Book Reviews [Non-fiction] Sugar

Sugar

The World Corrupted, From Slavery To Obesity

James Walvin

Robinson 2017 325 Pages

The white crystals people casually stir in to their daily tea or coffee probably ranks as India’s most poisonous gift to the world – in more ways than one.

As we in today’s health-conscious times now know, regular consumption of refined sugar is directly responsible for a plethora of ills ranging from dental caries to obesity, type II diabetes and even coronary heart disease. This wasn’t so obvious when cane sugar was first cultivated in South Asia, with sugar being a basic ingredient in Indian cuisine as early as 260 BC.

After influencing the culinary history of diverse cultures across South-East Asia, sugar began its slow march westwards into Africa, the Middle East and the Mediterranean. It was greatly prized as a commodity by seafaring Arab traders who called the powdered form “sweet salt”.

Initially scarce and expensive, sugar was to be found only at the high tables of the rich and mighty of Renaissance Europe. There, it rapidly went from being a luxury to an everyday necessity across all classes, thanks to the very human craving for sweetness in taste. That’s when the problem really began, according to author James Walvin, an academic historian of the transatlantic slave trade of the 18th and 19th centuries. For the demand for sugar was the real fuel behind the inhuman institution of slavery...

Sugarcane cultivation had previously been done on a relatively small scale in Madeira and the Canary Islands, using a mixture of hired and forced labour.  This being inadequate to meet soaring demand, large-scale plantation-style operations were required. There was just one snag - in an era before mechanization, mass human labour would be required to cultivate and harvest the cane.  As this constituted an intensely back-breaking ordeal that no one would voluntarily undertake, slave labour imported from Africa was the only solution.   

Slavery was anything but sweet for millions of unfortunate Africans who became the unwitting victims of the world’s sweet tooth.  Not to mention the biodiversity of native environments and indigenous peoples that were swept away to make way for the sugar plantations. And the plantations of Brazil, the Caribbean and North America provided a model for other, later forms of plantation-based slavery centered on cotton and tobacco.

The narrative flow suffers here as author Walvin gets bogged down in this particular aspect of sugar’s bitter history. Probably because this is his area of academic specialization, as is evident from the author’s bibliography. This otherwise lucid work of non-fiction could have done with some editing here. Fortunately, Walvin then segues to the unpleasant role played by sugar in public health today and the hand of global “big food” in promoting sugar in processed foods and soft drinks - something more frighteningly relevant to today’s readers.

 
Indentured Indian labour replaced freed African slaves in many British colonies such as Guyana and Trinidad. Mauritius absorbed almost half a million Indians, Reunion 87,000, Natal in South Africa 152,000, Malaya, 250,000. This has since led to deep-rooted social fissures between descendants of indentured Indians with indigenous peoples, especially in Fiji.  Ironically, a commodity that originated in India ultimately negatively impacted the global Indian Diaspora.

In the subcontinent itself, sugar’s negative effects on public health have been well documented. What is less well known is that sugarcane as a very thirsty crop has helped dangerously lower the country’s water table. A “sugar mafia” (especially prevalent in Maharashtra) is also responsible for economically exploiting rural populations, while cornering scarce water and power. Not so very sweet.