NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES AND OUDH MEMORANDUM.
27
happens in a few districts, it may happen in any district. There can be no doubt it would
happen very generally if the import of ganja were prohibited. The distinction between the
male and female plants is everywhere recognized (though the names are sometimes transposed),
and it is generally known that the latter yields ganja and the former bhang only. But as
yet it is not everywhere or generally known that proper ganja can only be made from the
unfertilized flower. Such knowledge, however, would soon spread.
Ganja of a certain sort is also made in Nepal territory, and there is reason to believe
in the adjoining parts of this territory. It is introduced by Nepalese who come down for
one reason or another and who primarily bring it for their own use, but possibly also do a
little trade in it. I will submit a specimen which was procured by the Collector of Basti from
a fakir who wanders in and out of Nepal and could not clearly say on which side of the
frontier it was grown. The ganja is no doubt very inferior, but compared with the purely
wild female plant it seems to me to indicate some preparation from a plant specially grown
or tended.
17. Besides these cases it has also been ascertained that wild ganja is collected and used in
the Kheri district. I have procured a specimen of this and submitted it to the Commission.
It is simply the unprepared flower of the wild female plant fertilized and fructifying. The
Deputy Commissioner reports that the people do not understand the necessity for keeping the
flower barren. This stuff is locally smoked as ganja, but it is recognized to be of very inferior
quality and has no commercial value. In Bara Banki also the wild female plant is
collected and smoked under the name of ganja. The specimens indicate an absence of any
form of special cultivation or manufacture. There are indications that wild ganja is similarly
used in other districts, but the matter is not certain, and I have seen no specimens. The
Kheri experience shows that the produce of even the wild plant can be used as ganja at
a pinch, and raises an inference that ordinary bhang could be smoked if ganja were not
procurable.
18. The hemp plant is cultivated for its fibre in the Almora and Garhwal districts, and
yields charas generally as a subsidiary product. Some description of the process will be found
in the North-Western Provinces Gazetteer, Volume X, pages 760 and seq and 799 and seq.
The information now supplied to me by the local authorities and gained by my own enquiries
shows that the charas is extracted by rubbing in the hands the flowers of the female plant
after it has been cut and scraping off the resin which adheres to them. A certain amount is
also said to stick to the hands when the stalk is manipulated for preparation of the fibre, but
this requires confirmation. No intentional effort seems to be made to keep the female plant
from being fertilized, but the male plant matures a month or six weeks before the female
plant, and is then cut to prevent deterioration of the fibre. Where the primary object of the
cultivation is charas, the male plant is similarly removed to give the female room to spread. This
practice may act to check fertilization, but obviously does not prevent it, as the female plants
are said to always produce seed. Moreover, the wild plant grows round about and presumably
its pollen would fertilize the cultivated plant. Charas is also extracted from the female
flowers of the wild plant which must of course be fully fertilized. Such charas is esteemed to
be of inferior quality. In a letter from the Political Agent and Superintendent of the Punjab
Hill States it is said that in Bashahr a resin is extracted from the terminal leaves of the wild
female plant by rubbing them between the palms of the hands till the resin adheres. It is
then scraped off and smoked like charas. Each man makes his own in this fashion. This
private manufacture of the drug in a small way is common. This account agrees exactly
with the description given of the preparation of charas in the hill districts of these provinces
and in Native Garhwal. Charas, which is a resinous secretion of the female flower, would
seem scarcely distinguishable in its properties and effects from ganja, which is the female flower
with its resinous secretion still present.
IMPORTS AND EXPORTS.
19. The imports of bhang may be very briefly stated. Nearly the whole of the bhang
consumed here is grown in the provinces. A certain amount is imported from the Punjab,
coming chiefly from Jagadhri, Kalsia, Umballa, and some from Amritsar, Hosbiyarpur. Nearly
all of it goes to a few of our western districts. This is not because of any failure in the local
supply which is unlimited and inexhaustible, nor because of any superiority of the Punjab
article, but apparently on account of the trade connection of some of the contractors with the
Punjab. These imports are made under pass in the manner prescribed in rule 98, Chapter
X, of the North-Western Provinces Excise Manual. No import duty is levied. A little
bhang also occasionally comes from Bhartpur and Jeypur and perhaps from a few Bundel-
khand Native States, but in that direction we give more than we get. The amount is not
considerable and seems to be diminishing. Some of the bhang from Gonda and Bahraich is
really grown on the Nepal side of the border. The Nepalese officials are said to exact a trifling
duty of one or two annas per maund. The plant is treated in the same way as the growth of
our own villages. A certain amount of bhang finds its way out of the provinces to the
neighbouring districts of Bengal, the Punjab, the Central Provinces, and the Bundelkhand
States.