Fumo e ceneri. Il viaggio di uno scrittore nelle storie nascoste dell'oppio

by Amitav Ghosh, Anna Nadotti (translator), Norman Gobetti (translator)

L'oppio è uno dei farmaci piú antichi e potenti. La sua vasta diffusione come sostanza psicoattiva è invece molto piú recente, e risale in gran parte a quando l'impero britannico ha fatto del suo commercio dall'India verso la Cina uno strumento di dominio. In modo avvincente e rigoroso, Amitav Ghosh ci mostra come l'oppio sia all'origine della ricchezza di alcune delle piú grandi aziende mondiali e di molte delle famiglie piú influenti d'America. Spaziando tra la storia della botanica, le mitologie del capitalismo e le ripercussioni sociali e culturali del colonialismo, Fumo e ceneri rivela il ruolo fondamentale che una piccola pianta ha svolto nella creazione del mondo come lo conosciamo, un mondo che ora si trova a un passo dal baratro.

«La scrittura è maestosa, la ricerca approfondita e l'occhio del narratore insuperabile».
«The Telegraph»


Un giorno, bevendo una tazza di tè nel suo studio di Calcutta, come ha fatto migliaia di volte in passato, Amitav Ghosh prende coscienza di una rimozione collettiva, quella della grande presenza della Cina nella vita e nella storia del suo paese. Molteplici sono i motivi per cui fino a quel momento gli era sfuggita, e ognuno di loro va ad alimentare l'ampio e sfaccettato discorso che sviluppa in questo i rapporti tra i due giganti asiatici non sono sempre stati pacifici, ma soprattutto sono stati a lungo mediati da un terzo molto l'impero britannico. Ciò che rende il quadro ancora piú inafferrabile è che l'oggetto principale dei traffici fra Gran Bretagna, India e Cina sono i prodotti ricavati da due piante dall'aspetto innocuo, Camellia sinensis e Papaver il tè e l'oppio. Come La grande cecità e La maledizione della noce moscata, questo libro è un diario di viaggio, ma anche un memoir e un'escursione nella storia economica e culturale del mondo. Amitav Ghosh qui si concentra sul ruolo dell'oppio, forte di vent'anni di ricerche sul tema. Con il suo incredibile talento nel tessere insieme i fili narrativi, un po' alla volta ci porta a vedere come il commercio di questa sostanza al contempo salvifica e letale abbia plasmato i rapporti di forza tra potenze nell'Ottocento, quali bugie si siano raccontate per occultarne gli effetti piú nefasti e come dinamiche e bugie si siano ripetute quasi uguali nella recente crisi degli oppiacei statunitense. Un quadro fosco ma affascinantissimo, in cui non manca qualche bagliore di bellezza e di speranza.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, China, India, Asia, Politics, Audiobook

400 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 13, 2024

About the author

Amitav Ghosh is an Indian writer. He won the 54th Jnanpith award in 2018, India's highest literary honour. Ghosh's ambitious novels use complex narrative strategies to probe the nature of national and personal identity, particularly of the people of India and South Asia. He has written historical fiction and non-fiction works discussing topics such as colonialism and climate change.
Ghosh studied at The Doon School, Dehradun, and earned a doctorate in social anthropology at the University of Oxford. He worked at the Indian Express newspaper in New Delhi and several academic institutions. His first novel, The Circle of Reason, was published in 1986, which he followed with later fictional works, including The Shadow Lines and The Glass Palace. Between 2004 and 2015, he worked on the Ibis trilogy, which revolves around the build-up and implications of the First Opium War. His non-fiction work includes In an Antique Land (1992) and The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable (2016).
Ghosh holds two Lifetime Achievement awards and four honorary doctorates. In 2007, he was awarded the Padma Shri, one of India's highest honours, by the President of India. In 2010, he was a joint winner, along with Margaret Atwood, of a Dan David prize, and in 2011, he was awarded the Grand Prix of the Blue Metropolis festival in Montreal. He was the first English-language writer to receive the award. In 2019, Foreign Policy magazine named him one of the most important global thinkers of the preceding decade.

Reviews

[Kate O'Shea · Rating 4 out of 5]

An absolutely fascinating delve into the history of the opium trade in China and India. Which, for me, proves the existence of karma. Britain and other colonial powers used India and China as a great stream of revenue by cultivating opium poppies and creating a monster that they could not get back in the box.

This book doesn't just look back to the opium wars and the beginning of the trade, it follows it through to its logical conclusion of the opioid epidemic in the US and the damage that prescription opioids have caused.

Nobody really comes out of this well but, as it should, the greatest ire is reserved for the British and their "do as I say and not as I do" attitude. The disgust is reserved for those who deserve it ie. those who have profited most from the opium trade.

Amitav Ghosh draws lots of parallels between the monetarisation of the opium trade/big pharma with the fossil fuel crisis and the oil companies. It's chillingly true that profit comes before everything for these companies (going back to the East India Company and forward to the Sacklers). They don't care who gets hurt and what devastation they cause to the planet as long as the money continues to roll in.

This is a damning look at the way the world works and the word opium could easily be replaced by slavery or fossil fuels. It is sad that we seem to be condemned to repeat rather than learn from history. I'd highly recommend this well-researched and well written history.

The narration was excellently done by Ranjit Madgavkar. He has a beautiful voice, which reminded me of the dulcet tones of the late Irrfan Khan.

Thankyou to Netgalley and RB Media for the audio advance review copy.

[Isabel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! I had not anticipated learning deep world history in the context of the opium trade. Amitav Ghosh seems to provide “Smoke and Ashes” as a non-fiction pairing to his fictional Ibis Trilogy (that I have not yet read), enlightening us in the decades of research he invested in to write his stories.

