India’s Northeast in UK Parliament: House proceedings recorded how opium cultivation pushed by the colonial rulers ruined the Assamese people

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HANSARD 1803–2005 ? 1840s ? 1843 ? April 1843 ? 4 April 1843 ? Commons Sitting

SUPPRESSION OF THE OPIUM TRADE.

HC Deb 04 April 1843 vol 68 cc362-469

( An extract of the 57-page long proceedings of the debate on the topic)

Lord Ashley

Dr. Madden , in his Travels in Turkey, states, in describing some opium eaters,— Their gestures were frightful; those who were completely under the influence of the opium talked incoherently, their features were flushed, their eyes had an unnatural brilliancy and the general expression of their countenances was horribly wild. … The debility, both moral and physical, attendant on its excitement is terrible; the appetite is soon destroyed, every fibre in the body trembles, the nerves of the neck become affected, and the muscles get rigid; several of these I have seen in this place at various times who had wry necks and contracted fingers; but still they cannot abandon the custom;—they are miserable till the hour arrives for taking their daily dose.

He who begins taking opium habitually at twenty, must scarcely expect to live longer than to the age of thirty, or from that age to thirty-six: the latter is the utmost age, that for the most part they attain. After some years they get to take doses of a drachm each; then comes on a frightful pallidness of countenance and the victim wastes away in a kind of marasmus that can be compared to nothing but itself; alopecia and a total loss of memory, with rickets, are the never-failing consequences of this deplorable habit...

Heroin seized by Crime Branch, City Police, Guwahati ( Photo courtesy Assam Police)

