It was a typical August early-morning at Patna in 2016.
Cloudy sky, high humidity- we were in search of a place -Gulzarbagh Government
Printing Press. One auto- rickshaw driver after asking two locals took us to a
narrow road connecting Old Patna City with MahavirGhat on the bank of Ganga.
It is a typical Government establishment beside Ganga
with very high boundary wall, consisting of some high rise wire-house like
structures within its gated enclave. The security at gate was quite strict,
neither we were allowed to enter the premises nor permitted to take any snap.
Our interest about this printing establishment is createdby
one post published in biharattaction.com. According to this report prior to this
printing press, the establishment functioned as Government store-house of Opium
up to 1911.
FIG-1 A
TYPICAL BID’S EYE VIEW OF GULZARBAGH GOVERNMENT PRINTING PRESS
Particularly “Patna Opium” hoarded in this premises had
a pivotal impact on politics, trade & societies of South Asia, Europe &
United States of America in between middle of eighteenth century to early
twentieth century.
India has a long history for cultivation of poppy &
subsequently manufacturing opium. The medicinal quality of Opium was known to
Indians from ninth century onwards. Its amusement quality & kick (the
effect of drug) was well documented in medieval period. Opium smoking became a
fashion for Moghul nobility & one of the perks of Rajput army. The
cultivation of poppy in India was unrestricted under Mughal regime & became
a prized export commodity for the European merchants from seventeenth century
onwards. The Europeans started exporting opium to South East Asian ports &
found it very lucrative.It was a business cycle between Indian merchant princes
& European traders. Post 1757, the situation changed radically.
After the Battel of Plassey (1757) British East India
Company became the king pin of Bengal politics, established the shadow
government of today’s combined Bengal, Bihar & Orissa (Sube Bangla). Winning
the battle of Buxar in 1763, this mercantile entity was able to remove the last
Indian resistance. Since 1765, the British colonial rule applied on the Indian
soil as East India Company now became the official revenue collector of Sube Bangla
under decadent Mughal Authority.
FIG-2 EXAMINATION HALL OF PATNA OPIUM FACTORY
This East India Company was also had monopoly of
Chinese Trade on behalf of Britain. Their new found territorial power &
status in India made this organization greatest exporter of the opium to China.
But there remained a cool-headed unethical business blue-print for this particular
commerce.
1757 onwards, when the British were able to annihilate
all business competitors (native or European) within their Indian territory;
they were facing tremendous resistance in China. Chinese Ming dynasty compelled
all foreigners to do business at Canton (modern day Guangzhou) port. The
business conducted through “Co Hong” [a single window Chinese business guildestablished
in 1760] only. The only exchange medium was silver bullion. No foreigners were
allowed for any inland Chinese trade; neither were they permitted to reside
beyond their ear-marked factory area of Canton port on the mouth of Pearl River.
The world-wide demand of Chinese tea, silk & porcelain was phenomenal at
this time. The British were able to dump inferior grade of European goods in
their Indian settlement successfully. In case of China, there were no-takers
for the same. British monarchy, economy, politics & society all were
depended on the performance of East India Company. Hence this serious trade deficit
had to be addressed.
FIG-3 MIXING ROOM OF PATNA OPIUM FACTORY
For a solution, East India Company monopolized the
cultivation of poppy & manufacturing of opium in Indian Gangetic delta. The
entire process was under exclusive control of colonial Government. From Cultivation
to manufacturing, Government was the sole custodian of the entire product. Mode
of control had been changed time to time but nobody barring the Government of
East India Company ever allowed to participate independently in any steps of
this production. The British vigil,
maximize the production of this export-good. High excise duty & strictest supply
control on this “Patna Opium” [opium produced under Company territory in India]
severely limited the domestic consumption in India. The best quality “Patna
Opium” from the Government Factory of Ghazipur (Benares) & Patna (Bihar) sailed
through Ganga to Company’s Indian head-quarter at Calcutta for Government auction
[prior to the introduction of railways in India]. The auctioned material was transported
to Canton by the successful foreign bidders under their personal capacity.