"Smoke and Ashes" pulls apart the complex history of the opium trade and its wide-ranging impact on global history, particularly between Britain, India, and China. Ghosh navigates the British Empire's colonial exploitation, revealing how a single commodity—opium—reshaped the economic, social, and cultural landscapes of empires and individuals alike. Through personal anecdotes, historical depth, and cultural insight, the book presents a compelling case for the profound, often devastating influence of opium on the modern world. Ghosh's investigation not only educates but also provokes a deeper reflection on the repeating patterns of greed, capitalism, and the complexities of historical accountability.

I listened to this as an audiobook; the narration was very well done and helped clear the denser parts of the book.

Thanks to Netgalley, RB Media, Amitav Ghosh, and Ranjit Mdgavkar for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Emma Deplores Goodreads Censorship]

Read through page 35, and quit mostly due to sweeping inaccuracies. The style also wasn’t quite working for me: it jumps around a lot, and Ghosh will throw out some bold statement like “we fail to understand the agency of plants in the course of human history” and then just…. move on. If you’re going to claim plants have their own plans for us, in a nonfiction work, you’d better explain yourself!

But the biggest problem was carelessness, and what’s the point of reading nonfiction you can’t trust? In this case, my breaking point was his claim that in fact, surgery before anesthesia was no biggie: “The answer, of course, is that then, as now, you would have been given a strong dose of some opioid.”

Ghosh provides no source for this beyond his own assumptions, presumably because he hasn’t actually read up on the history of surgery. As it happens, I have, and while it’s true opium was used on occasion—as was alcohol—this was by no means any sort of universal norm, nor available everywhere (Ghosh posits that any medieval peasant who needed a tooth pulled would have had it to hand), nor a substitute for anesthesia. If you dare, check out this detailed firsthand account of a mastectomy in 1811 (the letter is dated 1812 because, as the author explains at the end, the whole episode was so traumatic she couldn’t speak or write about it for several months).

For those who chose not to subject themselves to that, the patient—English writer Fanny Burney—is definitely fully conscious for the whole thing, and no opioids are mentioned, unless perhaps included in the “wine cordial” she drinks, which in any case seems as effective as you would expect drinking a glass of wine before having a body part cut off to be. This is typical of descriptions of surgery at the time. And note that by Burney’s time, the opium trade was booming, overseas products were widely available in Europe, and Burney herself was a privileged woman, even a one-time lady-in-waiting to the Queen of England. No, Ghosh, we have not “repressed” memories of opium solving everything; surgery before the mid-19th century was such a nightmare that it would be the event itself you’d need to repress!

As I am not wasting any more time on imaginative “nonfiction” I can’t trust, it’s back to the library with this one.

[Elise · Rating 2 out of 5]

I might give up reading this one and I will for sure never read this author again.
I don't like it's writing style, I find it confusing, full of details but they have little importance (or he gave them little importance) and I don't think the chapters are well divided.

The author also have a huge ego, I think I never seen someone so relentlessly mention his own books (of fiction might I add, in a nonfiction book). It's ok, we get it, you wrote a trilogy for which you did extensive research on opium, no need to refer to "Sea of Poppies" every 2 pages. You can mention it once, in the intro, so we understand what peak your interest in the subject matter and that's more than enough. He also seems convinced he single-handedly revived the interest for opium with his novels.

I'll give him that: he did extensive research. But, he is not an historian, and it shows, both in the style of writing and in the conclusions he made. I think the book can be an ok introduction, but there are most certainly better books to learn about opium history out there.

[Yamini · Rating 3 out of 5]

As entertaining as the book is, it is insightful to yet another level. The level of research that has gone into the background of this book, is reflected in its filtered content. The book has a powerpack that starts with details on the origins of so many addictive substances that progress into a powerful narration of Opium's history and its formidable yet compulsive trading practices by the Britishers towards the world.

I recommend this book to people who crave information and have the capacity to digest unfiltered and unsweetened truths. Opium has created empires and destroyed cities and how it all came to be, is what the book discusses.

This was surely a mood pick by me to tickle that inner researcher in me craving novelty. The author is famous for delivering bitter pills on this topic and he certainly meets the expectation on this topic. I was a bit sceptical about the ending of the book, but then again I am not too sure how one could possibly wrap up this extensive piece. Overall, a little overwhelming but an insightful experience.

Thank you @netgalley @fsgbooks @amitav_ghosh1 for the Digital ARC.
Genre: #nonfiction #history #multicultureinterest
Rating: 3.5/5 ⭐️

[SANJAY · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amitav Ghosh is a unique writer, equally adept at both fiction and non-fiction. To my mind, his non-fiction travelogue kind writing is the best - In an Ancient Land (about Egypt and India) is one of my favourites.

‘Smoke and Ashes’ is a kind of post-writing analysis, generated by the Ibis trilogy (Sea of Poppies series). I personally found the Ibis trilogy extremely important, but also full of crude language and nauseous situations, which completely put me off. I therefore stopped after reading the first one. This non-fiction book helps fill the void.

It describes how the British colonial empire was built on tea and poppies. It goes into mesmerising details of the misery, the trickery, the deceit, the rapaciousness, the amorality of the colonial British and Dutch colonialists and the fortunes that they reaped for their misdeeds. It also points out how these colonialists reconstructed history and manipulated global perceptions to ensure that we know as little about this as we indeed do.

