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43. Evidence of BABU PRAN KUMAR DAS, Deputy Magistrate and Deputy Collector
and Personal Assistant to the Commissioner of Burdwan.
1. I was special Excise Inspector of the Dacca
Division in 1878 and 1879. I was Excise Deputy
Collector of Mymensingh in 1880-81 and of Gaya
in 1882 and 1883. I was on special excise duty
under the Board of Revenue in 1888-89.
2. Yes, the definitions may be accepted. The
names used are bhang or siddhi, charas, ganja.
3. In almost every district of Bengal and
Behar it grows spontaneously. I have seen
jungles of it grown wild in Dacca, Mymensingh,
Faridpur, Gaya, and Murshidabad.
4. Bhang and ganja. They refer to the same
plant, male and female.
5. I have seen it growing wild both in damp
and dry places, i.e., in the damp districts of
Eastern Bengal, as also in the very dry district
of Gaya. Moist soil is good for it. Soil mixed
with manure promotes its growth. I have seen
plants regularly watered grown exuberantly. In
gardens and within houses also it grows up vi¬
gorously.
6. I have seen very densely grown plants on
river banks and round wells. It also grows scat-
tered within houses. Seeds thrown or falling from
plants lead to their growth.
7. (a) Yes.
(b) No.
(c) The North-Western Provinces and Monghyr
bhang is the favourite. The hemp plant is culti¬
vated in Rajshahi and Bogra.
12. I prosecuted and also tried some cases of
nourishing and promoting the growth of hemp
plants. There was ample evidence of nourishment,
such as soil properly prepared, watering, manuring,
and otherwise taking care of, but in no case was
there any evidence of cultivation. I, however,
suspected that it was cultivated in a few cases.
In Gaya I found plants grown in a field and being
taken care of just as other crops. I found
ganja plants grown in Dacca, Mymensingh, and
Gaya. The practice is very limited. Growing
ganja plants require care and nourishment. The
male plants were extirpated in such cases to
allow free room to the female plants to grow up.
Generally the ganja smokers grow it in places
hidden from the public view. Inside house
compounds a few only are grown. The largest I
saw was in a field in Gaya, may be 20 or 25.
13. Yes, to Rajshahi and Bogra districts.
14. (a) Yes.
(b) No.
(c) Yes.
16. Yes, it used to be largely prepared by a
large number of people in their houses. Before
1878 there was a general impression that bhang
preparation was not illegal. Many did not know
that it was an exciseable article. In 1878 a
special excise establishment was appointed, and
since then the excise detective establishment has
been increased. The excise officers as well as the
police since then have detected many cases of pre¬
paration and possession of bhang in large quanti¬
ties, and people have now come to know the law
on the subject, and I think its preparation in
houses without licenses has much decreased.
It can be prepared from hemp plant wherever
grown, but bhang prepared from plants grown
wild in Bengal is not so good. Monghyr and
North-Western Provinces bhang is considered
much superior, and is the favourite. In Bengal
people prepare it for their own consumption,
seldom for sale.
Ganja can also be prepared from wild hemp
plant if great care is taken and the plants are well
nourished and the male plants grown with them
extirpated.
I have not known of charas being clandestinely
prepared in Bengal.
18. These drugs deteriorate by keeping and lose
their effect in about a year. If well seasoned and
proper care taken it keeps even for two years.
The leaves dry up and gradually lose the narcotic
effects. By keeping the ganja in air-tight boxes,
safe from exposure and dampness, the deteriora¬
tion may be delayed.
19. Yes, but ganja mixed with flour and sugar
is taken as a sweetmeat by a few of the richer
consumers. A mixture of ganja with spirit is
taken, I am told, by fever patients.
20. Ganja is taken generally by the lower
classes—cultivators, domestic servants, boatmen,
fishermen, and other labourers. Charas is taken
by a very few people, generally of better classes.
It is of higher value. Kabulis also take it.
Ganja is largely smoked by sanyasis (religious
ascetics) and fakirs, i.e., religious mendicants,
both Hindus and Muhammadans take it largely.
21. The practice differs in different districts.
In East Bengal districts flat and flat chur are
only used. Round is seldom used, and there the
smokers had told me that round ganja causes
headache and was bad in effect. In Burdwan,
again, round and round chur are favourites and
flat is not used. Here the smokers say flat does
not agree with them. I think it is all habit and
prejudice, and that there is no inherent difference
between the flat and round.
22. Foreign. North-Western Provinces.
23. In a few cases I heard of the very poorer
classes smoking bhang or rather the leaves of
wild hemp plant. As far as I can now remember,
I think I learnt of the smoking in Tippera and
Dacca districts.
24. The Hindus drink bhang all over Bengal
and Behar, specially on festive occasions. Bhang
is eaten with sweets called majum. It is taken
only by the richer classes and in towns. Muham¬
madans take majum. Bhang is very little con¬
sumed by them. It is largely taken by up.
country men.
25. The use of ganja has decreased from over
9,336 maunds in 1872-73 to 5,451 maunds in
1892-93, whereas the revenue has increased from
Rs. 11,89,706 to Rs. 23,86,066, i.e., ganja is now
taxed more than treble than it was twenty years
ago. The retail selling price to consumers, to my
knowledge, has increased in some places in the last
fourteen years by more than 100 per cent. Its use
is regulated by its retail selling price and also by
the prices at which country liquor and opium are
sold. A large number of its consumers belong to
the same classes who drink country liquor or take
opium. When price of liquor is raised, some of
its consumers take to ganja. So also with re-
spect to opium and vice versá. It will be seen