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In the modern era, Western colonialism has been a vehicle for the diffusion of a wide range of narcotic substances, but of all the drugs promoted by colonialism, opium occupies a unique place. Smuggling as Subversion is the first comprehensive account of the opium industry in western India during the colonial period, from its beginnings to the mid-19th century. This is an in-depth examination of the use of opium during colonial times, and at the same time the fascinating story of how Indian merchants developed a smuggling enterprise that subverted the East India Company's monopoly in the drug, setting in motion a chain of events that led to the first Opium War in China. Smuggling as Subversion is gripping and essential reading for students and scholars of the history of narcotics, India, or colonialism.