Just one illustration might suffice: it is often said that the British triggered the Bengal famines in India due to their tinkering with the landholding and revenue collection systems. Ghosh helps us understand exactly how. The British forced hundreds of thousands of acres to be sown with poppy, instead of paddy. The famine caused by this in 1770 led to 10 million or one crore deaths in what was known as Golden Bengal. And that wasn’t just it. The farmers were forced to cultivate opium because they would not do it willingly as the British paid extremely low prices, which did not even cover the direct cost of production. This impoverished the farmers further, and often forced them to divert opium to open market - which led to further repression and the canard of the thieving Asians.

Amitav Ghosh is merciless and relentless in his indictment of the British in particular and the West in general. He’s less so with the Indians involved in the trade, glorifying it as subversion and resistance instead. Strangely he also leaves out one very prominent Indian business name from the book, while detailing the misdeeds of some of the lesser known ones. To top it all, for some strange reason the book argues that the British did not do all this willingly - they were manipulated by the poppy plant, which has plans of world domination!!

Is this Amitav Ghosh trying to sweeten the bitter pill of Smoke and Ashes? Or is this a real argument? I’m reading on to find out. You should too.

In terms of the physical book, the hardcover edition is printed and bound nicely. Typeface is pleasing. The picture plates are excellent. The price is a real steal. There are extensive footnotes and a bibliography. The only thing which I dearly miss is an index. That would have been wonderful.

[Joy D · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book, Ghosh traces the impact of the opium trade from the 1800s to present-day. The desire to profit from opium was a primary driver of the two Opium Wars in the 1840s. The Chinese rulers of the time realized it was extremely addictive, and had banned it, but the British colonials grew it in India and fought two wars to force legalization in China.

The book is written in Ghosh’s usual erudite style. He had done a vast amount of research for his Ibis Trilogy in which the opium trade is a key element. He weaves in comments about these books and how he embedded his research within the trilogy. He includes anecdotes from his own family history, travels, and personal experiences. He also discusses a variety of cultural topics that have been influenced by opium throughout history, such as art, architecture, and agriculture.

It is a scholarly work, containing both a wealth of information and Ghosh’s analysis of impact. He cites the role of racial prejudice in justifying the trade. Of course, once opium was widely distributed, it became an epidemic in China. The Chinese eventually began growing it themselves and did not banish it again until the Cultural Revolution. He also makes the case that many current economic issues in India have their origins in the colonial period and can be directly traced back to opium production and distribution.

Ghosh connects history to current times by citing the recent opioid crisis in the US, which created huge corporate profits for Purdue Pharma. He examines their role in enabling the epidemic of OxyContin addiction. This book is a strong indictment of using profit as justification to abandon social responsibility. This work will appeal to those interested in history, addiction, colonialism, and environmentalism. I have only read the first book in the Ibis Trilogy, Sea of Poppies, and, with a better understanding of the context, now plan to continue the series.

[Kristy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative. Mostly focuses on India and China (and colonialism) but also covers a lot of time and a few other places.

[Shariq Chishti · Rating 4 out of 5]

The colonised of this world share an unspoken bond. Probably because of this unseen thread, my father once told me of how the British were able to subjugate an entire population by making them addicted to opium just to sustain and grow the colonial empire. I somehow had not delved deeper into the production of opium in India and it’s consumption in China as part of this colonial enterprise so when I saw this book on the shelf I immediately picked it up. Amitava Ghosh of course goes much deeper than just the opium wars and it’s production in India.

The impact of opium is felt and seen in the very world we see around us and yet it remains unseen. Amitava Ghosh unveils how the opium has helped shape the modern world from the greatest business enterprises to art, furniture, and gardens.

Through the book you can feel that author’s heart beats for the colonised and all arguments of the British government in favour of opium trade are dismantled.

The parallel with opioid crisis of the US helps in greater understanding of the issue and again helps in dismantling narrative and argument peddled by the British.

[Diya · Rating 4 out of 5]

I famously dislike nonfiction and did not think “horticultural history” was a category with the slightest appeal to me. But this is Amitav Ghosh, whose ‘The Hungry Tide’ basically altered my brain chemistry when I read it in/for school. It’s incredible how he connects his own family, farmers in colonial Bihar, Guanzhou, China, the British colonial regime, the Astors and Sacklers, and Columbia University’s Low Library—through a single plant, the opium poppy. He traces history through objects, their geographical origins and travels, to unpack their cultural significance. The parallels he draws between China’s struggles with opium in the nineteenth century and the US opioid crisis seemed like an unlikely connection to me, yet it felt strange on retrospect that I hadn’t made this connection before. Also, connecting the strategies of the world’s first and arguably largest drug cartel—The British colonial government—to modern pharmaceutical and fossil fuel companies was insightful to me. Finally, any vestige of national pride I have over belonging to a subcontinent of chai-drinkers has been uncomfortably shaken by this book. Thanks, Amitav.

[Buchdoktor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amitav Ghoshs „Rauch und Asche“ lässt sich als Ergänzung zu seiner Ibis Trilogy (2008-2015) lesen, zeigt den autobiografischen Bezug des Autors zum Schauplatz Bengalen, stellt die Verbindung zwischen Rassismus, Kolonialismus und Opiumhandel während des 19. Jahrhunderts her - und zeigt die Fortführung dieser Verbindung bis zum Opioid-Skandal der Gegenwart in den USA, sowie die Rolle reicher Groß-Mäzene, die ihre Geschäfte mit Spenden im Kultur-, Bildungs- und Gesundheitsbereich reinwaschen.

