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96. Evidence of BABU SREENATH CHATTERJEE, Brahmin, Cashier, Public Works
Department, Darjeeling
Division.
1. Occasional association with sadhus and
chelas (Neophytes), of different sects of Hindu
religion, who generally use either ganja, bhang
or charas, and my personal knowledge of the
district, for a long period.
2. By the names of ganja, bhang, siddhi and
charas.
3. District Darjeeling in the lower portions of
the Rungit and the Teesta Valleys. They are
wild hemp.
4. Generally known by bhang.
5. The elevation of the valleys above referred
to is between 500 and 1,200 feet above sea-level.
Soil—sandy and loose earth. The plant grows
in the rainy season.
6. Somewhere dense and somewhere scattered.
7. No; I mean in this district.
18. Yes; if kept in damp places.
19. Generally used for smoking.
20. Specially in the Tarai the agricultural
class, such as Rajbangshis, smoke ganja, but
charas is rarely used in the district.
21. Flat ganja is generally preferred.
22. Foreign. I mean Nepalese, if ever used
by any.
23. I do not know.
25. On the decrease. There is no ganja smoker
in my native village now, whereas there were
many in my younger days.
28. The cost of ganja per diem to a habitual
moderate consumer is one anna, and to habitual
excessive consumers annas three.
29. Yes; bhang massala is composed of bhang,
seeds of cucumber, black pepper, and coriander
seeds.
30. In solitude comparatively less according to
the habits of the consumers, while in company
more, because the habits are generally as a matter
of course overruled. Yes; it is confined to the
male sex. It is not at all usual for children to
consume any except in rare cases, in the unhealthy
parts of Bengal.
31. Yes; the habit of consuming any of these
drugs is easily formed, but it is not at all very
difficult to break off for a moderate consumer,
whereas it is not the case with those who resort
regularly to the ganja dens or addas.
32. It is to be considered as religious in regard
to the consumption of ganja, inasmuch as every
consumer will have to invoke the spirit of Siva,
one of the Hindu Triad, by offering every chillum
of ganja before the smokers partake. Bhang is
used in Bengal in the holy Bijaya days of Durga,
Kali, and Jagathdhatri Pujas, further, on the
sacred day of Sivachaturdasi, commonly called
Sivaratri, both ganja and bhang are universally
used throughout the length and breadth of India
by offering both the drugs to Siva, whether the
devotee is in the habit of using them or not.
33. The consumption of each of these drugs is
generally disregarded in the social point of view,
but it is not so in the religious point of view.
34. Certainly. A serious privation to all class-
es of consumers. The reason is that a habitual
consumer can pass a day without taking any food
whatever, but it is quite impossible for him to do
so without his usual smokes, as the habit is a
second nature.
35. (a) No; as far as I understand.
(b) Very possible.
(c) The prohibition, if necessary, (though I do
not advocate it), can be enforced by legislation.
(d) and (e). Yes. Serious discontent among
the consumers, and calamity to the country not
amounting to a political danger. No political
danger can be apprehended if the sepoys of the
Native regiments, who are generally addicted to
the smoking of ganja and drinking of bhang, are
not discontent.
(f) The orthodox class of consumers will never
have recourse to alcoholic stimulants.
36. Yes; to a certain extent. The cause I
attribute is the spread of English education,
civilisation, and spirituous liquor shops throughout
the length and breadth of the country.
40. Yes; bhang is prescribed by Hindu physi-
cians for its medicinal qualities. I do not know
whether any of these drugs is used in the treat-
ment of cattle-disease.
41. Yes; accessory and digestive too. Gives
staying-power under severe exertion and exposure,
and alleviates fatigue. Yes; it (ganja) is pre-
ventive of disease in malarious and unhealthy
tracts of Bengal.
Moderate occasional use of the drugs is
beneficial.
42. Yes; beneficial, as well as harmless. I
have never seen a moderate consumer of any of
these drugs harmful.
43. Yes; the moderate consumers are undoubt-
edly inoffensive to their neighbours in comparison
with the moderate drinkers of alcohol in an Indian
climate.
44. It is refreshing, produces intoxication, but
not like the intoxication of alcohol, and creates
appetite. No after-effects.
45. No.
46. The habitual excessive use of any of these
drugs produces more or less noxious effects,
physical, mental and moral; impairs the consti-
tution; injures digestion; causes dysentery, bron-
chitis and asthma too; impairs moral sense, and
deadens intellect. Habitual excessive use of
ganja produces insanity.
47 and 48. No.
49. Yes; it is used by some prostitutes. It
produces impotence in the long run.
50. Produces the same injurious effects in a
shorter time.
51. No. No connection.
52. Yes.
53. Yes. I know of no case in which excessive
use has led to temporary homicidal frenzy.
54. Yes; only ganja is used by criminals to
fortify themselves to commit premeditated act of
violence.
55. Yes; the complete stupefaction can be
made by this drug (ganja) in case of those who
are not accustomed at all to the drug.