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29. Ordinarily black pepper and anise-seed are
used in the preparation of bhang for drinking
purposes. Those who can afford add kasni seeds
and lesser cardamoms. Dhaturá seeds are added
by those who require exceptionally strong potation;
the ordinary ingredients mentioned above are
mixed, some for giving a flavour to the drink, and
the black pepper to give a taste.
I do not know of any preparation known as
bhang massálá, but I do know of a collection of
certain ingredients sold in the bazar as bhang
massálá. They generally consists of:—
(1) Golmarich (black pepper); (2) sounf
(anise-seed); (3) kasni seeds; (4) Khirá
(cucumber) seeds; (5) kharbujá (musk-
melon) seeds; (6) guláb (dried rose-
buds); (7) eláchi (lesser cardamoms);
(8) labanga (cloves).
Nos. 2, 3, and 4 are supposed to have a cooling
effect; Nos. 1, 6, 7, and 8 flavour the drink. To
these some add loaf-sugar and milk. It is believed
that sugar, whether taken with bhang or after
bhang, deepens the intoxication. While on this
subject I may add that the expressed juice of the
following leaves is supposed to counteract the evil
effects of bhang and some other narcotics: (1)
leaves of the jack fruit tree (Artocarpus integri-
folia);
(2) kalmi (Ipomœa aquatica); (3) tamarind
leaves.
30. Habitual moderate consumers generally do
not seek company, for with them the drug is a
matter of necessity and every-day occurrence.
It
is the pleasure-seekers only who long for society.
The consumption is mainly confined to the male
sex. Children of the habitual moderate consu-
mers are generally initiated by their parents.
31. The habit of consuming bhang is easily
formed. It cannot be easily broken off. The
habit of consuming ganja is not easily formed,
and it is more difficult to discontinue the use of
ganja than to discontinue the use of bhang.
Charas and ganja are interchangeable, but in
some society the latter has a disrepute.
32. The custom of drinking or tasting bhang
on the last day of the Durga Puja festival has
a quasi-religious importance.
This custom is
regarded as essential, and, although taken in
moderate doses, it affects the drinkers variously.
It is only in the case of the perverted that it is
likely to lead to a habit. Ganja is considered
equally essential on the Sivarátri night; but the
proportion is so small in the gentleman class, that
no further observation is necessary.
33. Ganja and charas are held in disrepute.
Bhang, however, is more pardonable than the
above two.
34. Certainly. The want of bhang and ganja
will have serious effect upon the consumers. The
occasional moderate consumers of bhang, such
as those who use it as an observance, will consi-
der any attempt to prevent the use of the same
as an interference with their religious custom.
How far the use of the bhang is recommended
in the religious books of the Hindus is a question
for the priestly pundits to discuss. But the cus-
tom, whether sanctioned by the books or not has
acquired a sanctity which no amount of liturgical
sophistry can remove. With certain restrictions,
this may be said also of ganja. As to charas,
I do not think that in this part of India the fore-
going of it would be considered a serious priva-
tion.
35. It would be, I think, feasible to prohibit
the use of charas, which is either imported from
the frontier countries or manufactured in parti-
cular localities.
Prohibitory duties, and such
other excise rules as may be used against smug-
gling, may, in several years, by enhancing the
price of the article and making it scarce in the
market be abolished altogether. As to bhang and
ganja, the plant itself being found wild through-
out India, I am afraid it would not at all be feasi-
ble to forbid its use. Prohibitory duties and
stringent excise rules may make the article difficult
to obtain, but I believe illicit means will not be
altogether stopped.
In such out of the way
stations as Baxa Doars and British Bhutan, I have
myself seen Lepcha women professing to sell
butter and ripe banana fruit offering to the basti
people smuggled spirits, which they carry about
their person under their flowing garments in
bamboo pipes. And therefore I am inclined to
believe that if with such strict surveillance spirit
smuggling in the frontier districts has not been
stopped, the use of the dried leaves and of the
flowering spikes of a plant growing wild all over
India would not be materially forbidden. It is
true that every bhang plant does not produce good
marketable ganja, but in times of scarcity the
deficiency of the narcotic principle in the ganja
will not be unfrequently compensated by the addi-
tion of other more injurious narcotic drugs than
good ganja. I mean dhatura seeds and such other
ingredients. I have heard that those who are
addicted to the use of opium just to satisfy their
craving when in straitened circumstances not un-
often scrape the poisonous oily extract of tobacco
which accumulates underneath the chillum and at
the ends of huka pipes. It would not therefore
be at all a wise policy to interdict the use of a
drug which is so general, and which in moderate
quantities is not quite so injurious. While on this
subject, I may mention that I have seen viciously
disposed taxidermists of the Museum of the Asiatic
Society of Bengal take to stealthily drinking alco-
hol in which specimens were immersed, and the
vice became so general that Dr. John Anderson,
the then Curator of the Asiatic Society, substituted
methylated spirits for the purpose. Perverted
gentlemen again have been seen when all spirit
drinks have been placed beyond their reach to
swallow eau-de-cologne for the spirit it contains.
From all that I have seen of my countrymen, I am
convinced that no amount of excise surveillance
would prevent this vice, this craving after intoxi-
cating drink or drug. A thorough moral education
may reduce the number of consumers, but to
prevent it altogether is beyond all human means.
And of the two things, Cannabis indica and spirits
of wine, I am of the opinion the former is less
objectionable for more reasons than one.
The authorities need not dream of any political
danger in the Gangetic province of Bengal.
Here
there is neither unity in strength nor strength in
individual. We may howl, long howls which may
be heard from Alaska's shore, but we can never
bite. The people of this part of the country,
nevertheless, are more to be dreaded for the mis-
chievous interpretations which it is their nature
to give to all wholesome moves. The case is
different in other parts of India proper.
The
mere prohibition of any particular drug may not
by itself bring any serious consequences, but there
is no doubt that this will foment special discontent
amongst a class who have nothing to lose in riot
and anarchy.
36. I have already stated that people of the
bhadralok class, or those who have got the means
or can afford it, are gradually dropping the drug
for the sake of the alcoholic drink, not because