History of Opium in Sri Lanka (Uragoda 1983)
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| Author | C.G. Uragoda |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Published | 1983 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| Place | Cambridge |
| Total pages | 69--76 |
| Regions documented | Sri Lanka |
|---|---|
| Preparations | Opium (balls, semi-liquid, treacle consistency); bhang (ganja/hashish) |
| Uses documented | Medicinal (Ayurvedic and Western), recreational |
| Original held at | Cambridge University Press / Medical History journal archive |
|---|
"History of Opium in Sri Lanka" is a scholarly article by C.G. Uragoda, published in the journal Medical History (volume 27, pages 69--76) in January 1983 by Cambridge University Press.[1] The article is an important secondary source for the history of opium and cannabis regulation in colonial Ceylon, providing documented citation chains to primary colonial government records across a period spanning the Dutch administration through the early twentieth century.
Author
C.G. Uragoda, MD, FRCP, FCCP, AFOM, was Physician-in-charge at the Central Chest Clinic, Colombo 10, at the time of publication. He is also the author of A History of Medicine in Sri Lanka from the Earliest Times to 1948 (Sri Lanka Medical Association, 1987), the foundational reference work on Sri Lankan medical history.[2]
Content
The article traces opium (and, to a lesser extent, cannabis) regulation in Ceylon from the earliest European documentation through the closure of the opium shop system in the early twentieth century. It draws on 29 footnotes referencing primary sources including colonial Sessional Papers, legislative proceedings and administrative records.
Dutch period
Uragoda opens with the Dutch colonial period, citing the memoirs of Governor Ryckloff Van Goens (written 1663, published in English translation in 1932 as Selections from the Dutch Records of the Ceylon Government, No. 3).[3] Van Goens documented opium importation from Surat and Bengal in India.
British colonial regulation
Under British administration (from 1796), opium was subject to customs duties. The first opium shop opened in Chilaw around 1850, followed by a second in Hambantota around 1860, near the Malay population. By 1867, enough shops existed to warrant formal regulation.[1]
The Opium and Bhang Ordinance (No. 19 of 1867) established a licensed dealer system. It prohibited possession of more than two pounds of opium without a licence and introduced regulatory controls over the sale of both opium and bhang (ganja/hashish). The ordinance was referred to the Legislative Council on 13 November 1867, where a sub-committee headed by R.F. Morgan, Queen's Advocate, reported it useful in "restricting the use of opium and bang" and "giving the police due surveillance of the places where they are consumed."[4]
Opium shop system
Uragoda provides detailed documentation of the opium shop system's growth. Licensed shops numbered 31 in 1890, 56 in 1897 and 65 in 1907. Operating hours were restricted to 6 am to 8 pm. The maximum sale was 180 grains per individual. Sale to women and children under 15 was prohibited. The only other item permitted for sale alongside opium was cigars.[1]
Initially, consumption on premises was allowed in attached "dens," where consumers paid a monthly rental of about one rupee. The practice was later prohibited, though this may have increased domestic use.
Revenue from village shop licence fees rose from Rs. 4,100 in 1893 to Rs. 69,119 by 1906. Municipal and Local Board revenue from urban shops increased from Rs. 37,360 in 1893 to Rs. 122,189 in 1907.[1]
Opium trade data
The article contains a table documenting imports from 1840 to 1900. Imports grew from 1,562 lbs in 1840 to 23,755 lbs in 1900. Opium arrived from India in the form of balls, semi-liquid, with the consistency of treacle, covered in a hard shell of leaves resembling cheese rind.[1]
Anti-opium agitation
In December 1893, a large public meeting was held in Colombo demanding government action on opium. The memorial was signed by 13,957 Sinhalese, 11,878 Tamils, 1,265 Burghers, 265 Europeans and 465 of other nationalities. The agitation was led by figures including Rev. Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala, a leading figure in the Buddhist renaissance and S.C. Obeyesekere, a member of the Legislative Council. The anti-opium movement had religious dimensions connected to Buddhism's fifth precept against intoxicants.[1]
Governor Ridgeway's reforms (1897)
In 1897, Governor Sir West Ridgeway doubled the opium duty from Rs. 1 to Rs. 2 per pound and banned the import of bang (ganja). He also appointed a select committee in 1898, which reported that the opium habit had spread to a "remarkable degree."[1]
House of Commons debates (1902 and 1907)
In 1902, Mr W.S. Caine MP asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he was aware that opium imports had increased from 2,499 lbs in 1870 to 21,005 lbs in 1895. The Secretary replied the figures appeared correct except for 1870 (actually 12,449 lbs, not 2,499) and would ask the Governor to investigate.[1]
On 15 April 1907, Dr Rutherford MP asked in the House of Commons whether Sinhalese people had grown the poppy or used opium under their native kings, during Portuguese or Dutch rule, or until the British Government established licensed shops. Winston Churchill, then holding his first government office as Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, replied that he could not dispute the facts and that the matter was "already the subject of official inquiry and correspondence and is engaging the serious attention of the Secretary of State."[1]
This chain of parliamentary questioning led to the appointment of the Allan Perry committee, whose recommendations resulted in the closure of all opium shops.
