Talk:Indian beer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article is within the scope of Business and Economics WikiProject. | |
| Stub | rated as stub-Class on the assessment scale | |
| ??? | This article has not yet received an importance rating on the assessment scale. | |
 |
This article is within the scope of WikiProject India, which aims to improve Wikipedia's coverage of India-related topics. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page. |
| ??? | This article has not yet received a rating on the quality scale. |
|
More information about this article...
|
|
 |
This article is part of WikiProject Beer, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to beers and breweries on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can choose to edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks. |
[edit] Drunken Indian Elephants
I have again amended the sentence that says Elephants are known to attack villages, with the primary agenda of raiding these vats and having a good time generally. There can be no evidence for the claims that elephants have a primary agenda of having a good time by raiding vats. There may be evidence that they are hungry or thirsty (perhaps the reason they raid villages which don't have breweries). Moriori 02:27, Jul 4, 2004 (UTC)
Actually there is evidence of this in the article at: http://www.theindian.co.nz/testing/plugin/news/journal/plugin.asp?plugin=article_view_Unwrap.asp&abxyk945=301&iabspos=137&vjob=vcat%2C111
In this article it states: A police officer in Dumka said: "Tribals who love rice beer brew the liquor at home. Elephants too are fond of this beer.
"Often it is found that, attracted by the strong smell of the liquor, wild elephants tear down the tribal houses where the brew is stored."
Also Rudyard Kipling wrote of an elephant enjoying arrack (a coconut liquor) and beer in his book "My Lord the Elephant" over a century ago. It's available at: http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/prose/ManyInventions/lordelephant.html
The particular relevant text is: “Now,” sez I, settin’ down on his fore-foot, “we’ll have a drink, an’ let bygones be.” I sent a child for a quart of arrack, an’ the sergeant’s wife she sent me out four fingers of whisky, an’ when the liquor came I cud see by the twinkle in Ould Typhoon’s eye that he was no more a stranger to it than me,—worse luck, than me! So he tuk his quart like a Christian, an’ then I put his shackles on, chained him fore an’ aft to the pickets, an’ gave him my blessin’ an went back to barricks.’
‘Subsequint, me an’ the Venerable Father of Sin became mighty friendly. I wud go down to the lines, when I was in disgrace, an’ spend an afternoon collogin’ wid him; he chewin’ wan stick of sugar-cane an’ me another, as thick as thieves. He’d take all I had out of my pockets an’ put it back again, an’ now an’ then I’d bring him beer for his dijistin’, an’ I’d give him advice about bein’ well behaved an’ keepin’ off the books. After that he wint the way of the Army, an’ that’s bein’ transferred as soon as you’ve made a good friend.’
I also came across the following article at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/2583891.stm: Drunk elephants kill six people
Drunken elephants have trampled at least six people to death in the northeast Indian state of Assam, local officials say. The herd of wild elephants stumbled across the supplies of homemade rice beer after they destroyed granaries in search of food. The incident happened near Tinsukia, 550 kilometres (344 miles) from the Assam capital, Guwahati. "They smashed huts and plundered granaries and broke open casks to drink rice beer. The herd then went berserk killing six people," a forestry official told AFP news agency. ... "It has been noticed that elephants have developed a taste for rice beer and local liquor and they always look for it when they invade villages," an elephant expert in Guwahati told Reuters news agency.
Since the elephants seem to go to great lengths to get at the beer when there are large quantities of rice or water more easily available, it is apparent that they are not simply hungry or thirsty. Clearly these pachyderms thoroughly enjoy drinking beer. Also mahouts in India affirm that their elephant partners enjoy drinking and get quite tipsy.
As an interesting aside trained Indian elephants are said to understand over 1,100 human commands whereas humans barely understand any words of elephantese. Rameses 16:27 July 6, 2004
