319
these points, but for want of time I give an account
of only two persons, Iswari Singh and Gokul Singh,
both of Mehnajpur, Pargana Deogaon, and my
relatives. The former, my class-fellow while at
school, was employed in the Railway, Oudh and
Rohilkhand Railway, at Lucknow. The ganja
made him half mad and issueless, and at last, about
a month ago, he has been imprisoned for two years.
The record of his case will show of his madness,
and all I have stated on the points of this question
are inferences from his conduct and the course of his
life.
The other, Gokul Singh, was a constable in the
police somewhere in the west. When addicted to
ganja smoking, the first appearance of madness was
that he became quiet and negligent and was dismiss-
ed. His father, very badly off, brought him home.
For one year he was at home like an inoffensive
madman. He talked to none, did nothing, and
took no food except parched grain (charban) some-
times. People wondered how he lived. As he got
no ganja for the poverty of his father, he was re-
stored to his senses at the end of the year. He then
began to roam among his relatives, and lived with
me also. It seems he got at some places ganja
again to smoke, and as a consequence he again was
reduced to the same habit. I took special care of
him this time, and he is now well enough to work,
but very idle.
46. A major portion of the inmates of the luna-
tic asylums, and of the mad and half-mad men out-
side them, must surely be the products of the exces-
sive use of ganja and charas, which including that
of bhang, is sure to effect asthma, cough, debau-
chery, nervous irritability, and sleeplessness, if not
insanity, rendering the consumers thin, weak, lazy,
and incapable of doing anything wordly well and in
all fever epidemics they are first to be attacked and
the soonest to succumb.
47. No, it does not appear to be a hereditary
habit, but to some extent that of ganja and charas
affects the children in making them of low vitality.
48. It is not hereditary, but that of ganja and
charas is sure to make the issue weakly and falling
easy victims to infantile diseases.
49. Yes, that of ganja and charas is so practised
by inconsiderate men and prostitute women, which
soon makes them imbecile. The use for this purpose
is much more injurious, because the drugs do not
possess quality to create manly power, but to ex-
haust soon what it is in one, and hence the use of
hemp drugs tends to produce impotency.
50. The excessive use of ganja and charas, if
ever practised as an aphrodisiac at all, will be so
practised, but for a very short time, because it will
by itself produce imbecility, impotence or insanity.
53. Yes. No, I do not know of any such case.
54 and 55. Yes.
56. Such effects are not modified at all by the
admixture of substances usually mixed. The object
of the usual mixture is simply to make the smoking
of ganja and charas more tenable, and the use of
bhang drink or eatable. I have only once seen a
sadhu eat dhatura seeds with bhang. Mischief-
making people sometimes administer it to others
without their knowledge. Dhatura makes the
drug very strong, producing excessive headache.
57. I have never seen them eaten or drunk, nor
heard it.
63. I would abolish the whole system and
repeat here what I have stated in reply to question
No. 35.
69. No. The wholesale contractor appoints a man
of his own and deputes him to open a shop any-
where he likes. It ought to be considered.
Oral evidence.
Question 1.—The drugs made me inactive, and
my intellect was dulled and my mind depress-
ed. My appetite failed me, so that I could not
take as much food as formerly.
My digestion
was impaired. I learned the habit from a sadhu.
He appeared to me afterwards to have initiated me
into the habit deliberately, although he did not
teach the habit as being connected with religion.
At first I only smoked from his chillum. After-
wards I would take five or six chillums in the
twenty-four hours by myself. Only once did the
smoking quite intoxicate me. That was the prin-
cipal reason of my giving up the habit, though I
saw that the habit was in other respects injurious
to me. From that time I gradually decreased the
quantity until I finally gave it up for bhang. I felt
serious headache after the immediate effects of the
intoxication had passed off, and my brain remained
muddled. I smoked the baluchar ganja. I used to
drink bhang once a day in the evening for a year
before I could quite leave off the drug. I had been
smoking ganja for a year. The bhang always in-
toxicated me, but it was not so strong as ganja. It
was also injurious, though in a less degree than gan-
ja. I was about 23 years of age when I began to
use ganja. I was not in bad health, nor was the
drug recommended to me by any medical adviser.
The sadhu is still alive, but has dropped out of my ac-
quaintance. I was appointed Head Master of a school
at Mohamedabad, and there made the acquaintance
of one Thakur Pershad, who used to smoke ganja
and charas. He introduced me to the sadhu. Tha-
kur Pershad used to take liquor, but gave up the
liquor and took to ganja. The school was reduced,
and I was dispensed with. A year or two after-
wards I got an appointment in the Judge's Court
at Azamgarh. I was there for two years. My pay
as schoolmaster was Rs. 40 and in the Judge's
Court Rs. 15.
Question 20.—I think the number of ganja
smokers has doubled in the last twenty years. I
have observed the habits of people in connection with
the drugs rather carefully wherever I have lived.
I meet such people and talk with them, and I have
made special enquiries on receipt of the Commis-
sion's questions. I think the total consumption of
the drugs must have increased. The auction sales
have nearly doubled in Azamgarh.
Question 21.—I cannot say if the round ganja
comes from Bengal. I know of no other ganja be-
sides that which comes from Bengal. The round
ganja is not baluchar.
Question 22.—I don't know where the charas is
made which comes from East Bengal. I have seen
it. The contractors have told me that it comes from
east, some place in Bengal. I don't know in what
place near Punjab the other charas is made.
Question 24.—By "40 per cent. are bhang con-
sumers," I mean the ratio to refer to the male po-
pulation.
Question 25.—I state that the sadhus are in-
creasing in number because my observation has con-
veyed that idea. I find in nearly every village
now in Azamgarh a "kutti" which is inhabited by
sadhus. Formerly there was only one such kutti
in two or three villages. My duties carry me into
the district, and I visit nearly all villages. The
1 wandering sadhus are fewer. I have not studied the