Amitav Ghosh: Mumbai for much of its history was kept afloat by the Malwa opium trade

For Amitav Ghosh, the celebrated Indian author, the fumes of the opium trade are still as intoxicating as it was 20 years ago when he explored the subject in his Ibis trilogy. The books Sea of Poppies (2008), River of Smoke (2011) and Flood of Fire (2015), revolve around the First Opium War with marvelous characters conjured by Ghosh. While these were fiction, his new non-fiction book ‘Smoke and Ashes: A Writer‘s Journey Through Opium‘s Hidden Histories', which comes after Jungle Nama (2021) and Gun Island (2019), circles back to opium.

It is one that he arrived at after spending many years researching about the trade when he was writing the trilogy between 2005 and 2015. Interestingly, at the time, he thought it would mainly be about the transportation of indentured workers from India to Mauritius in the early nineteenth century but there was more. He stumbled upon how opium was being transported between India and China, and that piqued his curiosity.

While he had earlier explored fiction on the subject, in a conversation with Mid-day.com, Ghosh says the huge amount of material on the subject made him want to treat this differently. He felt it was best to use all that he had learned to write a non-fiction work because it was personal. It is simply because through the years, the 2018 Jnanpith awardee not only learned how it influenced the lives of families in India, but also realised it actually hit home when he found how his own identity and family history were swept up in the story. With the latest book, he explores horticultural histories, mythologies of capitalism and the social and cultural repercussions of colonialism.

Mid-day.com spoke to Ghosh, who is on India tour, ahead of the book launch on July 18 in Mumbai. The event will be hosted by the Royal Opera House in association with Literature Live!, Harper Collins and Avid Learning. The Padma Shri awardee talks about his fascination with opium and also delves into how it actually influenced many different aspects of daily life in India during the 19th century; it is more than most people realise. At the same time, the India-born author who now lives in New York, says there are some books about the opium trade in India, but otherwise the subject hasn't been explored too much in Indian literature.

Your latest book 'Smoke and Ashes' explores the impact of opium trade on the world. In the past, the Ibis trilogy has also explored it. What is it about opium that fascinates you the most to explore it more in your literary works?
Through most of the nineteenth century India produced more opium than any other part of the world, and this had a formative impact, not just on the economy but also on society. This was particularly true of Mumbai, which was, for much of its history, kept afloat by the Malwa opium trade. Indeed, opium was enormously important not just in India but in the global economy. What is fascinating however, is that these facts are very little known.

While your previous books have been fiction, what made you convert treat this as a non-fiction book?
While writing the Ibis Trilogy I had collected a huge amount of material on this subject, and I felt that it would be best to use these for a non-fiction work.

What is the most unique aspect about the opium trade that you have found in the Indian context?
- One particularly interesting aspect of the opium trade is that it had a huge impact on Indian arts, crafts, textiles, and even gardens. There are many elements of the Indian visual landscape that are, unbeknownst to most of us, either borrowed or influenced by China.

Through your research over the last two decades, your own identity and family history also came up. Has that changed the way you look at your family and its history?
What I have described in relation to my own family is probably true of the great majority of Indian families, at least those in the entire belt north of the Vindhyas. The opium trade had a direct impact on an astonishing number of Indian families (and this is true also of most Asian families and many American families).

Amitav Ghosh has released his new non-fiction book ‘Smoke and Ashes: A Writer‘s Journey Through Opium‘s Hidden Histories' that explores the opium trade and its influence on India. Photo Courtesy: Avid Learning

Your works explore identity in different ways. Ever since you started writing, has your writing helped you understand more about your roots and identity?
Yes certainly, my books, and the research I have done for them, has helped me better understand how broader environmental and economic factors have influenced my own life and the history of my family.

Many of your books are also based in East India. What is it about the region that makes you want to explore it in your stories?
I am a Bengali, so I think it's quite natural that my region, and my mother tongue, have had a huge influence on me.

Do you also believe that a lot has changed in terms of how the world views Indians, South Asians as well as diaspora since you started writing, and does that find its way in your books?
I think my books have certainly contributed to a clearer understanding of the nature of Asian history, and in particular, Asian colonial history.

Even after all these years, do you find any challenge while writing your books?
Every book is a huge challenge, and this was particularly true of 'Smoke and Ashes', which was, in many ways, a very difficult book to write.

Do you think there is a dearth of literary works on the Opium trade in the India context?
There are a few important books, like Kunal Basu's 'The Opium Clerk', and of course Pandey Kapil's 'Phoolsunghi', but, generally speaking, I would say the subject has not figured much in Indian literature.

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