Interestingly, even after India gained independence in 1947, the outdated financial and social mores stayed intact. “The state remained closely associated with the monopoly on sale and production of alcohol just like the erstwhile colonial rulers, and mahua remained under stringent laws and limitations,” stated Wald.

“Alcohol was a frequent target for temperance advocates and early nationalists,” Wald continued. “Boycotts and pickets of alcohol stores, and the insistence of some nationalists that alcohol was ‘foreign’ to India, meant that even drinks like mahua, which were so important in the lives of many tribals, were lumped together as problematic.”

Thus, mahua remained categorised as a low-quality, “dangerous” drink, and the tribal folks had been denied the fitting to provide and promote it past conventional village markets. 

“It tells you the nature of post-independence Indian elites who were highly disdainful of the lifestyles of the indigenous population,” stated Krishnendu Ray, professor of meals research at New York University. “It ended up producing a lot of mediocre, homogenous stuff that shaped the Indian liquor industry.”

Against the legacy of this socio-political canvas, it might take a couple of robust entrepreneurial voices concerned with rebranding mahua as a top quality craft spirit, whereas additionally making an attempt to result in adjustments in excise legislations, to start to raise bans on the liquor.