Marwari & Poppy Tears!

Since the time I read in the papers about the association of the Marawari community with the Opium trade in the late eighteenth - early nineteenth century, it has led to a gamut of constructs. My first reaction was that of awe and bewilderment followed by what happened to their devil-may-care attitude down the years.

Now the construct in my head of a marwari is very skewed, so i thought. They are docile, amiable, calculated risk-taking folks who will do nothing to endanger themselves and their business. However, their involvement with Opium, spells something else about them. Daring, intrepid and blasphemous. Yes, blasphemous, since they take matters of their religion with great earnest and will.

Now this leads to the prefixed notions that are present in some part of our brains, it could be because of what we have read, heard, been told, seen and experienced. To break the shackles of these preconceived ideas can be challenging. To uncondition conditioning is what I aspire for. It works when everything and everyone is evaluated without judging the contents.

Marwaris as the Poppy Tears exporters or Gold businessmen. Who cares?