Memorandum on hemp drugs in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, by Mr. T. Stoker, Commissioner of Excise, Vol 3, Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1894-1895, https://digital.nls.uk/74464868
1. It will be convenient to first describe the kinds of hemp drugs in use in these provinces: then to indicate the sources of supply, dealing separately with—(1) home growth and manufacture and (2) imports. The system of administration will then be described. In connection with this the desired information concerning taxation, prices, and consumption will be given so far as it is available. Finally the contemplated changes in the present system will be discussed.
DESCRIPTION OF DRUGS IN USE.
2. The forms of hemp drugs in use in these provinces are— 1. Bhang. 2. Ganja. 3. Charas. With bhang include majum, which is a confection prepared from extract of bhang, ghi, and sugar. BHANG.
3. Bhang consists simply of the leaves, flowers, and leaf stalks of either male or female plant. It requires no cultivation and no process of manufacture beyond drying and stripping the plant. Bhang is not smoked so far as I can discover, but is taken as a draught or as a confection in the shape of majum. Looking, however, at some of the specimens of so-called "wild ganja," which are smoked and which seem to me to differ very little from bhang, I hesitate to say that bhang could not and would not be smoked if ganja or charas were unprocurable. 4. Bhang is used everywhere throughout the provinces and more largely than other hemp-drugs by the better classes. The Brahmans of Muttra are said to be the largest consumers known. I have heard it said that a single man can take as much as a quarter of a seer in the day, and it is a jest against them that they wish Providence had made the Jumna a river of bhang. Bhang is, I believe, little, if at all, used as a mere intoxicant. It is chiefly taken as a stimulant or refreshment and perhaps even more as a tonic medicine. It is supposed to have cooling properties and its use largely increases in the hot season. Natives regard bhang as a comparatively harmless preparation, and its use is not generally looked upon as disreputable. It is also very largely used as a medicine for cattle either when sick or worn out by fatigue, and for this purpose it is found valuable by cultivators. Its use for cattle is, I believe, most general in the localities where the plant grows wild about the fields, and can, therefore, be procured for nothing. A common reason given by persons who are found in illegal possession of bhang is that they mean to use it for cattle medicine.
Dehra Dun. Bijnor. Saharanpur. Pilibhit. Muzaffarnagar. Shahjahanpur. Bulandshahr. Kumaun. Aligarh. Garhwal. Bareilly. Naini Tal.
GANJA. 5. Of ganja I need only say here, by way of definition, that properly speaking it is the unfertilized female flower. It is chiefly used in the eastern and central districts, and this is naturally explained by the circumstance that these districts are nearest the sources of supply. It is most in favour in the east. In the central districts it has more difficulty in contesting the field with charas. In the western districts marginally noted it is not sold at all. In Muttra and Meerut a small quantity is imported for the use of domestic servants and followers of the troops. In Agra it is comparatively little consumed. 6. It is chiefly used by the labouring classes and undoubtedly enables men, perhaps more than any other stimulant, to sustain severe and prolonged bodily labour. Used in moderate quantities, as it is generally taken, it does not seem to unfit people for their work. Excess in it is unquestionably deleterious. Ganja, so far as I can discover, is always smoked. I have found no case of its being used in any other way. It is most largely consumed in towns, but also finds consumers among the agricultural population. The habit is said to be spread by fakirs and mendicants who are greatly addicted to its use.
CHARAS. 7. Charas is the resinous extract of the hemp plant. As used it is always more or less adulterated with the powdered leaves or stalks of the plant or with other more foreiegn
substances. It is chiefly consumed in the western districts where ganja is at present unknown. These are the districts which lie nearest the Punjab, whence most of the supply comes. Charas is also consumed more or less extensively in the central districts and is making its way in the east. I attribute this to the constantly increasing price of the Bengal ganja, which was once almost exclusively used there. Now, however, it has to compete with the cheaper "pathar" ganja, which will be described later on. Practically speaking, I should say its use is exclusively confined to the lower classes of society. Its effects are much the same as those of ganja, with which it seems to be physiologically related. It is used for the same purpose and by the same classes of people. I should be slow to dogmatize on the point, but my observations lead me to believe that charas is the most injurious and least reputable of all the hemp drugs, possibly because it may contain the active principle of the plant in the most concentrated form. There are indications that where spirits or opium are supplanted by hemp, charas is the sort of drug usually selected. Its use appears to be extending at the expense of other intoxicants. Its price fluctuates considerably probably in accordance with the conditions of Central Asiatic trade. For the last few years it has been comparatively cheap, while under our system of administration country spirits and opium have been becoming dearer. Charas is always smoked.
LOCAL GROWTH AND MANUFACTURE.
8. Turning now to the question of growth and manufacture. The hemp plant grows in all parts of the provinces, but in varying quantities. It grows absolutely wild in great profusion in all the montane and sub-montane districts. I place in this category— Gorakhpur. Garhwal. Basti. Pilibhit. Gonda. Bareilly. Bahraich. Moradabad. Kheri. Bijnor. Naini Tal (including the Tarai). Saharanpur. Kumaun. Dehra Dun. To these perhaps may be added Muzaffarnagar, where the plant is reported to grow freely in the low lands of the rivers. In Shahjahanpur and Meerut, too, the produce is considerable. 9. In the districts of Hardoi and Fatehgarh hemp is cultivated to a small extent. It is sown either alone or with the spring crops, and is harvested after they have been reaped. It receives no care beyond that given to the crops with which it is mixed. In the Hardoi district and probably also in Fatehgarh, it is supplemented to some extent by self-grown plant produced about wells or houses and on small waste patches and headlands. All this plant is converted into bhang, which is of a superior quality, technically known as "tatia" (from a village in Fatehgarh district), and commands a much higher price than the wild bhang of the sub-montane districts. Part of the produce is locally consumed and part exported, so it is difficult to ascertain the precise amount of the produce. But I think about 1,000 maunds annually would be a very close estimate. Part of the Hardoi produce is taken across the Ganges to the conterminous district of Fatehgarh and thence exported as Fatehgarh bhang. The annual exports are about 800 maunds. Excluding for the present the hill districts, where hemp is grown for fibre, this is the only case in these provinces where the hemp plant is openly cultivated for commercial purposes. 10. Beyond these districts the hemp plant flourishes widely, though it is not produced in sufficient quantities to render it of any commercial importance. I would not venture to positively assert that it is always of purely indigenous growth, though its wide diffusion leads me to believe that this is the case. It may be seen growing about wells and temples; and in such places, it is no doubt the produce of seeds scattered by travellers and fakirs who use hemp drugs. It is also found in and about houses and in gardens, where it is either introduced in the same way or deliberately sown. In all these cases I think the plants, if not the result of cultivation, are knowingly permitted to grow, and are subsequently used by the people who live in those places. The plant may also be seen springing up in a scattered way in waste places and lowlands. In some districts the amount produced by these forms of sporadic growth is considerable and is a constant source of complaint by the drug contractors who have the monopoly of vend. These conditions obtain, broadly speaking, to a greater or less extent in all parts of the province lying north and east of the Jumna. In Bundelkhand and most of Mirzapur, in fact in all the country in and adjoining the hill system of Central India the plant is much more rarely found. But that it can be grown and with some perfection in this tract also is shown by the occasional presence of plants and by the existence of considerable cultivation in Gwalior and in some of the Bundelkhand Native States which interlace with British territory. 11. In the Himalayan districts the plant is cultivated and yields fibre which is of some economic importance. It supplies the people with material for their cloth and cordage, and was once a valuable monopoly of the East India Company. In most cases the plant is grown primarily for the fibre, and charas is gained as a subsidiary product. But in some places the charas is said to be the primary object of the cultivation. So far as I can discover, fibre is nowhere extracted from the plant grown in the plains. In some localities, where it grows wild, the stalks are utilized for making thatches, screens, &c. 12. Where grown for fibre in the hills, the plant is sown in the best soil and receives careful cultivation. But both in hills and plains it can and does grow without any care or cultivation of a sufficiently good quality to yield drugs. The brief and material conclusion is that besides a very large and general spontaneous growth, wherever people choose to grow the hemp plant, they can and do grow it in any part of the provinces, and it can be grown under conditions where suppression would be impossible. 