Opium City: The Making of Early Victorian Bombay

by Amar Farooqui

The essays in this book explore the linkages between the opium enterprise of western India and the creation of early Victorian Bombay. They outline the development of the port as a colonial urban centre against the backdrop of trafficking in the drug. The opium trade was the defining feature of the economic world of Bombay and its business class for most of the nineteenth century. The first essay deals with the problems of early colonial Bombay that were responsible for its relative obscurity till the end of the eighteenth century, and how opium and raw cotton completely altered this situation. The second essay discusses the place of opium in the network of commercial and economic relationships of Bombay during the early nineteenth century. It was primarily opium that linked Bombay to the international capitalist economy and the western Indian hinterland. The third essay outlines some of the prominent features of urban development in Bombay during the early Victorian era, and how these reflect the collaboration and conflict that characterized the relationship between the capitalist class of the city and British colonial rule. About The Author: Amar Farooqui is Reader in History, University of Delhi. He is the author of Smuggling as Subversion: Colonialism, Indian Merchants and the Politics of Opium. Table of Contents 1. Bombay: A Colonial Port in Search of Business 2. Bombay and the Trade in Malwa Opium 3. Urban Development in Early Victorian Bombay

Genres: India, History

126 pages, Paperback

First published February 2, 2006

Reviews

[Rusha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh My Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy!

[Nate Rabe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating, concise insight into the development and growth of Bombay into Indias premier city in the 19th century on the back of an illegal narcotics smuggling operation!