NationalLibraryOfScotland/medical-history-of-british-india huggingface dataset:
REPORT
OF THE
INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION.
1893-94.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
Appointment of the Commission:
its object.
1. The Indian Hemp Drugs Commission was appointed under the orders of
His Excellency the Governor-General in Council
contained in the Resolution of the Government of
India, Finance and Commerce Department, No. 2792-Ex., dated 3rd July
1893. In a despatch No. 36 (Revenue), dated 16th March 1893, Her
Majesty's Secretary of State informed the Government of India that in
answer to a question* put in the House of Commons he had express-
ed his willingness to request the Government of India to appoint a
Commission to inquire into the cultivation of the hemp plant in Bengal,
the preparation of drugs from it, the trade in those drugs, the effect of their
consumption upon the social and moral condition of the people, and the desir-
ability of prohibiting the growth of the plant and the sale of ganja and allied
drugs. In requesting the Government of India to appoint a Commission for the
purposes stated, the Secretary of State desired that such instructions might
be issued as would ensure that the inquiry should be thorough and complete.
Lord Kimberley was of opinion that the inquiry could hardly be confined to Ben-
gal, but should extend to the whole of India, and that the Commission should
ascertain to what extent the existence of the hemp plant all over India affects
the practical difficulty of checking or stopping the consumption of ganja as dis-
tinguished from other narcotic drugs prepared from the hemp plant, and whether
there is ground for the statement that bhang is less injurious than ganja to con-
sumers.
Constitution of the Commission.
2. The Commission appointed by the Government of India Resolution of
3rd July 1893 consisted of a President and six Mem-
bers, three of whom were officials and three Native
non-official gentlemen. Under subsequent orders, a Secretary to the Commis-
sion was appointed.†
* By Mr. W. S. Caine on 2nd March 1893.
President:
The Hon'ble W. MACKWORTH YOUNG, M.A., C.S.I., First Financial Commissioner, Punjab.
Members:
1. Mr. H. T. OMMANNEY, Collector, Panch Mahals, Bombay.
2. Mr. A. H. L. FRASER, M.A., Commissioner, Chhattisgarh Division, Central Provinces.
3. Surgeon-Major C. J. H. WARDEN, Professor of Chemistry, Medical College, and Chemical Examiner to
Government, Calcutta; Officiating Medical Storekeeper to Government, Calcutta.
4. Raja SOSHI SIKHARESWAR ROY, of Tahirpur, Bengal.
5. KANWAR HARNAM SINGH, Ahluwalia, C.I.E., Punjab.
6. LALA NIHAL CHAND, of Muzaffarnagar, North-Western Provinces.
Secretary:
Mr. H. J. McIntosh, Under-Secretary to the Government of Bengal, Financial and Municipal Departments.
I
CH. I.]
REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94.
9
various members of the Commission, and one member proceeded to Naini Tal to
consult with His Honour the Lieutenant-Governor on behalf of the Commission.
The Central Provinces were visited from 2nd to 11th September, the Com-
mission's head-quarters being at Jubbulpore. The asylums at Jubbulpore and
Nagpur were inspected, and some of the members met the Chief Commissioner at
Pachmarhi. Some of the members also proceeded to Indore to consult the
Agent to the Governor-General, and the Commission as a body had an
opportunity of making themselves acquainted with the system of cultivation
of the hemp plant for ganja which is centralized at Khandwa. From the Central
Provinces the Commission travelled to Poona, where they remained from 12th
to 18th September in communication with the Government, and where there
was an important asylum to inspect. On the way from Poona to Madras the
Resident of Mysore was visited at Bangalore, and inquiries were held at the
Dharwar Asylum. At Madras the Commission were occupied from the 22nd to
25th September, after which they broke up into two parties-one proceeding to
consult with His Excellency the Governor at Ootacamund, and the other to
Hyderabad, where important arrangements had to be made for collecting inform-
ation from that State. Inquiries were also held at the Madras and Hyderabad
Asylums.
