Darinee Alagirisamy, Sober State: Origins of Alcohol Prohibition in India (Cambridge University Press, 2026)
My first monograph, Sober State: Origins of Alcohol Prohibition in India, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2026.
The first book to be written on the history of alcohol prohibition in India, Sober State shows how prohibition simultaneously developed as a policy and ideal in late colonial India.
The book argues that the circumstances that produced prohibition also firmly entrenched it in India’s democratic state machinery, with far-reaching repercussions for both its longevity and scope.