Erst als er aufwändig in Bengalen für seine Ibis-Trilogie recherchierte, realisierte Amitav Ghosh, dass seine Vorfahren Handel mit China betrieben – und die Abwesenheit kollektiver Erinnerungen, Erzählungen oder Erinnerungsstücke nicht bedeutet, dass Dinge nicht geschehen sind. Ergänzend zur Rolle der Niederländer, Briten und Amerikaner im Opiumhandel haben mich besonders die weißen Flecken auf der historischen Landkarte berührt, die Ghosh mit seinem erzählenden Sachbuch ausfüllt. Sie reichen vom Grund für die strenge Abgrenzung von Ghuangzhous „Franqui Town“ als „Foreign Enclave“ vom übrigen China, der rassistischen Umdeutung der Kolonialmächte, Opium an sich hätte kein Suchtpotential, sondern Sucht sei allein die Schwäche bestimmter Völker, bis zur heutigen Beschönigung des Opiumhandels durch die ehemaligen Kolonialmächte. Die Betonung der Schwäche einiger Bevölkerungsgruppen ließe sich in der Gegenwart fortgesetzt sehen in der Tonlage, in der in den USA über die Bewohner jener entlegenen Bergwerksorte der Appalachen geurteilt wird, die heute Schmerzmittel-abhängig sind.

Ghosh stellt bei seiner Recherche zur Opiumfabrik der East India Company in Patna verblüfft fest, dass die Darstellung indischer Angestellter in verantwortungsvoller Position in der Malerei Englands offenbar untersagt war und ihr Fehlen natürlich das Indien-Bild der Briten beeinflusste. Auch den vielfältigen Einfluss der Parsen oder der Armenier als Vermittler im Handel könnte man für einen derartigen weißen Fleck halten. Insgesamt zeigt Ghosh eindringlich die Entstehung von Kompetenzen und Beziehungsnetzen im 19. Jahrhundert, die bis heute den Handel mit Asien prägen, sowie Profite des Opiumhandels als Kapitalgrundstock für große Vermögen der Gegenwart. Diese Kapitalbasis begründet z. B. den Reichtum des niederländischen Königshauses, aber auch einzelner US-amerikanischer Familien von Franklin D. Roosevelts Vorfahren bis zu den Sacklers als Pharmahersteller und philantropische Groß-Mäzene der Gegenwart. Ghosh schlägt darüber hinaus mutig den Bogen von der Leichtfertigkeit mit der „Arzt und Apotheker“ in den USA wider besseres Wissen das Suchtpotential der kritisierten Medikamente leugneten, zur mangelhaften Complience jener vernachlässigten Region während der Corona-Pandemie, die dem kränkelnden Gesundheitssystem mit Macht auf die Füße fiel.

Fazit
Als Leserin der Ibis-Trilogie habe ich „Rauch und Asche“ als Ergänzung zu Ghoshs Romanen gelesen, die die Fäden von Fehleinschätzungen und Beschönigen des Opiumhandels durch die Kolonialstaaten aufnimmt. Der Zusammenhang zwischen Reichtum, der durch kriminelle bis fragwürdige Geschäfte angesammelt wird, und dem Einfluss weniger US-amerikanischer Groß-Spender auf Bildung, Kunst und Gesundheit wird mich noch eine Weile beschäftigen. Die Kenntnis der Ibis-Trilogie ist keine Voraussetzung für die Lektüre – aber empfehlenswert.

[Ashley Archangelo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This read more like a dissertation thesis or footnotes for his historical fiction series. It was pedantic, long, and lots of notes and locations that were hard to follow.

I would lose interest when he pulled chapter summaries from his historical fiction books to connect it directly to actual history in India or China. I also found it oddly self inflating? Since I haven’t read the series, this really took me out of the book. I had many “why do I care about this” thoughts instead of “I should read the ‘Sea of Poppies’ trilogy!” moments.

All said, there were some very interesting parts and historical takeaways from this novel, especially as someone who has grown up in Massachusetts. I would have never thought there was so much connection to the opium industry. I also recently traveled in Britain and found many connections from what I was reading to museums and other activities we did in London.

I did find it picked up for me starting on chapter 13 (of 18 total chapters).

[Parvathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

So I found Ghosh's Flood of Fire almost unreadable. It wasn't fiction, according to me, but just a light transparent garment thrown over what was essentially a research paper. Smoke and Ashes however, is that paper! And without that fig leaf of fiction, it is a compelling read.

The book tells the story of the poppy plant and how the colonial trade in it created fortunes in three continents and destroyed millions of lives in China and India. It created the cities of Bombay, HongKong, Singapore, Shanghai. It produced 20% of the Raj's revenues in the 19th century and provided the seed money for much of the world's biggest corporations. It was, in essence, an officially sanctioned drug trade - imagine if you will, Mexican drug cartels being legalized. While it made the colonial powers and their partners-in-crime (Indian Marwari and Parsi business houses, for example) rich beyond measure, it impoverished the farmers in Bihar and Bengal and had devastating consequences for the Chinese population. Estimates of Chinese smoking opium range from 10 - 30% of the population. Indian soldiers fought the Opium Wars for the British - the irony being that they were fighting China to allow Britain to sell opium to the them, while at home, their families were being crushed under the yoke of poppy cultivation.

The poppy has its hooks on humankind even today. The Afghan poppy trade has had terrible effects on the populations of Pakistan and Indian Punjab. There are parallels to the opiod crisis in the US. And wars and failed states keep ensuring that poppy cultivation continues unabated with criminal networks controlling its trade.

At its heart, this book is an indictment of colonialism and its rapacious drive for profit, at the expense of its subjects. And as China is being villainised by the West today, it's worth remembering what was done to it in the name of profit. 

A highly recommended read.

