At the beginning of the 21st century, alcoholism, transnational drug trafficking and drug addiction constitute major problems in various South Asian countries. The production, circulation and consumption of intoxicating substances created (and responded to) social upheavals in the region and had widespread economic, political and cultural repercussions on an international level. This book looks at the cultural, social, and economic history of intoxicants in South Asia, and analyses the role that alcohol and drugs have played in the region.

Introduction: Indian Anomalies? - Drink and Drugs in the Land of Gandhi Part 1: Trajectories: reconstructing the history of intoxicants in the pre-colonial and early colonial periods 1. Alcohol in Pre-Modern South Asia 2. Opium, the East India Company and the 'Native' States Part 2: Cultural Encounters: European alcohol and drug consumption in the situation coloniale 3. 'What shall become of the mission when we have such incompetent missionaries there?': Drunkenness and mission in eighteenth century Danish East India 4. Liquid Boundaries: race, class, and alcohol in colonial India 5. Looking for Spirituality in India: a German theosophist's experiments with ganja (1894-1896) Part 3: Nationalism and Internationalism: contested regulatory regimes 6. The Opium Question in Colonial Assam 7. Internationalizing the Indian War on Opium: colonial policy, the nationalist movement and the League of Nations 8. 'Drunkards beware!': Prohibition and nationalist politics in the 1930s Robert Part 4: Postcolonial India: the legacy of prohibitionist politics 9. The Culture of Prohibition in Gujarat

Harald Fischer-Tiné is Professor of Modern Global History at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH-Zürich), Switzerland.

Jana Tschurenev is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Modern Indian Studies at the University of Göttingen. Germany.