13. Under the rules now in force under section 11, Excise Act XXII, 1881, the cultivation of the hemp plant in these provinces is free to all parties. The possession of the drug is permitted to cultivators, to owners of land in which the plant grows spontaneously, to licensed vendors or to persons duly authorized to supply licensed vendors. Its possession by other persons in larger quantities than one quarter of a seer of bhang and five tolas of ganja or charas, is prohibited under sections 22 and 23, clause (k), Excise Act. Section 12 (d) permits any cultivator to sell intoxicating drugs prepared from his plants to any person licensed to sell drugs or specially authorized to purchase the same. This permission to cultivators is considered to extend to the sale of their bhang by owners of spontaneous produce. Bhang requires no preparation or manufacture, being only the dried plant stripped of its stalk. The rules are silent on the subject of manufacture or preparation of drugs. This is probably because outside the hill districts there has hitherto really been no manufacture or preparation in the proper sense of the word carried on in the provinces except a little quasisurreptitious manufacture of ganja which will be noticed further on. Excepting the wholesale contractor in Saharanpur, no persons are specially authorized to purchase under section 12 (d). The business is entirely in the hands of the contractors, who are licensed to sell. 14. In the few cases abovementioned, where the plant is cultivated, the produce is stored by cultivators themselves in their own houses. It is sold to contractors, and when bought for export, is weighed and sealed before the tahsil officials, and exported under pass in the usual way (hereafter described). The produce of the wild plant is similarly treated. The real control lies in the restrictions on sale and transport. But the rules governing cultivation, collection of wild plant, preparation and manufacture, are, I think, susceptible of improvement. So far the rules, however, have worked well enough, partly because the supply of drugs has been ample and cheap and partly because the people generally have not known or realized how far they might go without violating the law and rules. They see that all excisable commodities are a Government monopoly, and, except where hemp is cultivated or collected for sale, they have a belief that its cultivation would render them liable to penalties. The ignorance is shared by some of the officials, who occasionally take cognizance of cases where a few plants are found growing in or about a man's house. In such cases he never pleads that he is entitled to grow them; he always denies the fact or alleges that the plants grew spontaneously without his knowledge. If drugs were forbidden or made prohibitive in price the case would at once alter, cultivation, collection, and manufacture would have to be placed under such control and restriction as might be found possible. 15. The question of manufacture as well as growth of bhang has, perhaps, been sufficiently explained in the foregoing paragraphs. In the case of ganja the manufacture and growth cannot well be separated. The hemp plant, as I have stated, can be, and is grown everywhere, but the production of good ganja requires either the extirpation of the male plant or the isolation of the female plant. The regular cultivation of ganja in this way is not carried on openly anywhere in these provinces. The whole of the ganja offered for public sale is imported. At the same time it would be incorrect to say that ganja is nowhere grown or manufactured. Careful enquiry has elicited reports from several districts that a small amount of ganja is surreptitiously made. I have endeavoured to verify this by obtaining specimens of the local manufacture. It is naturally difficult to obtain a clandestine article, but I have succeeded in getting specimens from Ghazipur and Sultanpur, which have been handed over to the Commission. In appearance the Ghazipur ganja is better than the ordinary "pathar," and not much inferior to Bengal "baluchar" (flat). The other is much the same as " pathar." I hope to obtain further specimens which will be duly submitted. These two samples are clearly made from unfertilized flowers, and the people who made them knew the necessity of preventing fertilization. In Ghazipur the male plants are extirpated and the ganja is prepared from the female flower by a process which closely resembles that employed in Bengal. It sells, I am informed, for two annas per tola. The method of cultivation and manufacture in Sultanpur has not been described. 16. The deduction is significant and instructive. Ganja, of fair or good quality, can be made, and is made, locally. People understand 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 Bundelkhand 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. 20. The chief districts from which bhang is exported are Gonda, Gorakhpur, Bahraich, Basti, and Kheri, the Tarai (Naini Tal), Bareilly, Pilibhit, Saharanpur, Gorakhpur, and Fatehgarh; but any of the other districts mentioned in my 8th paragraph are capable of yielding a practically unlimited supply, and bhang is occasionally procured from them. In Saharanpur a separate contract is given for a wholesale depôt. It only fetches a few hundred rupees and is almost invariably taken by the contractor for retail vend in the district. Elsewhere the local contractor does some business in wholesale export, or the contractors of other districts send their agents to purchase direct from the owners or occupiers of land who collect and store the plant. This export, or, more correctly speaking, transport, within the provinces is effected under passes issued by the Collector of the district in the form printed as Appendix XL, in the North-Western Provinces Excise Manual, which is framed for opium, but also used for hempdrugs. The rules will be found in chapter X of the Excise Manual. 21. The three main localities from which ganja is imported are— 1. Bengal. 2. Khandwa in the Central Provinces. 3. (a) Gwalior. (b) Bundelkhand Native States. That imported from Bengal is almost exclusively the cheapest kind, "flat ganja." I believe some very small quantities of the superior kinds are occasionally imported, but I have never seen any. This import business is chiefly in the hands of a large Patna firm who hold contracts for several districts in these provinces and also supply other contractors. Some contractors, however, obtain their supplies direct from Patna, Rajshahi and Buxar, or from the border districts of Saran and Champaran. This is entirely a matter for their own choice. The Bengal Government impose a duty which is now Rs. 6 per seer on flat ganja. This is collected and credited in Bengal. Till the 1st April 1892 these payments were subsequently credited to this Government by inter-provincial adjustment. Since that date they remain to the credit of Bengal. The cost price varies considerably according to the character of the crop and the state of the market. Within the last two years it has been as high as Rs. 70 per maund and as low as Rs. 9.
The Bengal ganja is known here as "baluchar" from the name of a village in Bengal, whence it is supposed to come. It is used chiefly in the eastern districts forming the Benares and Gorakhpur Divisions, but a little still finds its way further west, where its superior quality secures for it a certain, though small, demand in spite of its much higher price. The high quality of the Bengal drug is universally admitted, and I believe that weight for weight it possesses greater intoxicating power. This point could be best determined by a chemical analysis. Its appearance would indicate that it contains more of the resinous secretion, but, so far as I know, it seems to be preferred on account of its flavour and less unpleasant aftereffects. Notwithstanding its better reputation and its older trade connection, the Bengal drug is losing its hold in the market here. The decrease in Bengal exports attracted the attention of the authorities there, and I was asked about a year ago to ascertain the causes. The result of my enquiries was to show that the consumption of baluchar was falling off because of (1) the successive increases of the duty levied in Bengal and the consequent enhancement of price; (2) the increasing competition of the cheaper "pathar" ganja from the Central Provinces, Gwalior, &c.; (3) extended use of charas. No doubt cause (2) is greatly fostered by cause (1), and is a consequence as much as a cause. But I think in any case the cheaper drug was bound to assert itself and gradually supplant the dearer article. The difference in price is considerable. Baluchar has lately been generally retailed in our towns at six annas per tola, while pathar sells at one anna and half an anna. 22. In those districts where the use of baluchar prevailed I do not think the pathar ganja was, at first at least, openly offered under that name. It was rather used to adulterate baluchar. Ordinary specimens of the two are easily distinguishable to the experienced eye. But there is sufficient resemblance to make adulteration easy. I have no doubt a good deal of pathar is sold as baluchar. The Commission will remember that on their inspection of the two chief drug shops in Allahabad the vendors professed to have no "pathar" for sale, but on visiting the contractor's storehouse a quantity of pathar was there found in stock. Last year Babu Ganga Bishen, the head of the Patna family, and the largest contractor in the provinces, was found in the Nimar district engaging with the cultivators to manufacture their ganja so as to resemble baluchar and instructing them in the process. This had occurred also on a previous occasion. I have handed to the Commission a specimen of Khandwa ganja which I found on sale in a shop here and which approaches baluchar in quality and appearance. All these circumstances seem to indicate that the duty on Bengal ganja has reached a point which must lead to its gradual exclusion from a market where it has to compete with the cheaper products of other localities. I should also add that the districts in which there is reason to believe that locally grown ganja is surreptitiously prepared are chiefly districts in which baluchar is used. In Garhwal a substance is produced and used which might be classed with either ganja or charas. After the charas has been extracted from the female flower the powdered or broken flowers are mixed with hemp seed and smoked in a chillum. This seems akin to the "garda" of the Punjab. The ganja coming from the Central Provinces is known here as "pathar," "pattiyara or pattiyala," possibly on account of its leafy character. It has more waste in the shape of stalk and leaf and apparently less of the resinous secretion than the Bengal drug. But, as I have already said, it can be prepared to simulate the latter.
