Addicts, Peddlers, Reformers: A Social History of Opium in Assam, 1826–1947 Ved Prakash Baruah Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) 2016 SCHOOL OF HISTORY, ARCHAEOLOGY AND RELIGION CARDIFF UNIVERSITY DECLARATION This work has not been submitted in substance for any other degree or award at this or any other university or place of learning, nor is being submitted concurrently in candidature for any degree or other award. Signed Date STATEMENT 1 This thesis is being submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of PhD. Signed Date STATEMENT 2 This thesis is the result of my own independent work/investigation, except where otherwise stated. Other sources are acknowledged by explicit references. The views expressed are my own. Signed Date STATEMENT 3 I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available online in the University’s Open Access repository and for inter-library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside organisations. Signed Date STATEMENT 4: PREVIOUSLY APPROVED BAR ON ACCESS I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available online in the University’s Open Access repository and for inter-library loans after expiry of a bar on access previously approved by the Academic Standards and Quality Committee. Signed Date ii ABSTRACT The thesis offers a social history of opium in colonial Assam by tracing the evolution of representations, perceptions and ideological positions on opium from local, national and transnational perspectives which enables a new mode of reading the province’s specific encounter with colonialism and nationalism. It studies Assam’s history through the prism of opium, particularly the interplay between state and society during the period 1828– 1947, and focusses on three groups—addicts, peddlers and reformers—whose interaction defined the terrain of the opium question in order to challenge the economic and nationalist bias in the historiography. It interprets opium as a cultural commodity and social practice and reorients the framework of opium in India from export trade to domestic consumption, using opium addiction in Assam and the global prohibition campaign as the vantage point to explore the interplay between colonial policy, local dissent, nationalism and transnational factors in order to understand the role that opium played in shaping social, cultural and political discourses. The thesis highlights that the opium discourse epitomised the juncture where local phenomenon, national processes and transnational developments overlapped and produced a complex narrative of the intersection of notions of indolence, improvement and industry with modernities, resistance and localisms. As a social biography of opium in colonial Assam, the thesis addresses deficiencies in our understanding of opium in India as well as the wider historiography of opium and enables modes of interpreting Assam’s unique encounter with colonialism and nationalism while also providing a framework to understand the influence of transnational factors in determining local facts. The thesis signals the centrality of transnational perspectives to drug history and is, therefore, both an attempt at recovery of local perspectives and regional specificities in the context of Assam as well as the insertion of locality into the global history of opium. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS viii LIST OF TABLES x GLOSSARY xi INTRODUCTION xiii I Approaches to Historicising Opium: Global Trade, Revenue and the Indian Consumer xix II Locating, Knowing and Writing Assam: Opium and the Transnational Framework xxiv III Plan of the Thesis xxxii IV A Note on Sources and Conventions xxxiv CHAPTER 1 THE ‘MAKING’ OF AN ADDICTION: COLONIAL SUBJECTIVITIES, INDIGENOUS RESPONSES AND THE ANTI-OPIUM CAMPAIGN IN NINETEENTH CENTURY ASSAM 1 1.1 Creating the ‘Lazy Native’: Opium Consumption, ‘Improvement’ and the Plantation Economy 2 1.2 The Kania Speaks Back: Assamese Literature, Linguistic Nationalism and Liminality 16 1.3 The Emergence of the Anti-Opium Campaign: Middle-class Activism, Social Reform and Peasant Protests 27 1.4 Conclusion 37 CHAPTER 2 FROM MEDICINE TO REGULATED DRUG: THE OPIUM QUESTION, OFFICIAL ENQUIRIES AND TRANSNATIONAL TREATIES, 1860S–1910S 39 2.1 Shifting Contexts of Opium: Emergence of Prohibition in the West and the Anglo-Indian Medical Discourse 41 2.2 The Royal Commission’s Assam Enquiries: ‘Witness Management’, Official Testimonies and the Unravelling of Inconvenient Truths 49 2.3 International Pressure, Domestic Policy and the Provincial Opium Revenue: The Botham Committee’s Findings in an Era of Transnational Treaties 63 2.4 Conclusion 75 CHAPTER 3 THE LOCAL TO THE GLOBAL: ASSAM, THE CONGRESS AND TRANSNATIONAL ASPECTS OF THE PROHIBITION DEBATE 77 3.1 Inserting Assam into India: Politicisation of Opium Prohibition and Gandhi’s Influence on the Nationalist Movement in Assam, 1919–1925 79 3.2 The Transnational Turn, Indian Consumption and the Nationalist Press 92 3.3 ‘Vindicating the People of India’: The Assam Congress Opium Enquiry and Its Impact on the Prohibition