..................................But I have another, and a most important document to read, an extract from the Report OH the Tea Plantations in Assam, by Mr. C. A. Bruce, formerly in the service of the East India Company, and now superintendent of tea culture in that country. Listen to this gentleman, and learn from him the effects of this drug on our own fellow-subjects. I must here request particular attention from the House to the following statement, and from those who answer me a direct refutation, if such be possible. I might here observe, (says Mr. Bruce), that the British Government would confer a lasting blessing on the Assamese and the new settlers, if immediate and active measures were taken to put down the cultivation of opium in Assam, and afterwards to stop its importation. If something of this kind is not done, and done quickly too, the thousands that are about to emigrate from the plains into Assam will soon be infected with the opium mania—that dreadful plague which has depopulated this beautiful country, turned it into a land of wild beasts, with which it is overrun, and has degenerated the Assamese from a fine race of people, to the most abject, servile, crafty, and demoralized race in India. This vile drug has kept, and does now keep down the population: the women have fewer children compared with those of other countries, and the children seldom live to become old men, but in general die at manhood; very few old men being seen in this unfortunate country in comparison with others. But those who have resided long in this unhappy land know the dreadful and immoral effects which the use of opium produces on the native. He will steal, sell his property, his children, the mother of his children, and finally, even commit murder for it. Would it not he the highest of blessings if our humane and enlightened Government would stop these evils by a single dash of the pen, and save Assam, and all those who are about to emigrate into it as tea cultivators, from the dreadful results attendant on the habitual use of opium? We should in the end be richly rewarded by having a fine 381 healthy ruse of men growing up for the plantations to felt our forests, to clear the land from jungle and wild beasts, and to plant and cultivate the luxury of the world. This can ever be effected by the enfeebled opium-eaters of Assam, who are more effeminate than women. This statement is confirmed by a private letter, from an official gentleman in Assam, who says, The cultivation of Opium is free in Assam; the fearful results from its use, which every day present themselves to notice, are very painful to witness. Sir, it is not necessary for me to comment upon passages like these; every man's heart must lead him to the just conclusion, and be satisfied that this drug has produced the most disastrous effects upon the happiness, the physical and moral welfare of all those who use it. I trust the House will agree with me that the parliament and the Government of this country, and all parties concerned, must strain every nerve to put an end to the system altogether. But mark, Sir, how different were the Assamese of a former period when they were unacquainted with this fatal drug. In the Hedikees-as-sef, a Mahomedan account, in 1658, of the operations of Mir Jumla against that country, there is a description of the Assamese in the following terms:— The men are healthy, robust, and enterprising. In this account, which gave a full description of their habits, no mention is made of opium among the products of the country, or of its use by the people. Such, then, is the result of the administration of our philanthrophic and Christian Government—this, the effect of our paternal rule; this, our addition to human happiness. It is out of the question to suppose that Christian doctrines can have any weight in a country where those who profess and inculcate those doctrines encourage this most immoral and wicked traffic. A gentleman who bad been in office in India told me, that to a missionary of exemplary character, and great energy, who went out there on his pious vocation, the people whom he addressed, replied, You tell us very fine things, certainly; but the things you say, and the things your countrymen do, are so little in keeping, that we cannot listen to you. I will now go to another district, and 382quote part of a communication form Mr. Sym, for some time opium agent at Gorukpoor, dated March, 1849. He states:— The health and morals of the people suffer from the production of opium. Wherever opium is grown it is eaten, and the more it is grown the more it is eaten; this is one of the worst features of the opium question. We are demoralizing our own subjects in one-half of the crime in the opium dirt murders, rapes, and affrays, have their origin in opium-eating. Both Hindoos and Musealmen eat the drug; and its pernicious effects are visible on the population of the opium districts, particularly in the neighbourhood the depôts." "One opium cultivate wards adds) demoralises a whole village. He states also, the great and visible difference in appearance between men of old opium villages, and those where none is grown. Nest, the practice of growing opium in India is productive also of the most cruel oppressions. It is said, in defence of the system, that it is not compulsory upon the ryots to give up their land to the cultivation of opium; but it is not to be denied that Government proceeds in such a manner as is tantamount to compulsion. In the Chinese Repository, for February, 1837, there is this account of the very remarkable operation which was gone through in reference to the ryots in this matter:— The growing of opium (says the writer) is compulsory on the part of the ryot Advances are made by Government, through its native servants, and if a ryot refuses the advance, the simple plan of throwing the rupees into his house is adopted; should he attempt to abscond, the peons seize him, tie the advance up in his clothes, and push him into his house. The business being now settled, and there being no remedy, he applies himself as he may to the fulfilment of his contract. Such proceedings, it is true, are net authorised by the Government; nevertheless, the practice is general; it has been ascertained on inquiry by official persons long resident in India, and welt acquainted with the whole subject; and it furnisher another proof of the enormous evils and abuses arising out of a system carried on by a vast body of ill-paid native agents, who, every one of them, from the highest to the lowest, have a commission on the produce, and consequently an interest in making that produce as large as possible Thus we exercise an influence equivalent to force. By enforcing this system over so large a portion of India, are we not 383manifestly declaring that we govern that country simply and solely with a view to our own interest, without any regard to the interests, the rights, the wishes, and happiness of its people? What is it the people of India—the tillers of the soil require? They show what they want by this fact, that in every instance where a ryot is left to himself, he cultivates, not the poppy, but sugar, potatoes, corn, and other grain. But consider, too, what splendid regions are laid waste by the cultivation of this pernicious weed:— Vast tracts of land, (it is stated) formerly occupied with other articles, are now covered with poppies, which require a very superior soil, in order to produce opium in perfection. Hence, its cultivation has not extended over waste and barren lands, but into those districts and villages best fitted for agricultural purposes, where other plants, grown from time immemorial, have been driven out before it.

HANSARD 1803–2005 ? 1900s ? 1909 ? November 1909 ? 5 November 1909 ? Written Answers (Commons) ? FINANCE BILL.

Assam Opium.

HC Deb 05 November 1909 vol 12 c2249W

Sir HENRY COTTON asked the Under-Secretary of State for India if he can state what was the amount of opium issued and the amount of duty levied in the Assam Valley districts year by year from 1895–6 to 1907–8; what was the Treasury price of opium during this period; and to what figure was the Treasury price of opium raised on 1st April, 1909?

Source : https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1843/apr/04/suppression-of-the-opium-trade

https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/written-answers/1909/nov/05/assam-opium#S5CV0012P0_19091105_CWA_41

The material Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.https://www.parliament.uk/site-information/copyright-parliament/open-parliament-licence/and has been published with the permission of Parliamentary Archives, UK Parliament, London. https://archives.parliament.uk