Opium enterprise and colonial intervention in Malwa and western India, 1800-1824* Amar Farooqui Department of History Hans Raj College University of Delhi It is well-known that during the nineteenth century Indian opium was an important element in the Britain-China-India trade triangle. Surprisingly production of opium and organisation of trade in the drug from an Indian perspective, against the backdrop of this triangle, has more or less been ignored. Focus has mainly been on the role played by Indian opium in the colonial penetration of China or else on the manner in which the mechanism operated.1 What seems to have been overlooked is that the issue merits close examination, independent of the implications which Indian opium had for Britain's interests in China or the pattern of triangular trade between India, China and Great Britain. A host of official reports apart, D.E. Owen's pioneering British Opium Policy in China and India published in the 1930s remains, to date, perhaps the only comprehensive survey of the subject.2 This work too, as the title indicates, is not confined to India alone, though it is of immense value in providing a broad overview of the question. Subsequent studies have been restricted to opium grown in the Ganga region (designated 'Bengal opium'). B.B. Chaudhuri and, more recently, J.F. Richards have looked at opium production in nineteenth century Gangetic India referring only in passing 1 Of direct relevance to the opium trade is Michael Greenberg, British Trade and the Opening of China, 1800-42, Cambridge, 1969. A useful discussion on the place of opium in the overall pattern of British international trade is to be found in Tan Chung, "The British- China-India Trade Triangle (1771-1840)', The Indian Economic and Social History Review (hereafter IESHR), XI (4) 1974, pp. 411-31, especially pp. 421-22, 426. 2 D^E. Owen, British Opium Policy in China and India, New Haven, 1934. * Many thanks to the referee for comments and suggestions on earlier drafts of this paper. Financial assistance provided by the Indian Council of Historical Research is gratefully acknowledged. The Indian Economic and Social History Review, 32, 4 (1995) SAGE New Delhi/Thousand Oaks/London colonial intervention in Malwa and western India 1449 448/AMAR FAROOQUI clandestine. The success of the venture lay in keeping it out of view. This to the produce of Malwa, which by the turn of the century had emerged as was particularly so during the formative period, that is, 1800-1824. It is the a serious rival to Ghazipur, Banaras and Patna.3 clandestine nature of the trade which has created problems for the historian. Malwa opium enterprise represented an important stage in the historical Since indigenous groups engaged in it were excessively secretive, docu- development of the Indian capitalist class. Amalendu Guha iP his articles mentary evidence originating from the Indian side is not easily forthcoming. on Parsi entrepreneurs underscored the linkage between Malwa opium and We are confronted with a deliberate silence.8 the rise of indigenous business groups in western India.4 for all that, 5 What needs to be underlined with reference to Malwa opium is the however, the subject has remained very much under-researcfted. critical dependence of British authorities on information pertaining to an A study of Malwa opium (export) enterprise as it evolved during the first enterprise which could thrive only by remaining underground. Not having quarter of the nineteenth century is meaningful in itself, if for no other the requisite information meant not being in a position to calculate the reason than that it was largely a product of Indian initiative. Unlike Bengal extent of damage to a principal component of the Britian-China-India opium, trade in the Malwa drug was not promoted by the English East trade triangle, the more alarmed the British grew the more desperately India Company. On the contrary, the colonial rulers initially worked to did they tap diverse sources to pool information. Supracargoes at Canton; stamp out this trade altogether. Malwa opium soon became the instrument residents, political agents and collectors in western and central India; with which, against heavy odds, indigenous groups in western and central opium agents and customs masters; and a few pliant indigenous officials India carved out a niche for themselves within the overall economic and and traders were just some of those whose energies were harnessed to political system imposed by colonialism. This was reflected in the far provide intelligence. If read thoroughly, dwelling on minute details, source greater participation of indigenous»entrepreneurs in the development of material emanating from the colonial rulers, is useful for a preliminary capitalism at Bombay as compared, say, to Calcutta.6 discussion on the subject. In this paper I hope to show that Malwa opium as a commodity forming part of production and exchange