54. Most of the dacoity committed in this
district is the work of the nomads mentioned
in my answer to question 51. As many of them
are found to be under the influence of ganja when
committing the most cruel dacoities, and there
is no reason to think that they are ignorant of
the reputation ganja has of increasing powers of
endurance and lending Dutch courage, we have
every reason to suppose that they do fortify
themselves with these objects before undertaking
specially dangerous and arduous crimes.
55. Majum is often used by criminals to
stupefy their victims, and complete stupefaction
can be induced by majum without further ad-
mixture. I know of one instance of a boy being
induced to smoke ganja as an aphrodisiac, and
rendered so incapable as to allow of his ornaments
being removed by his tempters without protest
from him. The boy, however, said he was not
so stupefied as not to be aware of the removal.
He afterwards slept for a long while. Ganja
leaves are smoked mixed with tobacco.
Oral evidence.
Question 1. —I have been 24½ years in the
police, and my whole service has been spent in the
Northern Sircars.
Question 20. —The use of ganja in the Northern
Sircars is not extensive. I have made enquiries,
and find that 1 in 1,000 of the total population
260
68. Evidence of Mr. H. G. PRENDERGAST, District Superintendent of Police,
Kistna.
51. There is in this district a considerable pro-
portion of bad characters who are habitual
moderate consumers of ganja. But I believe the
connection is accidental. It happens that this
district is specially subject to the inroads of
houseless nomads, such as Yanadis, Yerukalas,
Lambadis, and Wodders. Owing to exposure
in the malarious tracts they haunt, these are very
liable to attacks of fever and rheumatism, and
thus take to ganja smoking, which they believe
to be prophylactic in such cases. Other criminals
also are often ganja smokers; but I do not know
of any instances of criminals who were habitual
consumers of hemp drugs before taking to crime.
In these cases it is generally a glorying in vice
for its own sake that seems to induce the habit.
It may, however, be possible that a wish to in-
crease their powers of endurance is the object
with them as well as with the nomads.
I return to this subject in my reply to question
54.
52. Bhang is seldom used in this district.
Those who do indulge in it are descendants of
Rajputs, Bondelis, and other immigrants from
the north. Majum, a confection, one of the
ingredients of which is ganja leaves, is used as a
soporific, mostly for children and invalids, and
as an aphrodisiac. Its latter use and the habit
of ganja smoking often end in excessive use.
But this, so far as I know, does not produce any
effect on habitual crime.
53. The excessive indulgence in majum and
ganja smoking incite to unpremeditated crime, such
as indecent assaults, homicide, and arson. I
know of instances in which all these crimes have
been attempted by persons suffering from the
frenzy induced by excessive indulgence in ganja
smoking and majum eating.
in towns and 1 in 10,000 in the rural tracts con-
sume the drug. These figures represent an aver-
age for the whole of the Northern Sircars. The
drug is more used in the Kistna district and the
Agency tracts than in other parts. Opium is very
largely consumed in the Agency tracts, and the
same people are not likely to consume opium as
well as hemp. In these tracts the respectable
people take opium and the disreputable classes
ganja. As a rule those who live by labour do not
use ganja. In the Northern Sircars generally
ganja is consumed by poor people who are also
respectable, as well as by some rajas and respectable
Muhammadans, and sepoys and military pen-
sioners.
Question 53.—I remember two eases of arson,
the offender in one of which had previously been
guilty of several indecent assaults. Several cases
of indecent assault were also committed by the
Babajis of a Math in Rajamandri. There was a
case of attempted homicide in the Vizagapatam
district, and one in the Kistna district of actual
homicide. These are the cases referred to in my
written answers. They all came into court. I
should think the records of the cases would con-
tain reference to the use of ganja. All the cases
were acquitted on the ground of insanity, and the
offenders went to the lunatic asylum. In one
case of arson only the offender, who had become
sane before the trial began, was acquitted. He
was found to have committed the offence in a fit
of insanity. This man was not sent to the asy-
lum, as the District Surgeon certified he was no
longer a dangerous lunatic. In saying that the
men were in a state of frenzy I mean that they
were actually insane. I associate these cases with
ganja because the men were known ganja smok-
ers, and, as well as I could ascertain, none of them
showed any symptoms of being insane before he
took to ganja. Some of them had been insane
for a year and other considerable periods. They
had been smoking for several years. The case of
arson in which the man was discharged occurred
in Rajamandri in 1870 or 1871. The records of
that case must have been destroyed.
Question 54. —The effects of ganja when used
as a fortification for commission of crime last
longer than those of alcohol, and the drug is not
so likely to disable a man by intoxication as alco-
hol is. I should gather that a criminal had not
used alcohol from the absence of the smell of
liquor. 1 could not say that a man dosed with
ganja could be detected by the smell, because the
ganja smoker has no distinctive smell. The in-
ference that the men of whom I speak were under
the influence of ganja was drawn from the fact
that they were intoxicated, i.e., elevated, and did
not smell of liquor. It was also apparent that
they were not consumers of opium, because that
would have been detected by the look of their
eyes. In my experience opium does not incite to
violence. Further, the persons in question when
arrested were found to be habitual ganja smokers.
If they had been habitual liquor drinkers, I should
not necessarily have expected that they would
have used liquor to fortify themselves, because,
being associated with ganja smokers, they might
have thought ganja would serve the purpose
better. I have never seen a man using ganja for
the first time. The result in such cases as I have
heard of has been that the man has been stupefied.
But in those cases the drug was administered