Interrogating ‘Parriah Arrack’: Anxieties Over Health, Race and Drinking in Early Colonial Calcutta

Abstract

Summary The colonial authorities in India had always been watchful of the drinking activities of the European soldiers and sailors, expressing concerns about their moral and physical health. The article suggests that such anxieties motivated the European population in India, particularly in its early days, to investigate the drinking practices of the local population and examine the effects of locally distilled liquor on their health and constitution. Through an analysis of a petition and a Commission report, the paper explores a dialogue between a group of European distillers and the Fort William Medical Board in early nineteenth-century Calcutta, focussing on the topics of drinking and health. The article argues that these early interrogations on the local drink not just reinforced the racial stereotypes concerning taste and technology but also consolidated the idea of the ‘tropic’ that continued to inform Anglo-Indian medical discourses in subsequent years.