relationships among local groups in central and western India calls for greater attention.7 I Inadequate space accorded to this aspect should to some extent be attributed to the fact that commerce in the drug within India was largely Till about the first decade of the nineteenth century the only opium with which the British Indian government was familiar was the opium produce 3 B.B. Chaudhuri, Growth of Commercial Agriculture in Bengal 1757-1900, Vol. I, Cal- of the Ganga region, particularly Bihar (Patna opium) and Banaras-Ghazi- cutta, 1964; J.F. Richards, "The Indian Empire and Peasant Production of Opium in the pur (Banaras opium). This opium, referred to in British official terminology, 9 Nineteenth Century', Modern Asian Studies (hereafter MAS), Vol. XV (1) 1981, pp. 59-82. and subsequently generally, as Bengal opium, had become a monopoly of Also Benoy Chaudhuri's succinct summary in Dharma Kumar (ed), The Cambridge Eco- the East India Company by the end of the eighteenth century. The exercise nomic History of India, Vol. II, Delhi, 1984, pp. 312-15; and Om Prakash, 'Opium Monopoly of this monopoly broadly meant the company's exclusive right to control in India and Indonesia in the Eighteenth Century', IESHR, Vol. XXIV (1) 1987, pp. 63-80. 4 Amalendu Guha, 'Parsi Seths as Entrepreneurs: 1750-1850', Economic and Political production and sale of opium. Short of directly cultivating the poppy plant Weekly (hereafter EPW), Vol. 35, 1970, pp. M-107-15; 'Comprador Role of Parsi Seths: the Bengal government assumed monopoly of manufacture, through a 1750-1850', EPW, Vol. V (48) 1970, pp. 1933-36. system of licensing, and sale of opium. 5 The only notable contribution since has been Asiya Siddiqi, 'The Business World of It needs to be emphasised, particularly in the context of problems which Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy', IESHR, Vol. XIX (3-4), 1982, pp. 301-23, based on the correspond- the British faced in western and central India in pursuing an opium policy ence of Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy. This source material complements the papers of the firm of Jardine and Matheson with which Jejeebhoy's concern was intimately connected and which to their liking in that region, that a very large proportion of opium- form the basis of Greenberg's British Trade. producing areas of the Ganga region were directly under British adminis- 6 Cf. Siddiqi, 'Business World', p. 309; Amiya K. Bagchi, 'Transition to British Indian trative control at the time when Bengal opium was declared a state Systems of Money and Banking 1800-1850', MAS, Vol. XIX (3) 1985, p. 5ll. 7 Almost the whole of Malwa is part of the present state of Madhya Pradesh with some 8 patches spilling over into Rajasthan. The Madhya Pradesh districts of Mandsaur, Ratlam, To cite one prominent example, Capt. Frederick Dangerfield, who in 1820 was entrusted Ujjain, Indore, Dhar, Dewas and Shajapur constitute what might be referred to as the core with the task of preparing a report on opium production and trade in Malwa, constantly came Malwa area. Besides, Malwa includes parts of the Madhya Pradesh districts of Jhabua, up against 'every species of evasion and falsehood, against which no efficient check could Rajgarh, Sehore, Bhopal and Vidisha. A small stretch at the neck of Mandsaur is located in have been obtained'. F. Dangerfield, surveying officer, to John Malcolm, 3 October 1820, district Jhalawar, Rajasthan. During the colonial period Malwa was under 'indirect' British National Archives of India (hereafter NAI), Separate Revenue Branch Consultations (here- after SRBC), 18/19 December 1820 (henceforth DR). rule with several indigenous rulers, of whom the families of Sindia and Holkar were the most 9 significant, ruling over different parts of it. Cf. Owen, British Opium Policy, p. 30, fn. 23. 450/AMAR FAROOOUI Opium enterprise and colonial intervention in Malwa and western India/451 monopoly. Consequently, a fairly strict enforcement of Bengal-opium According to figures for 1800-1801,1801-2 and 1802-3, furnished by the regulations was possible. reporter general of external commerce at Bombay, an average of 1233 man The raison d'etre of official British involvement in opium was the link (maunds) of opium had been annually brought into Bombay for the purpose which the commodity had with the continuous expansion of British trade of export.15 This works out to roughly 352 chests (of 140 lbs each).1* Tracing with China. Throughout the eighteenth century there had been a massive the early history of the trade Francis Warden, who as chief secretary to the increase in the export of Chinese tea to England, leading to a frantic search Bombay government had some knowledge of the matter, noted that close for the means to pay for it. Exports of Indian raw cotton and opium to to 600 chests of the Malwa drug annually found their way to China at the China provided an answer to the problem.