153
bhang in the hot weather, especially at the season
of Holi. The ganja smokers will not take this
bhang ; I keep what the ganja smokers refuse all
the year round, and sell it to those who want
bhang in the Holi season.
25. Since the cultivation of ganja was stopped
16 or 17 years ago, there has been a great de
-
crease in the consumption of ganja. Latterly the
sale of Government ganja has been increasing, but
I consider this is attributable to increased sup
-
pression of illicit ganja. Sixteen or seventeen
years ago, a pice weight of ganja could be bought
for one pice; now it costs one anna; of course
this enhancement of price has checked consump
- t i o n .
26. Of the 500 consumers of ganja in Seoni
town, I estimate 300 or 60 per cent. to be habi
-
tual smokers, and 200 or 40 per cent. occasional
smokers. The excessive consumers are a small
minority; say 25 or 5 per cent. of the total are
habitual excessive consumers, and 10 or 12, say 2
to 2½ per cent. are occasional excessive consumers.
The consumption of ganja is much more pre
-
valent in the district than in the town. I have
shops in the interior of the district, so know.
The Gonds, Pardhans, and labouring classes form
the bulk of the rural population. I estimate that
¾ of the rural males are most of them habitual
consumers of ganja. Out of the 75 per cent. of
rural males, I estimate that 70 per cent. are habi
-
tual consumers, and only 5 per cent. are occasional
consumers. The rural consumers seldom indulge
to excess ; they are habituated to the drug and
have hard outdoor work, and, as a rule, only in
-
dulge in moderation. A Gond cultivator will
buy 4 annas worth at a time, and use it frugally,
so as to last 8 days, each day taking no more than
the usual quantum. They renew their supplies at
the weekly bazars.
27. The labouring classes and the artizans and
the working agriculturists are the chief consumers
of ganja. Those who have to work hard in the
open air are the people who require and take
ganja ; it removes their fatigue and fortifies them
to resist wet and cold, and even heat.
28. The average consumption of ganja by a
labourer, who is a habitual moderate consumer, is
one pice worth, or the weight of a 2-anna piece
in ganja. This allowance merely sustains and
invigorates him ; it does not incapacitate him in
any way for work, but, on the contrary, makes
him work all the better. Sixty per cent. of the
consumers only use a pice worth a day, or less.
Twenty per cent. consume an average of 1½ pice
worth a day. Twenty per cent. consume an
average of 2 pice worth a day. This last include
well-to-do men, who do not consume all they buy
themselves, but treat their neighbours.
It is the exception for ganja smokers to con
-
sume more. Some Gossains and even Musalmans
and Kayeths consume a tola weight of ganja
per diem. This is excessive. About 5 per cent.
of the consumers are habitual excessive consumers
of this class.
29. Tobacco is the ingredient generally mixed
with ganja for a smoke. No one smokes ganja
by itself. The general proportion is about 3 parts
ga nj a t o 1 pa r t t oba c c o. A f e w a dd 2½ s e e ds of
black dhatura seed with the ganja. Those who
wish to increase the intoxicating effect do so ;
also persons suffering from cough and asthma add
dhatura in their ganja to relieve the cough.
About 5 per cent. of ganja consumers use dhatura
with their ganja, and 2½ seeds is the recognized
vol. vi.
addition per pipe. Still fewer add a little opium
to the ganja for their smoke ; they do so to
relieve looseness of bowels and ease a cough.
Ab o u t 1 p e r p e r c e n t . o f c o n s u me r s u s e a l i t t l e
opium with their ganja. Two or four persons in
Seoni town add madak to ganja to get a very
intoxicating smoke ; they call this mixture
"bharra." The only motive for this is to enhance
the intoxicating effect, and none but seasoned
habituals can stand this mixture.
Nothing is sold as "bhang massala" in Seoni.
30. Ganja smoking is a sociable custom. As a
general rule, the man who fills a pipe of ganja
(with tobacco) for a smoke, passes the pipe round
to three or four companions. This is the general
custom. Only about 5 per cent. of the con
-
sumers will smoke out a pipe by himself.
Ganja smoking is confined mainly to the male
sex. Only about 5 per cent. of the consumers are
women, and those are only women of loose charac
-
ter. The women-folk of ganja smoking Gonds
do not smoke ganja. It is considered very dis
-
reputable in a woman.
Ganja is not smoked with any idea of increasing
sexual vigour ; the ganja smoker smokes to put
himself to sleep, or to refresh himself when fatigued
and enable him to work on.
Boys, the sons of smokers, begin to smoke
ganja when they go out to work with their fathers
or caste-fellows.
Ganja smoking is not special to any age.
31. Ganja smoking has to be acquired gradually.
A boy takes about 15 days to learn. The elders
begin by giving him only the last draw at the
pipe, and he does not take a full whiff at first.
The habit of smoking ganja, once it is acquired,
is a difficult one to break off. Only about 5 per
cent. of the ganja smokers develop into excessive
consumers. The bulk remain habitual moderate
consumers.
The proportion of people who get ruined from
excessive indulgence is much smaller in the case
of ganja than of other stimulants. I know b
e -
cause for some 18 years I have been a vendor
of opium and madak as well as ganja. The pro
-
portions to develop consumption to excess are in
my opinion about 5 per. cent. for ganja, 10 per.
cent. for opium, and 50 per cent. for madak.
From general observation, I estimate that 10 per
cent. of the consumers of liquor (alcohol) take to
drinking to excess.
32. I know of no custom, social or religious,
involving the consumption of ganja. At the
Shivaratri time, Hindus of the ganja-smoking
classes offer a little ganja in the Mahadeo temples,
but smoking is no part of this custom. Also it
is their custom similarly to offer a little ganja at
the Chitarai Debis or collections of stones with
rags tied to some tree above. They offer either
a cock, or a cocoanut, or some ganja. It is a
custom among travellers. These Chitarai Debis
are in the open, and the travellers have a smoke
at the same time. They do not smoke in the
Mahadeo temples.
33. Those classes, who do not themselves in
-
dulge in ganja, consider the smoking of it to
be disreputable. For instance, the
M u s a l m a n
community think it wrong of me even to sell
ganja. There are Musalmans who smoke ganja,
and these are considered disreputable. Similarly,
many Brahmins smoke ganja, but those who
do not do so blame those who do. No one is
ever turned out of caste for merely begin-
ning to smoke ganja, but Brahmins and Banias
z