‘Opium played a foundational role in Indian history’: Amitav Ghosh

News Snapshot:

Last week, at India International Centre on Saturday evening, amid stormy skies and a flooded city, Jnanpith Award-winning author Amitav Ghosh declared the conclusion of his 20-year academic affair with the opium poppy and its bloody seeds scattered across the pages of world history: “It’s a very depressing story about human fragility and frailty. We like to say we are masters of our own fate, but with this story, you see that this humble, simple-looking flower has outsmarted us at every turn,” said Ghosh, who was in conversation with The Print Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta for the launch of his latest...