The Wire writes
Writer and journalist Karan Madhok’s book ‘Ananda’ is a deep-dive into the cannabis plant – what it is, what it does, and how Indian society looks at and reacts to it.
They also interviewed him
Kozhikode: Cannabis plants are easy to spot in India, growing wild on the sides of roads and highways. It’s use, though, is far more controversial – while often associated with Hindu festivities in its bhang form, other uses of marijuana, seen as more recreational, are looked down upon or ridiculed. Medicinal marijuana hasn’t seen the kind of interest in India that it has in other parts of the world, despite the region’s age-old relationship with the plant.
Writer and journalist Karan Madhok’s book Ananda is a deep-dive into the cannabis plant – what it is, what it does, and how Indian society looks at and reacts to it. From cultural representations in Bollywood over the years to the different strains grown across regions to laws that criminalise marijuana along with other drugs, Madhok’s exploration navigates the world of ganja in India.
At the sidelines of the Kerala Literature Festival 2025, Madhok spoke to The Wire about what he found. Edited excerpts from the interview follow.
What drew you to researching cannabis? How did you decide where you wanted to travel and how you were going to report it?
The seed of this idea came from my editor, Aienla Ozukum of the Aleph Book Company. This is my second book, I’d written a fiction book before this. I think she had been searching for someone to do a ganja book in India for over a decade. Obviously this is a plant that has such a close relationship with India, but I feel that most of the approach towards it had either been overly academic, or overly from the spiritual angle. I don’t think that somebody had done a – I won’t say neutral, but just a true, curious exploration of this plant. And so she pitched the original ganja idea. But then I think the book that has resulted is not something she had imagined, because I took that idea in my own direction. I wanted to touch base in a completely different, holistic way, and honestly it became a very personal book. It actually became the most personal thing I’ve ever written.
Read the full interview
https://thewire.in/books/ananda-karan-madhok-interview
Buy the book at (I’ll be getting a copy) https://www.alephbookcompany.com/book/ananda-an-exploration-of-cannabis-in-india/
