24
21. In this district flat ganja is principally
smoked. In Calcutta and the metropolitan dis-
tricts, and in Orissa, I understand round ganja is
in demand.
In Eastern Bengal people affect flat ganja
mostly.
I give particulars of the export of the different
kinds to the different districts (Appendix A).* It
is with ganja as with tobacco. The man who has
learnt to smoke latakia will stick to it; a man
accustomed to bird's-eye will smoke none other.
These varieties would be despised by the common
sailor, who thinks Limerick Twist the only tobacco
fit to smoke.
A taste once formed in this
direction rarely alters; so it is with ganja. The
man or boy who has learnt to smoke with flat
keeps to flat; another whom his father or a friend
taught to smoke round affects round. Chur is
preferred to the other two because it is more free
from stalk and is more potent; but as it is made
from both flat and round, it is mere caprice or
fancy which will induce a man to smoke chur
instead of the other two varieties. Chur is cleaner
and of course more expensive, and goes further.
22. I have nothing to say.
23. No.
24. I cannot say. I have no good inform-
ation; but a very small proportion, 1 in 500, will
be a habitual drinker or eater of bhang: he will
be found principally amongst bairagies, sanyasis,
fakirs, who wander about the country.
25. I can speak only of
ganja. Smoking
ganja is certainly not on the increase.
There is no appreciable difference in the quantity
exported to the different districts from Naogaon.
The largest differences are found in Shahabad,
Darbhanga, Hazaribagh.
From the detail export list* submitted herewith,
it will be seen there has not been very great in-
crease in export to any district. But export to all
districts of the Patna Division is very large as
compared with the export to most other districts
in Bengal. The reason for this large export is
explained by the fact that from there, that is,
Behar, certain quantities are transported to the
North-Western Provinces.
26. It is difficult for me to give figures which
will carry conviction to the minds of others; but I
should say habitual excessive consumers and oc-
casional excessive consumers of ganja are very
few—about 5 per cent. each of the total number
of consumers. Habitual moderate consumers will
be 60 per cent. of consumers; occasional moderate
consumers about 30 per cent.
27. Nearly all, if not all, ganja consumers
come from the lower orders: agricultural labourers,
day-labourers, palki-bearers, domestic servants,
such as syces, mahauts, and people accustomed to
hard work. They take a smoke of ganja as a sort
of pick-me-up, to be relieved of the discomfort
they are called upon to endure in the performance
of their duties. These are mostly all habitual or
occasional moderate consumers. Jogis, sanyasis,
and others who smoke ganja in excess are slaves
to a vice, in the same way as drunkards.
28. (a) Habitual moderate consumers, 1 to 2
annas' worth of ganja, i.e., 1/4 to 1/2 tola.
(b) Habitual excessive consumers, 4 to 8 annas'
worth of ganja, i.e., 1 to 2 tolas.
I must say I am inclined to doubt the accuracy
of these estimates. I think the quantities are
overrated. But not knowing anything personally,
I have given what I have been told.
29. Tobacco is ordinarily mixed with ganja in
smoking, to correct the harshness of the more
potent weed. Ganja by itself burns the throat,
even though only five or six whiffs are taken at a
time. I understand dhatura is used by sanyasis,
jogis, and others for the purpose of inducing
intoxication in smoking ganja. I have no idea
what bhang massala is. It is not known here.
30. Ganja is generally smoked in company,
because a chillum-full is too big a smoke for one
smoker. A
chillum-full suffices for 3 or 4
smokers. It would be expensive for one smoker
to have a chillum-full of ganja all to himself.
It
burns or affects the throat; so that he could only
inhale 7 or 8 whiffs, and then have to lay the
chillum aside; the ganja would in the meantime
all burn away. Adult males alone smoke ganja,
except a few of the lowest order of prostitutes.
Children do not smoke, though I have heard of
native boys having a smoke of ganja on the sly,
much in the same way as an English school-boy
will indulge in a clandestine smoke.
31. I could not say anything with authority;
I have had no experience.
32. The use of bhang on the fourth day of the
Durja Puja, after the idol is committed to the
river, is very common among the Hindus. They
prepare a sort of drink by pounding siddhi and
mixing it with sugar and water, and offer it to all
friends and relatives whom they meet. The use
is so common and so widespread, that it may be
regarded as essential. The consumption of bhang
sherbet is very temperate, and has no tendency to
become a habit. Ganja is offered to the idol at
Tarakeswar in the district of Hughli by almost
every one of the pilgrims; and from the compul-
sory nature of the offering, it appears that it has
some kind of religious obligation about it. In
Baidyanath temple the Siva is worshipped with
siddhi and ganja. In East Bengal a fair is held
in honour of the god "Tinnath," where ganja
is worshipped. This custom, however, has now
nearly died out.
33. There is no decided public opinion in
regard to the practice of ganja-smoking; but it
may be said that ganja-smoking is in disrepute,
for the appellation of "ganja-khor" is a term of
opprobrium. Ganja-smoking is thought disreput-
able merely because the article is cheap, is within
the poor man's reach, and is generally the poor
man's only stimulant. If the article was expen-
sive, like opium or in a less degree like country
liquor, I am sure no disrepute would attach to
ganja-smoking in moderation among the natives.
"Ganja-khor" is used to denote a man who stoops
so low as to seek for a relief from his troubles in
so cheap and nasty a stimulant as ganja. Besides,
from the religious point of view of both Musal-
mans and Hindus, recourse to any stimulant, how-
ever moderate, is to be deprecated. The strictly
orthodox of both sects will not touch any stimu-
lant of any kind. No custom of worshipping the
hemp plant has come to my notice. All customs
in existence having reference to hemp, have nothing
to do with the hemp plant.
34. Undoubtedly the moderate consumers of
ganja among day-labourers, palki-bearers, and
others would look upon it as a serious privation,
because ganja smoking affords them relief from
toil, and is a source of enjoyment, just in the
same way as if you deprived the English navvy of
his beer or of his pipe. There would be about
*Not printed.