While spread over a sprawling cast and a wide area, Sea of Poppies in concise in its theme, the spread of bondage via the medium of opium. I had been aware previously of the opium wars that had been waged against China to force its government to cede large tranches of sovereignty. I had not been fully aware of how linked the opium wars were to the wrecking of the Indian economy and the fortunes of the British Raj, and to the diaspora of Indian coolie labour through the British empire. Shame on me, I have had friends at school and work who carried that history in their lineage - an ethnic East Indian person from Guyana, and an ethnic Chinese person from Mauritius. I had never connected the dots; this book has done that for me.
It is marvelous how Ghosh has linked so many forms of bondage here:
American chattel slavery and the African slave trade, personified by
Ibis, an ex-slaver.
Indentured labour - the unfortunates being transported to Mauritius.
Domestic bondage - “When I become master of this house, how will you get by except at my pleasure?”
The burden of karma
The addiction of opium - Deeti’s husband’s life is reduced to living to consume opium - or is that living to be consumed by opium?
The addiction to violence and torture - Crowle and Bhyro Singh, who live (and die) to torment
Worst of all, the contracts that can be used to encompass ruin.
Ghosh builds some striking images in this book - Deeti’s hut “floating upon a river of poppies”, where “in an age of flowers”, no thatch can be gotten for her roof. It is an image he returns to - “the flood of flowers that had washed over the countryside: lands that had once provided sustenance were now swamped by the rising tide of poppies”, just as a tide will engulf the land “the flat, fertile, populous plains yielded to swamps and marshes; the river turned brackish, so that its water could no longer be drunk; every day the water rose and fell, covering and uncovering vast banks of mud”
Perhaps the most striking image is from the opium factory - Deeti sees the demons of hell labouring to encompass humanity’s ruin - “a host of dark, legless torsos was circling around and around, like some enslaved tribe of demons”. The Ghazipur opium factory is still in operation. It was visited by Kipling. His article
In an Opium Factory illustrates some of his nastier aspects.
Oddly, there are several connections here to the United States besides
Ibis. The book makes several references to the flag of the East India Company - the American flag bears a startling resemblance to it. By another oddity, the tomb of Lord Cornwallis is at Ghazipur; he died here during his second tour as Governor-General.