[Peter Tillman]

NY Times review: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/13/bo...
Excerpt:
"The West didn’t invent the opium trade, he writes. Instead — as with the Atlantic coast traffic in human beings — it took a pre-existing practice and expanded it exponentially to perfect “the model of the colonial narco-state.” "

It's a horrible story, but author Ghosh is well over the top in his telling of it. Stalled & unsure if I will continue, 4/9/24.

[Gijs Limonard · Rating 2 out of 5]

The highly derivative narrative strays, is all over the place, lacks coherence and vision; the author obviously had the ambition to write a sweeping in depth sociocultural history of opiates but fails to capture and hold the readers attention; in addition the repeating self referencing of the author’s related books/novels is out of place and downright annoying.

[Ingrid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amitav Ghosh’s renowned skill in turning meticulous research into a compelling narrative is once again manifest in Smoke and Ashes, his nonfiction chronicle of the history of opium and its impact on human history. He highlights the parallels between 19th century China battling the scourge of opium that had been weaponised against it by the British empire and contemporary America fighting the spread of opiates promoted by Big Pharma and its collusion with the medical profession and government institutions. A further symmetry Ghosh points out is that between the attempt to master nature through history as well as the resistance to that devastation by global civil society. An illuminating text with much contemporary resonance.

[Anshuman Swain · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author weaves a captivating narrative of how and why opium shaped the commercial and governmental structures of colonial Asia (especially the opium growing regions controlled by British in India and the major market of the drug controlled by British and other colonial powers in China). Many of these structures influence institutions and social practices that we see around today (in India, the US and elsewhere, and the author makes a wonderful description of these). Moreover, the opioid crisis that we see in the US today is quite reminiscent of the one from two centuries ago in China.

I learnt so much invisible history - this is perhaps my best book of the year so far! A must read!

[Arpit Katre · Rating 4 out of 5]

A perspective on colonial history where the main characters are not humans but a plant which is opium and little bit on tea. It’s astonishing to see how one plant can stir history on its own and gain a distinct character in the course of history. Maybe the chemical structure of the plant is precisely developed to create its destiny that it had.

[Avid]

DNF. I only made it 40% of the way through the book before quitting. I had difficulty with this book. One moment I was completely hooked listening to the history and cultural background being shared only to find myself lost as the narrator was reading the next part I had no interest in. The style of writing, the narration, and the bouncing around didn't work for me.

I had this book on my reading list for a long time. I can't recommend it, but I can’t say not to read it either. It's not my taste. Read other reviews.

[Patsey]

Among my very favourites is Ghosh’s The Ibis Trilogy. This was interesting background info - past and present. Think Purdue Pharm/Sacklers

[Jim Gise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eye-opening window into the murky world of 19th century opium production, addiction and greed, with interesting parallels to the 21st century opioid crisis in the U.S. That the book finished with a poke at fossil fuels was puzzling. Amitav, did you lose sight of the subject?

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some genuinely interesting history here. It's a good place to learn about the mechanics of the opium trade conducted by the Dutch and the British. Opium grown in India was refined, then transported to China, sold for silver bullion which was then shipped home to fund, well, lots of stuff. American traders got into the act post-independence. Revered familes whose names adorn universities, museums and hospitals made their early money pushing dope.

And, of course, the Sacklers keep showing up.

My main complaint is that the book is too long. It's a captivating 150-page monograph trapped in more than 300 pages of prose. Ghosh wrote the fictional Ibis Trilogy about India, China, sailors and soldiers and war, that drew heavily on real history and people. He recaps pieces of those books over and over again in this non-fiction work. It started out distracting, and got worse with repetition.

It's interesting and useful to understand how trading companies used to behave like governments, complete with armies and navies. It's illuminating to understand how exactly Western nations imposed addiction on Asian countries, then profited hugely from it. You'll have a new way of thinking about current geopolitics based on that long history.

Smoke and Ashes would have been a much better book if this particular history weren't so long, though.

[fem · Rating 5 out of 5]

echt een aanrader en veel geleerd (geen verrassing want groot fan van amitav ghosh!!)

[Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a first rate synthesis of a wide variety of information concerning the Dutch, British and American colonialist and imperialist opium trafficking machine from the 18th century through the present. What is especially fascinating to me is the deep parallels Ghosh is able to draw between British colonial drug trafficking crimes against China and the current opioid epidemic in the United States. Also of great importance is the relationship between the devastating effects of opium trafficking and the use of fossil fuels contributing to the rapid destruction of our Earth through climate change. This is an extremely important work. No index which is disappointing but an outstanding use of notations throughout.

[Divya Pal · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brilliant expose of the hypocrisy of the British and American governments and people, regarding the production and trade of opium in South East Asia and China.
Tagore says

It had gradually become clear that outside of Europe the torch of European civilization was not intended to light the way, but to start fires. That is why, one day, cannonballs and pellets of opium rained down together on the heart of China. Never in history has such an atrocity occurred before.

Here is the fervent protest of the Chines Prince Gong to the British diplomat Rutherford Alcock

All say that England trades in opium because she desires to work China’s ruin … the Chinese merchant supplies your country with his godly tea and silk, conferring thereby a benefit upon her, but the English merchant empoisons China with pestilent opium. Such conduct is unrighteous. Who can justify it? What wonder if officials and people say that England is wilfully working out China’s ruin?

Gets repetitive at times but still quite revelatory.

[CatReader · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 stars rounded up due to bits of interesting information. A wide-scoping but inconsistently-researched and at times haphazardly written history of the cultivation of poppies and subsequent opium trade brokered between the British Empire between poppies cultivated in India that were then exported to China to feed opium addiction. Ghosh seems to be largely a historical fiction writer, not a historian or a scientist, so a lot of loose threads are presented as fact when they're mostly supposition.