The two parties rejoined at Bombay on the 30th September, and then
proceeded to Simla, where the head-quarters of the Punjab Government were
located. On the journey one part of the Commission stopped at Baroda and
Mount Abu to arrange for the collection of information in Baroda and the Raj-
putana States, while another party held inquiries at the asylums at Colaba,
Ahmedabad, and Delhi. At Simla the Commission had their head-quarters from
7th to 24th October, during which interval two members paid flying visits to
Lahore, Hyderabad (Sind), and Karachi to inspect the asylums at the two
former places and to complete the arrangements made in Sind for the proper
selection of witnesses.
The second tour, which was mainly devoted to the examination of witnesses,
lasted from 25th October to 25th April. The various provinces were visited
in the following order, and witnesses were examined at the centres named on the
dates mentioned against each:—
Province.
Centre.
Dates on which witnesses were examined.
Central Provinces
Khandwa
27th October.
Nagpur
30th and 31st October and 2nd Nov-
ember.
Raipur
4th and 6th November.
Jubbulpore
9th, 10th, 11th, and 13th November.
North-Western Provinces Meerut
16th, 17th, 20th, and 21st November.
and Oudh.
Agra
22nd, 23rd, and 25th November.
Lucknow
27th, 28th, 29th, and 30th November
and 1st December.
Allahabad
4th, 5th, and 6th December.
3
10
REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. [CH. I.
Province.
Centre.
Dates on which witnesses were examined.
Bombay
Bombay
9th, 11th, 12th, and 13th December.
Poona
14th, 15th, and 16th December.
Bombay
18th, 19th, and 20th December.
Ratnagiri
22nd December.
Madras
Calicut
28th and 29th December.
Trichinopoly
1st January.
Madura
2nd January.
Vizagapatam
9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th January.
Madras
17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, and 22nd Janu-
ary.
Burma
Mandalay
30th and 31st January.
Rangoon
6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th February.
Bengal
Dacca
19th and 20th February.
Calcutta
22nd and 23rd February.
Cuttack
26th and 27th February.
Puri
1st March.
Assam
Dhubri
9th and 10th March.
Gauhati
12th March.
Tezpur
14th, 15th, and 16th March.
Bengal
Bhagalpur
21st, 22nd, 23rd, and 24th March.
Berhampur
26th March.
Calcutta
28th, 29th, 30th, and 31st March, and
2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th April.
Punjab
Lahore
12th, 13th, 14th, 16th, 17th, and 18th
April.
Besides examining witnesses, the Commission continued to prosecute their
inquiries in asylums during this tour, visiting all asylums which had not been seen
during the preliminary tour. The centres chosen for the examination of witnesses
were generally selected with a view to the convenience of the majority of the wit-
nesses summoned; but other circumstances, such as the presence of a lunatic
asylum or exceptional growth or use of hemp drugs, had some influence on the
decision of the Commission in this matter.
CH. I.]
REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94.
II
Attendance of Members.
14. The following statement shows the attendance of the members of the
Commission during the period occupied in inquiry
(3rd August 1893 to 25th April 1894):—
Name.
PERIOD OF ATTENDANCE WITH THE COMMISSION.
Number of meetings
Name.
PERIOD OF ATTENDANCE WITH THE COMMISSION.
for examination of
Name.
(a) During the first tour.
(b) During the second tour. witnesses attended.
President
83 days
183 days
86
Mr. Ommanney
Ditto
Ditto
85
Mr. Fraser
Ditto
Ditto
85
Dr. Warden
Ditto
Ditto
86
Raja Soshi Sikhareswar From 3rd August to From 30th October to
44
Roy.
15th September, 44
24th January, from
days.
14th to 16th Febru-
ary, from 22nd to
24th February, and
from 7th to
25th
March, 112 days.
Kanwar Harnam Singh
83 days
From 13th November
48
to 5th January, 22nd
February to 2nd
April, and from 12th
to 25th April, 78
days.
Lala Nihal Chand
3rd August to 20th From 30th October to
5
September,
49
18th November and
days.
from 17th to 25th
April, 29 days.
The attendance of Raja Soshi Sikhareswar Roy was broken by occasional
absence caused by ill-health and other reasons. The absence of Kanwar Har-
nam Singh during two short periods was due to ill-health. The prolonged
absence of Lala Nihal Chand was due to the fact that he suffered from con-
tinued ill-health, and was able to be with the Commission only at Calcutta at
the first; then for some part of their preliminary tour, and at a few meetings for
the examination of witnesses during the second tour. All the members were
present at Simla during the preparation of the report.