Direct dealing of opium through East India Company’s ship were forbidden as
Chinese authorities were issuing edicts after edicts (since 1729) to eradicate
this devastating addiction. The exporters used to take the material by ship,
near Canton, within the international water limit the chaste of opium were
transferred to Chinese country boats. The nexus between Western traders &
their Chinese counterparts, Custom Official & local police force in unison
reversedthe flow of silver in Anglo Chinese trade by this contra-band business.
FIG 4 BALLING ROOM OF PATNA OPIUM FACTORY
As the British had gained more & more political
supremacy in India they were able to collect pass-fee against “Malwa Opium”
(produced in India’s princely states in west & central, beyond the colonial
British Indian territory, dealt from Bombay Port to Canton by Surat based Parsi
community & free-merchants, inferior than the quality of “Patna Opium”). A
typical mentorship of a smuggling net-work where accumulating imperial wealth
was the sole motto, opposite to the ethical international trade responsibility.
The income of this smuggled commodity was invested by foreign merchants to
import the Chinese product- the correction to counter the deficit of British
trade. It made British sterling the most valuable currency of the-then world economy.
Patna Opium Factory was a huge Government
establishment. Emily Eden, one of the eminent British novelists of eighteenth
century described it in 1837– “ G went to see the jail and the opium
godowns, which he said were very curious. There is opium to the value of
1,500,000 l(British pound sterling) in their storehouses, and Mr. T [Appears
to be one of the highest civilian of British administration] says that they wash every workman
who comes out; because the little boys even, who are employed in making it up,
will contrive to roll about in it, and that the washing of a little boy well
rolled in opium is worth for four annas (or six pense) in the bazaar, if he can
escape to it.” [Here G is the Governor General of India].
FIG-5 DRYING
ROOM OF PATNA OPIUM FACTORY
Alert English imperialism at its height on a British
dominion to manufacture state-patronize drug which was systematically ruining
generations of another oldest self-sufficient civilization of the world.
How this Patna Opium Factory functioned? The factory
commenced with a huge Examination Hall. The consistency of
the crude opium as brought from the country in earthen pots was simply tested,
either by the touch, or by thrusting a scoop into the mass. A sample from each
pot (the pots being numbered and labelled) was further examined for consistency
and purity in the chemical test room.
Once the test result satisfactory; the earthen pot was
taken to the Mixing Room. The content
then thrown into vats and stirred with blind rakes until the whole mass becomes
a homogeneous paste.
FIG-6 STACKING
ROOM OF PATNA OPIUM FACTORY
Next stop was the
high-ceilinged Balling Room, where the opium paste is shaped into small
spheres. Each ball-maker was furnished with a small table, a stool, and a brass
cup to shape the ball in a certain quantity of opium and water called ‘Lewa,’
and an allowance of poppy petals, in which the opium balls were rolled. Every
man is required to make a certain number of balls, all weighing alike. An
expert workman would turn out upwards of a hundred balls a day.
After this, the
balls were taken to the Drying Room, where each is placed in an individual
earthenware cup. The balls were examined thoroughly prior to punching with a
mark.
The finished opium
balls were stored before shipping in the Stacking Room, where a number of boys were
constantly engaged in stacking, turning, airing, and examining the balls. To
clear them of mildew, moths or insects, they were rubbed with dried and crushed
poppy petal dust. Finally, the balls are transferred into boxes and loaded into
huge cargo boats bound for Calcutta.
FIG-7 THE RIVER TRANSPORT OF OPIUM FROM PATNA FACTORY TO KOLKATA
This Opium transport was tried to be suppressed by the
Chinese imperial Government which lead into first opium wars in between Chinese
& West (1839-1842). Result was- devastating Chinese defeat in naval war-fare.
With this defeat, Chinese authority had to accept the free trading of Opium
& other goods by Western merchants within Chinese mainland, had to open
several Chinese ports to the Western traders. The creation of British Hong Kong
had to be permitted. Chinese were compelled to pay huge compensation to West
against the expenditure of war & shockingly, against destruction of
smuggled opium carried out prior to the first opium war. Second Opium War
fought again in 1856. For Chinese, the outcome of this war as catastrophic as
the first. To West, these were the unavoidable steps for free-trade with China.
