The opium connection

A readable account reprises a history that India has forgotten but China has not

That ultimate narcotic, opium, has been in the news ever since the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan. It was a major revenue-earner for the earlier Taliban regime. Even as it laid waste many a life all over the world, cultivating poppy, its source, was a life-saving occupation for innumerable dirt-poor farmers in that godforsaken land. The fear now is that this history may repeat itself.

This reviewer discovered another, more immediate, connection with Baroda (the review uses historic place names and spellings), where I live. A recent pamphlet to mark the 150th anniversary of India’s first modern narrow gauge railway line