519
63. Ganja is not produced nor smoked in this
province.
Licenses for the wholesale vend of bhang and
charas should, however, be granted. At present
charas, which is imported from Yarkand, is sold by
us as a merchandise to the retail vendors holding
leases. We ourselves cannot buy it. In case of
licenses being given, we too will be entitled to buy
bhang from every district and transport it for sale.
As regards bhang, contractors alone can get it
reaped and collected for sale. No other person has
a right to do so. In the case of the licenses being
given, other persons too will be able to buy and sell
bhang.
Some majum (a kind of preparation) is pre-
pared from bhang. No other person, except retail
vendors holding lease, can prepare and sell majum.
Nothing is prepared from charas. It may also be
said that licenses for the sale of charas have been
granted to wholesale vendors in the Amritsar
district.
64. I have no objection to the present system,
except those mentioned in answer to question
No. 63.
65. Ganja smoking does not prevail in this
country.
Bhang is not worth taxing as it is very cheap.
In the first place, great expenditure is incurred in
getting the plant reaped and conveyed, and then if
it remains unsold for two years, the cost will in-
crease by payment of house rent. It also begins to
decrease in value after one year. It is then not
worth the cost laid on it as the proverb runs :—
" Bhang lost in the cost of transit."
Tax on charas is levied in the shape of selling
its lease by auction. If Government contemplates
imposing tax on charas from Yarkand, it should
not be more than eight annas per seer. Charas
begins to deteriorate after one year. If new tax is
to be imposed, a permit should be given on realizing
the tax, so that permit-holder might not have
to pay it over again.
66. Nothing is known.
67. The answer to this question is contained in
reply to question No. 65.
68. The drugs are sold at the licensed shops
only. In the Amritsar district the licenses for the
wholesale vend of charas have, however, been grant-
ed to some persons. Similar licenses for bhang and
charas should also be given in other districts,
69. Since last two years the wishes of people are
consulted before a new shop is opened in the dis-
trict. This practice is reasonable.
70. Tax on drugs is not levied in the Native
States conterminus with the British territory.
Smuggling is impossible on account of excise ad-
ministration of the British Government. Every-
thing to which attention had to be drawn has been
mentioned in replies to each question.
94. Evidence* of JAWALA BHAGAT, Khatri, Licensed vendor of Drugs, Hoshiarpur.
1. I have been dealing in charas and bhang-
since Sammat 1913, and carried on traffic in these
drugs at Kulu, Ladakh and Yarkand, which places
I also visited several times for purposes of trade.
2. Bhang is known by the following names :—
bijia, sukkha, butti, and subzi. The doctor (i.e.,
Dr. Prain) is right regarding charas. In Yar-
kand it is, however, produced in this way. The
seed is sown in the month of Jeth, and reaped
during the month of Asauj, when the harvest is
ripe. The stocks are then dried in the sun, and
the dried plants are thrashed one by one, and when
the months of Jeth and Besakh approach, the
powder dust, which resembles flour, is spread in
the sun, rubbed with the hand, and then filled into
bags : thus charas is prepared. Ganja is not manu-
factured in this province at all. It is, however,
prepared in Hindustan.
3. The growth of the wild hemp is abundant in
the Jullundur and Hoshiarpur districts, as well as
in the village Saiewal. It is, however, small in the
Gurdaspur district.
4. The question has already been replied to under
No. 2.
5. It generally grows in those tracts which are
irrigated by hill waters.
6. Its growth is dense.
7. The plant grows spontaneously and not by
cultivation.
(a) and (b) No.
(c) The seed is not sown, even for the production
of bhang.
(d) Neither fibre nor seed grows spontaneously.
To the extent of nearly 20,000 maunds in the
Jullundur and Hoshiarpur districts.
8. There is no increase or decrease.
9. The answer has already been given opposite
the question according to my experience.
10. There is no particular class, nor is its cultiva-
tion carried on by other agricultural classes.
11. No.
12. The practice does not exist in our country,
nor do I know anything of it.
13. There is no restriction, nor has any one
hitherto cultivated the plant in these districts. It
is generally cultivated in Hindustan.
I know
nothing about this matter.
14. (a) and (b) No.
(c) Bhang is not prepared after cultivation, but
grows spontaneously. No one prepares it. The
hemp plant grows spontaneously.
15. Bhang is generaly drunk after being ground
in water. Sometimes it is taken in the form of a
pill after pounding it, and sometimes it is chewed.
Bhang is not smoked. It is also prepared in the
form of a compound called majum.
16. No one manufactures it in his house.
Nothing is known about ganja. Charas is, how-
ever, manufactured in Yarkand. The facts have
been answered opposite question No. 2.
17. Charas is manufactured by the people of
Yarkand, Ladakh, Kashmir and Askardu. The
labouring classes put the bhang dust in the sun and
prepare it by rubbing. In Yarkand the hemp plant
is cultivated by zamindars. Its seeds resembles the
* Translation.