BOMBAY MEMORANDUM.
95
4. Except a few women of loose character, the consumption of hemp-drugs is confined in
Bombay to the male portions of the Hindu and Mahomedan communities. Ganja and
charas are smoked with tobacco in the ordinary pipes or chilams; bhang and garda, the drop-
pings of ganja, are drunk mixed with various spices; and the sweetmeats, májum, yákuti, and
gulkand, whose intoxicating qualities are due to the presence of bhang or garda, are eaten.
The preparation and sale of bálagolis, or children's pills, made with ganja instead of with
opium, is now prohibited.
5. Ganja is smoked by Mahomedans of the working class, by fakirs or Mahomedan beg-
gars, and by Hindu sadhus or ascetics, and labourers. Charas is smoked by Pathans, fakirs,
sadhus, and people from Northern India. Bhang and garda are drunk by Mahomedans, and
among Hindus by Brahmans, Banias, Bhatias, and other classes to whom their caste rules
forbid the use of spirits. The sweetmeats májum, yákuti, and gulkand are eaten chiefly by
Hindus from Northern India. Garda is at times given to buffaloes and bhang to horses as a
tonic. Except with the limitations of high caste and ascetic, bhang can hardly in Bombay be
correctly described as the poor man's narcotic.
6. From the fairly trustworthy figures given in the statement marked A* it will be seen
that about 345 Indian maunds of ganja and garda, about 481/2 Indian maunds of bhang, about
7 Indian maunds of charas, and 291/2 Indian maunds of májum, yákuti, and gulkand are con-
sumed annually in this collectorate. For the total male population of Hindus and Musalmans
this would give an average yearly consumption per head of 2.50 tolas of ganja and garda, .35
tolas of bhang, .05 tolas of charas, and .21 tolas of májum, yákuti, and gulkand. It is to be re-
membered that habitual indulgence in these drugs is confined to a comparatively small number
of persons, and that the very great majority of Hindus and Mahomedans either never use
the drugs at all or only occasionally consume bhang and garda in the form of a drink.
7. The number of persons who habitually consume hemp-drugs in the island of Bombay
is estimated at nearly 3,000. 2,000 of this number are put down as ganja smokers, 400 as
bhang drinkers, 300 as garda drinkers, 100 as charas smokers, and 25 as daily consumers of
májum, yákuti, or gulkand. According to this estimate habitual consumers amount to 0.36
per cent. of the total population of the island and to .68 per cent. of the total males of the
Hindu and Mahomedan communities.
8. The occasional or moderate use of hemp-drugs is believed not to be physically harmful.
The immoderate use of these drugs gives rise to affections of the lungs, bowels, eye, and brain.
The smoking of ganja, still more the smoking of charas, is considered the most baneful, and the
drinking of bhang and garda the least harmful form in which hemp is used. Hemp-drugs are
described as at once stimulating and sedative. They are said to have an exhilarating effect, to
excite the imagination, to freshen the appetite, and to act as an aphrodisiac; excessive indul-
gence in their use leads to indigestion, wasting, dropsy, impotence, melancholia, and in ex-
treme cases, chiefly of charas and ganja smoking, even to insanity.
9. I see little reason to doubt that the prohibition or even the stringent restriction of the
use of hemp-drugs would be resented by the people as an unjustifiable interference with their
social customs, and would give rise to discontent. Ascetics, both Hindu and Mahomedan,
use the drugs largely, and these men are regarded with veneration by, and have influence over
considerable sections of the people. Though the inveterate or excessive use of these drugs is
held discreditable, the occasional observance of the practice is not open to censure. The use of
bhang is closely connected with the worship of the god Shiva or Mahadev. On Maha Shiv-
ratri, the great night of Shiva in February, on the Mondays of August-September or Shravan,
and at the spring festival of Shimga, the drinking of bhang, if not a binding, is an approved
and usual practice.
10. If the use of hemp-drugs was prohibited, I think it pretty certain that many habitual
and some occasional consumers would be driven to the use either of spirits or of opium.
11. In the town and island of Bombay the right to sell hemp-drugs is put to public
auction by the Collector, and with the sanction of the Commissioner of Customs, Salt, Opium,
and Abkari, is sold to the highest approved bidder. Notice that the right is to be put to
public auction is given by advertisement in the Bombay Government Gazette and in some of
the local newspapers. Printed slips are also circulated for the information of the Collectors of
most of the districts in the presidency. The right is usually sold for a term of three years.
A copy of the conditions under which the farm was last sold is forwarded, marked B.*
12. A.license under the Bombay Abkari Act (Act V of 1878) is granted to the farmer, a
copy of which is forwarded, marked C.* The main heads of the license are:—
(1) That the farmer shall pay monthly in advance 1/12th of the annual sum for which he
has bought the right.
(2) That all risks of loss shall be borne by the farmer, and that he shall pay regularly
all sums due.
*Not printed.