A Sober Christmas in Hyderabad

Andhra’s excise department raids Anglo-Indian houses to confiscate homemade wine

Homemade wine has acquired a bad tag this season as Anglo-Indians in Hyderabad have been told by the state’s excise department not to produce the red fruity beverage. Over the past week, policemen under the Andhra Pradesh excise wing have been raiding Anglo-Indian homes. They have allegedly destroyed 3,000 pots used to grow small grapevines and confiscated around 5,000 vessels filled with the crushed fruit juice that was being fermented.

Their plea to exempt homemade red wine, which is integral to Christmas festivities, has not brought them any relief. “If homemade wine is banned, then ban homemade pickle too,” responds an angry Richard Wheeler whose family has been making wine for more than 30 years.  “This is the first time we’ve had policemen walking in,” he says.

Homemade wine once used to sell informally for Rs 100 a bottle, but now it can fetch about Rs 300. Excise officials say those selling such wine have become greedy, as they are charging thrice what they did a short while ago. “Homemade wine is becoming an industry, and the government is losing revenue. We have to regulate it before it becomes an illegal cottage industry,’’ says an official who does not want to be named.

Hyderabad once had lots of Anglo-Indian residents, most of who worked with the South Central Railway headquartered at Secunderabad. More than half these families have since left town, but many who remain make good money by putting their wine-making skills to use every December, says Joel Fernandez, a baker.

Anglo-Indians are very upset with the excise action. “Wine-making is reserved for special occasions like Christmas, New Year or our weddings. It has very low alcohol content and it is wrong to ban its making,’’ says Warren La Touche, president of the local Anglo association. Christian Lazarus, the nominated Anglo-Indian MLA in the AP Assembly, says the ban was first imposed in 2009 by the then CM K Rosaiah.

“I hope they don’t come for my rum cake next,” says Wheeler half-jokingly.

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Anil Budur Lulla