"In this incisive and exciting study, Utathya Chattopadhyaya departs from a vast majority of cannabis histories that have focused on the 'drug-ness' of this substance and instead interrogates the material, social, and symbolic life of cannabis plant matter."--Thembisa Waetjen, Professor of History, University of Johannesburg " Ganja Matters is deeply innovative in its ability to foreground the histories of intoxicant commodities and other nonhuman actors in colonial political economy. Complex, dense, and wide-ranging, this book is poised to shift paradigms in global and imperial history."--Rebecca Lemon, author of Addiction and Devotion in Early Modern England " Ganja Matters is the book about drugs, South Asia, and the British Empire that we have been waiting for. By focusing critically on a humble plant, Chattopadhyaya brilliantly reimagines religion, labor, and resistance."--Susan Zieger, author of Logistics and Power: Supply Chains from Slavery to Space "This book traces the remarkable journey of Cannabis sativa , revealing its many surprising facets as a historic commodity of India and the British Empire--as a sacred offering and profane intoxicant, a supposed agent of both spiritual awakening and madness, a catalyst for rebellion, and ultimately an exemplary object of national reform. An exhilarating and important study."--Sudipta Sen, author of Ganges: The Many Pasts of an Indian River.