Addictive consumables and networks of commerce – opium in colonial Assam

Abstract

The essay attempts at an interpretation of the interweaved networks of consumption mannerisms and the flow and exchange of ‘illicit’commodities across frontiers.It also seeks to attempt an understanding of the subtle relationships between the intertwined interests of commerce and the anthropology of consumption.The metamorphosis of opium from a luxury to a neccesity was attended with social, economic and political ramifications. The mapping of the demographics of addiction and patterns of use was essential to sustaining the colonial project.It entailed the quantification of people’s habits as normal and the deviant or pathological which required targeted intervention.