THE OUTSIDE AND INSIDE MEANINGS OF ALCOHOL: CHANGING TRENDS IN INDIAN URBAN MIDDLE-CLASS DRINKING Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Word Count: 92,695 by Yoon Hui Kim Department of International Development Queen Elizabeth House St. Cross College University of Oxford August 2008 I hereby certify that this thesis is the result of my own work except where otherwise indicated and due acknowledgement is given. Yoon Hui Kim 4 August 2008 ii Acknowledgements I am deeply grateful to: My mom, Hyoun Sook, and my dad, Ho Young, for their unwavering love and support as well as their generosity of heart and home; and to my sister, Yoon Ju, and my brother, Jun Kyu, for their love, friendship and comic relief. My academic supervisor, Professor Barbara Harriss-White, for her belief in my project, her continued support, and her intellectual guidance. The Institute for Human Development in New Delhi for providing me with a home during my fieldwork. QEH for providing me with a home during the rest of the D.Phil. The staff of the Nehru Memorial Museum Library, the Jawaharlal Nehru University Library, the SAVVY and Times of India archives, and the Institute for Studies in Industrial Development for their assistance in my archival research. My interviewees for their willingness to share their experiences. The numerous friends whose companionship has made the experience of the D.Phil. more than just an intellectual endeavour. iii THE OUTSIDE AND INSIDE MEANINGS OF ALCOHOL: CHANGING TRENDS IN INDIAN URBAN MIDDLE-CLASS DRINKING Yoon Hui Kim, St. Cross College D.Phil. Trinity 2008 Abstract To explore the political economy of Indian urban middle-class alcohol production, distribution and consumption; the underlying power structures; and the emic context of drinking, including the reasons for and meanings of drinking, in this thesis we use a Mintzian method based on the concepts of outside and inside meaning. Taking a contemporary historical perspective, we examine the economic, political and social conditions from 1980 to the present that have had an impact on the recent increase in the availability, accessibility and permissibility of drink and have thereby shaped Indian middle-class individuals‟ alcohol consumption decisions. We analyse changes in alcohol production and distribution and the structures (i.e. the supply of raw materials, management, the composition of final demand, the organisation of distribution, advertising and marketing, and tax) that have underpinned the shifts, as a means to highlight the different vested interests that come into play at various stages of production and distribution. In particular, we highlight the conflicting interests of the alcohol industry and that of the state governments, which have, nonetheless, resulted in a cooperative relationship to the benefit of both. Shifts in alcohol consumption are investigated in a three-fold manner. First, changes in middle-class income and the consequences for alcohol expenditures are statistically analysed. Then, representations of alcohol in English-language print media, such as newspapers and magazines, are explored in order to shed light on shifts in the permissibility of drinking, which reflect broader changes, related to caste, class and gender, concerning social and consumption behaviour for members of the Indian urban middle-class. Then, the inside meanings that individuals attach to alcohol consumption are examined. Drawing on interview data, I consider the way in which middle-class students of Delhi universities represent and justify their drinking, which reveal the role of alcohol in class- and education-based distinctions. We conclude that the recent shifts in the availability, accessibility and permissibility of alcohol have been made possible not only by the structural power of the alcohol industry and state governments, but also by the exercise of individual power by, for instance, alcohol executives. We also conclude that the importance of the institutions of religion and caste are waning in the area of alcohol consumption, indicating the variable significance of institutions in different contexts due to the role of human agency. iv Table of Contents List of Tables, Charts, Figures and Maps List of abbreviations Chapter 1 – Introduction 1.1 Commodities in development theory and in anthropology 1.1.1 Commodities and development: a history of development theory 1.1.1.1 Sen: Commodities and their use – characteristics transformed into capabilities 1.1.2 Commodities and anthropology: commodities as seen from the inside 1.2 Alcohol as a commodity 1.3 Mintz: outside and inside meaning 1.3.1 The rise of sugar 1.3.2 Sweetness and Power: weaknesses and strengths 1.3.3 Mintz and alcohol 1.4 Definition of key terms: