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of ganja and bhang only. According to my
knowledge there are some 30 acres of land under
cultivation where hemp is grown.
8. There is no increase or decrease in its culti-
vation in this district for the last eight years.
9. The land is first prepared as for other agri-
cultural purposes and the seeds are sown at the
distance of 2 ½ feet in rows. When the seeds come
above ground, all male plants are from time to
time detected and destroyed. This goes on from
four to five months, when the female flower stalks
are removed and dried. This forms ganja, while
bracts and some other leaves form bhang.
14. In this district (Nasik) bhang and ganja are
only produced.
16. Ganja and charas cannot be prepared from
plants wherever grown, for the substance is spoilt
if the male plants are not destroyed.
18. Bhang and ganja deteriorate by keeping. It
quite loses its effect in time. With good care it
may be preserved from two to three years.
19. Ganja and charas are only used for smoking.
In rare cases people eat ganja or charas.
20. In this district charas is very rarely used.
Men from all classes smoke ganja. Consumers of
the drug are, however, to be found in large
majority in the bairagi and gosavi class.
23. Bhang is never used for smoking.
24. Men from all classes drink bhanga.
28. (a) Nearly five tolas, cost 1½ annas.
(b) Double the quantity.
29. Ordinarily tobacco is mixed with ganja,
which is first moistened by washing. Dhatura is
used with ganja in order to produce extraordinary
intoxicating properties. Like punch there is a
preparation of ganja consisting of five in-
gredients :—ganja, arsenic, aconite, nux vomica
and opium.
30. I have not known women using these
drugs.
31. The habit is easily formed. If a person
daily uses one of these drugs for six months he
usually becomes addicted to it. It is not very
difficult to give up the habit when newly formed.
In confirmed cases it is rather hard for the person
to break it off. There is always a tendency in all
intoxicating substances to develop into the ex-
cessive from moderate habit.
33. There is no religious prohibition for the
consumption of any of these drugs. The higher
classes of society entertain a kind of prejudice
against a consumer of any of these drugs, for it is
only in the low class people that ganja smoking,
etc., is not looked upon as immoral.
35. It would occasion serious discontent. The
prohibition would not amount to a political danger.
People would take to alcoholic stimulants.
41. The moderate use of any of the drugs is
beneficial if the consumer uses good food. Its use
alleviates fatigue.
43. Moderate consumers are inoffensive to their
neighbours.
4 4 . I t p r o d u c e s p l e a s u r a b l e s e n s a t i o n s . I t n e v e r r a i s e s t h e s p i r i t , b u t i t g e n e r a l l y d e p r e s s e s .
The effect lasts from two to three hours. Its after-
effects are languor and dullness.
115. Evidence of NANNU MIAN B.SHAIKH, Municipal Secretary, Surat.
1. I have had numerous opportunities of ob-
taining information during my services extending
over twenty-sixyears—1st, as Overseer, Local Fund
Canals, in the Hyderabad (Sind) and Shikarpur
districts, 2ndly, as Municipal Secretary at
S h i k a r - p u r , 3 r d l y , a s M u n i c i p a l S e c r e t a r y a t S u r a t ,
4thly, as Administrator of the Sachin State, and
5thly, during my travels in Northern India, Bengal
and Calcutta. During the above period I had the
opportunity of seeing the hemp being cultivated,
of talking with cultivators, drinkers and smokers
of bhang and ganja and charas, and of marking
the effects thereof produced on the consumers.
Since the receipt of the Government communi-
cation No. 7393 of 10th October 1893, I have
instituted special enquiries by actually visiting the
fields where hemp is grown some 9 miles from
Surat, inviting drinkers of bhang and smokers of
ganja and charas to my residence, and hearing
from them their experiences, taking notes of the
effects produced on their respective countenances,
and constitutions.
2. The definitions given may be accepted so
far as bhang and ganja are concerned. As re-
gards charas my own idea and definitions are
somewhat different. Charas is the name applied
to the dew-drops, dirt and resinous matter stick-
ing to the plant and collected by a curious pro-
cess which I will explain in my oral examination.
It is of course resinous matter, but not entirely
so.
3. Hemp plant is not seen by me growing spon-
taneously without any seed. So far as I know,
hemp growing in the alluvial deposits on the
banks of the Indus or the Ganges and of the
canals flowing from it, is the production of the
seed washed away or brought by the muddy water
of the rivers, but I have never seen it growing
abundantly. I have seen hemp growing on the
hills near Sehwan, and it at first appeared to me
to be growing spontaneously, but I soon dicovered
that parrots, while returning to their nests on the
hills, brought a branch or tops of the hemp plant
from the territories of His Highness Mir Ali
Murad Khan, Jaipur, on the opposite side and
dropped the seeds there. The name of the bhang
grown from these seeds is bhang-i-kohi or
K o h i s - t a n i . I w i l l s p e a k a b o u t i t s p r o p e r t i e s a t t h e
proper place.
4. In the Surat district there is a kind of wild
hemp growing in the hemp fields. It is known
by the name of bhangra.
5. For the growth of the wild hemp, except good
loamy soil and moderate supply of water, no
special condition is necessary. I have seen it
growing at 20 to 500 feet above the sea level.
6. The growth of the wild hemp is scattered
and not dense. Two plants can hardly be seen
together.
7. In the Surat district, Charasi taluka, in the
villages of Bhatpur, Itchapur, and Kanar, the
cultivation of the hemp is carried on for the pro-
duction of (c) bhang only. About 30 bighas of
land is generally used in the cultivation. No
attempt is being made here to produce ganja and
charas, nor is fibre extracted from the stems of