Sea of Poppies

Author: Amitav Ghosh
Publisher: Penguin 2009

In the 1830s East-India Company controlled the poppy cultivation in Oudh and Bihar.  Indian farmers were forced to grow poppies instead of rice and the poppies that were cultivated were purchased by the Company and the income the farmers received was not enough to sustain their families.  On the other hand, the processed opium was sold to China for astronomical profits.  When the Chinese Emperor put restrictions on Opium sales in China, the East-India Company was ready to go to war to open the markets again.

Mr. Burnham, who became a rich man by processing and selling opium provides a justification for going to war with China as follow:

"The antidote to addiction lies not in bans enacted by Parliaments and Emperors, but in the individual conscience—in every man's awareness of his personal responsibility and his fear of God.  As a Christian nation this is the single most important lesson we can offer to China—and I have no doubt that the message would be welcomed by the people of that unfortunate country, were they not prevented from hearing it by the cruel despot who holds sway over them.  Merchants like myself are but the servants of Free Trade, which is as immutable as God's commandments."

In the meantime, Some debt ridden farmers agreed to join as coolies to work in Mauritius.  They will be taken there in a tall masted ship, Ibis, which used to transport slaves to America, now owned by Mr. Burnham.

Deeti, was such a farmer, and was going to commit Sathi on her dead husband's funeral pyre was rescued by a beef-eating untouchable.  They would join Ibis as coolies to escape the wrath of the relatives of Deeti who were hunting them.  If caught, the untouchable would be cut up and feed to dogs.  

As they sail down the Hooghly and into the Sea, leaving the sacred Jambudvipa, and heading to an unknown land, their old family ties are washed away and they become ship brothers and sisters.

Once again, Amitav Ghosh has shown that he is a master storyteller.  The reader has to get used to the Anglo-Indian vocabulary of nautical terms and the conversational language and that can be a bit difficult sometimes, but the fast moving narrative pace of the story keeps you spell bound to the book.

This is an excellent novel.