108
70. No hemp drugs are imported or smuggled
from Native States into the Satara district. Duty
is really paid in respect of all the ganja
and-bhang
used here, no untaxed drugs being consumed.
4 9
. E v i d e n c e o f
Y A S H V A N T
N I L K A N T H ,P
a t a n a
P r a b h u , S u p e r i n t e n d e n t , O f f i c e o f
Survey Commissioner, and Director of Land Records and Agriculture,
Bombay.
1. Observation and conversation with persons
dealing in and using these drugs.
2. So far as ganja and charas are concerned,
Dr. Prain's definition is thoroughly applicable to
the drugs used in the Deccan under these names.
Bhang, as is generally used here, differs slightly
from what is stated in the definition in being a
mass of broken leaves of the hemp plant mixed
with crushed pieces of the dried flower head in its
immature state. This flowering top of the
cultivated female hemp plant is called ganja.
The three described varieties of ganja—flat,
round, and broken—are not recognized in the
Deccan. The ganja in general use here is ap-
parently what is described by Dr. Prain as flat
ganja; but it is considered somewhat milder than
the Upper India drug by those who have smoked
ganja in Upper India as well as in the Deccan,
the mildness being attributed to the practice in
the Deccan of cutting the plant in a more
immature stage than is customary in Upper India.
The inferior variety of ganja known as bhang
approaches the description of Dr. Prain's chur in
being a coarse powder, but can in no way be
compared with the Bengal chur. Bhang is
really the refuse accumulating in ganja stores and
shops, and contains broken leaves, seeds, etc., and
is sold at a much cheaper rate than ganja.
The different hemp drugs are called ganja,
b h a n g , a n d c h a r a s .
3 to 6. Though stray plants are occasionally to
to be met with growing in house yards, manure
heaps, waste grounds, etc., from seeds accidentally
dropped, spontaneous growth of the hemp plant
to any extent is unknown in the Deccan dis
-
tricts.
7. Though hemp drugs are indulged in to a
certain extent, their use in this presidency cannot
be described as being general, except in Sind,
where bhang is consumed as a beverage made up
in the manner to be described. The hemp plant
is therefore cultivated on a very limited scale, as
shown in statement A hereto appended. In
Gujarat, Surat alone has an appreciable area
under hemp, mostly in the head-quarters taluka
of Chorasi. The cultivation appears to be chiefly
for bhang, Surat being one of the sources of
bhang supply to the Bombay market. In the
Karnatak hemp is found under cultivation in the
neighbourhood of the town of Bijapur. But
this cultivation is of recent date, having been
introduced in 1887-88. The principal locality of
hemp cultivation in the presidency proper is the
Deccan, chiefly the districts of Ahmednagar and
Satara, where the plant is grown primarily for
ganja for local consumption and for export to
Bombay.
In the Deccan the use of bhang is much more
limited than that of ganja, and the drug is not
separately produced. What is sold as bhang
consists of broken leaves with the refuse left in
the curing of ganja. Charas, the resin obtained
from the hemp plant, is rarely used and little
manufactured. Charas is not gathered from the
plant as in Bengal. Sometimes, but rarely, in
the Ahmednagar district the glutinous substance
adhering to the hands and feet of men employed
in treading and pressing ganja is scraped off and
stored for private consumption, but not for sale.
The few persons who, like the Hindu and
Muhammadan ascetics and others hailing from
Northern India, smoke charas, obtain it from
Bombay, which receives its supply of the drug
from Northern India, Afghanistan and Yarkand.
Hemp is not grown for its fibre.
8. The area under hemp ( vide appended state
-
ment) has been decreasing, tendency being
attributed to the restriction imposed upon the
disposal of the crop. The area under the crop is
recorded, and the crop is watched by the village
officers, and it cannot be disposed of without the
necessary permit.
Again, as the crop cannot be sold except to the
licensed farmer, and as all hemp drugs will not
keep good longer than a year, the result is that
in some places the crop is not raised unless the
purchase is guaranteed previously by a licensed
vendor.
9. The hemp plant requires good soil and
careful tillage. It does best in medium black soil
with a mixture of red soil. The land is prepared
as for bajri ( Pennisetum typhoideum), and the
seed is sown in June-July with a three-coulter
seed drill, the distance between any two rows
being about a foot and a half. The crop is
bullock-hoed with a view to loosen the surface
soil, to earth up the plants, and to remove the
weeds. It is also frequently hand-weeded to keep
the land scrupulously clean. When it is about
two feet high, the male plants are uprooted and
the crop otherwise thinned, to afford sufficient
room for lateral growth, which is induced by
bruising the stem. This is done by giving it a
half twist a few inches above the root. Culti
-
vators are very careful in removing male plants,
as a few of them are said to be quite sufficient to
fertilize the whole crop of female plants and thus
damage the crop. Male plants are therefore
searched after until the crop begins to flower.
Hemp is liberally manured with farm-yard
manure, but rarely irrigated. If the rainfall is
deficient, it is supplemented by two or three
waterings. The crop becomes ready for harvest in
November-December. It is harvested by cutting
the flower-heads with about ore foot of stalk.
These are left to be exposed to the influence of
dew on a piece of ground well cleaned and beaten
firm specially for the purpose for one night.
Next day the cut stalks are heaped in small heaps,
with the flower heads towards the centre, and the
heaps are trampled and trodden down by men.
This process lasts from three to four days, and
during it the flowering heads are pressed flat.
The ganja is now fit for storage. The heaps are
winnowed, and the flowering heads picked by hand
are stored in gunny bags. The chaff, consisting
mostly of broken leaves and broken flowering
tops, are gathered and separately stored as bhang
.
During the curing of ganja sometimes a little
charas is gathered in the manner described in
reply 7. Thus at one and the same time all the