134 REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. [CH. VIII.
The proportions of the various kinds of ganja have varied considerably
during these periods, but, after having attempted to estimate the effect of these
variations, the Commission find that the general result is the same as that above.
shown, viz., that consumption has been stationary during the last 15 years, but
that the average consumption has been much less than that of the previous 5 years.
The increase of population, however, during this period must not be lost sight
of. It amounted to about 71/2 per cent. between 1881 and 1891, and, notwith-
standing this, there was no increase in consumption during this period. In
districts where the consumption has decreased, there are witnesses who say that
the enhanced cost of ganja has reduced, and is reducing, the habit. Evidence is
not wanting, however, to show that other causes also may have been at work to
produce the result. The growing taste for liquor is one of the principal causes
mentioned. This refers to the superior classes. One deposition alone (Patna
District Board, 248) states that the low price of country liquor has caused a
decrease in the sale of ganja among the inferior classes. This evidence, however,
is contrary to the view held by the Excise Commissioner, who states in his memo-
randum (paragraph 65) that liquor, even in Bihar, is much dearer than ganja.
Babu Hem Chunder Kerr attributes decrease to the disrepute in which the
habit is held and the belief that its effects are baneful. An Utopian zamindar,
a Muhammadan, attributes the decrease to the enlargement of the peoples'
minds by education, the action of temperance associations, the publication of
treatises and tracts which condemn the drugs, and the spread of civilization.
In the statements of witnesses who endeavour to explain the increase alleged
to have occurred in their own particular districts, the following reasons for such
increase are given. In exact contradiction to the evidence that the growing taste
for liquor is reducing the consumption of ganja among the better classes, it is
now occasionally stated that the great cost of the liquor habit and its deleteri-
ous effects are making the same classes go back to ganja. Among the lower
classes the raising of the price of liquor under the central distillery system is also
said to be a direct encouragement to ganja. It is even stated that the example
of the better classes is an encouragement to the lower, although the weight of
evidence tends to show that the former are abandoning ganja. The better wages
earned by the labouring classes, who are the principal consumers of ganja, is
sometimes held to account for the increase. Bad seasons and consequent want
of means have, it is said, brought the cheapest intoxicant into favour. As a special
cause is mentioned the recent establishment of a new form of worship of Trinath
in Eastern Bengal. The existence of the shops is said to be a direct incentive
to consumption, but the statement of witness (202) that the officers of Government
make strenuous efforts to push the sale, presumably for the sake of the revenue,
was not sustained under oral examination. Some of the above reasons apply also
to the increased consumption of bhang, which is far cheaper than ganja. And
another very good reason is given in respect to this form of the drug, viz., the
influx of up-country workers into the mills and similar industries of Calcutta and
its neighbourhood.
Reasons for local increase or de-
crease.
351. The above analysis of the evidence gives some of the reasons alleged
by individual witnesses for local increase or decrease,
and indicates the various causes which have assisted
or interfered with the general tendency to decrease which is manifested in the
provincial statistics as a whole.