Sir John Henry Rivett-Carnac wrote about his company house in his memoirs “ a quite magnificent house on the Ganges at Ghazipur, surrounded by a good garden and fine grounds”. The incentives of this job was the Benares Opium Agency that Sir John headed from 1876. When the poppy  growing season got under way in November, Sir John would embark on a grand regional tour, interspersing inspections of opium farms with shooting expeditions and visits to colourful bazars, despite the poor Indian farmers under his watch, who fed Gizarpur’s opium processing factory who were coerced into cultivating the crop to … Continue reading How British Empire was propped up for financial survival