Mds. Mds. 1882-83 503 1887-88 1,145 1883-84 2,472 1888-89 1,879 1884-85 741 1889-90 3,237 1885-86 4,223 1890-91 1,530 1886-87 229 1891-92 1,450
I need not here attempt to describe its method of cultivation, preparation, storage, wholesale price, &c., because such information can be more accurately procured from the Central Provinces. Our contractors who bring it from Khandwa pay no duty there, but have to meet warehouse and registration fees, which, I believe, come to about Rs. 2 per maund. It varies a good deal in quality according to the season and probably also according to the skill of the cultivators who grow and prepare it. Many of the specimens I see contain more or less seed, showing that the male plants have not been completely extirpated. Pathar, whether from the Central Provinces or Gwalior, &c., is most largely used in the central districts of these provinces and in those western districts where ganja is consumed at all. It is gradually making its way in the eastern districts, where it is supplanting baluchar. I do not think the import of Khandwa pathar is increasing just at present. The figures marginally noted show the imports for the last 10 years. From what some of our contractors have told me, I think Gwalior ganja has been gaining ground, as it has latterly been rather cheaper owing perhaps to bad crops in the Central Provinces and the heavier railway freight to many of our districts. The construction of the Indian Midland Railway has apparently improved the market for Gwalior ganja. 24. The Gwalior ganja is of the same character and appearance as the Central Provinces "pathar." It is known here by the same name and is used in the same places and by the same people, in fact it stands on exactly the same footing as the latter. Like the latter, too, it seems to vary considerably in quality. On an average I should say, it is neither better nor worse than that which comes from Nimar. It is the product of careful cultivation and preparation. Colonel Pitcher, Director of Land Records and Agriculture for the Gwalior State, has kindly supplied a memorandum on this point prepared by his Assistant, Pandit Gopal Ram, which will be found as an appendix to this report. The State duty of Rs. 5 per maund must be calculated on the drug stripped from stalk and waste and ready for use. My enquiries here show that our contractors pay duty to the farmer at the rate of Re. 1-8-0 to Rs. 2 per 100 bundles. The fact seems to be that the farmer, paying a lump sum to the State, collects the duty in the way he finds most convenient to all concerned, and is not very particular provided he gets a fair offer. The incidence of the duty on weight of the drug is very much a matter of conjecture or estimate. I have no doubt myself that the actual incidence on the cleaned stuff comes in the end to less than Rs. 5 per maund. Some of the contractors I have spoken to have been under the belief they paid less dues in Gwalior than Khandwa. The Gwalior ganja as a rule is despatched by rail from Antri on the Indian Midland Railway, The State is bound by treaty not to permit the export of intoxicating drugs, &c., by any route or direction formerly barred by the Inland Customs line. This restriction had been disregarded, but the attention of the Darbar was called to it in 1887, and they took measures to enforce it. The principal measure, curiously enough, was to double the duty on ganja exported to British territory. The convenience now afforded by the Indian Midland Railway, added to the above restriction, now confines the conveyance to the railway, but I have no doubt that if the inducement existed, it would be quite easy to smuggle in the drug at many points of our land frontier. 25. Dattia. Chattarpur. Sampthar. Kadaura (Baoni). Of the same class as the Gwalior ganja is that imported from some of the Bundelkhand Native States. I give in the margin the name of those States from which ganja has been from time to time procured by our contractors. To these may be added Dholpur, which is under the Bhartpur agency. The plant is cultivated in Dattia, Sampthar, and Chattarpur to some extent, and the drug is not, so far as I could observe, distinguishable from Gwalior ganja. In all these States there is some duty on export, but it seems to be variable and unequal. In one place I am told it is two annas per rupee of the price of the drug which would be about Re. 1 to Rs. 2 per maund. In another place it is said to be Re. 1-9-0 on each purchase irrespective of quality. But these rates require confirmation. I am not sure that all the ganja brought from these States is of local growth; some of it, I suspect, comes from Gwalior or Khandwa originally. I learnt in Hamirpur that the Chirkari State supplies itself from Khandwa. I believe also that ganja as well as bhang finds its way from our districts into adjoining native territory. The import of ganja from these States is inconsiderable and irregular. It is only brought into a few of our Bundelkhand districts, but it is a source of supply which is capable of extension. 26. Before quitting this part of the subject I ought to mention that these and other Native States not only adjoin, but are interlaced and intermixed with British territory. There are numerous native villages scattered over our districts, and in some cases considerable tracts entirely surrounded by British possessions. The capital and a great part of the Chirkari State is situated in the middle of the Hamirpur district. All these places serve as centres from which excisable commodities are freely smuggled into our territory. The country being wild and mountainous prevention is impossible. I have elsewhere mentioned that a small quantity of very inferior illicit ganja is introduced from Nepal. I am told that there recently used to be authorized import of an inferior sort of ganja known as Mahadewa from Nepal; but I have been unable to verify this or get a specimen. A little pathar ganja still comes from Indore. The supply from this quarter used to be large. Ganja of a potent sort is said to be also procurable in Rewah, but whether of local growth or imported from the Central Provinces is not clear. A small amount of ganja is exported from Bahraich into Nepal. It is imported ganja. 27. I have mentioned all the sources, so far as I can discover, from which ganja is at present imported. But within recent years ganja in considerable quantities has been brought from places further south. Holkar's territory, Berar, Mewar, Nasik, Nasirabad, and Khandesh, and perhaps other places in the Bombay Presidency are sources from which supplies have been drawn within the last ten years. Latterly, however, the proximity of Khandwa and Gwalior and the cheapness of the drug there seem to have given them a monopoly of the business in pathar. But in considering the possible sources of supply, the places I have mentioned should not be overlooked. 28. The great bulk of the charas consumed in these provinces is brought from Yarkand and Bokhara. It comes through the Punjab, and the Commission can procure there better information than I can give them concerning its manufacture, quality, transport, &c. Some information on the subject will be found in my predecessor's letter of 29th August 1881 to the address of the Board of Revenue, of which a copy, I understand, has been supplied by the Board to the Commission. I am told by the traders that the charas from Central Asia is now less pure than it used to be. It is also much cheaper at present than it was some years ago, but the price is liable to considerable fluctuations. 29. The other sources of supply are Nepal and our own hill districts, Almora and Garhwal, A small amount also finds its way from Thibet into both British and Native Garhwal. A little is also sent from Garhwal into Thibet. The drug imported from Nepal is known as Shahjahani or Saljahani charas and is introduced through the Bahraich district from Nepalganj. A small amount is also introduced from Nepal into British Garhwal or Kumaun. I append a report by the Deputy Commissioner of Bahraich describing the method of production and manufacture. His information was, I believe, derived from the Nepalese frontier officials and the local traders. This charas is of a very superior quality and commands a high price; Rs. 10, 1st quality, and Rs. 3, 2nd quality, per seer. At present it seems all to go to Lucknow, where it is retailed at Rs. 35 or Rs. 40 per seer. Some used to be sent to Cawnpore. The importation appears to have fallen off, as the Yarkand charas has become cheaper, but its better quality still secures a market for the Shahjahani drug. Dr. Watt states on the authority of Dr. Gimlette that Nepal charas sells in Katmandu for Rs. 2 and in the Tarai at Rs. 3 per tola (Rs. 160 and Rs. 240 per seer). If these figures are correct, they show how enormously the drug must be adulterated before it reaches our market. I remember once hearing that very superior Nepal charas has been sold in Lucknow at its own weight in gold. This source of supply could, no doubt, be again largely extended if the demand arose. I believe the amount at present imported is from 25 to 50 maunds a year. 30. The hemp plant, I should add, is also cultivated in the Native Hill State of Tehri Garhwal, but none of the products which include charas are said to be imported into our districts at present. 31. The whole of the charas produced in the Himalayan hill districts is locally consumed and is also supplemented by the import of Yarkand drug which is cheaper and which is said also to be gaining favour because it is more potent. I find it difficult to believe this latter statement because I have little doubt the Himalayan charas is much the purer. It has been described to me as milder (colder) and less injurious than the other. This can best be settled by a chemical analysis, and for this purpose I am procuring specimens, which will be submitted. Possibly the more pungent taste of the Yarkand charas may be due to substances with which it is adulterated. But that it contains more of the true hemp resin I find it difficult to believe. My predecessor appears to have been misled in describing the Kumaun charas as inferior. The price paid by the contractor is from Rs. 5 to 8 per seer, about twice or thrice the price of the imported charas. It is difficult to estimate the amount of the annual produce, as much of it is consumed by the people who make it, or is illicitly sold. So far as the contractors' statements go only five or six maunds annually pass into their possession. This must be a small part of the produce, which, moreover, could be largely extended if there were a sufficient demand. 