5 ms·

Kerala's love affair with alcohol

11 points by niyazpk 17y ago

tokenadult 17y ago
It's interesting in how many ways Kerala differs from other parts of India. For most of my lifetime it has had exceptionally high rates of literacy and better than Indian-average figures for various aspects of social well being. It is also the state with the most Christians (many of whom are part of a church they say was founded by the apostle Thomas) and the state that long had a state government of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) coalition led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerala http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerala I had a friend from Kerala during my university studies in the 1970s, which is why I have long been curious about that part of India. This is the first I have heard about alcoholism problems there.
- subbu 17y ago
  Not to forget Kerala is the highest foreign remitting state in India. But none of this money is invested into the industry (http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2007/04/06/stories/2007040600110900.htm http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2007/04/06/stories/20070...)
Arun2009 17y ago
I am from Kerala. This is after a quick googling, but by world standards, we still have some way to go. From the article: > It has the highest per capita consumption - over eight litres (1.76 gallons) per person a year - in the nation Here are the figures worldwide from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_alcohol_consumption http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_alcohol_co... Britons, for e.g., down 11.8 litres/year/person.
defen 17y ago
8 liters per person per year...is that of actual alcohol content? So if they were all drinking 80 proof whisky, they would average 20 liters of the stuff per year?
- zck 17y ago
  That is eight liters of pure alcohol. From the source of the wiki page Arun2009 linked to: http://apps.who.int/whosis/database/core/core_select_process.cfm?strISO3_select=ALL&strIndicator_select=AlcoholConsumption&intYear_select=latest&language=english# http://apps.who.int/whosis/database/core/core_select_process...

11 points by niyazpk 17y ago

It's interesting in how many ways Kerala differs from other parts of India. For most of my lifetime it has had exceptionally high rates of literacy and better than Indian-average figures for various aspects of social well being. It is also the state with the most Christians (many of whom are part of a church they say was founded by the apostle Thomas) and the state that long had a state government of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) coalition led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerala http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerala I had a friend from Kerala during my university studies in the 1970s, which is why I have long been curious about that part of India. This is the first I have heard about alcoholism problems there.

subbu 17y ago
Not to forget Kerala is the highest foreign remitting state in India. But none of this money is invested into the industry (http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2007/04/06/stories/2007040600110900.htm http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2007/04/06/stories/20070...)

Arun2009 17y ago

I am from Kerala. This is after a quick googling, but by world standards, we still have some way to go. From the article: > It has the highest per capita consumption - over eight litres (1.76 gallons) per person a year - in the nation Here are the figures worldwide from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_alcohol_consumption http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_alcohol_co... Britons, for e.g., down 11.8 litres/year/person.

defen 17y ago

8 liters per person per year...is that of actual alcohol content? So if they were all drinking 80 proof whisky, they would average 20 liters of the stuff per year?

zck 17y ago
That is eight liters of pure alcohol. From the source of the wiki page Arun2009 linked to: http://apps.who.int/whosis/database/core/core_select_process.cfm?strISO3_select=ALL&strIndicator_select=AlcoholConsumption&intYear_select=latest&language=english# http://apps.who.int/whosis/database/core/core_select_process...