Empire, Power, and Poppy : The Politics of Opium Eradication in the Malwa States, 1882-1947

An incisive look into British colonial tactics in India, where moral rhetoric masked the drive for fiscal gains and political control over opium production. Archival research in the Malwa region traces how interventions disrupted indigenous livelihoods and transformed local commerce.

Empire, Power, and Poppy investigates the moral, economic, and political forces that shaped the British Empire’s approach to opium production and control in India’s Native States. Although colonial authorities framed eradication as a civilizing, moral project, Kawal Deep Kour’s innovative book argues that interventions were driven by fiscal imperatives and political consolidation. It shows how moral rhetoric obscured the colonial state’s dependence on opium revenue and its determination to discipline and absorb indigenous economies. Focusing on the Malwa region – one of the subcontinent’s most significant hubs of opium cultivation and trade, the narrative traces the rise, regulation, and eventual decline of the opium economy. Drawing on archival research and historical analysis, it examines how colonial policy reconfigured local commerce, disrupted customary livelihoods, and reshaped relationships between the state, cultivator, and market. By foregrounding these tensions, the book exposes the contradictions of empire, where moral governance and economic exploitation coexisted uneasily and produced lasting legacies in agrarian life and state power.