451
55. No knowledge or information about this.
35. The use of hemp drugs should be prohi-
bited. This can be done by Government orders
declaring the use to be an offence punishable by
the Indian Penal Code. Exception may be made
for the use on a very small scale for religious and
medical purposes.
59. In my opinion the present excise system
is defective in that it does not sufficiently provide
for the illicit consumption and use of the drugs
in question; also it does not contain any provision
for the prevention of its use.
35. It is desirable to lay before the Commission
that the opinion prevails among the educated
classes that the use of these drugs being injurious
from moral, social and medical points of view,
steps should be taken to minimize the evils by
passing stringent enactments against its use.
210. Evidence of BABU MADHAVA CHANDRA CHATTERJEE, Brahmin, Pleader,
District Court, Dinajpur.
1. I am the born resident of a village in the
district of Dinajpur, from which village the ganja
cultivations I have spoken of in my answers are
only six to ten miles distant. I have seen the
cultivation of ganja. In my early years I had
very frequent opportunities of seeing many ganja
smokers, and I am acquainted with several
persons who drink bhang. I know very little of
charas or of the method of preparation of this
drug and of ganja. Wild hemp plants I have
seen in abundance in various places in the districts
of Bogra and Dinajpur.
2. Yes; the definitions seem to me to be correct
The first variety obtainable from the hemp plant is
locally known by the name of siddhi and occa-
sionally called also bhang. The second variety is
called charas. The first variety of ganja is called
chebti or chepti (flat). The second variety is, I
think, called Jassura, but I am not sure of this
(round). The third variety is called chur or
bhangri (broken).
3. In the districts of Bogra and Dinajpur.
I
consider the spontaneous growth of the hemp
plant in the district of Dinajpur to be abundant,
but I cannot say if it grows more abundantly
in any other district.
4. As far as my knowledge extends, it is known
by only one name, at least in the two districts I
have mentioned above. This name is bhang,
though I must own that educated people some-
times call it bijaya and sometimes siddhi.
5. As far as I know, the hemp plant does not
spontaneously grow in low lands, or in very dry
and hard soil; its growth does not seem to me to
depend very much upon rainfall, as I have seen
wild hemp plants to grow usually in what were
known as seasons and years of general drought.
Lands fit for cultivation of paddy are not conge-
nial to the growth of the plant.
6. If not obstructed, the wild plant generally
grows very densely.
7. The hemp plant is cultivated within my
knowledge in a part of the district of Rajshahi and
in some villages, which, I believe, belong to the
district of Bogra, the extent of the cultivation
being greater in the former than in the latter
place. I do not know if the hemp plants culti-
vated in these places are utilized for the produc-
tion of charas, but, as far as I know, they are not
utilized for fibre or seeds. The principal use to
which the cultivated plants are turned in these
places is the production of ganja, though I have
reason to believe that some use is made of the
leaves unfit for this purpose for the production of
what is used as siddhi or bhang.
8. I do not know.
9. I am not very familiar with these.
10. As far as I know, they are of the same class
as other agricultural cultivators, at least in the
places I have mentioned in my answer to question
No. 3.
11. As far as I know, no.
12. No.
13. No; as far as I know, the cultivation is
not restricted to any particular district or dis-
tricts, yet it is a fact that the cultivation is
not common to all districts. I think there are
some special conditions under which alone the
cultivation is possible. As far as my know-
ledge goes, lands somewhat moist, though suffi-
ciently raised above ordinary level to prevent
accumulation of rain water, are specially suited
for the cultivation. Another condition seems to
me to be that the soil be not very hard like the
rar lands in the districts of Burdwan and Bir-
bhum, or hilly and dry like those of some parts
of the Sonthal Parganas. Lands of a soft and
alluvial character are, I think, specially fitted
for the cultivation; better still if silted up river-
beds of sufficiently long standing are available. I
think further that the plant requires for its
growth lands over which the average rainfall is
from 30 to 50 inches in a year; but of this I am
not very sure. As to what special conditions of
climate and elevation above sea-level are necessary
for the cultivation of the hemp plant for produc-
ing ganja, I have no knowledge.
I think the cultivation of the plant will be
impossible generally in districts like Burdwan,
Birbhum, and Sonthal Parganas.
14. Yes, in places round about Naogaon in
the Rajshahi District. The places belong mostly
to the district of Rajshahi, and, if I have been
correctly informed, also to Bogra. I do not know
the extent of the preparations. As far as I know,
all these three varieties are produced.
15. I know only the method of preparation of
bhang from the wild plant. The plant that is
used for this purpose is generally the female plant,
though the male-plant is also occasionally made
use of. The method of the preparation is to take
some leaves from the plant, and, after leaving
out the dry and withered or half withered leaves,
to expose them to the sun for some time. After
the leaves are dried for some time, they are boiled
in a mixture of from 10 to 25 per cent. of milk
and 90 to 95 per cent. of water.
After drying the leaves once again, they are
fit for use as siddhi or bhang.
16. Yes; bhang is generally prepared by the
people in their own houses, and it can be prepared
from the hemp plant wherever grown. It has
never occurred within my experience that ganja
or charas is prepared from the wild plant, far
less from the wild plant wherever grown.
17. Ganja and charas are prepared, as far as
3 o 2