Opium (mostly- there’s still a subculture of Indian addicts) gets traded to China, which had previously only accepted silver as a trade item, an arrangement on which the British were none too keen. The farmers of Bengal have been forced by the British East India Company to grow poppies almost as a monocrop- the Company foists debts on the farmers, and the only thing that grows for cash is poppy.
Taking place in Bengal in the 1830s, “Sea of Poppies” follows a variety of characters - indebted Bengali farmers, a disgraced former rajah, a mixed-race American sailor, a French orphan in Calcutta’s European quarter - as the forces of mid-nineteenth century globalization suck them in. Name Asterisk on Review- Ma, “Harassment A…Īmitav Ghosh, “Sea of Poppies” (2008) – This was very good.
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