International context
Uragoda situates the reforms within the broader international drug control movement, noting the influence of the 1907 Shanghai International Opium Conference (the first international drug control conference) on British willingness to reform Ceylon's opium policy. American pressure over the Philippines opium trade catalysed joint action.[1]
According to official returns cited in the article, there were 19,847 habitual opium users in the country in 1908.[1]
Primary sources cited
The article's 29 footnotes reference primary and secondary sources spanning 1663 to 1942. The following have been confirmed from close reading of the article:
- Ryckloff Van Goens, Selections from the Dutch Records of the Ceylon Government, No. 3, trans. E. Reimers, Colombo: Ceylon Government Press, 1932 (memoirs written 1663; footnote 5)
- Sessional Paper 5, Ceylon Government Printer (subject not specified in article)
- Sessional Paper 11, Sale of opium and bang, Colombo: Government Printer (Ceylon), 1867
- Sessional Paper 19, Ceylon Government Printer (subject not specified in article)
- Ceylon Observer pamphlet, The Use of Opium and Bhang Spreading in Ceylon, Especially in Colombo: and the Need for Specially Restricting the Sale. Being Letters and Articles Reprinted from the "Ceylon Observer", Ceylon Observer Office, 1893
- G.K. Pippet, A History of the Ceylon Police, Colombo, 1938
- Colvin R. de Silva, Ceylon Under the British Occupation 1795--1833, Colombo: Colombo Apothecaries' Co., 1942
- Hansard, House of Commons debates: W.S. Caine MP question on opium imports (1902); Dr Rutherford MP question and Winston Churchill reply (15 April 1907)
- Allan Perry committee report on the closure of opium shops (date not specified in article)
- Official returns on habitual opium users, 1908 (19,847 users recorded)
- Opium import table, 1840--1900 (source not individually attributed in article)
- Revenue figures for opium shop licence fees, 1893--1907 (source not individually attributed in article)
The remaining footnotes among the 29 have not been individually catalogued from the scanned article, which lacks an OCR text layer. A complete footnote-by-footnote transcription would require manual reading of all eight pages.
Significance for landrace documentation
This article is the citation backbone for most subsequent accounts of Sri Lankan drug history. It provides the only published scholarly account that traces regulation of both opium and cannabis (bhang/ganja) across the full colonial period with documented primary source citations. Subsequent works including Jayasuriya (1986) and Emdad-ul Haq (2000) draw on or complement Uragoda's research.
For the Sri Lanka country page on Landrace.Wiki, the article confirms: the 1867 Opium and Bhang Ordinance, the 1897 ganja import ban, the 1907 House of Commons debates and the administrative infrastructure of the opium shop system. It does not contain evidence for the widely circulated claim that the Dutch banned narcotic trafficking in Ceylon in 1675.
See also
- Sri Lanka -- Country page
- Robert Knox -- An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon (1681)
References
Further reading
- Jayasuriya, D.C. (1986). Narcotics and Drugs in Sri Lanka: Socio-Legal Dimensions. Nawala: Asian Pathfinders.
- Emdad-ul Haq, M. (2000). Drugs in South Asia: From the Opium Trade to the Present Day. Palgrave Macmillan.
- Uragoda, C.G. (1987). A History of Medicine in Sri Lanka from the Earliest Times to 1948. Colombo: Sri Lanka Medical Association.
- SLMA (2018). History of Medicine in Sri Lanka 1948--2017. Eds. Abeyewickreme, Abeykoon, Karalliedde, Veerasingam. Colombo: Sri Lanka Medical Association. ISBN 978-955-9386-43-8.
External links
- Cambridge University Press -- Medical History journal
- Jayasuriya (1986) on HathiTrust (limited view)
- Uragoda (1987) on HathiTrust (limited view)
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 Uragoda, C.G. (1983). "History of Opium in Sri Lanka." Medical History 27: 69--76. Cambridge University Press.
- ↑ Librach, I.M. and Winder, M. (1988). Review of C.G. Uragoda, A History of Medicine in Sri Lanka. Medical History 32: 492.
- ↑ Van Goens, R. (1932). Selections from the Dutch Records of the Ceylon Government, No. 3, trans. E. Reimers. Colombo: Ceylon Government Press, p. 2.
- ↑ Sessional Paper 11, Sale of opium and bang. Colombo: Government Printer (Ceylon), 1867, p. 2. Cited in Uragoda (1983), pp. 71--72.