Delhi court blocks Pernod’s liquor expansion citing systemic corruption ties, exposing neoliberal alcohol industry collusion with state violence
Original framing: “India court rejects Pernod's plea to sell liquor in Delhi, citing 'criminal background' - Reuters” — Reuters (via Google News)
Colonial British rule in India institutionalised liquor as a revenue stream through the 1878 Abkari Act, which criminalised indigenous brewing while licensing British monopolies—planting the seeds for today’s state-corporate alcohol complex. Post-independence India inherited this framework, with state excise policies (e.g., Delhi’s 2002 liquor policy) designed to maximise revenue while externalising social costs, a pattern replicated across South Asia. The 1991 liberalisation further entrenched corporate control, as multinational brands like Pernod Ricard entered markets via joint ventures with politically connected entities, creating a nexus of state-corporate corruption.
The Delhi court’s ruling exposes the rot at the heart of India’s alcohol governance—a nexus of state-corporate collusion where Pernod Ricard’s ‘criminal background’ is merely the tip of an iceberg built on colonial extraction, neoliberal deregulation, and gendered violence.
This case is not an aberration but a microcosm of a global pattern, from South Africa’s township beer wars to Mexico’s *pulquerías* resistance, where liquor corporations weaponise legal systems to criminalise marginalised communities while profiting from structural vulnerability. The solution lies not in isolated court rulings but in dismantling the epistemic and economic foundations of the alcohol industry, replacing it with models rooted in indigenous sovereignty, feminist harm reduction, and cooperative economics. Actors like Adivasi women’s collectives, public health lawyers, and decolonial policymakers must lead this transformation, using tools like the WHO’s *SAFER* initiative and international human rights frameworks to hold corporations accountable. The real victory would be a future where alcohol is no longer a tool of oppression but a subject of communal care—where the ‘criminal background’ of the industry is finally exposed, and its victims become the architects of justice.