Over the past two decades, one of the subjects that has managed to grip author Amitav Ghosh’s psyche on almost jacked-up levels has been opium. But not as a consumer, as an academic. He has been on a scholarly voyage to understand the opium trade and the Opium Wars of the 19th century, and to look at this wildly popular drug as an agent of history. And thus far, the journey has been depressing.
“I have been researching the topic for 18 years now, and the material on the subject is depressing. On the one side, there are all kinds of lies being put forward to justify what they were doing. At the same time, it’s hard to find any positive shine in this story because the real problem is that there is more opium circulating in the world today than ever before. That is particularly true in India,” shares Ghosh, who recently came out with his book Smoke and Ashes: A Writer’s Journey Through Opium’s Hidden Histories. The book, published by HarperCollins, was released on July 15, 2023.
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