Further reading:
This Is Your Mind on Plants by Michael Pollan
Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America by Beth Macy

My stats:
Book 130 for 2024
Book 1733 cumulatively

[Chetan V · Rating 4 out of 5]

As always Amithav Ghosh is resourceful. His style of narrating is lively and smooth flowing. Even though it's a nonfiction, you enjoy as much as that of his other fiction.

[avinash · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why is there very less influence of China on India compared to the influence of western counterparts.

The influence of plants cannot be one way. As we change it, it changes us as well. Hence we consider some plants sacred. In ancient indigenous cultures, humans are considered young. Plants came before us and they’re here a lot of years before us and hence we as younger brothers have a lot more to learn from our brothers.


Tea funded wars and industrial revolution. Because during its time, Britain charged huge amounts on the imports of Tea that they’re earning more than imports duties alone that China who were exporting it.

China never wanted any imports from England and the British were concerned about the huge disparity. British had to pay huge sums in silver for tea.

Britain introduced tea to India, to reduce their dependence on China, and that wasn’t an easy task. It took a lot of advertising to actually hook Indian people to Tea even though we are surrounded by tea drinking countries.

Destruction through inaction became a bio political strategy for Britain as it worked well for them to conquer the Americas.
They use flora and fauna to their advantage and spread diseases to make it look Natural and they had nothing to do with it. This is much more smarter than the brute force of other colonists such as portugese and Dutch.

Opium is relatively new compared to grassroot psychoactives.
Word hipster is derived from an old Chinese opium smoker who used to smoke leaning on one hip.

How Britain mastered the opium trade which was started and pioneered by many kingdoms including the Dutch. Capturing Bengal was strategic as that gave them access to opium growing fields and cheap labor warriors who were prevalent during the time. British encouraged the cultivation of Opium so much that people stopped growing crops, in the land which used to be called the Golden Bengal because of its prosperity, and started growing Opium which eventually led to the Bengal famine in the 1700s.
After all of this, British blamed the opium trade on the Mughals and said it always existed. They were masters in taking their name out of unpleasant things.

British were ruthless in their opium production. They would arm twist farmers into growing opium for even losses and threaten them to take their land away if they refuse.
While the British made huge profits through Opium trade, some early merchants amassed wealth as huge as Bill gates in today’s currency before they returned to England, The Indian diaspora suffered. Not just the farmers but a large number of people working for the East India company for Opium trade were paid peanuts compared to their English counterparts. Of course the top positions were reserved for the British and when few Indians requested the Company to bring a parity to the wages they were dismissed and made believe that Indians were worth way less and their lives are not as valuable as the British.
Hence creating the first Drug cartel of the world.

British started to make more Opium in India and exported it to China. They couldn’t do that through official channels but they devised a plan to sell opium private merchants and they would in turn sell that to several smugglers in China through various ports.
The emperor of China got suspicious and looked at various ways in which they could contain the situation. At one point they even thought about legalising Opium, however nothing seemed effective and they decided to shut down the trade completely.

Emperor of China sent a private minister to personally take care of the case and he sized 4 ports and commanded the British officers to handover the stuff and stop the trade right away.
The officers wouldn’t heed and the British succumbed and handed over 10Lakh kgs of opium.

As that was almost 1/10th of the economy of the British, they decided it couldn’t go wasted and this led to the first Opium war. England came victorious and took few additional ports to continue the trade and even took Hongkok to use that as a major hub of Opium trade in China.

Seetharam’s painted views of India
Shovalal’s pairings of opium factory

Monkeys were often seemed swarming the factory and gather near the water waste released from the factory. These monkeys, however are relatively quiet compared to the other Monkeys and used to spend their time in a silent trance.

Not just Monkeys even it is a popular spot for Fisherman to fish in the area near by the factory because the fish would be lethargic and easier to catch.

Indians waged a war and opium factories became the epicentre because of the already dissent towards management. Indians massacred everyone in their way. The rebuttal was brutal as well. British fired Indians with cannon balls up their mouths and the bodies were lined till Delhi.

British didn’t allow Indians to work in top positions because they thought Indians are incompetent and only required for menial work.

It became a historical resource curse for Opium growing areas that even till this day they couldn’t recover. The majority of resources were spent on security and spying and there is no money left for school and health care.
It is not like gold or diamond mining that everyone can be checked at the entrance. It is a commodity so expensive which is being grown in open fields by impoverished farmers at a loss in their family farms. You cannot segregate growers from non growers, Hence everyone must be checked. Which led to increased surveillance.

After the war, the British filled half its army with European force and hence earlier Purvanchal people who fought all their wars were stripped off their duties and the newer officers were reaping their benefits.
In the very crucial movement, British captured Punjab with the very same force of Purvanchal and Punjab sided with British because they wanted to be against Purvanchal. British started recruiting more Sikhs into the military force and hence investing heavily in Punjab area to gain their confidence. Till this day, the Punjab area is one of the most prosperous regions of India today. The colonial acts had a very strong long terms effects and we can see the results even till this day.

East vs West

The Opium trade change the way of Indian diaspora in more ways that we think to give it credit for. While the entire Opium trade was controlled and manufactured by British in its own factories in Kanpur and another city in the East, the West very looking at indigenous ways to smuggle Opium out of Bombay port. Bombay rose to prominence again after its share of Opium exports to China. The local Maharajas found new ways to smuggle Opium out of Bombay port just how British found new ways to smuggle the very same Opium from Chinese ports into mainlands.

