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2. Evidence of MR. E. V. WESTMACOTT, Commissioner, Presidency Division;
late Commissioner of Excise, Bengal.
1. Thirty years' experience as a Revenue Officer,
including four years as Commissioner of Excise.
2. Not all the male plants are destroyed, but as
many as possible. There are seeded plants in
every sample.
The definitions are correct. Bhang is known
as siddhi or bhang. I do not remember meeting
with the names of subji or patti, but they are
applicable.
3. I think it grows in most Bengal districts.
I frequently meet with it. In Nadia I have re-
cently specially noticed it; also in Murshidabad.
4. Generally ganja or bhang. So far as I know
there is only one plant.
5. I cannot say. Lower Bengal seems to suit
it well.
6. I should say dense. I sometimes see a single
plant, but have more often seen it growing in a
fairly dense patch, covering up to several hundred
square feet.
7. The only admitted cultivation is ganja in the
Naogaon sub-division. I believe, however, that
so-called wild bhang is really often cultivated.
8. This can be obtained from figures in the
office of the Board of Revenue.
9. See Watt's Dictionary. I can add nothing
to it. Prain may have got more information.
10. Same classes, I think. Ask Collector of
Rajshahi.
11. I believe not. Ask at Naogaon.
12. I think not. The plant in the Gurjat
mahals is not much better than bhang, but is used
for smoking. I doubt whether much care is taken
about extirpating the male.
13. (a) Naogaon sub-division and neighbouring
tracts. I do not know why selected.
(b) I do not know. I should think all Bengal
would be suitable.
(c) Not that I know of.
14. This is answered in the annual report by
the Commissioner of Excise.
15. For the preparation of ganja see Watt's
Dictionary. It is smoked with tobacco. Half a
tola will last a smoker three or four days. For
the preparation of bhang, the information noted
by Mr. Fraser at Naihati is correct, so far as I
know.
16. (a) I am not sure about this.
(b) Yes.
(c) No.
17. No particular class that I know of.
18. All of them deteriorate. Ganja and bhang
lose their effect in time. I am not sure about
charas. By the time the new crop comes into the
ware-houses, last year's ganja is not worth much.
Damp, I should say, causes deterioration. It gets
mouldy. Air-tight cases, of course, delay de-
terioration. I never tried oven-drying. I should
think it would destroy the flavour.
19. I believe only for smoking.
20. I can only say that I do not think ganja is
much smoked by the educated classes, except in
isolated instances. Charas seems most used where
there is a ShiyaMuhammadan population (Murshid-
abad), but there are also a number of Jains there.
I don't know who the consumers are. I should
say ganja is most used by the laborious classes on
the mud soil.
21. I don't think there is any preference. I
have inquired about it, and think consumers seem
content to take whatever it best pays the trader to
import.
22. See annual excise report.
23. Very little, I fancy. Generally used as a
drink.
24. All Hindus drink bhang at the Durga Puja.
It is also taken (1) medicinally, (2) as a mild,
slightly intoxicating, stimulant by all classes in
Bengal, but more on the mud than on drier for-
mations.
25. I doubt there being either increase or
decrease. High prices affect consumption; but
official figures are affected by the success of detec-
tive operations, and if smuggling were completely
stopped, figures of consumption would undoubtedly
go up.
26. This is a difficult question. I should say
75 per cent. or more came under class (a), perhaps
as much as 95 per cent. The number under (b),
(c), (d), I should say, was very small indeed.
27. Consumers of class (a), I should say,
belonged mainly to the laborious classes, agricul-
tural and aquatic, on the mud soils.
Classes (c) and (d) I should look for among
professional harlots and town badmashes. As to (b),
I am doubtful. I should think an occasional
isolated case might occur in any class, even the
highest.
28. (a) For the answer to (a), see Mr. Fraser's
notes taken at Naihati.
(b) I cannot say; such cases are rare.
29. The Naihati notes give all I know.
30. (a) I should say the habit was just that of
native tobacco-smokers.
(b) Males over forty.
(c) Most unusual. I should call such an in-
stance extraordinary.
31. (a) I believe so. It meets a natural craving
for some kind of stimulant on the mud soil.
(b) I should suppose so. (c) I do not think so.
A man may very well be a moderate consumer all
his life.
32. (a) Drinking bhang by Hindus at Durga
Puja. See Naihati notes.
(b) Yes.
(c) Temperate.
(d) Not in the least.
There is further use of it in worshipping Maha-
deo (Hor-Gouri, Siva), but I cannot give details.
33. (a), (b) Among the agricultural and boat-
ing classes it is an ordinary thing, and unobjection-
able for a man to take to ganja at middle age;
but among the more effeminate classes, the Babus,
a man, and especially a young man, who takes to
ganja would be looked on as going to the devil,
though not so much as if he smoked madak. I
should look on such a young man, if a ward of
mine, as on a most depraved course. It is not
worse than any other wanton intoxication.
(c) I do not know.