32. I have made many enquiries to ascertain if true charas is in these parts of India ever extracted from the plant grown in the plains. I have now got definite information of two localities in which this occurs. It was stated incidentally that some charas is made by the ganja cultivators in Gwalior. Colonel Pitcher has kindly verified this through his Assistant, Pandit Gopal Ram, who reports that "a certain amount of charas is obtained in this (Gwalior) State by scraping off the resin which adheres to the hands in cutting the ganja plant. In tahsil Antri the cultivators do not care much about the charas. In tahsil Kalaras, district Narwar, I hear charas is obtained in small quantities by the same process as in Kumaun and Garhwal." The second locality is in the Kumaun Tarai and Bhabar, where the practice was possibly introduced by the hill men who come down to cultivate there. The method is the same as that employed in the hills. The flowers of the wild plant are rubbed in the hands and the resin which adheres is scraped off. No record can be kept of the amount so prepared, but it does not as yet seem to be considerable. I have obtained specimens' of this charas from both Gwalior and Kumaun, and will submit them to the Commission. It is a fact of first-rate importance to know that charas can be and is manufactured in the plains and from the wild plant. This at once enlarges immensely the possible sources of supply. It has been stated that charas is collected in Sind and Central India by the traditional process of men, naked or leather clad, running through the hemp fields. The story seems to require verification. It seems strange that no charas is produced in all the handling which the Bengal ganja undergoes in the process of preparation.
ADMINISRATION 33. The excise on hemp-drugs is administered under Act XXII of 1881 and rules thereunder. The administration is carried on by the ordinary district staff. The central controlling authority is the Board of Revenue. The Commissioner of Excise has the power of a Revenue Commission under the Act. His statutory powers are limited to those defined in sections 54 and 14 of the Act. He has little initiative or final authority, and acts chiefly as an intermediary between Collectors and the Board. There is one uniform system of administering the drug revenue for the whole provinces. The right of sale over a fixed area is farmed to a contractor, who is at liberty to procure his drugs wherever he likes and to sell them at any price he chooses. No distinction is drawn between the different sorts of hemp drugs; all are included in the same license and are stored by the farmer on his own premises. There is no import duty here of any sort. The contracts are usually for an entire district—in some cases for tahsils or parganas. There is nothing to prevent a contractor having separate contracts for several districts. The ordinary period is for one year, but contracts are now often given for two or three years and the longer periods always fetch proportionally higher sums. The chief reason for this is that there is an enormous difference between the wholesale and retail prices, and an out-going contractor can flood the market with cheap drugs, which lessen the sales of the new contractor for weeks or months. The number and locality of the retail shop has been fixed by the Collector subject to the orders of the Board and is revised from time to time. Shops are only located in places where a demand exists. The maximum proportion is one to every 10,000 of the population. In a very few cases this is exceeded for special reasons. In more cases the proportion is less. In the tabular statement which accompanies this memorandum, the number of shops before 1878-79 cannot in many cases be stated, as the returns showed only the number of farms. A general revision of the number of drug shops was undertaken some time ago, and considerable reductions effected which will come into operation in the year now commencing (1893-94). For that year the total number of shops in the provinces is 3,673, being one for every 12,770 of the population. A list of the shops is notified at the time of sale, and no alterations are permitted without sanction. The contractor either sublets the shops or works them through his servants. As a rule, he holds the best shops in the large towns in direct management, and sublets the rest. He keeps the wholesale vend in his own hands and supplies his servants and sub-lessees, charging the latter at prices which leave him a large margin, and he makes his profits partly in this way and partly by requiring cash payments from sub-lessees. The shop licenses are all issued by the Collector on printed forms (Appendix XX, Excise Manual). When the contractor has made his arrangements, he applies to the Collector, filing a list which shows the names of the shops and licensees. This is compared with the sanctioned list of shops, and the licenses are made out in the Collector's office and given to the contractor. If he wishes at any time to change the retail vendor, he can do so by applying to the Collector and returning the first license. I do not know of any case in which an objection was ever made on public grounds to the number or locality of drug shops. If any such objection were made, it would receive due consideration. The neighbours are not affected by the presence of these shops, as there is rarely any consumption on the premises. 34. The contracts are sold by auction in each district at the time of the other annual excise settlements. As a rule of course the highest offer is accepted, but it is sometimes found necessary to arrange otherwise. Regard is paid to the solvency and respectability of the rival bidders. The Collector has always the prices of previous years to guide him, and is obliged to explain any substantial fluctuations. These depend on the competition, on the character of the season, and on the variations in the cost price of drugs. The number of capitalists engaged in the trade is not very large, and nothing is commoner among them than combinations to keep down the price. I have noticed this point in my annual report for 1891-92. Latterly, I think, the value of these contracts has become better known and the contractors' profits shorn to more reasonable dimensions. Measures have also been taken to defeat combinations, and with good results. Still it is a defect in the system that it leaves the whole of the revenue collected here to be determined by the competition of the auctions. The advantages of the system are that a large revenue is very easily and cheaply collected and that smuggling and other evasive or illegal acts are minimized. The contractor has no reason to commit them himself, and it is his interest to detect any one attempting them. This is no small advantage from an administrative point of view. Retail prices are under the existing system kept at the highest possible point. 35. The rules which govern the import of all forms of hemp-drugs will be found in the Excise Manual, Chapter X. All import, export, and transport is under passes signed or countersigned by the local authority. In the case of ganja and bhang the only importers are our own contractors. Charas is also brought in by Panjabi traders, who sell to those of our contractors who do not care to procure their supplies direct from the Panjab. These traders frequent a few centres to which they convey their stock. Their sales are all reported and duly registered on their passes. They take out no licenses as they sell only to contractors, for whose convenience they are permitted to trade in the manner described. The legality of this arrangement is questionable and will be considered when the rules come under revision. Some of these traders themselves hold district contracts, and in such cases of course their proceedings are open to no objection. Sometimes contractors, instead of importing from foreign provinces, obtain their supplies from contractors of other districts. This happens in the case of drugs in small demand or in the event of sudden emergencies. Such consignments are conveyed under pass. In these ways a good deal of transport of drugs takes place from one part of the provinces to another. The amount of smuggling from outside the provinces is, I believe, quite inconsiderable: the reason is given above. A little ganja and charas finds its way over the frontier, no doubt at many points in the possession of travellers, fakirs, and the like, who chiefly bring * Ganja and charas, 5 tolas. Bhang, it for their own consumption. Within the legal limits of quarter seer. possession* this cannot be prevented. I have no reason to believe that any illicit traffic or sale occurs which is worth taking into consideration. Occasionally drugs brought from one district are illicitly sold in another to the injury of the contractors. This can rarely be done without the connivance of some licensee of the district from which the drugs are brought, and is usually the result of hostility between rival contractors. The authority of the police and revenue staff is always exerted to suppress such practices. But there is undoubtedly a considerable consumption of bhang and a certain, though small, consumption of ganja locally produced which pays no tax direct or indirect. How this happens will be sufficiently understood from what I have said in the earlier part of this memorandum. It would be difficult to check and impossible to wholly suppress this consumption. Illicit import would easily and rapidly increase if stringent measures were adopted to repress trade in, and consumption of, drugs.
