376
62. It would not be necessary to introduce a
very elaborate system in this part of the country.
Mo cultivation should be permitted without a
license, and there should be an acreage rate, as in
the case of poppy cultivation.
63. I have no objections to the present system
of wholesale and retail vend of bhang and charas.
64. I have no objection to the existing rules.
65. The price of bhang being so low, the reve-
nue raised by taxation might well be increased by
a tax on cultivation.
67. I think the price of bhang is too low, and
that a further revenue might be raised for Gov-
ernment.
68. There is no prohibition in the licenses
against consumption on the premises. Such con-
sumption is in fact not practised, and might be
forbidden in the licenses. I should regard the
growth of the practice with disfavour, as the shops
would probably become centres of dissipation.
69. I have always been in the habit of ascer-
taining the wishes of the people before opening
new shops, and they would be regarded as far as
practicable. Such points are enquired into by
District Officers when on tour in their districts,
and headmen and local notables have no
objection to expressing their views freely on such
points. More than this is not required in my
opinion.
70. I do not think there is any smuggling
from Native States in this district, but no doubt
a great deal of untaxed bhang is consumed by
cultivators and their friends and neighbours.
Appendix TO MR. DAMES' evidence.
Memorandum on the petition for some reduction
of the sentence of transportation for life pass-
ed on Kalu Khan on the 23rd February 1892.
This petition was brought to me at Fort Munro
by the assembled Tumaudars of the Dera Ghazi
Khan and Thal Chotiali district in September
1892. They asked that the petition might be
6ent on to Government on the plea that Kalu
Khan was intoxicated at the time he committed
the murder. I promised to give the matter my
consideration, and in the meantime I directed
Sardar Bahadur Khan, who was more interested
in the matter than the other Tumaudars, to obtain
copies of the judgments of the Sessions Judge and
of the Chief Court. This has been done, and the
copies of judgments are attached to the petition.
The facts of the case are as follows :—On the
evening of the 25th November 1891 Kalu Khan
and a number of other men, friends and retainers
of Sardar Bahadur Khan, the Khosa chief, were
sleeping in his baisakh or guest-house at Gujri.
Kalu Khan is, it may be noticed, son of Sher
Muhammad Khan, the Isani mukaddam, and is a
blood relation (on the female side) of Sardar Baha-
dur Khan. Kalu Khan and some of the others
in the baisakh had been drinking bhang and were
intoxicated. During the night Kalu Khan got
up and appears to have loaded his gun. Khair
Muhammad Khan says be was awakened by the
click of a gun, but whether the click was caused
by closing the breach or by cocking the hammer
is not clear. Khair Muhammad Khan and Jalal
Lishari (who also awoke) spoke to Kalu Khan,
but received no answer. It is impossible to say
what his intention was in loading the gun. He
was probably too intoxicated to know himself.
Gholam Hussain Lishari (brother of Jalal) ap-
pears to have then tried to take the gun away
from Kalu Khan. In the struggle the gun went
off, and Kalu Khan then stabbed Gholam Hussain
several times with a small dagger which he was
wearing. Gholam Hussain died on the spot, and
Kalu Khan was arrested almost immediately, but
not before he had time to call out "Dhar !
Dhar !"—a cry which the Sessions Judge thinks
was expressive of contrition for what he had done.
In his petition to Government (which was
forwarded to me for report, and which is sub-
mitted with this paper), Jalal Khan (brother of
the murdered man) asserts that Kalu Khan's
intention in taking up and loading his gun was
to kill the Tumaudar, Sardar Bahadur Khan. A
number of rumours were at one time current to
account for the murder, and this was one of them.
I made inquiries at the time, and came to the
conclusion that this was the most unlikely of all
the rumours afloat. Kalu Khan and his father,
Sher Muhammad Khan, had always been close
friends of the Tumaudar, and (as the Sessions
Judge points out) Bahadur Khan and Kalu Khan
were out together shooting the very day before
the murder. Jalal and Gholam Hussain were also
on friendly terms with Kalu Khan.
Briefly, it may be said that the murderer and
the deceased were on terms of friendship with one
another, that the murderer was intoxicated at the
time, and committed the murder in a drunken
struggle without premeditation.
The drink question is a very important one in
the Khosa tribe. The family of the Khosa
Tumaudar have long been notorious for their bad
habits in this respect. The famous Kaura Khan
was addicted to drinking bhang. His eldest son,
Ahmad Khan, was a notorious drunkard, and is
said to have shot himself when under the effects
of intoxication. He did not kill himself, but
subsequently went mad. His son, Sikandar Khan,
is said also to have attempted to commit suicide
when under the effects of intoxication.
The second son of Kaura Khan, Barkhurdar
Khan, was an opium-eater ; he also became insane.
The third son, the brave Gholam Haidar Khan,
was a notorious drunkard. The present genera-
tion of this family were following in their father's
footsteps, when, about five years ago, the Deputy
Commissioner, Mr. Dames, induced the Tumaudars
and leading men of the tribe to bind themselves
by a solemn vow to give up the use of alcohol.
This vow has been kept, but some of them
found it difficult to give up the use of stimulants
entirely and took to drinking bhang, from which
they were not precluded by their vow.
Last winter, subsequent to the receipt of the
present petition, I took the opportunity of a visit
to Batil and Bahadurgarh to collect the whole of
the men of the Khosa tribe, some 2,000 or more,
and the mukaddams then in my presence solemnly
promised to abstain from bhang. I trust that
some weight may be given to this unanimous
petition of the Tumaudars, and I would urge that
the Lieutenant Governor be moved to commute
the sentence of transportation for life which has
been passed upon Kalu Khan to one of imprison-
ment for a term of years, on the ground that the
murder was committed in a state of intoxication
without malice prepense, and also on the ground
that intoxication had become a hereditary habit on
the part of a number of headmen of the tribe, and
that the headmen have shown their contrition and
solemnly promised amendment for the future.
Jalal Khan Lishari has petitioned that clemen-
cy may not be extended to Kalu Khan. Kalu
Khan's father has tried to appease Jalal by offer-