Daily Brew
Feb 01, 2023
The fallout from an alcohol ban
In 2016, in the northern Indian state of Bihar, authorities suddenly banned alcohol. They enforced harsh penalties for those caught producing, selling and drinking it, giving rise to the world’s largest prohibition experiment since the 1920s. But the crackdown moved the production and consumption of alcohol underground. Against this backdrop, bootleg operations have sprung up across Bihar, home to more than 130 million people, while alcohol-related deaths have risen among the regional population.