Was it almost a license to annihilate some Chinese generations with opium
addiction?
British East India Company first exported opium to
China in 1637; ultimately the Indo China Opium trade came to total stoppage in
1914 under growing human rights campaign & changed economic equation.
During 1767 to 1880,for this business, British administration had exclusively
used the Patna Opium Factory.
On 1912, the premises were converted into the
Secretariat Printing Press. Since then, till date, the establishment continued
to publish the State Gazette and various Government documents.
While leaving Gulzarbagh Printing Press, it struck in to the
mind, printing technology is one of the best Chinese inventions presented to
the world.Though “Patna Opium” was instrumental to ruin the Chinese society,
created “Blood Money” for thefree merchants, ultimately Chinese had the last
lough.
A
FEW CONTRABRAND PHOTOGRAPHS OF GULZABAGH PRINTING PRESS TAKEN BY US ON THAT
MORNING OF AUGUST 2016
FIG 8 ONE OF
THE ENTRY
FIG 9 THE HIGH COMPUND
WALL
FIG 10 GHAT ADJACENT TO
PRESS (MAHAVIR GHAT)
SOURCES :
During development of
this article we have gone through following astounding views / facts / figures
which may be worth for a few interested readers-
SOURCES :
1. Opium throughout
History (Ref Central Bureau of Narcotics)
·
AD 1600 -Portuguese merchants carrying cargo of
Indian opium through Macao direct its trade flow into China.
·
AD1637 - Opium becomes the main commodity of
British trade with China.
·
AD 1700 - The Dutch export shipments of Indian
opium to China and to the islands of Southeast Asia; the Dutch introduced the
practice of smoking opium in a tobacco pipe to the Chinese.
·
AD 1803 - Friedrich Sertuerner of Paderborn,
Germany discovers the active ingredient of opium by dissolving it in acid then
neutralizing it with ammonia. The result: alkaloids--Principium somniferum or
morphine. Morphine is lauded as "God's own medicine" for its
reliability as a pain killer, long- lasting alleviation and least side effects.
·
AD 1827 -E. Merck & Company of Darmstadt,
Germany, begins commercial manufacturing of morphine.
·
AD 1843 -Dr. Alexander Wood of Edinburgh
discovers a new technique of administering morphine- injecting with a syringe.
He finds the effects of morphine on his patients instantaneous and three times
more potent. A technique extensively adopted by today's addicts.
·
AD 1874 - English researcher, C.R. Wright first
synthesizes heroin, or diacetylmorphine, by boiling morphine over a stove.
2. Drugs in South Asia:
From Opium Trade to Present Day (Dr M
Emdad – ul –Haq)
·
The last independent Nawab of Sube
Bangla SirajudDowla occupied the Kashimbazar British Factory & stalled the
opium transportation in between Patna & Calcutta in 1756, next year the
British participated in the decisive battle of Plassey against Siraj.
·
When in 1756, Siraj successfully
banished the British from their Calcutta settlement; market was flooded with
opium supply. In absence of British the Dutch had purchased Opium in all time
low rates at Bengal. The affected Indian business community wanted British back
for their own profit. The infamous conspiracy of Plassey put on the wheel through
one of the leading Indian Opium Trader by Resident Management of East India
Company- a typical Supply vs. Demand equation.
·
The main cause of the blood bath in
Patna in 1763 was due to initial experiment in view to monopolize the Opium
Trade of Bengal by the British East India Company.
·
To achieve the monopoly of Opium business the British East
India Company through its opium agents converted large extend of food crop
producing land in poppy field- result
the infamous Famine of Bengal in 1770- massacres of 10 Millions of Bengal
population.
·
FIGURES-
1765-1766 – Poppy cultivation land- 2,83,000 Hectares.
1766-1767 – Poppy cultivation land- 3,03,500 Hectares.
1850 – Poppy
cultivation land- 3,50,00,000 Hectares.