power and institutions 1.4.1 Power 1.4.2 Institutions 1.4.2.1 Social institutions 1.4.2.2 Economic institutions 1.4.2.3 Political institutions 1.5 Methodology 1.5.1 Methodological pluralism 1.6 Conclusion Chapter 2 – The setting 2.1 A history of alcohol production and consumption in India 2.2 Political and economic backdrop: shift from a state-led to market- dominated model of development 2.3 The rise of religion and caste as political issues 2.4 Conclusion Chapter 3 – The Outside Meaning of Production and Distribution of Manufactured Alcohol in India 3.1 Mintz and the political economy of production 3.2 Sources 3.3 Overview of the alcohol industry 3.3.1 Imports 3.3.2 Ownership structures 3.3.3 Regulation 3.4 Interfirm competition 3.5 The structure of supply of raw materials 3.6 Management 3.7 Distribution 3.8 Advertising and marketing 3.9 Composition of final demand v 3.10 Tax 3.11 Conclusion Chapter 4 – The Outside Meaning of Indian Urban Middle-class Alcohol Consumption 4.1 Alcohol consumption 4.2 Accessibility: changes in middle-class income 4.2.1 Changes in alcohol expenditure between 1983 and 2004: statistical analysis 4.2.1.1 The datasets 4.2.1.2 Statistical model 4.2.1.3 Results 4.3 Employment opportunities, consumption and social institutions 4.4 Permissibility: Indian urban middle-class social attitudes towards alcohol consumption 4.4.1 Media: English language newspapers and women‟s magazines 4.4.1.1 Newspapers 4.4.1.2 Women‟s Magazines 4.5 Social attitudes and social institutions: implications for the permissibility of drinking 4.6 Conclusion Chapter 5 – The Inside Meanings of Indian Urban Middle-class Alcohol Consumption 5. 1 Methodology 5.2 Evidence from interviews 5.2.1 Interviewee Demographics 5.2.2 Interviewees‟ experiences of alcohol 5.2.2.1 The first drink 5.2.2.2 After the first drink 5.2.2.3 The non-drinkers 5.2.2.4 Consequences of drinking 5.2.2.5 Family members‟ attitudes towards alcohol and their drinking practices 5.2.2.6 Moderate vs. heavy drinking 5.2.2.7 Social vs. unsocial drinking 5.2.2.8 Prohibition and regulations: gender and class distinctions 5.3 Inside meanings: intensification and extensification 5.4 Conclusion Chapter 6 – Conclusion 6.1 The outside meaning of production and distribution 6.2 The outside meaning of consumption 6.3 The inside meanings of consumption 6.4 Linking outside and inside meanings 6.5 General implications 6.6 Policy implications vi Appendices Appendix 1 Prohibition policy by state, 1983-2001 Appendix 2 Tables detailing the growth of the alcohol industry in India Appendix 3 Interview questions Appendix 4 Interview schedule Bibliography Newspaper bibliography Women‟s magazine bibliography vii List of Tables, Charts, Figures and Maps Table 1.1 Tamil Nadu Excise and Tax Revenues, 2001-2 to 2004-5 (Rs. million)….1 Figure 1.1 Thesis argument…………………………………………………………...5 Table 1.2 Mintz‟s analysis…………………………………………………………..26 Table 1.3 Our analysis………………………………………………………………31 Table 2.1 Colonial alcohol excise revenues between 1873 and 1887………………76 Map 2.1 Dry and wet states in India in 2006………………………………………81 Table 3.1 All India Sales of Alcoholic Drinks by Sector: Total Volume (million litres), 1999-2005……………………………………………………….101 Chart 3.1 Sector contributions to all India total volumes sales (percent), 1999- 2005……………………………………………………………………..102 Table 3.2 All India Sales of Alcoholic Drinks by Sector: Total Value (Rs. Million), 1999-2005……………………………………………………………….102 Chart 3.2 Sector contributions to all India total value sales (percent), 1999- 2005……………………………………………………………………..103 Table 3.3 Beer and Spirits Produced in India and Imported (thousand litres), 1999- 2004……………………………………………………………………..105 Table 3.4 Company Shares of Alcoholic Drinks in India by Global Brand Owner (percent total volume), 2003-2004……………………………………...108 Table 3.5 Brand Shares of Still Grape Wine (Percent of total volume), 2003- 2004……………………………………………………………………..109 Table 3.6 After-tax profits of Radico Khaitan and the UB Group‟s McDowell & Company Limited and United Breweries Limited (Rs. million), (2001-02 to 2005-06)……………………………………………………………...112 Table 3.7 Sugar produced in India by company between 1993-94 and 2000-01 (thousands of metric tonnes)……………………………………………116 Table 3.8 Characteristics of the open, auction and government corporation retail models…………………………………………………………………..125 Table 3.9 Additional duties for spirits imports per case of nine litres…………….138 Table 3.11 State tax revenues from 1981-82 to 2003-04 (lakh Rs.)……………141-42 Table 4.1 Distribution of Households by Income (percent), 1985-86 and 1989-90 (Pre-reform period)……………………………………………………...153 Table 4.2 Distribution of Households by Income (percent), 1992-93, 1995-96, and 1998-99 (Post-reform period)…………………………………………...153