88
REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94.
[APP.
BOMBAY MEMORANDUM.
The system of administration in force in the Bombay Presidency in respect of intoxicat-
ing drugs is practically uniform in the mofussil and the town and island of Bombay, but as
there are some minor points of detail as to management in the hitter, which it is well should
be set forth, I append the clear and succinct report of the Collector of Laud Revenue, Customs
and Opium to explain those.
2. The chief points on which information is required by the Commission are mentioned—
(a) in the Note attached to the letter from the Secretary, Hemp Drugs Commission,
No. 29, dated 11th August 1893—vide Government Resolution in the Revenue
Department, No. 6123, dated 2:3rd idem; and
(b) in the series of questions appended to the letter from the Secretary, No. 34, dated
12th August 1893, furnished with Government Resolution in the Revenue
Department, No. 6161, dated 24th idem.
The questions in Chapters I, III, and V are in great measure amplifications of the points
noted for report under head (a). Those in Chapter VI will presumably be considered and an-
swered by medical and police experts, while those in Chapter VII relate to the administration,
taxation, and control of intoxicating drugs.
3. With reference to the points mentioned in the Note, the first thing necessary, as men-
tioned in Chapter 1, is to distinguish between ganja, bhang, and charas. In the mofussil dis-
tricts of this presidency thete is so little cultivation of the hemp plant, and, comparatively
speaking, so small a consumption of the intoxicating drugs prepared therefrom, that but slight
attention has been given to the difference between the three As stated, however, in paragraph
65 of the Abkari Administration Report for 1879-80, "ganja is the Hower of the hemp plant
and bhang the dried leaves of the same, plant," while "charas is the juice." Whit is recog-
nized as "bhang" in some of the districts consists of the leaves reduced to powder.
Charas
is practically unknown and unused in the mofussil, and hut sparsely in Bombay town. As a
rule, therefor ganja, bhang, and preparations therefrom have heretofore been treated, so far
as revenue licenses for import, export, &c., and consumption are concerned, as one and the same
thing for statistical purpuses. One of the fullest and most, interesting reports which I have
received is that of Rao Bahadur Rudraganda C. Artal, District Deputy Collector of Bijapur,
extracts paragraphs 2—14 of which are appended. It gives a clear account—
(a) of the cultivation of the plant,
(b) of the various preparations made from ganja.
(c) of the purposes for which they are used and the classes of people who use them;
and it forms a valuable contribution to the literature of a subject concerning which but little
has hitherto been ascertained in this presidency.
4. Before further discussing the various matters touched upon, I must express regret that
it is impossible to obtain the statistics required by the Commission for a period of twenty
years—
1st, because the administration of this particular branch of revenue has been under
control for only thirteen years,
2nd, because statistics of the kind required have not heretofore been prescribed, and,
3rd, because many of the papers which would have given information have, under
standing orders, not been preserved, and during the term of years from 1880 there
have been many different farmers in the various districts whose accounts have pass-
ed away with their terms of office. Such statistics as are available are supplied
in separate tables, but, for the reasons given above, they are not so full or so accu-
rate as is desirable. The plain fact is that in this presidency ganja and the pre-
parations made therefrom have not attracted very much attention either as a source
of revenue, or, owing to the comparatively small consumption, as a cause of crime,
or as affecting materially the moral or physical well-being of any but a very small
proportion of the community.
5. The system of administration is uniform for the whole presidency, the Commissioner
of Abkari is the central controlling authority, while in each district it is administered by the
Collector and his subordinates in the Revenue and Abkari Departments under the provisions