The witnesses.
15. The witnesses whose evidence has been received by the Commission
may be practically divided into three classes:—
(1) Official witnesses able to give information regarding hemp drugs,
based on their official and local experience.
(2) Non-official witnesses of all ranks able to give information regard-
ing the drugs generally or in connection with certain classes of the
people.
(3) Other persons or associations having facts or holding opinions which
they desired to communicate to the Commission.
The particular selection of individual witnesses of the first and second classes
was in the first place left to Local Governments and Administrations acting upon
the principles laid down by the Commission that the evidence should be of as
12
REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. [CH. I.
representative a nature as possible, and that all classes interested should be ade-
quately represented. But, as has already been explained, the action of the Local
Governments and Administrations was in almost all cases supplemented by the
Commission, who held themselves free to invite the evidence of persons or asso-
ciations whose acquaintance with the subject was brought to their notice, or
who seemed on any ground to be able to throw any light on the subject.
Witnesses of the third class were of course not selected, but were invited in
the most public way, as has been already explained, to come forward and lay
their views before the Commission, should they desire to do so.
The following table shows the number of witnesses in each province whose
evidence was received by the Commission:—
Witnesses in British Provinces whose evidence was received by the Commission.
Province.
OFFICIAL.
NON-OFFICIAL.
Province.
CIVIL
OFFICERS.
MEDICAL
OFFICERS.
PRIVATE
MEDICAL
PRACTI-
TIONERS.
Zamindars and Planters, etc.
Professional men.
Missionaries. Associations.
Persons engaged in trade.
Others.
Total.
Province.
Superior.
Subordinate.
Superior.
Subordinate.
Practising after Eu-
ropean methods.
Practising
after
Native methods.
Zamindars and Planters, etc.
Professional men.
Missionaries. Associations.
Persons engaged in trade.
Others.
Total.
Bengal
44
55
21
11
12
15
40
22
5
9
6
11 251
Assam
17
1
6
5
2
6
5
1
3
1
1
48
N.-W. P. and Oudh
44 29 21 25
6 52 45
6
1
1
17
17 264
Punjab
18
13
6
8
2
7 12
2
4
6 10
7 95
Central Provinces
16
18
6
3
1
21
4
3
12
84
Madras
42
36 17 20
1
6 13
9 17
2
15
15 193
Bombay
30
32
13
14
7
4
2
4
1
2
5
4 118
Sind
4 10
3
6
1
2
1
1
1
6
35
Berar
6 11
9
2
2
1
2
3
36
Ajmere-Merwara.
1
1
1
1
1
2
7
Coorg
2
2
Baluchistan
1
2
4
7
Burma
34
2
9
3
1
4 53
Total
257 210 112 102
34 87 144 55 34 24 75 59 1,193
This list comprises all the persons and associations in British provinces
whose evidence came before the Commission, whether they were examined orally
or not, and whether they were specially summoned or invited to give evidence or
volunteered their evidence. A nominal list of the witnesses in each province
14
REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. [CH. I.
the Commission thought the witness could give further information than that con-
tained in his paper. In every case, however, the witness was permitted, if he
chose to do so, to supplement his written paper by offering any further evidence
relevant to the inquiry not already given by him. When a witness was orally exa-
mined, his evidence was taken down by a member of the Commission. It was
not recorded in the form of question and answer, as this would have involved loss
of time, but in the form of a narrative as nearly as might be in the words used by
the witness. When the evidence was completed, it was read over to him, and
(after any necessary correction) was admitted by him to be correct. This evid-
ence, as thus accepted by the witness in each case, is published immediately
beneath his written evidence, to which it is supplementary, and in connection with
which it requires to be considered.
In almost every province some witnesses were examined orally who had not
previously submitted written papers. These were either persons who, although
they had not answered the questions, appeared to the Commission to be in a
position to afford information, and were invited by the Commission when they
arrived in the province to appear before them, or they were persons who volun-
teered to give evidence while the Commission were actually holding their sittings
in the province.
