Question

explain briefly the steps taken by British government to make willing India cultivator produce of opium

Answer 1

When and how the opium poppy and its produce became known to the people of India is uncertain. In the ain-i-Akbari compiled by Sheikh Abul Fazl, about A.D. 1590, the poppy is mentioned as a staple crop of the spring harvest of the then Subhas of Agra, Oudh and Allahabad. Up to the period of the British acquisition of Bengal and Behar, the Dutch were the chief purchasers of opium. Instructions to make opium a part of the investment were first issued by the East India Company in A.D. 1683.

The triumphs of Suraj-ud-Daula over the European Companies in 1756 brought ruin to the Patna opium dealers. On the restoration of peace in 1765, very little opium was to be had and the price went very high. In 1767 the Companies made a joint concern of the trade, with one general agent for all the opium produced, and finally in 1773 an end was put to all these disputes when the Governor of Bengal assumed on behalf of the East India Company, a monopoly of all the opium produced in Bengal, Behar and Orissa.

From 1773 to 1793 the right to the exclusive manufacture of opium for the Company was sold annually at first, but, from the year 1781, by four-year contracts.

In 1797, the agency system took the place of the contract system and the control of the Opium Department was vested in the Board of Trade, the President of which was practically an ex officio Member of the Council.

The opium monopoly was promulgated in India by the Opium Act of 1857(Act No. XIII of 1857); the monopoly of manufactured drugs was established by the Opium Act of 1878 (I of 1878) and the Dangerous Drugs Act of 1930 (II of 1930).

After the transfer of power to the Government of India in 1947 and the promulgation of the Constitution of India in January 1950, the control over the cultivation and manufacture of opium throughout India passed into the hands of the Government of India on 1 April 1950. By virtue of the Opium and Revenue Laws (Extension of Application) Act, 1950, No. XXXIII of 1950, the three Central Government enactments, viz., the Opium Act of 1857, the Opium Act of 1878 and the Dangerous Drugs Act of 1930, now apply uniformly in all the States of the Indian Union.

A central authority, the All-India Narcotics Board, was established by Resolution No. F.235-E.0/45 of the Ministry of Finance (Revenue Division) of 2 April 1949, in order to improve and co-ordinate the various aspects of the narc

decades ago.