A History of Assam c23.11

c23.11

The inhabitants of the Brahmaputra valley were formerly addicted to the use of opium to a degree unknown anywhere else in India. The poppy was grown by the people themselves. When the heads had reached the proper size, diagonal incisions were made and the juice was collected on strips of cloth, about two inches broad, which, when fully saturated and dried, were rolled up in little bundles and kept till required for use. It is not known when the drug was introduced into Assam. In a report written for Mill by the ex-Dewan of Raja Purandar Singh, it is said that it was first cultivated in the reign of Raja Lakshmi Singh, but that the area sown with it was strictly limited until the Burmese overthrew the old Ahom institutions. We know, however, that it was already in fairly common use in 1793, when Captain Welsh found the Raja, Gaurināth, so completely abandoned to the opium habit that he was often quite incapacitated for the transaction of public business. A few years later David Scott remarked on the enormous quantity of opium consumed by the inhabitants. The widespread and immoderate consumption of the drug was noticed by Robinson and other writers, including Mill, who, in 1853, said that "three-fourths of the population are opium-eaters, and men, women and children alike use the drug." Mill held that its excessive use was the greatest barrier to improvement which it was within the power of Government to remove, and he quoted with approval the opinion of a late Judicial Commissioner of Assam that "something should be done to check the immoderate use of the drug, and to rescue at least the rising generation from indulgence in a luxury which destroys the constitution, enfeebles the mind and paralyzes industry."