46
but then it would be necessary to tax pathar
ganja heavily,
66. Round and broken ganja should be more
heavily taxed than flat ganja, as they contain
more resin, are from picked plants, and command
a higher price in the market.
67. I am inclined to think that a tax on charas
would yield a decent revenue ; but I am against
the theory that the object of this tax should be
the repression of the article. I think it should be
honestly looked upon as a source of revenue. If
a person in the British Empire is free to contract
syphilis and communicate it to others, I do not
think it logical to interfere with his using a drug
which is only at the most slightly harmful to
himself and not at, all to posterity, while the
unfortunate victim of syphilis transmits the
disease to his children.
68. There are, I believe, only 15 shops for the
sale of hemp drugs in Mirzapur town and 25
liquor shops. Their number is limited by the
Commissioner of Excise.
69. If the wishes of the people were consulted,
the number of liquor shops would be at once
doubled, and ganja and bhang obtained at every
bania's. I am afraid a paternal Government, urged
by philanthropic motives, restricts the numbers of
these shops very much to the inconvenience of the
public. If there were but one public house in a
small town in the manufacturing districts in
England, the outcry would be tremendous. When
the British people are prepared to forswear the
use of tobacco and forego the taxes derived there-
from, it will be time enough to question the dis-
position of the Indian to forego bhang and ganja.
70. Bengal ganja is undoubtedly smuggled (vide
Excise Report for 1890, District Report for
Gorakhpur, by W. B. Cockburn, Esq). No duty
is paid on pathar ganja. Baluchur pays a duty
of R5 a seer or R200 a maund. Hemp drugs
are smuggled from one district to another—if this
can be profitably done—owing to the rates paid
by the contractor being heavier in one district
than another.
Further paper put in by MR. COCKBURN.
Cannabis satira var. indica is very locally culti-
vated in the North-Western Provinces. I have
seen small patches in the Native States bordering
on Bundelkhand, and occasionally half a dozen
plants growing in a patch in front of a cultivator's
hut. At other times 1 have come across indivi-
dual plants which had evidently been planted in
fields of arhar dhal (Cajanus arhar) which the hemp
plant so closely resembles in foliage and habit
that it required an expert to be able to discrimi-
nate them in that position. As this was in the
British district of Banda, there can be no doubt
that these plants were thus intentionally hidden
away. The habit of these plants was quite unlike
that of the wild hemp, and evidently was a highly
cultivated variety of the plant from 4½ to 5 feet
high.
It would, in my opinion, be impossible to pro-
hibit the growth of the hemp plant. This will be
realized when it is stated that it forms the domi-
nant weed to the exclusion of every other over
thousands of square miles of country.
Hemp will be found to be the chief weed in the
station yards at Haldwani and Lal Kooan on the
Rohilkhand-Kumaon Railway. Similarly it grows
wild all through the Oudh and Nepal Terai, or for
a distance of, say, 800 miles. I also found the
waste country about Bhinga and Nanpara over-
grown with wild hemp, and particularly noticed it
in the sandy wastes about the bed of the river
Raptee near Bhinga.
The product.—As an experiment I have sent for
a pice worth of each of the three products of the
hemp plant from the local bania at Meja Road,
bhang, ganja and charas, and obtained 330 grains
of bhang, 10 grains of ganja, and 12 grains of
charas.
Bhang somewhat resembles in appearance coarse
green tea, though longer in staple. It seems to
consist of the crushed leaves, petioles, stalks of
the smaller branches, seeds, and a few buds of the
plant. My sample is adulterated with dried cow-
dung and paddy husk, and is, moreover, decidedly
mouldy and musty.
It seems to the taste to be adulterated with dried
powdered ginger.
Bhang is taken by all classes as a stimulant and
food adjunct.
It is, in my opinion, a most valuable tonic, and
perfectly harmless unless taken in excess. It
seems to take the place of claret or beer among
the natives of Northern India, and one of their
favourite gods is represented as constantly under
its influence. Taken in moderation with sugar,
its nutritive value is far higher than that of claret,
while the exhilarating effects of the intoxication
it produces far surpass the stimulation caused by
alcohol. It, moreover, leaves no unpleasant after-
effects and is a valuable tonic, and has the re-
markable effects of sharpening the appetite.
Taken to excess, it renders the individual in-
sensible to pain and privation, and it was generally
under its influence that Sikh and Hindustani
soldier fanatics threw away their lives in desperate
attacks on our soldiers during the Sikh Campaigns
and the Mutiny.
There is no more reprobation attached to drink-
ing a cup of it than to taking a glass of beer
among ourselves.
Further paper put in by MR. COCKBURN.
2. In cutting up a really good fresh sample of
baluchar, 1 obtained over two dozen good seeds,
highly charged with oil, so that it is evident that
the fact of few flowers setting in seed does not
prevent the exudation of resin in the remaining
flowers on a stalk. Charas is the basis or type
of all hemp preparations, and is a similar drug
to ganja in another form.
6. The wild hemp is said to sometimes attain a
height of ten feet, and is called bun bhanga.
10. The objection to growing hemp and sun
(Crotolaria juncea) among the higher castes of
Hindus is due to fear of ceremonial impurity
contracted in washing the fibre after maceration.
The ultimate products of vegetable and animal
decomposition are not unlike in odour, and the
process is a dirty and laborious one and very evil
smelling, and therefore avoided by the higher
castes.
11. The wild hemp certainly also yields charas
— see " Punjab Products," page 9—and the leaves
can also be smoked in the same way as ganja. It
will also yield pathar ganja, and, according to the
Excise Report, North-Western Provinces, for 1883,
a considerable quantity of ganja is got from the
source.
12. The wild hemp, which grows at the base of
the Himalaya and also in the interior, is called
gunara bhang or bun bhanga, and a little charas
is extracted from the flowering portion—Baden-
Powell, "Punjab Products," page 505. The dried