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247. Evidence of RADHA KISHUN, late Drug Contractor, Lucknow.
1. I had the opportunity of reading the report
by Dr. Prain in connection with the Ganja Com-
mission, in which these 70 questions are entered.
Besides 1 have had personally to deal with these
hemp drugs for the last 25 years.
2. All these three substances are produced from
the cultivated and uncultivated hemp plant in the
following manner :—
Bhang is obtained from uncultivated plant.
Charas is the essence of ganja plant, which
naturally grows on the hills, and which yields
flowers abundantly. It produces very few seeds
in consequence of the buds being coated with
resin. The cultivators often, with a view to sell
ganja as soon as they can, cut the agglutinated
flower tops and sell them as kali. Flat ganja is
made by sprinkling gum water over the flower
tops. These flower top9 are trodden under foot,
which gives them a flat appearance. The twigs
which remain separate are called "ganja baluchar
garh." Mora or round ganja is the residue of
flower tops. The detached leaves are called
"chur" or broken ganja.
Ganja pathari is a separate kind altogether.
This has no connection with ganja baluchar. Its
seed is of a different kind, and is grown or
cultivated in other tracts. In our province
these are the accepted definitions of these
articles. * They grow in different places. Un-
cultivated bhang grows in Gonda, Bahraich,
Lakhimpur, Hardoi, Fyzabad, Jullundur, Jugad-
har near Hurdwar, and Nepal. Ganja is abun-
dantly made from uncultivated plants which grow
in Nepal. Ganja baluchar is made out of culti-
vated plants in Monghyr, Bengal. Ganja pathari
is made in Gwalior, Atari, and Khandwa in Cen-
tral Provinces, Jalgaon in Khandesh, Indore, etc.
Ganja was also made in Mahadeva, district Bara-
banki, but its cultivation is given up since ten or
twelve years.
Ganja (hatayal) was formerly made in the dis-
tricts of Sitapur and Lakhimpur, but now its
cultivation is given up long since.
Charas saljehan is obtained from Mt. Nabi
Banglom, and in the jungles where the plant
grows spontaneously. Charas, Yarkand, is also
obtained from Kabul, Yarkand, and Ladakh.
Charas, Bokhara, is obtained from Balkh Bokhara.
Charas of Kashmir is obtained from Kashmir.
In these provinees the two kinds of charas last
named are seldom imported.
3. The answer to this question is given in full
detail in the latter portion of the answer to ques-
tion 2.
4. There are two kinds of plants from which
these three substances are obtained. Bhang is a
separate plant, the description of which is given
in answer 2. Ganja plant is quite different from
that of bhang. Its chief product is charas. In
answer 2 a distinction is made between cultivated
and uncultivated plant. The former yields ganja
and the latter charas.
5. The growth of uncultivated plant much de-
pends on rains and the climate. Excessive rains
destroy the plant; hot winds dry it up. Moist
tracts of land are favourable for its growth.
6. In districts (vide answer 2) where bhang
grows spontaneously, the plants are dense where
soil is soft, scattered where it is hard. Ordinarily
the plant grows to the height of a man.
7. In the province of Oudb no one cultivates
the plant. About ten or twelve years ago there
were some places in Oudh where the plant was
cultivated, but it is not so now (vide answer 2).
Charas is not made in this province.
8. There is no such area under cultivation in
Oudh, and so no increase or decrease can be made.
9. In places where ganja plant is cultivated,
first the plot is carefully and laboriously prepared
and then seeds are sown in it.
When the plants grow about a span in height,
they are either taken out and planted in another
manured plot, or manure is thrown on the soil ;
they grow, and they are watered and watched like
poppy plants and from time to time they under-
go all the cultivating processes.
10. There is no special class that cultivates this
plant. Kunjras, muraoos, malis and kurmis do
this. There is a class of cultivators, called patels
They are agriculturists like others ; besides, there
is no material difference in the rent for the area
under cultivation.
11. The plants grown from the seed of uncul-
tivated plants are comparatively inferior in pro-
perties to the cultivated plants. There is much
difference in the effect of two kinds of plants.
12. Ganja like baluchar or pathari is not ob-
tained from uncultivated plants. If the unculti-
vated plant is removed from one place to another
it, instead of producing even the same result as
the uncultivated plant left unmolested, is oftan
destroyed.
13. There are 12 districts in Oudh, and the
cultivation of this plant is not limited to any one
of them, nor prohibited in any. Formerly, it was
cultivated in the districts of Barabanki, Sitapur
and Kheri, and preserved under the auspices of
the Nepal Government. Now, since those men
have been removed from the province, perhaps
that has led to the disappearance altogether of the
cultivation of the plant. Of course in the pro-
vinces where it is still cultivated, it. is subject to
yearly improvement both in cultivation and in
area.
14. See answers 7 and 8.
15. (A) Ganja from cultivated plant is smoked
in a chillum.
(B) Bhang of the uncultivated plant is eaten
as well as rubbed, filtered in water, and drunk.
(C) Charas is smoked like ganja in a chillum.
16. Bhang is prepared by men at home. By
this it is not meant that they cultivate it. The
zamindars, on whose soil it grows spontaneously,
sell it to autherised contractors in accordance
with a pass which they carry with them ; sometimes
they give the contract of cutting it before it is sold
to contractors. Another sense of preparing the drug
at home is this, that those who drink it purchase
it in market, and then wash the leaf well with
water and then powder it along with other spices
on a piece of stone called "sil," and filtering it in