133
Dhatura is mixed only by excessive smokers of
their own free will. It is, however, administered
with ganja for criminal purposes. The object of
the mixture in either case is to procure in
-ebriation.
I have given above the ingredients of bhang
"massala." It is sold in large towns in Pansari
shops in bundles; elsewhere people procure the
ingredients separately and mix them themselves.
30. People of the better sort invariably smoke
ganja in solitude; bhang is drunk as "thandai"
more openly, but not in company in the sense
that wine is drunk by Europeans in company
except it be on festive occasions where young men
drink it together in garden houses or "baithak
khanas." The lower classes do smoke ganja in
company, I believe, more for economy than for
talk.
Women, except the most degraded, seldom
smoke ganja; a little of "thandai," I am inclin
- e d t o t h i n k , d o e s n o t c o m e a m i s s t o y o u n g
married women amongst the Marwaris, provided
it does not become known. Such cases are not
many, and the practice is never habitual.
Children I have never known to smoke ganja or
charas. A little "thandai" is given to boys
sometimes during the hot weather months, espe
- c i a l l y i n f a m i l i e s o f w h i c h t h e h e a d m a n i s a d e v o u t
believer in its efficacy, but here also the cases are
very few and seldom habitual.
31. The habit of ganja smoking is usually
formed in youth, when the man falls into the
company of smokers, who recommend it to the
uninitiated for almost every kind of disease
— f r o m a s i m p l e c o l d t o a b a d c a s e o f d i a r r h œ a .
The novice is allowed and invited to smoke for a
time free of cost to himself till he becomes a
h a b i t u a l s m o k e r , a n d t h e n c e f o r t h h e h a s t o f i n d
his own drug.
The use of bhang seldom creates a craving for
it. One can drink it for months and then shake it
off in a day without inconvenience.
I believe it to be a question of the will power
of the individual as to whether he should degene
- r a t e f r o m a m o d e r a t e t o a n e x c e s s i v e s m o k e r o r
drinker. Something also depends on his surround
-ings, such as his means, regularity of employment,
etc.; there are thousands of people who have
smoked their two chillums of ganja a day for
years together and have worked all the better for
it, whilst some few become excessive smokers
within a year of their initiation and become insane
in another two or three years.
32. During the Dasera every Shakta in Bengal
considers himself bound by religion to take bhang
on the night of the drowning of the idol. From
biting a single bhang leaf to getting dead drunk
and remaining insensible for a day or more, with
various stages of intermediate drunkenness or
excitement result from this supposed religious
inculcation, according to the age, education,
social position, etc., of the devotee. People do
regard it as essential. But now that orthodoxy
i s d a i l y l o s i n g g r o u n d , t h e c u s t o m h a s w e a k e n e d
in a proportionate measure, and it is followed
more for the excitement that it causes than for
the spiritual benefit that it is supposed to confer.
Generally, t h e q u a n t i t y o f b h a n g d r u n k , I b e l i e v e ,
is not excessive. I do not believe that such a
custom has any appreciable effect in the forma
-tion of the habit of bhang drinking. In the up
-countries and the Central Provinces, the Diwali
and the Holi furnish occasions for the consump
-tion of a good deal of bhang and majum, but I do
not think any religious inculcation is pretended
to add sanctity to the license.
33. Occasional and moderate use of bhang
meets with no social disfavour except it be with
extreme puritans of the modern theistic schools.
The use of ganja, on the other hand, is universally
condemned as disreputable. The use of neither
drug is condemned by the Hindu religion. Strict
Muhammadanism condemns both, but even with
them abstinence from these drugs is a moral not a
religious duty. It is in the language of their
Doctors a matter of "sunnat," not "furz."
The ganja smoker is as a rule eccentric, short-
tempered and slovenly. His hands are covered
with corns—the result of daily kneading the drug
in the palm of his left hand with the thumb of
the right. He is talkative and does not always
confine his talk within the bounds of sober sense
or truth. This drug is cheap, and only people of
the lowest classes indulge in it. All these causes
combine to make ganja and the "ganjeri" alike
disreputable. Moreover, the Hindu mind, from
its past climatic and religious history, is averse
to all sorts of intoxicants, and it is a pity that
this frame of mind is changing with the spread
of western civilization.
I have never heard of any custom of worship
-ping ganja or bhang.
34. I do not believe that it would. Of course
the want of the customary excitement will be felt
as a trouble for a few days, but my experience of
such men sentenced to imprisonment leads me
to think that they can very well do without it.
It is another matter whether poor men, whose
work compels them to frequently expose them
-selves to wind and rain or to undergo great
fatigue, ought to be deprived of the means of
alleviating their hard lot by a cheap smoke which
deadens the sensations of cold and pain to a
considerable extent.
35. A stringent law against the growing of
the plant and its use strictly enforced would
minimise, if not eradicate, the practice. The
same result in a less measure would be secured by
raising the price of the drug. Illicit growing
of the plant is bound to increase on the adoption
of either of these courses, but it will diminish as
the present race of smokers die out or are weaned
out of the habit by want of the drug or actual
suffering of or the dread of punishment.
Of course the ganja smokers will be highly
incensed by prohibition of their favourite drug,
and the bhang drinkers will feel the same senti
-ment with somewhat less intensity, but there
cannot be the least political danger from such dis
-content. The better class of bhang drinkers and
ganja smokers will not dare openly express their
sentiments for fear of public opinion, and as for
the lower classes they will meet the order with
resignation. As it is, alcohol is already ousting
these drugs, their prohibition will most likely give
a further stimulus to the sale of the former. The
poorest classes may take to toddy.
37. Charas seldom if ever produces that perfect
inebriation and stupor that ganja smoking does
in the novice. The difference in the effect is, I
should think, one in degree not in kind.
38. I do not know.
39. From a personal experience of a number of
ganja smokers and bhang drinkers, I am inclined
to think that the latter practice is by far the least
injurious to health. The ganja smoker is as
a rule thin and prone to anger. I have invariably
found corns of a peculiar form in the soles of the