Amitav Ghosh: ‘Humanity has never been in greater peril than it is now’

Amitav Ghosh and his latest non-fiction book 'Smoke and Ashes: A Writer’s Journey through Opium’s Hidden Histories'.

Known for his fiction and non-fiction books, The Shadow Lines (1988), The Glass Palace (2000), The Hungry Tide (2004), The Ibis Trilogy, among others, Amitav Ghosh is one of the first English-language writers to ever receive the Jnanpith Award in 2018. His works have been translated into 30 languages over the years.

HarperCollins and Literature Live! in association with The Royal Opera House, Mumbai, and Avid Learning will be launching his latest book Smoke and Ashes: A Writer’s Journey Through Opium’s Hidden Histories on July 18. This is the second time that the author will be launching his book at The Royal Opera House in Mumbai, after Gun Island in 2019. The evening will include a discussion between radio-podcast host Hrishikesh Kannan on the themes, narratives, and stories behind the book. Excerpts from an interview:

Your work on the Ibis Trilogy (Sea of Poppies, 2008, River of Smoke, 2011, and Flood of Fire, 2015) forms the basis of Smoke and Ashes. Travelogue, memoir and an essay in history is how your latest non-fiction work has been described. Tell us more about it.

I did an enormous amount of research for the Ibis Trilogy in many libraries and archives around the world. This book is built upon that research but also includes a lot of new research of my own; and it also incorporates a lot of new historical work that has been done on these subjects in recent years. It is a matter of great gratification to me that some of the new research on the 19th century opium trade was actually inspired by the Ibis Trilogy.

Around 20 books in the last three-plus decades. What is your constant inspiration, what eggs you on?

Writing is my life; it is all I do. It is my vocation, my passion. I can’t imagine my life without writing.

When not writing, or researching for a book, what do you do?

I have many other interests, apart from writing and researching. I love food — cooking it, eating it, learning about it. And I also love to travel and see the world. In fact, I am in Nairobi, Kenya now and I have been in East Africa these last three weeks, visiting some of the old ports, which I have read about but never seen before. It was particularly interesting to visit Zanzibar, which I have read about in my friend Abdulrazak Gurnah’s books.

Over the years, you have been felicitated in India and abroad multiple times. Tell us about one that stands out.

For me, when I was coming of age as a writer, the Jnanpith Award was always very important. Receiving it was a real high point in my career as a writer.

Every writer, author has a process, what is yours?

For me, writing is like music. Just as a musician needs to do riyaaz every day, I also feel that I need to do some writing every day. Otherwise, it becomes very difficult to find the exact tone that you are looking for. Similarly, revising and editing are also very important parts of my process.

In the early 2000, when researching for The Hungry Tide, you became interested in climate change. In the last two decades, things have changed massively. Your thoughts on that?

This year has made it perfectly clear that the global climate is becoming increasingly abnormal. You just have to look at all the extreme weather events that are unfolding around the world right now. And this is just the beginning. Things are going to get much worse.

You would agree then that climate change is the greatest crises that humanity as a species has ever faced?

I think there can be no doubt that climate change is the greatest crisis that humanity has ever faced. However, climate change is not the only challenge. Biodiversity loss, mass extinctions, increasing militarisation, and the looming threat of nuclear war are also important. I think it is safe to say that humanity has never been in greater peril than it is now.

Your book is a deep dive into the economic and cultural history of opium and explores the massive effect that opium trade has had on world history. You’ve said, ‘There is more opium being produced in the world today than at any time in the past’. What will the impact of this be on our world?

We can already see the impacts all around us. Opium has been a major destabilising factor in north-eastern India; Punjab is facing a massive addiction problem; Pakistan is dealing with an addiction crisis. In the US, there are people who are talking about a war between the US and Mexico because of the inflow of drugs — opioids are now the leading cause of death in the US. The opioid crisis is not as visible as climate change, but it is one of the factors that is contributing to increasing instability around the globe.

This is your second time at the Royal Opera House. What is special about this place?

It is a truly magnificent venue. I can’t think of anything similar anywhere else in India.