Opium poppy

The Opium poppy reached South Asia in medieval times. It soon became heavily used for its medicinal and narcotic properties. Large quantities were exported to China by British merchants. British efforts to increase opium consumption in China led to war. The Opium poppy was first grown in the western Mediterranean, in the region of southern France and Italy. There are archaeological finds in that area dating to about 4000 BC. The Opium poppy was probably first grown for food. The seed is rich in edible oil - always a precious resource. Poppy cultivation spread to central Europe and to the Aegean by 1000 BC.

The Opium poppy was not known in ancient Mesopotamia, and was probably not known in ancient Egypt. However, by Roman times opium poppy had spread to Egypt. Both Roman and Greek physicians did much to spread knowledge of opium's medical uses. Opium flourished in the Arab world, as in Islam opiates were not proscribed in the same way as alcohol. In the 7th century, the Islamic cultures of western Asia had discovered that the most powerful narcotic and medicinal effects could be obtained by igniting and smoking the poppy's congealed juices. The history of opium poppy use is relatively recent in South Asia.

Arab trade and the expanding world of Islam are assumed to have introduced knowledge of the opium drug to the Indian subcontinent by the 12th century. The first records of its cultivation appear in the 15th century and refer to Malwa as a centre of production. The Sanskrit words ahiphena and the Hindi afin are derived from the Arabic word ofyun to denote opium. The advent of the Europeans had a significant impact on the future of the opium poppy in India. By the 16th century the Portuguese noted that opium was an article of trade from India. Portuguese merchants carried Indian opium through Macao into China. The Dutch now introduced smoking opium in a tobacco pipe to the Chinese. Under the Mughal Empire the poppy was extensively grown and became an important article of trade with China and other Eastern countries. Fine opium was derived from the poppies cultivated in the fertile alluvial plains of the Ganges. The narcotic was a favourite of the Mughal emperors. By the late 16th century opium was made a State monopoly. With the decline of the Mughals the State lost its hold on the monopoly and the production and sale of opium was controlled by merchants in Patna.

In 1757, the British East India Company which had by that time assumed the responsibility for the collection of revenues in Bengal and Bihar, took over this monopoly. In 1773 the Governor-General, Warren Hastings, brought the whole of the opium trade under the control of the Government. In the late 18th century the British East India Company was expanding its sphere of influence in India and also looking to redress Britain's unfavourable balance of trade with China. The Chinese had become addicted to opium consumption; the Imperial court had banned its use and import, but large quantities were still being smuggled into the country. India was an economy rich with cotton and raw silk and agricultural products for exports such as sugar cane, indigo and opium. The Mughal Empire had given it a stable framework for trade, and after their decline the British began to profit from its circumstances. To facilitate profitable export to China and cheap import to Britain, vast tracts of land were given over to poppy cultivation and by the 1790s the East India Company had the monopoly of the opium trade. The poppy growing was mostly confined to three centres: Patna Opium from Bihar, Benaras Opium from Uttar Pradesh and Malwa Opium from central India.