Fifty years ago | More students fancy snuff
A 1975 archival report from The Hindu highlights the growing popularity of snuff in India, particularly among students and villagers. It notes a significant increase in production and a shift in consumption patterns across the country.
Why it matters
This provides a historical snapshot of consumer habits and the tobacco industry in India during the mid-1970s.
Madras, August 5: Snuff, a sniff of which is said to drive drowsiness away, is spreading its sway in the country.
A survey of the snuff industry in Madras, the biggest snuff production centre in the country, revealed, however that fashions and fads, like the ceremonious use of ornate snuff boxes that attended the advent of snuff, are passing away.
There were but a dozen manufacturers in the city till 40 years ago. Their number now exceeds 100 and production has gone up to 2,367 tonnes a year.
The city gets its raw material, tobacco, from Andhra Pradesh. Snuff is produced in Gujarat, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh also, but they account for only a fraction of the country’s total production.
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