About the Book: Afeem Aur Samrajyvad Ek Ankaha Itihas
When Amitav Ghosh began his research for the Ibis Trilogy some twenty years
ago, he was startled to find how the lives of the nineteenth-century sailors and
soldiers he wrote of were dictated not only by the currents of the Indian Ocean,
but also by a precious commodity carried in enormous quantities on those
currents: opium. Most surprising of all was the discovery that his own identity
and family history were swept up in the story. Afeem Aur Samrajyvad is at once a
travelogue, a memoir and an excursion into history, both economic and cultural.
Ghosh