When approaching the subject of rural producers and their environments in nineteenth-century India, it is necessary to be mindful of the range of studies during the last 30 years or so that have emphasised the importance of resistance to colonial projects. These studies, most notably those published in the Subaltern Studies project (Guha 1982), have focused on the strategies and agendas of peasants in South Asia and have emphasized their importance in shaping rural developments and relationships during the period of British rule. This work has shown how these agendas and strategies often led to conflicts of interest with the colonial state. Importantly, however, these studies have insisted that resistance to colonial designs was not always expressed in confrontation and rebellion. Resistance could often be subtle, difficult to detect, localized, and small scale, coming in forms such as “foot dragging, dissimulation, false compliance, pilfering, feigned ignorance, slander, arson, sabotage and so forth,” which have been called “the weapons of the weak” (Scott 1985: 29). Such perspectives are important in this study as it focuses on the ways in which Indian rural producers of hemp (Cannabis sativa) narcotics transformed their environments in the process of producing the drugs for the domestic market in the nineteenth century. Definitions of the various preparations of hemp varied from place to place, and indeed different officials and administrators would give differing accounts. The preparations that are mentioned might broadly be understood as follows: Ganja is the dried flower head of the Cannabis sativa variation of the hemp plant, which is mixed with tobacco and smoked, often in a chillum (clay pipe). Bhang is the ground leaves and stalks of the Cannabis sativa, mixed into a paste and drunk with milk and sugar or taken neat with black pepper. Charas is the dried, sticky exudation of the sativa, smoked with tobacco in a chillum. Majum is a green sweetmeat made with the ground leaves of the plant and mixed with butter, milk, and sugar and baked. Muddat is a preparation of hemp and opium. After a brief introduction to the hemp narcotics market in India during this period, the chapter will consider the modes of production in the rural areas of the main hemp products.