1794-1795 – Revenue against
Opium Export- Rs. 4,14,869/-
1797-1798 – Revenue against
Opium Export- Rs. 9,83,516/-
1798-1799 – Revenue against
Opium Export- Rs. 23,70,706/-
1854-1855 – Revenue
against Opium Export-Rs.3,71,10,000/-
·
The Malawa Opium (opium produced in
Central Indian princely states beyond British Indian Boundary, shipped to China
from Bombay by the free traders) became a threat to Bengal Opium monopoly in
late eighteenth century. To counter, in early nineteenth century, through
series of wars & invasion of strategic locations, British compelled the
Central Indian states to offer a transit fee against their opium export. In
some cases the purchasing right of Malawa Opium achieved solely by the winning
British.
3. The Economic Importance
of Indian Opium and Trade with China on Britain’s Economy 1843-1890(Sarah Deming)
·
There
is evidence that there was a high demand for opium in India yet almost
exclusively all the opium that was produced each year was sold to China.
Because of Britain’s economic motives in balancing trade with China, the opium
trade is focused exclusively on China. Because Britain’s economy depends so
much on capital inflow and outflow to the country, it was very important for
Britain to have a strong currency and balanced trade. There is strong
econometric evidence showing that opium revenues can explain the variation of Britain’s
trade deficit with China.
·
There
is also compelling evidence showing the relationship between the main British
imports from China and Britain’s revenue from opium. These two economic
relationships illustrate how the British relied on the opium trade with China
and how the opium trade governed its policies including in limiting the
development of a potentially threatening domestic Indian opium market.
4. How Bombay's Parsis
cracked the opium trade (DibeynduGanguli /
ET Bureau)
·
The
historian Amar Farooqui, [author- “Opium City: Making of Victorian Bombay]
expressed- “The Parsis succeeded because they operated from Bombay, where East
India Company had less control. In Calcutta, where it was omnipresent, Indian
businessman like Dwaraknath Tagore, made investment in opium but failed.”
·
Many
of Bombay’s Opium merchants had moved to textile manufacturing in 1830s, not
over guilt for the havoc their trade caused but because repatriating profit
from China had become difficult. Earlier profit would be repatriated through
bills of exchange issued by the East India Company, which served as a currency,
but the system broke down.
“The move into manufacturing wasn’t a
natural progression for the Parsis of Bombay. Rather, it was a solution to the
problem of not being able to repatriate profits from the China Trade”- says
Farooqui. The move into cotton textile proved to be very fortuitous for
Bombay’s former opium merchants. The American Civil Wars 1860s saw demand for
cotton zoom and those in the business made fortunes.
·
Initially,
American imports from China largely consisted of cloth (nankeen and silk) as
well as tea.
·
Without a
commodity which consistently found a market in China, the Americans had to use
specie (metal and coins) to finance the trade. Without a source of gold or
silver, Americans had to obtain specie elsewhere. They did this by engaging in
a triangular trade. Goods were shipped to Europe, between European ports, or to
South America and sold for Mexican dollars. The specie was then shipped to
China to purchase tea.
·
Some Americans
also turned to opium as a commodity to finance the China trade. India produced
the highest quality opium, but the British East India Company held a monopoly
on opium production in India until 1831. Turkey produced opium of lesser
quality and on a far smaller scale than India. Americans began shipping opium
from Smyrna by 1805. Turkish opium only made up a small part of the total opium
imported into China. Opium did not become an important commodity in American
trade with China until the 1830s when it made up approximately 1/4 of the total
that
6. Up the Country:
Letter Written to Her Sister from the Upper Provinces of India(Emily Eden).
For the passage indicated in the article refer-
7.
Fig-1 of the Article
Refer- (http://nmcg.nic.in/writereaddata/fileupload/27_FinalEnvironmentImpactAssessment%20Patna_RFD.pdf)
8.
Fig-2 to Fig-7 of the Article
·
These colour
lithographs were originally made in 1850 at the request of Walter S. Sherwill,
an army officer who served as a British “boundary commissioner” in Bengal.
According to Ptak Science Books, these particular reproductions were taken from an article exploring
the economic and infrastructural marvels of the Indian opium trade in an 1882
supplement to Scientific American. Refer-
9. River of Smoke-
Amitav Ghosh
·
A novel on
Indian Parsi, British & American business just prior to the First Opium War
at Canton- painstakingly researched document presented as a fiction.
Research & Picture Courtesy - Abhijnan Basu .
