“Leading Indian writer Amitav Ghosh’s critically acclaimed new novel Sea of Poppies is set during a time when opium trade out of India was flourishing during British rule.

I had no idea that India was the largest opium exporter for centuries. I had no idea that opium was essentially the commodity which financed the British Raj in India. It is not a coincidence that 20 years after the opium trade stopped, the Raj more or less packed up its bags and left. India was not a paying proposition any longer.

Opium steadily accounted for about 17-20% of Indian revenues. If you think in those terms, [the fact that] one single commodity accounted for such an enormous part of your economy is unbelievable, extraordinary.

The idea of exporting opium to China started with Warren Hastings (the first governor general of British India) in 1780. The situation was eerily similar to [what is happening] today. There was a huge balance of payments problem in relation to China. China was exporting enormous amounts, but wasn’t interested in importing any European goods. That was when Hastings came up with idea that the only way of balancing trade was to export opium to China.

Opium was the fundamental undergirding of our economy for centuries. It is strange that [even] for someone like me who studied history and knew a fair amount about Indian history, I was completely unaware of it.

It’s such an ironic thing. Before the British came, India was one of the world’s great economies. For 200 years India dwindled and dwindled into almost nothing. Fifty years after they left we have finally begun to reclaim our place in the world. All the empirical facts show you that British rule was a disaster for India. Before the British came 25% of the world trade originated in India. By the time they left it was less than 1%.”

And the worst off states in India are the ones which were among the longest ruled by the British: Bengal, Bihar, Orissa etc.

I grew up in Bihar, and I went to IIT Kharagpur in West Bengal.

Bihar is chock full of natural resources, coal, iron-ore etc. But its major stumbling block in those days was caste-ism. The kayasth would block the brahmin, the khatri would block the kayasth etc. Today most of where I grew up is called “Jharkhand” but its now between adivasis and everyone else.

West Bengal had the best education system in Northern India. In fact the IIT entrance exam was modeled after the Bengal H.S. But its problems began with the economic and social devastation that followed the Naxalbari movement which caused industry to leave en-mass for places like Faridabad and Bangalore.

It doesn’t have anything to do with the British. It has to do with demagogues who promise anger as an antidote to all problems.

War — Peace — War — Peace … War brings about not just abrupt cultural change but, technological change.

what other books would people recommend in this vein?

Bound Together

I haven’t read it but here is Siddharth Varadarajan’s review.

Thomas Sowell. clarence Thomas. i think we know wot their sister’s sons will call them…

50 · Rahul S said

You should read his other stuff though. He has pretty interesting books. Too bad African Americans & the left doesn’t listen to this guy or Michael Steele.

Pray tell, what might all those African Americans gain by listening to Sowell?

Well, it will tell African Americans to stop blaming racism, and stop producing kids out of wedlock. I stated this before, but in 1940, 9/10 blacks had jobs (when racism existed). Now, blacks aren’t employed to the extent they used to (when racism has cooled off to a certain extent). Stay committed to the family (unlike the situation right now, where many African American families seem to be in a mess). Essentially, blacks should vote for their original (Abe Lincoln) party, the Republican Party. Ever since the 60′s, government dependency (due to LBJ..even though his intentions were good) has hurt the black community since anything else. As you can, the repercussions are still present; slavery isn’t the problem, Jim Crow isn’t…it’s simply government dependency.

You should read his other stuff though. He has pretty interesting books. Too bad African Americans & the left doesn’t listen to this guy or Michael Steele.

Pray tell, what might all those African Americans gain by listening to Sowell?