India's Mumbai puts cubs on partying

MUMBAI — Mumbai may be India's entertainment capital and famous for its nightlife, but with revellers increasingly restrained by local rules and regulations, it doesn't always seem that way.Last weekend, 31 people were each fined 1,200 rupees ($26) for what police said was "indecent" dancing at a nightspot popular with young call-centre workers in a northern suburb.That followed the introduction of a new law raising the minimum age limit to buy beer from 18 to 21 and spirits from 21 to 25, on top of a stiff tax increase on alcohol last year that forced up prices.There are concerns that the the city's reputation for fun will be hit."Mumbai no longer has a great nightlife," complained Purple Punk Prince, the online identity for a 45-year-old quality control manager who said he was caught up in the "dirty dancing" raid last Saturday night and fined.Purple Punk Prince, who did not divulge his real name, said that regulations were not keeping up with the times, especially as tens of thousands of young Indian men and women now work around the clock for global firms in the city."All restaurants shut by 11:30 pm... It is a sorry state of affairs in Mumbai where you can't get a single restaurant to open after 11:45 pm" unless it's at an expensive, five-star hotel, he told AFP in an email exchange."(The raids) have impacted on people who really want to go out and have a good time, who are liberal in nature and want to make the most of the freedom given to them," said Kenneth Lewis, a 30-year-old Indian corporate trainer.The raid prompted the creation of a Facebook group against what those behind it said was "illegal Taliban-style moral policing" in the city, sparking widespread criticism of the police action.On a wider scale, the issue reflects tensions in rapidly-changing India between more liberal young people and older, more conservative decision-makers.In other parts of the country in recent years, there have been attacks on women in bars, protests against Valentine's Day, vocal opposition to beauty pageants, a

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