Kerala's love affair with alcohol

It's interesting in how many ways Kerala differs from other parts of India. For most of my lifetime it has had exceptionally high rates of literacy and better than Indian-average figures for various aspects of social well being. It is also the state with the most Christians (many of whom are part of a church they say was founded by the apostle Thomas) and the state that long had a state government of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) coalition led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerala

I had a friend from Kerala during my university studies in the 1970s, which is why I have long been curious about that part of India. This is the first I have heard about alcoholism problems there.

I am from Kerala. This is after a quick googling, but by world standards, we still have some way to go.

From the article:

> It has the highest per capita consumption - over eight litres (1.76 gallons) per person a year - in the nation

Here are the figures worldwide from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_alcohol_co...

Britons, for e.g., down 11.8 litres/year/person.

8 liters per person per year...is that of actual alcohol content? So if they were all drinking 80 proof whisky, they would average 20 liters of the stuff per year?