CONSUMPTION.
36. In the tabular statement which accompanies this memorandum, the columns showing the quantities sold retail, are necessarily blank. Any record of the sort would have to be kept by the retail vendors, and, if it could be maintained at all, would be utterly untrustworthy. It follows, therefore, that statistics showing the amount of drugs actually consumed or retailed are nowhere available. This is inevitable. Where a commodity is issued as required, like opium or country spirits, from a Government depôt on payment of a fixed duty, such a record can be kept, and it may fairly be assumed that the whole amount issued is consumed within the year. But this is not the case with hemp-drugs. The amount consumed can only be inferred from the amount of imports and exports. This might not be correct for any one year, because the imports of one year are often consumed or exported in the next. But over a series of years the net imports of charas and ganja will afford a very fair indication of the consumption if allowance is made for waste and deterioration. In the case of hemp-drugs this is not inconsiderable, for they deteriorate rather rapidly. Even an accurate return of the import and transport of bhang would fail to show the true consumption, as there is a large amount locally grown of which no trustworthy return could be secured. The statistics of import and export are, I regret to say, very defective. In the absence of any fixed duty and with a revenue determined solely by the license-fees no provincial record of the traffic has been kept up. An enquiry commenced a year and a half ago showed that even complete figures for 1890-91 were not always available. Hence the fragmentary character of the details in columns 11 to 18 of the tabular statement required by the Commission. Even such figures as are available in the years anterior to 1891-92 must be received with caution, as I am not confident that allowance has been made for transfers from district to district, and there is much risk that the same drugs may have been counted twice and the provincial total thus exaggerated. More accurate figures and for a longer period could be furnished to show the total imports of ganja from Lower Bengal and the Central Provinces. But in the absence of correct information from the other sources of supply these are useless as an indication of the Provincial consumption. The official returns of bhang are peculiarly apt to be misleading. They give the imports and exports district by district, and, as bhang is moved a good deal about the provinces, there has been considerable opportunity for error as long as no regular register and return of the consignments was maintained. Moreover, these statistics can take no account of the bhang consumed in districts where it is grown. In the case of untaxed bhang this must always happen, and I doubt if any system of registration will secure very accurate returns of even the bhang which passes through the licensed dealers' hands. The trade returns are of little value. An attempt to utilize them has shown that much of the imports and transports follow routes by which they escape registration. 37. The special enquiries which were made in 1881-82 give the amount of imported ganja to be approximately 4,451 maunds. The later and I think more trustworthy returns show a total import of 4,935 maunds in 1890-91 and 4,187 maunds in 1891-92. The imports of charas are similarly shown to be 1,135 maunds in 1881-82, 1,091 maunds in 1886-87, and 1,286 maunds in 1887-88. For 1890-91 the returns show maunds 1,133-30-9 and for 1891-92 maunds 1,217-4-12. Collating these figures, it might be reasonable to assume that the imports of ganja are between 4,000 maunds and 4,500 maunds yearly and the imports of charas between 1,100 maunds and 1,200 maunds. These figures, however, exaggerate the actual consumption because, besides other reasons, there is good deal of waste. Both ganja and charas deteriorate by keeping and considerable quantities become useless from this cause. On the other hand there is a certain consumption of locally-grown drugs of both kinds which cannot be ascertained. 38. The average consumption per head of ganja is estimated by Babu Hem Chander Kerr at 1 ½ seers per annum. This appears to me a very high estimate. In the case of baluchar retailed at 6 annas per tola it would mean for an ordinary consumer an outlay of Rs. 45 per annum, a quite impossible figure. Ganja is generally smoked in company, and a pice worth will go round two, three, or more people. It is also smoked several times a day. I should put two pice a day or Rs. 11-6-6 per annum as the maximum possible per head. This would represent less than half a seer yearly in the case of baluchar. On the other hand, baluchar sells for half the price in the villages, though consumption there is relatively much smaller. Pathar sells for one anna or half an anna a tola, but more of it is used in each pipe. Two pice worth a day of this would represent about 4 1/2 seers yearly at the latter, and 2 1/4 seers at the former price. Taking one thing with another and averaging all sorts of ganja, I should think a seer a head would be about the amount annually consumed by those who habitually indulge in the drug. This would give 180,000 consumers for the 4,500 maunds imported, if it were all used. My observations go to show that those who use ganja and charas indulge in them habitually and regularly. The craving is perhaps not so dominant and the abandonment not so difficult as in the case of opium. But where they can be procured, they are, as a rule, regularly taken. This is not the case with bhang. 39. Concerning the average consumption of charas, I have received most conflicting statements. But every one agrees that a much smaller quantity of it makes a dose. I should say half a seer per head yearly would be a fair estimate. That would represent 92,000 consumers of the 1,150 maunds imported. These figures are on the basis of habitual consumption and would be susceptible of increase if there were many occasional consumers. But on the other hand considerable abatement must be made for drugs imported, but not consumed. I submit these calculations with much diffidence, for I am aware that anything like absolute accuracy is unattainable. They are framed on the highest scale, and would show that even so computed only a very small proportion of the population is addicted to the use of these drugs. 40. The use of bhang is much more general. It is also much more harmless or even positively beneficial. I am informed that in Bengal Dr. Prain has pronounced bhang to be more harmful than ganja. I have not been favoured with a copy of his report, and so I cannot examine his reasons, which may be peculiar to Bengal. But I can affirm with much confidence, as the result of repeated enquiries, both official and private, and of personal observations extending over many years, that bhang as used in these provinces is not only the least harmful of all forms of hemp-drugs, but is largely used and much esteemed as a tonic by very many people who do not take it for its intoxicant effects and who only use it at certain seasons and in certain states of health. I cannot frame any estimate of the number of bhang consumers. Only a portion of those who use it, take it regularly all the year round and it is used in very variable quantities. There is no safe estimate of the amount consumed, and it is used for other purposes than human consumption. 41. The returns showing the annual revenue from hemp-drugs are complete and some deductions may be drawn from them. To facilitate this I append an abstract statement showing the district and provincial revenues since 1873-74.
Revenue from Hemp Drugs from 1873-74—1892-93.
