Ghazipur Opium Factory

Sea of Poppies

Zipping through India in fast trains, I often wonder what the history and culture of our small towns are. Many Indian towns that have contributed towards our glorious history, culture and civilisation are unknown today – almost stationary in the pace of fast change. These are places that can only be reached by slow passenger trains.

History and culture of India has not only been shaped by cities like Delhi and Kolkata, but also by countless small stations as Maghar, Kannauj, Palashi (Plassey) and Ghazipur. It seems that these places are wrapped in a timeless cocoon.

Until recently, celebrated novelist Amitav Ghosh wrote it in ‘Sea of Poppies’, I was quite unaware that the Ghazipur opium factory had financed the British Raj in India and rest of the world. It was the single largest opium producer and continues to be so today.

The Ghazipur Opium Factory, located in Ghazipur city, 75 Km. east of Varanasi has been renamed as ’Government Opium and Alkaloid Works’ since independence. The factory was set up by the East India Company in 1820 and is perhaps the oldest working factory in India, and the largest authorised opium factory in the world. The production and sale of opium had been a state monopoly since Mughal times and with change in fortunes of the empire, monopoly over opium fell into the hands of British.

East India Company wanted tea and silk from China, and to finance it, the company had introduced opium to the Chinese population through large scale smuggling; much against the wishes of the weak Qing Dynasty. This led to the two opium wars fought between England and China. The British gained territory, trade concessions and influence in China. They also introduced the phrase ‘gunboat diplomacy’.

A chaikhana in Ghazipur city

Importance of opium to British India’s revenue can be seen from its 3.27% share in profit in 1792. It went up to 16.91% in 1852.The immense profits on opium financed the British expansion in India and in the far east. Rudyard Kipling as reporter for The Pioneer visited Ghazipur Opium Factory in January 1888 and wrote: “For convenience sake, it may well be said that, unless distinctly stated to the contrary, every single thing in Ghazipur is locked, and every operation is conducted under police supervision. No one trusts anyone in Ghazipur. They are always weighing, testing and assaying. And this yields such a splendid income to the Indian Government.”

Opium played a big part in the expansion of the British Empire. Without the huge profits from opium, there would not be any funds to pay for this expansion. Ghazipur provided opium through the empire’s commercial arm – The East India Company.

Opium export to China started with Warren Hastings, the first Governor General of India in 1780 that later led to the famous ‘Opium Wars‘ [1839-1842].

“The situation is similar today. There were huge balance of payment problems and China was exporting enormous amount of goods with no interest in European imports. Hastings came up with the idea that the only way of balancing trade was to export opium to China,” explained Ghosh said in an interview.

Harvest and production chain began with loans to local produce, production in local medium and large size and final transportation to factories. After harvest, opium was sold at auctions in Calcutta and then smuggled into China. This centralisation at the end allowed the Company to keep control over most of its earnings. It is estimated that by 1834, more than 100000 acres of rich plains of central India, as well as the alluvial valley of the Ganges were occupied for production of opium.

A 19th century photo of storage of opium before dispatch

As early as 1785, trade in opium made up to 15 percent of all revenues of the Company. The export of Indian opium to China rose from 13 tons in 1729 to 2558 tons in 1839, and the revenues realised were from 15.8 million rupees to a peak of 72 million rupees in 1882, as opium was pushed from luxury to a mass consumption item.

When a factory opens up, it is a sign of progress; but Ghazipur Opium Factory brought with it only misery, loss of land and livelihood for local farmers. British forced farmers to grow opium which they sold at a pre-determined price. The farmers who resisted were arrested on false charges and sent to prison. Selling opium extract at low prices brought debt to the farmers. They lost their land to local zamindars and were sent to faraway places such as Mauritius, Fiji, South Africa as indentured labourers to work in sugarcane plantations.

Many things have changed in the dusty poor towns in eastern Uttar Pradesh. Village pucca roads, mobile in every hand, two wheeler traffic jams give an illusion of wealth and prosperity which is largely derived of remittances from abroad, siphoning from government contracts which trickle down as hangover from earlier days – drug smuggling. However, one thing has not changed. People still spend their free time, of which they have in plenty, in smoky chai-khanas, drinking tea out of earthen khullars (tea cups) – the desi version of Café Coffee Day.

A chaikhana in Ghazipur city