Noted author Amitav Ghosh explores the immense effect the opium trade has had on world history and how opium continues to impact our lives today in his upcoming book.
Smoke and Ashes: A Writer's Journey Through Opium's Hidden Histories, published by HarperCollins imprint Fourth Estate, will be released on July 15.
Ghosh said his new book is based on the "enormous quantities of material" he accumulated while researching the trilogy of novels he wrote between 2005 and 2015.
Smoke and Ashes is at once a travelogue, a memoir and an excursion into history, both economic and cultural.
The book is also a very personal look at Ghosh's own engagement with opium's hidden histories - this is at one level a writer's memoir, with deep insights into the process of writing the 'Ibis Trilogy', which comprises the novels Sea of Poppies, River of Smoke, and Flood of Fire, the publishers said.
"When I started writing the novels, I thought they would be mainly about the transportation of indentured workers from India to Mauritius in the early 19th century. But in the course of my research, and much to my surprise, I stumbled upon a different trade in a precious commodity that was being carried in large quantities from India to China – opium," Ghosh said.
According to him, Smoke and Ashes is thus the story of how, under the aegis of the British Empire, India became the world's largest producer of opium between the 18th and 19th centuries, and the different conditions under which opium was produced in various regions, with lasting effects for those areas.
It also "traces the transformative impact" that the opium trade had on India, China, Britain and the US, with profound long-term consequences for the birth of the modern world, and of contemporary globalism.
"Many of the world's biggest corporations got their start in the colonial opium trade. But the opium economy also had significant effects at the microlevel, influencing migration and settlement patterns, and touching upon millions of lives, including those of my own forefathers," Ghosh said.
He feels this story is remarkable, and revelatory, because at the heart of it lies a plant - the opium poppy.
"While many other plants, like sugarcane, tobacco and cotton, have played major roles in history, their importance has faded over time. The opium poppy, on the other hand, has gone from strength to strength; it is now more powerful than ever, manifesting itself in the devastating opioid crises that currently grip the globe," he said.
Smoke and Ashes tells the story of how this common and deceptively humble plant has shaped the modern world, and the key part it is now playing in the unmaking of that world, he added.
Udayan Mitra, executive publisher at HarperCollins India, described Smoke and Ashes as one of those books that left an impact at a very intrinsic level.
"Here Amitav recounts the fascinating journey - into economic, social and cultural history - he undertook as he researched and then wrote the 'Ibis Trilogy', and tells us how the discoveries that he made influenced him, both as an individual and as a writer," he said.
Kolkata-born Ghosh grew up in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. His other acclaimed works include The Shadow Lines, The Glass Palace, The Hungry Tide, Gun Island, The Great Derangement, The Nutmeg's Curse, Jungle Nama and The Living Mountain.
His work has been translated into more than 30 languages. In 2019, he became the first English-language writer to receive India's highest literary honour - the Jnanpith Award.