A History of Intoxication

Within an imperialism-centred paradigm, A History of Intoxi­cation: Opium in Assam, 1800-1959 is an attempt to unearth a critical relationship between a crucial lever of colonialism in Asia and a frontier province filled with tea gardens and on a route?laden?with?opium?poppy.

The present volume is premised on explaining several queries that revolve around the emerging pattern of consumption of opium in colonial Assam and the creation of drug-dependency in a social context. It analyses in a comprehensive manner the competing forces of the empire which played a key role in the production and distribution of opium; national politics alongside international drug diplomacy and how these together shaped the discourse of opium in Assam; the wider implications of opium production and consumption in the agrarian economy and the narrative of?the?nationalist?critique?of?intoxication.