9
8. The area under cultivation fluctuates, accord-
ing to the character of the season and the prices
ruling in the preceding year.
10. They are of the ordinary agricultural class.
13. Vide answer to question 7.
14. Ganja, yes, in the Khandwa Tahsil of the
Nimar district as before stated. The amount of
ganja brought to the godown in Khandwa yearly
varies from about 6,000 to over 8,000 maunds.
(I write from memory.)
18. If the drugs can be kept dry, they will keep
good for a long time, say, two years.
19. Charas is, I believe, used only for smoking.
Ganja is nearly always smoked, but some excessive
consumers are said in rare instances to eat it.
20. The consumption of charas here is insig-
nificant. Ganja is smoked by a large percentage
of the labouring class and by fakirs and sadhus
almost universally.
22. Foreign; imported from the North-Western
Provinces.
23. I have never heard of this practice.
24. Bhang is drunk by nearly all Marwaris of
the better sort, specially in the hot weather and
in the larger towns.
25. The revenue realized from ganja is steadily
increasing. But it is possible that this is due to
more efficient control and diminished smuggling.
Personally, my enquiries have led me to the belief
that the use of ganja is not on the increase.
27. I should say that the great bulk of the
labouring class are habitual moderate consumers,
and the great bulk of the fakir and sadhu classes
habitual excessive consumers.
28. ¼ of a tola . .cost 3-6 pies.
1-2 tolas . . cost 1-4 annas.
29. Tobacco is ordinarily mixed with ganja, and
musk, cardamoms, dhatura, opium and betel-nut
are sometimes also so used. Musk and cardamoms,
for the fragrance they impart, and the others be-
cause they are believed to increase the intoxicating
power.
30. Consumption is practised both in company
and in solitude, and is not confined to the male
sex or to any time of life. Children are some--
time given bhang by their elders as a treat.
32. It is the practice to drink bhang amongst
Hindus at religious festivals, especially Nagpan-
chami and Sheoratri. I know of no social custom
requiring the use of the drug.
33. No doubt respectable people do not like to
have it said of them that they smoke ganja.
There is not the same feeling in respect to bhang.
I attribute the feeling about ganja to the fact
that it is emphatically the luxury of the very poor,
and that, therefore, the criminal classes are gene--
rally addicted to it. I never heard of any worship
of the hemp plant.
34. I imagine persons who habitually consume
the drug would suffer severely from its abrupt
discontinuance.
35. Ganja is the only drug which is consumed
in these provinces to an extent worth considering.
It would be feasible to prohibit its use, but such
prohibition would undoubtedly be followed by
extensive smuggling. Serious discontent would
be caused, but the aggrieved parties would be
chiefly of the silent class, and the class with least
powers of resistance. So perhaps it would be an
exaggeration to call such discontent a political
danger. Still everything which harasses and
worries the lower classes to any large extent
tends to aggravate any political danger which
may arise. I should expect an increased con-
sumption of opium (vide answer to question 36).
36. I think not. We are raising the price of
our liquor in many places, and it is already very
expensive in comparison with drugs.
40. I am informed by native doctors that
ganja is prescribed for bronchitis and asthma. I
am not aware that any of these drugs are used in
cattle disease.
41. This is rather a question for a medical man
than a layman. But the people believe that the
moderate habitual use of the drug (ganja) acts as
indicated in (a) and ( b ).
42. I cannot say.
43. I think they are.
45. No case has come under my personal notice
in which the use of ganja, moderate or excessive,
has produced any of the noxious effects recited.
51. I think the first part of this question
must be answered in the affirmative. I don't
believe that people are bad characters because
they smoke ganja. But bad characters are
generally people who are keen on getting as
much pleasure out of life as they can, and ganja
being cheap, they go in extensively for that.
53. I have never known personally of such a
case.
54. I have never had this fact proved in evid-
ence before me.
55. I think this is occasionally done. I can
r e m e m b e r t w o o r t h r e e i n s t a n c e s d u r i n g t h e t i m e I h a v e b e e n a M a g i s t r a t e i n w h i c h I w a s s a t i s f i e d
that the victim had been drugged with ganja.
But in no case was stupefaction produced to the
best of my recollection.
58. I think it works well.
60. Quite sufficiently.
6 3 . . N o .
64. No.
65. Yes.
67. No.
68. No.
69. Any local representation is, and ought to
be, considered, but it is not solicited.
70. There is smuggling of course, and always
will be, until the retail price of hemp drugs in
Native States is assimilated to the price in British
territory. But it is not I believe extensive and
it is decreasing.
7. Evidence of MR. B. ROBERTSON, Deputy Commissioner, Nimar.
1. The subject is one to which I had paid very
little attention prior to the appointment of the
Commission. I have been about six months in
Nimar, during which time I have had a good deal
of correspondence about ganja administration,
especially in connection with the store-house at
vol. vi.
Khandwa ; but before receiving these questions, I
knew little about the cultivation of the ganja
plant or the uses of the drug. The answers given
are the result of recent local enquiry.
2. Charas is practically unknown in the Central
Provinces.
E