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134. Evidence of PYARI SANKAR DASS GUPTA, Baidya, Medical Practitioner,
Secretary, Bogra Medical Society, Bogra.
1. I am a medical practitioner, and have per-
sonally observed cases of ganja intoxication.
2. These varieties, as defined here, are accepted
in this province also. (1) Bhang, (2) charas and
(3) ganja are generally the names of the respect-
ive articles in this province.
3. I have seen in Jessore and Bogra the plant
growing spontaneously. It is abundant in the
eastern part of Bogra.
4. Bhang, siddhi, bijaya, are the names applied
to the same plant.
5. It grows in sandy alluvial soil in winter.
6. It grows densely.
7. It is cultivated in Rajshahi, Bogra and
Dinajpur districts.
(a) For ganja.
(b) Charas comes out during the process of
preparation; but it is not the object of the
cultivation.
(c) Bhang is not cultivated.
(d) No.
8. The area has been increased for the increased
demand, as I am told.
9. First a plot of land is made ready for sow-
ing seeds, and when the plants grow one foot long,
they are transplanted to another piece of land most
carefully cultivated, free from weeds and manured
with cow-dung and oil-cakes. They are planted
about a yard's distance.
10. They are the ordinary cultivators and do
not form any special caste.
11. No.
12. Not to my knowledge.
13. The following are the ganja-producing dis-
tricts:—Bogra, Rajshahi, Dinajpur.
14. (a) Ganja is prepared in those ganja-pro-
ducing districts above mentioned.
(b) There is no provision for preparing charas
which is prepared during the process of ganja pre-
paration.
(c) Bhang is not prepared here in an extensive
scale.
15. When the cultivated plants are full-blown,
they are reaped, and pressed for seven or eight
days. Then the pressure is removed and the
flowering tops are trodden under feet and dried
in the sun for three or four days. This is flat
ganja. When it is rolled under foot it is called
the round ganja. When parts are detached
during the process of preparation, they are called
chur. Ganja is principally used in smoking.
The tops are separated from the seeds, then
moistened in water, the water is squeezed out, and
wrapped with tobacco leaves, and pressed on the
left palm by the right finger, and then cut into
small fragments, and pressed again and again, cut
three times.
(A) Then it is smoked in an earthen kalke, a
funnel-shaped tubular apparatus, and in
hukas especially used for the purpose.
(B) I do not know any method of eating it.
(C) It is drunk with bhang.
16. Bhang is dried and preserved by the people
at their own houses. The leaves are mixed with
black pepper and moistened in water, and then
pressed in a mortar and reduced to a thick con-
sistence, and then mixed with sugar and water and
drunk like a sherbet (syrup).
17. There is no special class, but the drugs are
prepared by ordinary cultivators.
18. Ganja deteriorates in the course of time.
Bhang also has the same law. Excessive dryness
is unfavourable to it. Ganja is burnt every year
from the Government stock.
19. Ganja is mainly used for smoking. So is
charas. Ganja is used also in conjunction with
bhang and drunk like a syrup. Ganja is smoked
in Bengal and Behar; but bhang used as a
sherbet mentioned above in many villages of these
provinces.
20. Lower-class Hindus and Muhammadans
use ganja for smoking. But higher classes also
smoke it. Ganja is used more than bhang and
charas. Charas is a refined habit of the town
debauchee. Sanyasis, bairagis, and fakirs smoke
ganja. The number of them smoking ganja far
surpasses any other class.
21. Flat ganja is generally preferred.
22. Charas is imported from Native States,
Nepal.
23. Bhang is not generally smoked, and, when
smoked, it is not much intoxicating. It is not
much used.
24. People who have not means to procure wine
or ganja, or have some religious prejudices to the
former, eat and drink bhang. Those who were
formerly addicted to wine or ganja, but have left
them owing to disease or poverty, use this. It
is used in many villages, and among higher
classes. Uriyas and up-country men use it more
than the Bengalis.
25. Use of ganja is on its increase owing to
the abolition of the outstill system in Jessore,
and in other places for the increase of the price of
alcohol.
26. It is difficult to give accurate figures for
want of statistics. It may be stated in round
numbers as follows:—
(a) 70 per cent.
(b) 20 per cent.
(c) 5 per cent.
(d) 5 per cent.
27. (a) Lower-class Hindus, Muhammadans,
up-country men, sanyasis, bairagis, and fakirs.
These are indolent, of violent temperament, un-
sociable, and unfit for any higher function of life.
(b) Many of the above classes, corrupt young
men of higher classes, and badmashes of all
religious sects. The ascetics are indolent and
live on alms, and the other classes are wrong-doers
and criminals.
(c) and (d) Drunkards and opium eaters in
company, and children of the classes mentioned
above. They have no control over their actions,
and so more dangerous.