It is necessary, however, to remember that abnormal figures which appear in this table are in some instances due to the method of keeping accounts on which the Accountant General's Department insists. For instance, some part of the unusual increase in 1886-87 is caused by the inclusion in the returns for that year of the security advances made on account of the following year. In the previous year the sums shown were those paid on account of the year of report. In the last year 1892-93 these security advances for 1893-94 are not shown, as they had not been made when the statement was compiled. In some cases, again, security advances have been refunded where sanction to a contract has been refused by higher authority, but the sums have still to appear in the accounts. I must also observe that these figures do not take account of the very large revenue collected in Bengal on ganja consumed in these provinces, and which from 1884 to 1892 was credited to us by inter-provincial adjustment though it was not reported to this Department and does appear in our Excise returns. In 1889-90 this was as much as Rs. 1,37,741, but has since fallen off. 42. Still these figures on the whole give a fairly correct view of the progress of the provincial revenue from this source. In the twenty years since 1873 the receipts have grown from Rs. 4,07,822 to Rs. 7,06,788, or over 73 per cent. In Oudh the increase has been over 193 per cent., in the N.-W. Provinces it has been 50 per cent. For this increase I assign three causes:— 1st.—Increased general prosperity which has shown itself in a larger expenditure on excisable commodities. 2nd.—Better administration, which has secured a larger proportional revenue from the amounts consumed. 3rd.—An increased use of hemp-drugs. These causes are, of course, mutually co-related. That the causes in operation have not affected hemp-drugs alone is clear from the fact that there has been a similar growth in other branches of excise revenue. The receipts from country spirits have increased between 1873 and 1892 from Rs. 11,70,242 to Rs. 21,16,977 in the N.-W. Provinces and from Rs. 5,52,364 to Rs. 11,04,949 in Oudh, a gross increase of 87 per cent. In the case of spirits at least this revenue is gained not on a larger, but on a smaller consumption. Owing to the extension of the distillery system and to administrative improvements, which have checked fraud and peculation, the gallonage has actually diminished, while revenue has increased. 43. The first substantial increase of drug revenue began in 1881-82. After that it was, though more irregular in Oudh than the N.-W. Provinces, continuous and rapid for both provinces. This movement must, in my opinion, be associated with the reforms which originated with the Excise Committee of 1877. Some of these had a direct effect on hempdrug revenue. For instance, a most important measure was to place the Excise Department of each district in charge of a selected Covenanted Assistant Collector. The contract system requires particularly efficient and honest management, which was thus secured. It is a matter of regret that the depletion of the Covenanted European Staff has latterly led to this salutary measure falling a good deal into abeyance. There are many indications in the tabular statement that contracts used, for one reason or another, to be given in some cases for much below their real value. Without multiplying instances I may point to Unao, Rai Bareilly, and Sultanpur in 1885-86, where the revenue rose at one bound from Rs. 12,991 to Rs. 30,350 from Rs. 9,166 to Rs. 19,918, and from Rs. 4,583 to Rs. 11,800, or to Partabgarh in 1886-87, where, after allowing for advance payments, the revenue jumped from Rs. 4,469 to Rs. 11,483. In all these cases the higher revenue has since been fairly sustained. These and such like instances indicate leakage, which has since been stopped. In some cases, as in Azamgarh in 1882-83, a large enhancement was gained by granting separate contracts for each tahsil and so admitting competition. The annexation to Oudh of the N.-W. Provinces seems to have been followed by better methods, which partly account for the more rapid growth of the drug revenue in the former province. 44. Some of the measures of excise reform have indirectly affected drugs by raising the price of country liquor. It seems to me impossible to doubt that restrictions on the use of spirits, either in the shape of prohibitive prices or diminished supply, tend to stimulate the use of drugs. I have dealt with this point in my Annual Reports for 1890-91 and 1891-92. I find running through all the Excise Reports for many years past assertions that drugs have been taking the place of liquor. I may point here to a few specific instances which seem to confirm that view. It will be seen that the drug revenue fell in certain districts of the Rohilkhand Division (Bareilly, Shahjahanpur, Budaon), during the years 1880-81 to 1883-84. The reason of that fall was that outstills were introduced at the beginning of that period into portions of these districts, and liquor in such areas became cheap and accessible. At the close of the period the outstills were abandoned, and this, coupled with other changes, made liquor again dear, and the supply scanty. On this the drug revenue at once revived. Within the last two years the contraction of the outstill area in Bijnor and Pilibhit and the enhancement of the still head duty on distillery liquor has been followed by an increased importation of charas and an enhancement of the drug revenue. The same phenomenon has been observed in other parts of the provinces. The history of the Banda district is also a case in point. During the years 1864-71 the distillery system was in force. The drug revenue then averaged Rs. 7,661, rising in 1870-71 to Rs. 8,090. The distillery system was condemned as unsuitable to the district and was abandoned in favour of the outstill or farming system. The drug receipts fell in 1872-73 to Rs. 4,256, and in 1873-74 to Rs. 3,650, and notwithstanding the general provincial improvement are now below Rs. 6,000. The fall of drug revenue in 1872-73 is due altogether to the change of system which made country liquor again accessible to the people. In the North-Western Provinces the most marked increase of drug revenue has been in the eastern districts belonging to the Gorakhpur and Benares Divisions. These are the districts in which the habit of spirit-drinking was most prevalent and where the enhancement of price and curtailment of supply under the Central Distillery System has been most severely felt. Before the introduction of that system these districts furnished 40 to 50 per cent of the total revenue of the North-Western Provinces from country spirits. I find that in 1862-63, when the system was introduced, the percentage was 48. The percentage of the total provincial revenue from hemp-drugs furnished by the same area in that year was only 18. In 1890-91 the former percentage had fallen to 31 and the latter had risen to almost 32. In 1862-63 the drug contract for the Benares district was Rs. 7,000: in 1890-91 it had risen to Rs. 44,000. Oudh was essentially a spirit-drinking province. The consumption was everywhere large. The administrative changes have affected it more than the North-Western Provinces. In Oudh the S. H. D. before 1877 was 12 annas per gallon, in the North-Western Provinces it was Re. 1-8. In that year a uniform duty of Re. 1 was imposed in both provinces. The figures already quoted show that while the drug revenue of the North-Western Provinces has increased by Rs. 50 per cent., that of Oudh has increased by Rs. 193 per cent. Meanwhile the liquor revenue from Oudh has increased by Rs. 100 per cent. only. A reference to the tabular statement will show the very low incidence of drug revenue in the Bundelkhand districts where the outstill system is in force. I am unwilling to prolong this memorandum by accumulating figures and arguments on this point. But it is one which seems to me to deserve the most serious consideration. Facts, figures, and opinions point irresistibly to the conclusion that the measures which have been taken to restrict the supply of country spirits and increase the revenue from it have tended pari passu to stimulate the use of drugs. If it be admitted that so long as human nature remains unchanged, some form of stimulants will be used, it follows that any measures to restrict drugs will be only half successful unless they are accompanied by measures which will render less harmful stimulants more accessible. It is necessary to remember that even behind hemp-drugs there are deeper depths. Dhatura, strychnine, aconite, and other poisons may occupy the field from which spirits and hemp-drugs are excluded. 45. There is one other matter which I would like to mention before quitting the subject of the provincial revenue from hemp-drugs. In his otherwise admirable monograph on the hemp plant, the author of the Dictionary of Economic Products has committed himself to many severe strictures on the fiscal and administrative policy of this Government. I have no hesitation in asserting that he has been largely misled by fallacious conclusions from erroneous statistics. It would be out of place here to enter into a detailed examination of his errors, some of which lie on the surface. But as his work is, no doubt, in the hands of the Commission, I would venture to record a warning against accepting either its statistics or its conclusions as far as these provinces are concerned without a careful scrutiny or without a reference to those who could explain supposed anomalies or defects. Prices. 46. I have at various places mentioned the current prices of the different drugs. I here give them in collective form. The wholesale prices are those at which the contractors procure them. The retail prices are those at which the public buy them. There is a third set of prices at which contractors supply their sub-licensees, but these are merely for the adjustment of accounts. The retail prices are only approximate. They vary very widely from place to place. Besides district variations, prices are often twice or thrice as high in large towns as in rural parts. They are also lowest at the borders of districts where they come into competition with the drugs of other vendors. Prices also vary with the amount purchased. When sold by weight in any quantity, the drug is cheaper; when sold in made up packets or doses, the price is higher. I doubt if retail prices vary much from year to year. The vendors in every year charge as much as they can get, and as the difference between cost prices and retail prices is enormous, there is always a large margin of profit, A rise of cost price comes out of the profits of the contractor or the Government revenue, or both. But wholesale prices vary very much from year to year, according to the supply and demand and to the duty which may be imposed on the produce or in transit. The prices here given are those now current. It is hardly necessary to add that all prices vary with the quality of the articles sold. These drugs deteriorate rapidly and are often sold off at nominal prices, a circumstance which will frequently account for the extraordinary discrepancies in reported rates.