In the case of officials who were summoned to appear, but who were unable
to do so, and of non-official witnesses who were invited to appear, but failed to do
so, the Commission have not excluded their papers from the record. Their
written papers are published, but a note is added to the effect that they did not
appear before the Commission for oral examination although summoned or invited
to attend, as the case may be.
In the lists of witnesses prefacing the volumes of evidence appended to this
report distinguishing marks are given to indicate those who were examined orally
in addition to furnishing written papers, those who gave oral evidence only, and
those who failed to attend although summoned or invited to appear.
CHAPTER II.
IMPORTANT POINTS CONNECTED WITH THE NATURAL HISTORY OF
THE HEMP PLANT (CANNABIS SATIVA).
Limitation of discussion.
17. The subject with which the Commission have to deal is surrounded in
many of its aspects with a mist of uncertainty
and conjecture. It is the business of the Com-
mission to remove these doubts as far as possible, and for this end it is
incumbent on them to proceed on a basis of ascertained fact and established
opinion as regards each branch of the subject. This principle must be applied
to the natural history of the plant equally with the other matters on which they
have to report.
Points for discussion.
18. In regard to the identification and idiosyncracies of the hemp plant,
those points only will be noticed which have a direct
bearing on the control of the narcotic in its various
forms. These points appear to be—
(a) Whether the plant is indigenous to the British Indian possessions.
(b) Whether the narcotic-yielding plant is identical with the fibre-yield-
ing plant.
(c) Whether, though systematically identical in the botanical sense, there
exist in India distinct races yielding fibre and the different forms of
the narcotic.
(d) Whether the fibre-yielding plant does as a matter of fact yield the
narcotic in any form.
(e) Whether the narcotic-yielding plant does as a matter of fact yield
fibre.
Points (d) and (e) are of course subsidiary to, and illustrative of, point (c).
Is the hemp plant indigenous to
India?
19. Point (a) may be of importance in connection with the question of con-
trolling the wild or spontaneous growth. In his
"Report on the cultivation and use of ganja"
which was issued when the Commission began their inquiries, Dr. Prain
has discussed this question fully at pages 39 to 44. He is clearly of
opinion that the hemp plant is not indigenous to India, but that "having
reached India as a fibre-yielding species, the plant developed the narcotic property
for which it is now chiefly celebrated there." Dr. Watt in his article on "Hemp or
Cannabis sativa" is not quite so decided as the above authority in excluding the
whole of India from the area of indigenous growth. He writes as follows: "It
has been found wild to the south of the Caspian Sea, in Siberia, and in the desert of
Kirghiz. It is also referred to as wild in Central and Southern Russia and to the
south of the Caucasus. The plant has been known since the sixth century B.C. in
China, and is possibly indigenous on the lower mountain tracts. Bossier mentions
it as almost wild in Persia, and it appears to be quite wild on the Western Himalayas
and Kashmir, and it is acclimatised on the plains of India generally. Indeed, the
intimate relation of its various Asiatic names to the Sanskrit bhánga would seem
to fix the ancestral home of the plant somewhere in Central Asia. On the
Survey of India Offices, Calcutta, August 1894.
GANJA PLANT ALMOST READY TO CUT, NAOGAON.
16TH
FEBRUARY
1894.
18 REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. [CH. II.
is described as a process so difficult and laborious that very little of it is prepared.
It may be noted that selected flower heads from the bhang cultivation of Sind are
used as ganja (ghundi), though it is of inferior quality. The production of charas
is not mentioned; but from the account of the cultivation for ganja in Bombay and
Gwalior, it would appear that the production of that form of the drug (charas)
depends on the quantity of resin secreted in the flower head and the economy of
extracting it rather than on any quality inherent in the resin.
