ITItaly (Italia)
Contact:

Re: Prohibition in Kerala

Postby OldBoring » 2015-04-01, 7:47

What were its effects?
People should lecture Kerala government about what happened in Finland and in the US then...

P.S.
Sorry, I meant to ask "Does anyone know about the effects of the prohibition in the USA in the 1920s?"

User avatar
TeneReef
Posts:3074
Joined:2010-04-17, 23:22
Gender:male
Location:Kampor
Country:HRCroatia (Hrvatska)

Re: Prohibition in Kerala

Postby TeneReef » 2015-04-01, 8:55

What about alcohol used in Christian ceremonies like masses?
विकृतिः एवम्‌ प्रकृति
learning in 2019: (no-nn)

vijayjohn
Language Forum Moderator
Posts:27056
Joined:2013-01-10, 8:49
Real Name:Vijay John
Gender:male
Location:Austin, Texas, USA
Country:USUnited States (United States)
Contact:

Re: Prohibition in Kerala

Postby vijayjohn » 2015-04-01, 18:55

Youngfun wrote:What were its effects?
People should lecture Kerala government about what happened in Finland and in the US then...

P.S.
Sorry, I meant to ask "Does anyone know about the effects of the prohibition in the USA in the 1920s?"

Well, like I said, it's never actually worked. In the US, Prohibition benefited organized crime (including the Mafia) hugely because it gave criminals a new and lucrative way of illegally making money. Fuck it, there's a whole Wikipedia article about it anyway.

Hmm, apparently selling toddy in Kerala is legal. But I guess selling stronger alcohol isn't?
TeneReef wrote:What about alcohol used in Christian ceremonies like masses?

http://www.ucanews.com/news/communion-w ... ohol/71806

User avatar
OldBoring
Language Forum Moderator
Posts:6152
Joined:2012-12-08, 7:19
Real Name:Francesco
Gender:male
Location:Milan
Country:ITItaly (Italia)
Contact:

Re: Prohibition in Kerala

Postby OldBoring » 2015-04-02, 3:04

Fuck it, why haven't I thought of reading Wikipedia? :lol:


Return to “Politics and Religion”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 7 guests