In the context of Indian society, alcoholism interacts deeply with traditional institutions like caste, class, family, and gender stratification. While classical Hindu Social Organization (Purusharthas, Ashramas) imposed strict moral and ritual boundaries on intoxicants (e.g., prohibition of Madya for the upper twice-born castes), historical and regional ethnography reveals varying consumption patterns among Dalit-Bahujan and tribal communities (Adivasis), often integrated into ritual practices.
- M.N. Srinivas and Sanskritization: Srinivas observed that lower castes aspiring for upward mobility through Sanskritization frequently adopt the dietary and lifestyle habits of upper castes, which includes the rejection of liquor consumption. Conversely, 'de-sanskritization' or westernization has sometimes normalized social drinking in urban, middle-class milieus.
- Radhakamal Mukerjee's Social Ecology: Mukerjee emphasized in The Social Ecology (1942) how rapid industrialization, urban slum formation, and migrant labor alienation directly correlate with destructive social habits, viewing alcoholism as a spatial and institutional pathology of disorganized urban working-class environments.
- Impact on Family and Gender: Feminist sociology highlights how alcoholism intensifies domestic violence (as documented in studies by M.S. Gore and Leela Dube), places severe economic strain on female-headed households, and reconfigures patriarchal dominance within the nuclear and extended family.