140 REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. [CH. VIII.
Estimate of number of bhang
consumers.
371. Bhang is so cheap, 3 or 4 annas a sér, as to give very wide latitude for
individual indulgence. On the other hand, a great
share of the consumers, perhaps the majority, are
above the class of the very poor, and the drug is to a great extent used with ingre-
dients which are more or less expensive. Occasional use, either regulated by the
season, or prompted by the weather, or connected with social and religious observ-
ances, is also very common. These things make it extremely difficult to state
any estimate of the number of consumers, though a figure of total consumption
has been arrived at. It is very doubtful if more than about half of the total
consumption, or 2,000 maunds, is taken by regular and habitual consumers. For
such persons, at the price given above, two tolas a day, or ten sérs in the year,
would not be an extravagant allowance. The cost of this would be less than three
rupees a year, and the ingredients would bring the expenditure up to about Rs. 10.
The number of habitual consumers would thus be about 8,000. This estimate of
individual consumption accords with the evidence on the particular point. The
occasional consumers are many times more numerous. The description which is
to follow of the "classes of consumers" and of the "social and religious customs"
connected with the use of the drugs will throw more light on the extent of the
occasional use of bhang. The use as a summer drink seems to be much more
common in the northern parts of India, which are characterized by intense dry
heat, than in the southern. The dividing line might be drawn with fair accuracy
from the Runn of Cutch to Darjeeling.
Increase and decrease.
The evidence of the statistics.
372. The statistical table in the form prescribed by the Commission gives retail
sales from the year 1875-76 to 1892-93. But in the
first five of these years it is obvious that the figures
include transactions other than retail sale in column 45. From 1881-82 onwards
there is a steady increase in the figure for charas, interrupted only by a fall in
the year 1890-91, which, however, was more than made up by the rise of the
following year. In the year 1892-93 the figure is 6 maunds less than in 1891-92.
As regards bhang, the figures of the whole period 1880-81 to 1892-93 do
not offer any definite suggestion of increase or decrease. Their regularity
might, however, tend to remove the hesitation which the Commission
feel in accepting the figures for charas as a reliable index of consumption if it
were not that bhang is so cheap that there can be little temptation either to
smuggling outside the shops or the keeping of incorrect accounts within them.
The sale of other preparations of hemp shows a steady decrease. These prepara-
tions must include majum and other sweetmeats into which hemp enters. They
are not very important, and it is not therefore worth while to speculate whether the
decrease of sale means a real decrease of consumption or not. It would be neces-
sary to proceed on mere conjecture, for the evidence and Government papers
throw no light on the subject.
Bhang.
373. Regarding rise or fall in the consumption of bhang also, there is little
to be said. Mr. Drummond states that the use
of this form of the drug is increasing in the south-
eastern districts, and that caste movements against alcohol, enhanced cost
of spirits, and growing prosperity among the Jats may account for it. But
there is little other evidence to indicate increase, and the statistics of the Delhi
Division do not suggest it. On the contrary, there is evidence that the better