Dr. Watt's impression that Cannabis is cultivated for hemp in the Godavari
districts seems to arise out of the confusion which has always existed in Madras
reports on the subject of the hemp drugs, and from which the subject is not yet
quite clear in that Presidency. Other fibre plants, such as Crotalaria juncea and
Hibiscus cannabinus, whose products go under the name of hemp, have been con-
founded with the true hemp. It is now definitely stated in paragraph 7 of the
letter from the Board of Revenue, Madras, to the Commission, No. 1839, dated
1st May 1894, on the authority of the Deputy Director, Agricultural Branch of the
Board of Revenue, that "Cannabis sativa is never grown in this Presidency for
fibre." Attention may in this connection be drawn to pages 3 to 5 of Dr. Royle's
work on the "Fibrous Plants of India." He explains the effect of the Indian
method of cultivating hemp and flax, involving free exposure of the individual plants
to light, heat, and air, in causing the fibre to become woody and brittle instead of flex-
ible and strong. He contrasts the European method of cultivation by thick sowing,
which, with a temperate climate inducing slow growth, conduces to height and
suppleness in the plant and its fibres. He admits that the Indian climate with
its comparatively short seasons, great alternations of dryness and of moisture,
and considerable extremes of temperature is not the best suited to the production
of good flax and hemp. But he suggests that it might be possible by modifica-
tions of culture and the selection of suitable sites to grow both these plants
within the limits of India so as to yield useful fibre. In the Himalayas only are
to be found climate and mode of cultivation of the hemp plant resembling those
of Europe.
Survey of India Offices, Calcutta, August 1894.
A GROUP OF PLANTS IN THE SPONTANEOUS GROWTH OF BHANG AT AMRITSAR.
23RD
APRIL
1894.
Survey of India Offices, Calcutta, August 1894.
THE SPONTANEOUS GROWTH OF BHANG IN THE PUBLIC GARDENS, AMRITSAR.
23RD
APRIL
1894.
28 REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. [CH. III.
the most important of such patches of growth appeared to him to have been
cultivated.
The chance growth of the Presi-
dency is not wild.
55. The general conclusion must be that the dense and widespread growth
does not exist in the Madras Presidency, but that
throughout the Presidency the chance and scattered
growth on refuse heaps near villages or in other exceptionally favourable situations,
such as old cattle-folds or coolie lines, may occasionally be found, and more
commonly in the hill tracts than in the low country.
Travancore and Cochin.
56. There is information from Travancore that "in some hilly tracts where
the seed was once sown by Kanikars, hillmen, a suc-
cession of plants appears to have been kept up with-
out fresh plantation. This, however, is not strictly wild or spontaneous growth."
The District Forest Officer of North Malabar has also spoken of the spon-
taneous growth in the Travancore Hills. This is all the available information
on the present subject regarding this State. It seems certain that such spon-
taneous growth as does exist is not extensive; that it is intimately associated with
cultivation, past or present; and that, though it may possibly succeed in occa-
sionally reproducing itself, there is no marked tendency for the plant to run
wild.
Sondur, Banganapalle, and Pudu-
kottai.
57. There is no information about spontaneous growth in the minor Madras
States. Their conditions are not in any way different
from those of the Presidency generally, and the
same extent of spontaneous growth may be expected to exist.
Bombay.
There is no wild growth.
58. The spontaneous growth is found occasionally in the districts where the
plant is cultivated, especially Ahmednagar. It is said
by one or two witnesses to occur also in the highlands
of the Southern Maratha Country. But in no place
does it appear to be either dense or frequent, being represented only by scattered
plants on the refuse heaps about villages. Many intelligent witnesses, who have
evidently bestowed great care on their inquiries, state positively that the spontane-
ous or wild growth does not exist, or are silent on the subject. Mr. Dodgson and Mr.
Cumine mention its occurrence in the Dangs, but only as occasional plants. This
is a country of forests and hills and scattered hamlets far removed from observation,
and having a copious rainfall. The same description applies to the whole of the
Western Ghâts, and the plant might be expected to run riot in these regions if it
were inclined to do so. The Excise memorandum reports that the spontaneous
growth does not exist.
Aden.
59. The plant does not grow spontaneously in Aden according to the report
of the Political Resident.
Kathiawar.
60. The plant does not grow freely from self-sown seed in any part of the
Kathiawar Agency. A few plants may be found
occasionally in fields or gardens or near irrigated
crops. They seem to be generally more or less tended where they do exist.
They are said to occur sometimes in grass preserves, but the evidence is of the
weakest kind.