84
a higher duty with the large contract system,
because the large contractor would not be so ready
to take to illicit practices. I do not think that
there is any advantage in respect to control in the
city of Bombay from the large contract system,
though there is in districts. We have the small
contract system in the city in respect to liquor.
I do not think that the Government should di
-
rect its attention to the refinement or purification
of the drugs. I think the condition at present
entered in the contractor's license sufficiently pro-
vides for any action of Government in respect to
the purity and quality of the drugs. The only
complaints we ordinarily receive are in respect to
the drugs not being sufficiently intoxicating. We
destroy drugs that have deteriorated. I do not
think I have ever had to take action myself. The
contractor destroys useless stuff because it is his
interest to do so.
Question 68.—My experience, i.e., what I am
told, is that the places where people meet to
smoke chandu and madak are four times as
numerous as they were when the shops were
open.
The seven "shops" referred to in this answer
are places where the people sit and smoke. The
thirteen "places" are where the people take a
drink of bhang or garda and go. They do not
hang about. All these have the police license
for consumption on the premises. They are all
old. established places which have not changed for
years. Applications for new shops, i.e., to in-
crease the number, are not presented. The police
are only referred to in regard to consumption on
the premises.
My impression is that the tax on the drugs is
too low. I think that the ordinary liquor consum-
er pays twice as much for what he wants as the
ordinary ganja consumer would, or three times as
much as the ordinary bhang drinker. I think the
rates should be equalised.
39. Evidence of R AO SAHEB GANESH PANDURANG THAKAR, Deshastha Brahmin,
Mamlatdar, Pandharpur, Sholapur District, at present auditing the jama
-
bandi accounts of the Poona District, Poona.
1 . I h a v e b e e n m a m l a t d a r f o r t h e l a s t f o u r t e e n
years, and have served in the districts of Nasik,
Ahmednagar, Satara and Sholapur, in all of which
the hemp plant is more or less grown. As mamlat
-
dar, I have opportunities of observing the cultiva-
tion of the plant, of watching the system of excise
administration in respect to the hemp drugs, of
coming in contact with the classes of people more
or less addicted to the use of them, and of observ-
ing its effects on the constitution, general habits
and mode of living of such people. My answers
are based more on practical experience than on
any information derived from books.
2 . I n a l l t h e f o u r d i s t r i c t s a b o v e m e n t i o n e d ,
charas is neither separately collected nor sold as
narcotic. The resinous substance which sticks to
the hands of the persons employed in collecting
the flowering tops is sometimes scraped off and
made into small pills which are used for smoking;
but such pills are few and their use very rare.
G a n j a a n d b h a n g a r e l o c a l l y k n o w n b y t h e s a m e
names. The round variety of ganja is not manu-
factured at all. The chur or broken ganja is not
sold as a separate variety, but is mixed with the
dry leaves of the female hemp plant, and the
whole is sold as bhang. The leaves of the male
plant are not used as bhang. Uncultivated plant
is not found in this part. The definition of bhang
will therefore have to be modified as below, so as
to suit the drug sold as bhang in these districts :—
Bhang consists of small detached pieces of
ganja, which remain as residue after
ganja proper is taken off, mixed with a
certain proportion of dry leaves of the
cultivated female hemp plant.
The definition of flat ganja may be accepted as
it is.
3 . I k n o w n o d i s t r i c t i n w h i c h h e m p p l a n t
grows spontaneously.
4 to 6. I know nothing about this.
7. In many districts of this presidency hemp plant
is cultivated for the production of ganja. In the
four districts mentioned above there is no separate
cultivation exclusively for the purposes (b), (c),
and (d). As stated in answer to question2 ,
charas is not manufactured at all. I do not know
of fibres ever being taken out from the hemp
plant. In one village, Kamargaon, in the Ahmed-
nagar district, hemp plants are cultivated, I am
told, for seed alone. As already stated, ganja
and bhang are taken from the same plant
.
Ahmednagar is the only district in which a large
area is under hemp cultivation. In others hemp
cultivation is carried on to a very small extent.
The ganja crop being of no other use, except as a
narcotic, such quantities are only raised as are
sufficient to satisfy the requirements of the district
and the surrounding non-producing places.
8. I did not get statistics about such areas.
I am, however, of opinion that in some districts
there is a gradual decrease in the area under hemp
cultivation, owing probably to the fact that
ganja is now being grown in many places where
it was formerly not cultivated and consequently
where it was required to be taken for local con
-
sumption from other localities. Cultivators of the
hemp plant are not, under the present system of
the abkari administration, at liberty freely to
take the ganja produced by them to the market,
and sell it there openly like other commodities.
For its sale they entirely depend on the ganja
farmer. If, therefore, the ganja is not purchased
by the farmer, the cultivator must keep it in his
house and allow it to decay, thus losing the profit
from his field for one whole year. This state of
things is quite likely to induce the cultivator to
give up the cultivation of the hemp plant, and
this tendency may partly act in reducing the area
under hemp cultivation
.
9. Before the setting in of the rainy season,
the ground which is to be sown with the hemp
plant is prepared, as for an ordinary crop, by
once ploughing and harrowing two or three times.
About the beginning of July the seed is sown in
rows about two feet apart; when the crop is
about a foot high it is cleared of grass, etc., by
hand-weeding or with the help of a small hoe.
If the rainfall is sufficient and seasonable, the
crop grows without any artificial irrigation. If
the rainfall is scanty, it requires to be watered
once a week or so. When the plants attain suffi-