After realising that they cannot control the growth of Opium, British permitted people to grow as much Opium as they wished and just charged a permit fee at Bombay port. This idea seemed as lucrative for the British as the exports from East. In the East they had to spend massive amounts for administrative purposes because they are manufacturing their own opium in their own factories, the quality is much superior to their Western counterparts.
On the other hand, the produce exported from Bombay port needed just 0.2% of administrative charges because all they had to do was collect the charge.
Because of this difference, the money reached much lower strata of the society and made them overall a little better.
While the Eastern areas of India were deliberately kept extremely monitored by the British forces with no chance of the money being equally distributed to all layers of society.
The effects of these policies can still be seen to this day as The Western belt is much more prosperous than their Eastern counterparts.


While the west is dominated by the British and Opium trade is largely restricted to few eminent families of Calcutta, the then British capital of India throughout 19th century, the scene in Bombay was entirely different and egalitarian. There were businesses men from all races and religions and classes working in the trade.

Hence even till this day, the West has been more capitalistic and the East were trying for egalitarianism, hence the communistic leanings I suppose.

Dadabai Naoroji was the first person to voice against the Opium trade and its devastating effects on the people of China.

Indians merchants were at a disadvantage during social gatherings in Chinese ports because of dietary restrictions. Food gathering was one of the areas where major business dealings would take place.

Singapore is a byproduct of Indo China Opium trade. Opium is in their blood. Opium farms were operational till 1910.

The other country which profited more than any other if not more than British is the United States. The new country was looking for trade partnerships and most of the world is close to them except China. China welcomed its doors to the USA and bought their jin, fur and other commodities. US bought back with it a surplus of tea, porcelain and few other commodities which were sold in their home country real quick and made a 25% proof their initial investment. The word spread fast in the East cost and soon after more people started their voyage to China. Soon after the Americans faced the same fate as their European counterparts. China is not interested in anything they’re offering, because they almost had everything. Looking for another profitable venture, US looked at the Golden Cow that is being milked by the British for centuries, Opium.
However, British never allowed America to enter the grand Opium auctions in The Bengal region.
American found another Opium seller in the form of Turkey and started smuggling the drug to China. The demand was so much and they couldn’t keep up with the demand for the production in Turkey is so little compared to the East Indian Company’s enormous produce. They joined hands with private trades in Malwa and started purchase the drug and continued their trade from Bombay port.
A lot of influence Americans in the North east became immensely wealthy because of the Opium trade.

Opium trade did not just directly affect the American economy but the indirect effects are pretty evident. The Canton graduates, as they’re called the people who smuggled Opium into China, made lot of money when they were in their 20s and returned to America. They were young and had a lot of money and invested it in a majority of projects such as railways, banking and every possible lucrative sector and also some sectors which nobody thought is necessary. A lot of these Canton graduates gave a lot of wealth in philanthropic works towards institutions, building infrastructure and helped in the overall development of the country. Everything is aided primarily by Opium money.

In addition, white nationals could not be tried under local laws which gave impunity to the whites to commit crimes, white wash their hands and return to their homelands as heroes.

Gaungzhou/Canton used to be quite a beautiful city, it still is. It is famous for its immaculate gardens and plant collections. English developed their taste in garden from the Chinese. Not just gardens Gaungzhou was a bustling city with merchants, a famous art capital with people drawing miniature and life size paintings with extreme detail and also a manufacturing hub of furniture.

Even Banarasi sarees, the style of weaving might have been brought to India by Chinese weavers.

To say that Opium devastated some Chinese towns is an understatement. The already poverty stricken towns are struck hard. People of all classes, all ages and both sexes were addicted to the drug. It just took one person from a family to be addicted to the drug to exhaust the entire life savings of the whole family.
The Opium problem unfolded for over a century and a half in China.

There were a lot of Anti Opium movements both in Britain and across other Opium trading nations, however that was conveniently swept under the rug by the British, a craft which they have mastered for more over a century.
During the late 19th century, they even employed Indian spokesperson and claimed that the already famished Indian peasants would be dead if we take them off their only livelihood, growing Opium. The reality however of vastly different. Opium farmers in Patna and Ghazipur wanted to be free of this burden which they are already growing at a loss.

British arm twisted China into paying reprimands for the lost war. China as the only way to tackle the problem, encouraged home grown Opium as to stop the money from going out of country. At one point of time China was the largest Opium producing country overtaking colonial India. British again coerced China by brute force to stop their home grown Opium produce as it is a danger to society and started smuggling them Opium and even asked them to legalise the Opium trade, but China shouldn’t produce their own Opium.

Britain bribed China, who once were known for their righteous conduct, to do such a degree that the latter part of the 19th century British laureates termed China as one of the most corrupt countries and blamed China itself for their misfortunes, bad governance and the overall state of affairs.
They associated the drug abuse to a racial habit and termed them prone to abuse unlike the sophisticated Europeans. It is implied that China bought the drug trade onto themselves because of their own doings and that Britain is just fulfilling the need that was already present.

Look what you guys made me do. (Poor Britain)

With the change of time, Opium also turned into Opioids and made their way into the Pharma industry and being prescribed by the doctors across the United States. Just like in 19th century China, they were few people who tried to restrict its use but the Pharma companies just like the then British tried every possible way to bypass the rules and introduce it to the masses, and they succeeded in major part. There was an opioid epidemic in the USA that killed more Americans than the number of Americans killed in the World War. Yet, there is very little talk about the severity of the situation.

Purdue Pharma who orchestrated this entire fiasco was at last pushed into bankruptcy, however just like then British they made enough efforts to liquidate their assets and invest in other ventures.
Today, more Opium is being grown across the world than any other time in history. The epidemic is hardly over, rather it is creeping up.

