Smoke and Ashes, by Amitav Ghosh (✦✦✦.5/5)

TL;DR: A well-written book about colonialism and how opium was used as a weapon to further it, it certainly warrants a read (or a listen), even if it has its weaker points. Also, it is always better to learn about colonization from the point of view of the colonized, which is something you can get from this book.

Written by Amitav Ghosh as a consequence of all the research he did for his Ibis trilogy, this book explores the complicated and mostly forgotten history between India, China, and opium. While most people know that the UK sold opium to China and somewhat forced the country to keep buying it, most details about this relationship are forgotten and ignored, and even more about how India was forced to take part in this trade. So, in this book, Ghosh works to rectify this situation, bringing forth what he calls “opium’s hidden history”, be it the lengths of China’s and India’s exploitation under the UK’s colonial rule or how so many fortunes were made from this situation, including many US families.

Ghosh’s effort to divulge this story of colonization and exploitation culminates in a very interesting book that feels much shorter than its over 400 pages length. The information contained in it is direct and precise, giving you what feels like a much more complete view of how the UK’s colonizing efforts worked and their consequences for the colonized. You will come out of it with precise numbers and more vast explanations of what went on, being able to more accurately understand the abuses India and China underwent under British rule.

My two main gripes with the book are that I wish it had been better organized and how the poppy plant is framed. The subjects and periods broached come and go, having almost a stream-of-conscious feel to it. Many ideas that are spread around would have worked much better if condensed into a single chapter, and I think a chronological approach would have made the book more natural and memorable (but maybe that’s just the History major in me). The way the poppy plant is presented is…weird, to say the least. The author acts as if it has its conscience, needs, and desires, as if much of the trouble created because of opium happened because the plant wanted it to. Ghosh frames the poppy plant as something with power over humanity, that acts upon it on its own accord. While an interesting idea (and maybe with religious roots, although that’s something I can’t affirm), it serves more than anything to absorb the ones responsible for the opium trade and the famines and epidemic of addiction that followed. It weakens the message of the book and, honestly, makes it sound a bit less serious.

I read the audiobook version of this book, my first time giving audio a try, and it was an interesting experience. The narrator did a good job at it and I didn’t have much trouble following the book. Even though I’m not sure if audiobooks are for me just yet, I’ll probably give it a few more tries.

If you have any interest in history, colonialism, wars, and India’s and China’s histories, I would recommend this book, be it in audio or print.