'A VIRTUOUS GRATIFICATION; A BANEFUL LUXURY' CONTESTING NOTIONS OVER POPULAR USE OF OPIUM IN COLONIALASSAM.

The present work attempts at facilitating an understanding of what opium meant to its users in colonial Assam. With the colonial incursions into the region, opium use became a 'problem'which needed remedial intervention.There were larger issues at stake for the British in Assam and opium was enmeshed in contemporary moral and medical concerns. The focus on the paper is to facilitate an understanding of its metamorphosis from a magic potion to a posion and its implications in colonial Assam.