Debate 98 3.4 Conclusion 119 iv CHAPTER 4 STRATEGISTS AND SMUGGLERS: LOCAL LEGISLATIVE POLITICS AND THE CHALLENGE OF TOTAL PROHIBITION, 1925–1941 122 4.1 Local Prohibition Legislations, Transnational Policy Determinations and the Communal Turn in Nationalist Politics 124 4.2 New Policy Directions: The Assam Opium Enquiry of 1933, Conflicting Views on Opium Use and Emerging Political Realities 138 4.3 Swindlers and Smugglers: Prohibition, Pressure Groups and ‘Public Good’ in an Era of Revenue Deficits and Treaty Compulsions 151 4.4 Shifting the Goalposts: An ‘Experimental’ Scheme, Medical Deaddiction and Total Prohibition 168 4.5 Conclusion 177 CONCLUSION 179 APPENDICES 190 APPENDIX 1: POLITICAL MAPS OF ASSAM 190 Appendix 1(a): Map of Assam and Bengal, 1874 190 Appendix 1(b): Map of Eastern Bengal and Assam, 1905–1912 191 Appendix 1(c): Map of Assam (and frontier tracts), 1931 192 Appendix 1(d): Map of Assam with Districts, 1912–1947 193 Appendix 1(e): Map of Northeast India, 2016 193 APPENDIX 2: NOTE ON POLITICAL HISTORY OF ASSAM, 1826–1947 194 APPENDIX 3: THE OPIUM SMOKERS (1926) 195 APPENDIX 4: QUESTIONNAIRES OF ASSAM OPIUM ENQUIRY 1925 AND 1933 196 Appendix 4(a): Questionnaire of the Assam Opium Enquiry Committee, 1925 196 Appendix 4(b): Questionnaire of the Assam Opium Enquiry Committee, 1933 197 Appendix 4(c): Draft Questionnaire of the Assam Congress Opium Enquiry, 1925 198 APPENDIX 5: REPORTS ON OPIUM SMUGGLING CASES 199 Appendix 5(a): Seizure of Excise Opium 199 Appendix 5(b): Seizure of Non-Excise Opium 199 Appendix 5(c): Detection of Illegal Cultivation of Opium Poppy in Prohibition Area 200 Appendix 5(d): Transportation Using Railways Parcels 201 APPENDIX 6: PAMPHLET—“OPIUM PROHIBITION IN ASSAM” 203 BIBLIOGRAPHY 204 A. MANUSCRIPT SOURCES 204 B. PUBLISHED AND UNPUBLISHED REPORTS 206 C. PUBLISHED CONTEMPORARY SOURCES 208 D. SECONDARY SOURCES 215 v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS As supervisor, Dr Padma Anagol was generous in her encouragement of my work and has been both a patient reader of many drafts and a sensitive ear to my ideations. She has been a source of support through times good and bad, and, above all, a mentor and friend. Professor Chris Williams in his capacity as second supervisor encouraged my work and provided invaluable feedback on drafts; Professor Keir Waddington’s observations during the formal reviews were perceptive and invaluable; Professor Geoffrey Samuels for welcoming me into the university; Professor Scott Newton for trusting my abilities and endorsing my application for a teaching role; Professor James Whitley for his support at various stages—I am thankful to them all. Thanks are also due to Dr James Hegarty for his comments on draft chapters, supporting my research as well as invaluable help at several points along the way. I acknowledge the support received from the School of History, Archaeology and Religion, Cardiff University; for awarding me a studentship that made it possible for me to come to the UK for my PhD and for providing additional funding during my time here. This work is the result of many hours spent in a number of archives that was made possible by support received from the Royal Historical Society, Institute of Historical Research, Gilchrist Education Trust, and the SHARE Postgraduate Fund. The extended fieldwork stint in India and the many trips to London would not have been possible without these grants. For supporting me financially during my writing up year, I would like to thank the Hammond Trust, Charles Wallace India Trust, Sidney Perry Foundation and the CISN Fund. I am also grateful to the Allan and Nesta Ferguson Trust for their generosity. I have been fortunate to present my work in conferences and workshops at the University of Cambridge, Jawaharlal Nehru University, University of London, Southampton University, Leeds Trinity University, University of Essex and Cardiff University; this thesis has gained from the comments and observations of academics and fellow PhD students at these forums. I would like to acknowledge the help I received from archivists, librarians and the dedicated staff members at the Assam State Archives, Guwahati; National Archives of India, New Delhi; Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi; British Library, vi London; National Archives, Kew; Wellcome Library, London; National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth; West Bengal State Archives, Kolkata; National Library, Kolkata; CBCNEI, Guwahati; Vidyajyoti, New Delhi; and, of course, Arts and Social Sciences Library, Cardiff. The administrative staff at the School office, especially Helen Szewczyk, have always extended their co-operation. This thesis would not have been possible without the affection and kindness of friends who have been there when I needed them, now and in the past—Amlan, Ashley, Aswathy, Avishek, Bhawana, Bripendra, Deepti, Hassan, Korobi, Paromita, Payel, Prema, Rahul, Rashmi, Sneha, Vikas. I cherish your presence in my life. Paloma, for teaching me what it means to love and be loved—this is to moments shared, missed, imagined.