BHANG.
SELF-GROWN FROM SUB-MONTANE AND HILL DISTRICTS. Wholesale. Re. 1 to Rs. 2 per maund besides cost of railway freight. Retail. Generally one to two annas per quarter seer (Rs. 10 to Rs. 20 per maund). In large towns it goes higher, reaching as much as Re. 1 per seer.
TATIA FROM FARAKHABAD. Wholesale. Rs. 4 to Rs. 6 per maund besides freight. Retail. Two to four annas per quarter seer (Rs. 20 to Rs. 40 per maund). In large towns higher rates prevail.
GANJA.
BALUCHAR FLAT Wholesale. Rs. 10 or Rs. 12 per maund, besides duty at Rs. 240, and freight from Bengal. Retail. Six annas per tola in towns, 4 annas in rural parts (Rs. 30 and Rs. 20 per seer).
GANJA PATHAR. GWALIOR, &C. Wholesale. Rs. 7 to Rs. 14 per maund, including duty and exclusive of railway freight. KHANDWA. Rs. 10 to Rs. 16 per maund, including dues and excluding freight. Retail. All sorts of Pathar. Half an anna to one anna per tola (Rs. 100 to Rs. 200 per maund).
CHARAS.
YARKAND OR BOKHARA. Wholesale. Rs. 60 to Rs. 80 per maund. Inferior or damaged stuff as cheap as Rs. 40 or Rs. 30, very superior Rs. 100 and upwards. Retail. Generally 3 annas per tola (Rs. 15 per seer). Is sold as low as one and a half annas and in large towns at 5 annas (Rs. 25 per seer).
NEPAL SHAHJAHANI. Wholesale. Rs. 400 per maund (an inferior sort, Rs. 120).
Retail. Four annas to 5 annas, 7 annas, and 8 annas per tola (Rs. 20 to Rs. 25, Rs. 35, and Rs. 40 per seer).
KUMAON. Wholesale.
Rs. 200 to Rs. 320 per maund.
Retail. About 2 annas per tola (Rs. 10 per seer), doubtful.
47. I would again call attention to the great disproportion between the wholesale and retail prices of ganja and charas. In bhang the scale of profit is not so high because it has to compete with the wild or illicit plant. The high prices are due to the monopoly of sale under which the contractor exacts the very highest price he can without creating illicit competition. He does not wish to extend his sales because he finds a greater profit in smaller sales and higher rates. CONTEMPLATED CHANGES OF SYSTEM. 48. Finally I come to the proposed modifications of the present system. A suggestion has more than once been made to impose an import duty on hemp-drugs, but it did not meet the approval of the higher authorities. It is also open to the objection that the Excise Act does not authorize the imposition of an import duty. I made a representation on this subject some time ago. Since then the Excise Act has been amended by Act X of 1893. That Act, as I understand it, deals only with imports from beyond British India. The statutory power seems still wanting to control imports and impose import duty on drugs brought from other parts of British India. If this view is correct, a further amendment of the Excise Act is required to legalize the arrangements now suggested. 49. I do not think it possible to impose either an import duty or a fixed local duty on bhang. The opportunities for evasion are altogether too extensive. For bhang we must trust, as at present, to our contract license fees. But it might be well to prohibit the import of bhang altogether. The province can supply its own wants, and there would be always some risk that ganja or charas might be surreptitiously introduced under cover of a pass for bhang. But for ganja and charas I think it both possible and desirable to impose a fixed import duty. For this purpose it will be necessary to make rules to control both local cultivation and manufacture and import. Briefly I would suggest rules to provide for the following heads:— (1) To prohibit cultivation (as opposed to spontaneous growth) except for the manufacture of bhang or fibre and to permit it for bhang only under license from the Collector. (2) To prohibit absolutely the cultivation or protection of the plant for the production of ganja or charas and to prohibit the manufacture of those drugs. Power might be reserved to Government to relax this rule in any special locality and permit the cultivation and manufacture under license with such duty as might be fixed. (3) The two foregoing rules not to be applied to the hill districts where hemp is grown for fibre and charas obtained as a subsidiary product. Export of charas to the plains might be prohibited. (4) The rules not to take cognizance of wild spontaneously grown plant. But any one desiring to collect, store, or sell the same, or to prepare any drug from it, to obtain a license from the Collector. (5) To consolidate and improve the rules controlling the import of ganja and charas. The import of bhang might be prohibited. (6) To impose an import duty on ganja and charas. The duty should be light at first, say from Rs 50 to Rs. 80 per maund on pathar ganja and from Rs. 80 to 100 on charas. It could be increased by degrees. It would probably be best to collect the duty at the place of import in these provinces, and to make prepayment of the whole or part of the duty a condition precedent to the issue of the pass. The Bengal duty on baluchar ganja is already sufficiently high; but it should be made possible to levy it in these provinces. (7) To establish, if necessary, bonded ware-houses at a few central places where drugs could be stored duty free on import and the duty levied on removal. (8) To continue the present system of farming the right of vend; but it should be made possible for the authorities to control the storage and issue of drugs by the contractors so as to prevent forced sales at nominal prices during the last days of an expiring contract. It might also be found practicable and advisable to limit licenses to the sale of one or more forms of hemp-drugs to the exclusion of others.
T. STOKER, Commissioner of Excise.
1. It will be convenient to first describe the kinds of hemp drugs in use in these provinces: then to indicate the sources of supply, dealing separately with—(1) home growth and manufacture and (2) imports. The system of administration will then be described. In connection with this the desired information concerning taxation, prices, and consumption will be given so far as it is available. Finally the contemplated changes in the present system will be discussed.
DESCRIPTION OF DRUGS IN USE.
2. The forms of hemp drugs in use in these provinces are— 1. Bhang. 2. Ganja. 3. Charas. With bhang include majum, which is a confection prepared from extract of bhang, ghi, and sugar. BHANG.
3. Bhang consists simply of the leaves, flowers, and leaf stalks of either male or female plant. It requires no cultivation and no process of manufacture beyond drying and stripping the plant. Bhang is not smoked so far as I can discover, but is taken as a draught or as a confection in the shape of majum. Looking, however, at some of the specimens of so-called "wild ganja," which are smoked and which seem to me to differ very little from bhang, I hesitate to say that bhang could not and would not be smoked if ganja or charas were unprocurable. 4. Bhang is used everywhere throughout the provinces and more largely than other hemp-drugs by the better classes. The Brahmans of Muttra are said to be the largest consumers known. I have heard it said that a single man can take as much as a quarter of a seer in the day, and it is a jest against them that they wish Providence had made the Jumna a river of bhang. Bhang is, I believe, little, if at all, used as a mere intoxicant. It is chiefly taken as a stimulant or refreshment and perhaps even more as a tonic medicine. It is supposed to have cooling properties and its use largely increases in the hot season. Natives regard bhang as a comparatively harmless preparation, and its use is not generally looked upon as disreputable. It is also very largely used as a medicine for cattle either when sick or worn out by fatigue, and for this purpose it is found valuable by cultivators. Its use for cattle is, I believe, most general in the localities where the plant grows wild about the fields, and can, therefore, be procured for nothing. A common reason given by persons who are found in illegal possession of bhang is that they mean to use it for cattle medicine.
