The spicy goodness of a hot toddy for Poona rains

The intersection of Colonialism and temperance propagated by European countries makes a rather interesting topic in food studies.

- Chinmay Damle

In Colonial India, temperance promoted by native leaders was linked to the nationalist cause as a means to overthrow the Western influence that was blamed for changing alcohol consumption patterns among Indians.

Britain sought to profit from the trade in alcohol once it established itself in India. Around the same time, temperance societies flourished all over the country. While Colonial rulers believed that trade and Christianity were important to make the colonised subjects "civilised", Christian missionaries and Catholic officials, both civil and military, endorsed sobriety and worked to save Europeans and natives from "alcohol-induced degeneration and moral corruption".

Foreign liquors were largely consumed in towns like Bombay, Belgaum, and Poona, where there was a significant European, Eurasian, and Parsi population, and to a smaller extent by the higher classes of Hindus in large towns. Consumption undoubtedly increased during the plague in 1896-1900, the use of alcoholic drinks being considered a prophylactic.

Spirit distilled from "mahua" was consumed almost everywhere in the Bombay Presidency because that was the cheapest fermentable material. In Ratnagiri, Bombay, and some parts of Thane district, toddy was largely used for the same reason. Toddy was a juice extracted from the different species of the palm tribe, and was converted into arrack, of which great quantities were sold in the Bombay bazaar, from where it reached Poona. The "Report on the Economic Condition of the Masses of the Bombay Presidency" (1888) stated that in Poona, toddy drinking was getting more frequent near the city and that town labourers of the "lower castes" spent part of their earnings on drink.