154 REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. [CH. VIII.
as drink or smoke. And he is said to be conscious that the habit renders a man
less fit for the things he has to do and learn. In many regiments the prohibi-
tion is credited with having had a decided effect in reducing the practice. In
some it is said that the older men, who have the habit, are retiring, and making
room for young men, who, entering the more intellectual school of soldiering, do
not readily acquire it. This is in direct contrast with the evidence from a Ben-
gal Cavalry regiment quoted above, and it is for this reason the quotation was
made. Both opinions are apparently based on observation, and that in favour of
decrease has a great number of adherents, while the officer who holds the other
stands almost alone. The point is of general interest as touching on the quality
of the modern recruit apart from the hemp question. The rise in the price of
drugs is alleged in some quarters as a cause of decrease, and in others the cheap-
ness of liquor. It is probable that liquor is competing with drugs in the army
as it is doing among the better classes of the civil population.
Varieties of ganja.
415. Ganja issues from the Ganja Mahal of Bengal in three forms—flat,
round, and chur. Their relative value arises from the
fact that round ganja is more free of useless stick and
leaf than flat ganja, and chur is even more pure than round ganja. The first two
kinds are reduced to chur or fragments as a necessary preliminary to smoking,
but it is possible that a small amount of leaf always adheres to the lumps
of compressed flowers even when they have been detached from the stick.
Nevertheless in this reduced form the three kinds are practically the same,
and many persons have no preference in regard to them. The evidence on this
point is not, however, unanimous, and in Calcutta, the 24-Parganas, Nadia, and
the Burdwan and Orissa Divisions round ganja alone is sold, while the flat kind is
consumed throughout the rest of the province. It is doubtful if this distribution
is caused by any choice of the consumers. The explanation is probably to be
found in the convenience and profit of the dealers in respect of the avoidance of
waste and economy of carriage. The recent sudden increase in the consumption
of chur tends to confirm this view, for Mr. Gupta explains that it was caused by
the discovery that this kind was more lightly taxed in proportion to the amount
of narcotic matter present in it. As regards their general use, therefore, these
three kinds of ganja do not need to be distinguished, and the names even are
not current outside Bengal. It may be said that every presidency, province,
and almost every Native State outside Bengal, has a certain amount—it may
be very small—of home-grown ganja. This drug is of various qualities, from the
produce of the wild plant in certain parts to that of the skilled and regular
cultivation. There are local names for the drug, but it is essentially the same
everywhere, varying in strength and flavour. Bengal ganja holds the first place
in public favour. In Assam it is distinguished by the epithet mohini. Only a
small quantity of it goes out of Bengal to the North-Western Provinces and the
peninsula of India, but the fame of it is carried all over the country by the reli-
gious wanderers, and its name baluchar is very widely known.
Manner of smoking ganja.
416. Ganja is used principally for smoking,—almost wholly for that purpose
in Bengal, where it is so expensive. The process of
preparing the drug for smoking, the kind of chillum
or pipe that is used, and the manner of inhaling the smoke are the same all
over India. A small quantity of ganja, about 1/16 of a tola, is kneaded in the