Sea of Poppies

Acknowledgements

Sea of Poppies owes a great debt to many nineteenth-century scholars, dictionarists, linguists and chroniclers: most notably to Sir George Grierson, for his Report on Colonial Emigration from the Bengal Presidency, 1883, for his grammar of the Bhojpuri language, and for his 1884 and 1886 articles on Bhojpuri folk songs; to J. W. S. MacArthur, one-time Superintendent of the Ghazipur Opium Factory, for his Notes on an Opium Factory (Thacker, Spink, Calcutta, 1865); to Lt Thomas Roebuck, for his nautical lexicon, first published in Calcutta, An English And Hindostanee Naval Dictionary Of Technical Terms And Sea Phrases As Also The Various Words Of Command Given In Working A Ship, &C. With Many Sentences Of Great Use At Sea; To Which Is Prefixed A Short Grammar Of The Hindostanee Language (reprinted in London in 1813 by Black, Parry & Co., booksellers to the Hon. East India Company; later revised by George Small, and reissued by W. H. Allen & Co., under the title A Laskari Dictionary Or Anglo-Indian Vocabulary Of Nautical Terms And Phrases In English And Hindustani, London, 1882); to Sir Henry Yule & A. C. Burnell, authors of Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary Of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words And Phrases, And Of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical And Discursive; and to the Chief Justice of Calcutta's Supreme Court of Judicature for his verdict in the 1829 forgery trial of Prawnkissen Holdar (reprinted in Anil Chandra Das Gupta, ed., The Days of John Company: Selections from Calcutta Gazette 1824-1832, West Bengal Govt. Press, Calcutta, 1959, pp. 366-38).

This novel has been greatly enriched by the work of many contemporary and near-contemporary scholars and historians. The complete list of books, articles and essays that have contributed to my understanding of the period is too long to reproduce here, but it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge my gratitude for, and my indebtedness to, the work of the following: Clare Anderson, Robert Antony, David Arnold, Jack Beeching, Kingsley Bolton, Sarita Boodhoo, Anne Bulley, B. R. Burg, Marina Carter, Hsin-Pao Chang, Weng Eang Cheong, Tan Chung, Maurice Collis, Saloni Deerpalsingh, Guo Deyan, Jacques M. Downs, Amar Farooqui, Peter Ward Fay, Michael Fisher, Basil Greenhill, Richard H. Grove, Amalendu Guha, Edward O. Henry, Engseng Ho, Hunt Janin, Isaac Land, C. P. Liang, Brian Lubbock, Dian H. Murray, Helen Myers, Marcus Rediker, John F. Richards, Dingxu Shi, Asiya Siddiqi, Radhika Singha, Michael Sokolow, Vijaya Teelock, Madhavi Thampi and Rozina Visram.

For their support and assistance at various points in the writing of this novel, I owe many thanks to: Kanti & Champa Banymandhab, Girindre Beeharry, the late Sir Satcam Boolell and his family, Sanjay Buckory, Pushpa Burrenchobay, May Bo Ching, Careem Curreemjee, Saloni Deerpalsingh, Parmeshwar K. Dhawan, Greg Gibson, Marc Foo Kune, Surendra Ramgoolam, Vishwamitra Ramphul, Achintyarup Ray, Debashree Roy, Anthony J. Simmonds, Vijaya Teelock, Boodhun Teelock and Zhou Xiang. I owe a great debt of gratitude also to the following institutions: the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, England; the Mahatma Gandhi Institute, Mauritius; and the Mauritius National Archives.

The lines quoted in Chapter Two (Ág mor lágal ba…) are from a song collected by Edward O. Henry (Chant The Names of God: Music and Culture in Bhojpuri-Speaking India, San Diego State Univ. Press, San Diego, 1988, p. 288). The lines quoted in Chapter Three (Majha dhára me hai bera merá…) are from a song collected in Helen Myers, Music of Hindu Trinidad: Songs from the Indian Diaspora, Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1998, p. 307. The lines quoted in Chapter Five (Sãjh bhailé…) are from Sarita Boodhoo's Bhojpuri Traditions in Mauritius, Mauritius Bhojpuri Inst., Port Louis, 1999, p. 63. The lines quoted in Chapter Nineteen (Talwa jharailé…) and the lines quoted in Chapter Twenty-one (…uthlé há chhati ke jobanwá…) are from songs collected by Sir George Grierson for his article "Some Bhojpuri Folksongs," Journal of theRoyal Asiatic Society 18, p. 207, 1886. In all these instances the translations are my own.

Without the support of Barney Karpfinger and Roland Philipps, the Ibis could not have crossed the Bay of Bengal; at critical moments in her journey, when she lay becalmed in kalmariyas, James Simpson and Chris Clark blew wind into her sails; my children, Lila and Nayan, saw her through many a storm and my wife, Deborah Baker, was the best of malums: I, no less than this frail craft, owe them all a great debt of gratitude.

Amitav Ghosh

Kolkata

2008