The history is not necessarily the exact replica of what happened. It has been severely whitewashed to suit the narrator’s perspective.

[Skie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Smoke and Ashes, by Amitav Ghosh (✦✦✦.5/5)

I received an advance review copy for free, and I’m leaving this review voluntarily.

TL;DR: A well-written book about colonialism and how opium was used as a weapon to further it, it certainly warrants a read (or a listen), even if it has its weaker points. Also, it is always better to learn about colonization from the point of view of the colonized, which is something you can get from this book.

Written by Amitav Ghosh as a consequence of all the research he did for his Ibis trilogy, this book explores the complicated and mostly forgotten history between India, China, and opium. While most people know that the UK sold opium to China and somewhat forced the country to keep buying it, most details about this relationship are forgotten and ignored, and even more about how India was forced to take part in this trade. So, in this book, Ghosh works to rectify this situation, bringing forth what he calls “opium’s hidden history”, be it the lengths of China’s and India’s exploitation under the UK’s colonial rule or how so many fortunes were made from this situation, including many US families.

Ghosh’s effort to divulge this story of colonization and exploitation culminates in a very interesting book that feels much shorter than its over 400 pages length. The information contained in it is direct and precise, giving you what feels like a much more complete view of how the UK’s colonizing efforts worked and their consequences for the colonized. You will come out of it with precise numbers and more vast explanations of what went on, being able to more accurately understand the abuses India and China underwent under British rule.

My two main gripes with the book are that I wish it had been better organized and how the poppy plant is framed. The subjects and periods broached come and go, having almost a stream-of-conscious feel to it. Many ideas that are spread around would have worked much better if condensed into a single chapter, and I think a chronological approach would have made the book more natural and memorable (but maybe that’s just the History major in me). The way the poppy plant is presented is…weird, to say the least. The author acts as if it has its conscience, needs, and desires, as if much of the trouble created because of opium happened because the plant wanted it to. Ghosh frames the poppy plant as something with power over humanity, that acts upon it on its own accord. While an interesting idea (and maybe with religious roots, although that’s something I can’t affirm), it serves more than anything to absorb the ones responsible for the opium trade and the famines and epidemic of addiction that followed. It weakens the message of the book and, honestly, makes it sound a bit less serious.

I read the audiobook version of this book, my first time giving audio a try, and it was an interesting experience. The narrator did a good job at it and I didn’t have much trouble following the book. Even though I’m not sure if audiobooks are for me just yet, I’ll probably give it a few more tries.
If you have any interest in history, colonialism, wars, and India’s and China’s histories, I would recommend this book, be it in audio or print.

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amitav Ghosh artfully spins together the threads of colonialism, diplomacy and trade to weave a tapestry depicting the history of opium. From its roots as an ancient and traditional medicine to the highly addictive recreational drug we know today. Ghosh leads us through a journey of tea leaf cultivation, spice trade, massive revenue boosts, rebellions, war, and Big Pharma. Opium, described by Ghosh as an opportunisitic pathogen, takes on a life of it’s own as it works to bring down societies.

I learned so much from this book about the sheer quantity of change driven by the opium trade before I’d even gotten 20% of the way through. It made me apprehensive to think about what could possibly be in the remaining 80% but I was fascinated and desperate to learn more.

So much extensive research was done by Ghosh for the historical setting of his Ibis Trilogy, a fictional saga set across the Indian Ocean as the First Opium War approaches, that he chose to use this book as a way to bring that research to light. Ghosh has not only done research into the facts regarding the social, economic and natural impacts of the Opium trade, he has also looked into the how the individual perceived the impacts of the Opium. He achieved this through incorporating representations of opium and its impacts being prevalent within the arts; whether that be through poetry, novels, memoirs, photographs, paintings or more. Comparisons between tales written by white individuals, such as Rudyard Kipling, and Indian individuals, including Nobel prize winner Rabindranath Tagore, emphasise the clear difference in individual perceptions about the Opium trade.

As a Brit I often read about the atrocities committed by my country, both past and present, and I went into this expecting it to almost exclusively place blame, not undeserved, on Britain for the expansion of Opium. It was a pleasant and disturbing surprise to learn about the sheer quantity of nations who had an input into this expansion. Yes, Britain has a lot to answer for in aiding Opium on it’s all-consuming path, but the Dutch were apparently the first to use Opium for trade in exchange for nutmeg, Germany developed Heroin as a non-addictive substitute for morphine, the Americans developed Oxycontin in a very similar way, and Afghanistan is currently the biggest producer of illicit opium while Tasmania is the largest producer of licit opium. This is a worldwide issue.

A powerful ending to a poignant read. Ghosh ends the story of Opium with what amounts to a call to action. Should we wish to reduce the spread and impact of Opium around the world, we cannot only place blame and consequences on it’s consumers, we also need to place blame on the producers. Blame may not have much impact in reducing the production of opium while governments continue to benefit from profits, but as with fossil fuels, shame may be the answer. Unless we can make the production of opium a social stigma, rather than just the consumption of opium, then companies will continue to churn out this deadly drug and play to opiums tune.

My only issues with the book are minor and more in relation to the audiobook format in which I read it. The book provides such a sheer influx of information that it’s hard to keep track of what’s happened when listening in this form. I took many notes while listening but this still didn’t help all that much. The chapters in my format (which was an ARC so may be different on publishing) did not have titles and as such I couldn’t place myself or refer back to earlier sections. Locations, dates or themes for each chapter as a title might have helped with my understanding of the history told. I think this may have also been part of the reason as to why my attention dropped a little in the third quarter.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for allowing me to read this book.