Geetanjali Krishna: Opium made easy

The other day, when I was with a group of friends, we ended up in a furious discussion about elections. As usual. “The very act of standing for an election tends to corrupt people,” one argued. He believed that the urge to win votes pushes aside most other considerations, including a sense of what’s right and what’s wrong. “Marx had said that religion was the opium of the masses, but now I believe it has been replaced by politics!” he went on.

Opium…It got me thinking about my visit to Rajasthan last month. “These camel herders must be having a really boring life,” I made a comment to Hanwant Singh of Lokhit Pashu-Palak Sansthan, our host in Sadri (about a hundred kilometers from Udaipur). We were returning from a Raika (tribal animal herder) camp in the desert scrub — blazing hot, dry and without a hint of shade in sight. Two men, a hundred camels — which to be honest, didn’t look like they could possibly be very engaging companions…“What do they do? How do they pass their time?” I asked. Hanwant smiled: “They may not have the world’s most-interesting job and only camels for company. But they have opium…”

“Are they all drug addicts?” I asked, with all the naiveté of an urbanite. “Don’t call opium a drug!” Hanwant said laughing at me, “it’s a part of local culture, something they offer to their guests and a very useful folk medicine!” Were we talking, I said incredulously, of the same drug that the British used to incapacitate the entire Chinese populace, if I remembered my history correctly? It was, Hanwant said, but it was also the cultural mainstay of desert tribes like the Raika. “And that’s how they stay blissed out even when camping under the hot desert sun!” he said.

Apparently the Thar contributes a fair amount to India’s opium production (we’re one of the largest legitimate producers of opium in the world). No wonder, then that opium has such an integral role to play on Rajasthani folklore. It is believed that the Rajputs used opium before going to war to reduce bleeding and allay all fears. Villagers in Rajasthan are known to stick a small bit of opium to the upper palate to colicky babies to make them sleep better! “It is an important remedy in folk medicine,” said Hanwant, “rural people use it as a remedy for coughs and asthma. And it has proven well in cases of acute diarrhoea .” Opium finds a place in both Ayurvedic and Siddha schools of medicine which use poppy extracts to treat fevers, tuberculosis, liver problems and more. And there’s always the bright side: If opium doesn’t actually cure an ailment, at least it makes the patient feel better, albeit temporarily.

Later during my visit, we attended a meeting of Raika herders where they discussed the troublesome issue of dwindling grazing rights and their lack of representation in the state government. “We need a good leader from our community in the state government …” said one voice. Some worried about having to go long distances to find suitable pastures for their animals. When the forests of Kumbhalgarh were deemed reserved, the government had essentially taken away the Raika’s traditional right to graze their animals there. “If we don’t act fast, it could mean an end to our old way of life,” said another urgent voice.

I noticed a little bundle of something was being ceremoniously passed around the group. Soon, voices lowered. Tempers cooled. The meeting dispersed. A little pinch of opium cooked with molasses certainly seemed to take the edge of the Raika’s problems — temporarily at least.