Dehra Dun. Bijnor. Saharanpur. Pilibhit. Muzaffarnagar. Shahjahanpur. Bulandshahr. Kumaun. Aligarh. Garhwal. Bareilly. Naini Tal.
GANJA. 5. Of ganja I need only say here, by way of definition, that properly speaking it is the unfertilized female flower. It is chiefly used in the eastern and central districts, and this is naturally explained by the circumstance that these districts are nearest the sources of supply. It is most in favour in the east. In the central districts it has more difficulty in contesting the field with charas. In the western districts marginally noted it is not sold at all. In Muttra and Meerut a small quantity is imported for the use of domestic servants and followers of the troops. In Agra it is comparatively little consumed. 6. It is chiefly used by the labouring classes and undoubtedly enables men, perhaps more than any other stimulant, to sustain severe and prolonged bodily labour. Used in moderate quantities, as it is generally taken, it does not seem to unfit people for their work. Excess in it is unquestionably deleterious. Ganja, so far as I can discover, is always smoked. I have found no case of its being used in any other way. It is most largely consumed in towns, but also finds consumers among the agricultural population. The habit is said to be spread by fakirs and mendicants who are greatly addicted to its use.
CHARAS. 7. Charas is the resinous extract of the hemp plant. As used it is always more or less adulterated with the powdered leaves or stalks of the plant or with other more foreiegn
substances. It is chiefly consumed in the western districts where ganja is at present unknown. These are the districts which lie nearest the Punjab, whence most of the supply comes. Charas is also consumed more or less extensively in the central districts and is making its way in the east. I attribute this to the constantly increasing price of the Bengal ganja, which was once almost exclusively used there. Now, however, it has to compete with the cheaper "pathar" ganja, which will be described later on. Practically speaking, I should say its use is exclusively confined to the lower classes of society. Its effects are much the same as those of ganja, with which it seems to be physiologically related. It is used for the same purpose and by the same classes of people. I should be slow to dogmatize on the point, but my observations lead me to believe that charas is the most injurious and least reputable of all the hemp drugs, possibly because it may contain the active principle of the plant in the most concentrated form. There are indications that where spirits or opium are supplanted by hemp, charas is the sort of drug usually selected. Its use appears to be extending at the expense of other intoxicants. Its price fluctuates considerably probably in accordance with the conditions of Central Asiatic trade. For the last few years it has been comparatively cheap, while under our system of administration country spirits and opium have been becoming dearer. Charas is always smoked.
LOCAL GROWTH AND MANUFACTURE.
8. Turning now to the question of growth and manufacture. The hemp plant grows in all parts of the provinces, but in varying quantities. It grows absolutely wild in great profusion in all the montane and sub-montane districts. I place in this category— Gorakhpur. Garhwal. Basti. Pilibhit. Gonda. Bareilly. Bahraich. Moradabad. Kheri. Bijnor. Naini Tal (including the Tarai). Saharanpur. Kumaun. Dehra Dun. To these perhaps may be added Muzaffarnagar, where the plant is reported to grow freely in the low lands of the rivers. In Shahjahanpur and Meerut, too, the produce is considerable. 9. In the districts of Hardoi and Fatehgarh hemp is cultivated to a small extent. It is sown either alone or with the spring crops, and is harvested after they have been reaped. It receives no care beyond that given to the crops with which it is mixed. In the Hardoi district and probably also in Fatehgarh, it is supplemented to some extent by self-grown plant produced about wells or houses and on small waste patches and headlands. All this plant is converted into bhang, which is of a superior quality, technically known as "tatia" (from a village in Fatehgarh district), and commands a much higher price than the wild bhang of the sub-montane districts. Part of the produce is locally consumed and part exported, so it is difficult to ascertain the precise amount of the produce. But I think about 1,000 maunds annually would be a very close estimate. Part of the Hardoi produce is taken across the Ganges to the conterminous district of Fatehgarh and thence exported as Fatehgarh bhang. The annual exports are about 800 maunds. Excluding for the present the hill districts, where hemp is grown for fibre, this is the only case in these provinces where the hemp plant is openly cultivated for commercial purposes. 10. Beyond these districts the hemp plant flourishes widely, though it is not produced in sufficient quantities to render it of any commercial importance. I would not venture to positively assert that it is always of purely indigenous growth, though its wide diffusion leads me to believe that this is the case. It may be seen growing about wells and temples; and in such places, it is no doubt the produce of seeds scattered by travellers and fakirs who use hemp drugs. It is also found in and about houses and in gardens, where it is either introduced in the same way or deliberately sown. In all these cases I think the plants, if not the result of cultivation, are knowingly permitted to grow, and are subsequently used by the people who live in those places. The plant may also be seen springing up in a scattered way in waste places and lowlands. In some districts the amount produced by these forms of sporadic growth is considerable and is a constant source of complaint by the drug contractors who have the monopoly of vend. These conditions obtain, broadly speaking, to a greater or less extent in all parts of the province lying north and east of the Jumna. In Bundelkhand and most of Mirzapur, in fact in all the country in and adjoining the hill system of Central India the plant is much more rarely found. But that it can be grown and with some perfection in this tract also is shown by the occasional presence of plants and by the existence of considerable cultivation in Gwalior and in some of the Bundelkhand Native States which interlace with British territory. 11. In the Himalayan districts the plant is cultivated and yields fibre which is of some economic importance. It supplies the people with material for their cloth and cordage, and was once a valuable monopoly of the East India Company. In most cases the plant is grown primarily for the fibre, and charas is gained as a subsidiary product. But in some places the charas is said to be the primary object of the cultivation. So far as I can discover, fibre is nowhere extracted from the plant grown in the plains. In some localities, where it grows wild, the stalks are utilized for making thatches, screens, &c. 12. Where grown for fibre in the hills, the plant is sown in the best soil and receives careful cultivation. But both in hills and plains it can and does grow without any care or cultivation of a sufficiently good quality to yield drugs. The brief and material conclusion is that besides a very large and general spontaneous growth, wherever people choose to grow the hemp plant, they can and do grow it in any part of the provinces, and it can be grown under conditions where suppression would be impossible. 13. Under the rules now in force under section 11, Excise Act XXII, 1881, the cultivation of the hemp plant in these provinces is free to all parties. The possession of the drug is permitted to cultivators, to owners of land in which the plant grows spontaneously, to licensed vendors or to persons duly authorized to supply licensed vendors. Its possession by other persons in larger quantities than one quarter of a seer of bhang and five tolas of ganja or charas, is prohibited under sections 22 and 23, clause (k), Excise Act. Section 12 (d) permits any cultivator to sell intoxicating drugs prepared from his plants to any person licensed to sell drugs or specially authorized to purchase the same. This permission to cultivators is considered to extend to the sale of their bhang by owners of spontaneous produce. Bhang requires no preparation or manufacture, being only the dried plant stripped of its stalk. The rules are silent on the subject of manufacture or preparation of drugs. This is probably because outside the hill districts there has hitherto really been no manufacture or preparation in the proper sense of the word carried on in the provinces except a little quasisurreptitious manufacture of ganja which will be noticed further on. Excepting the wholesale contractor in Saharanpur, no persons are specially authorized to purchase under section 12 (d). The business is entirely in the hands of the contractors, who are licensed to sell. 14. In the few cases abovementioned, where the plant is cultivated, the produce is stored by cultivators themselves in their own houses. It is sold to contractors, and when bought for export, is weighed and sealed before the tahsil officials, and exported under pass in the usual way (hereafter described). The produce of the wild plant is similarly treated. The real control lies in the restrictions on sale and transport. But the rules governing cultivation, collection of wild plant, preparation and manufacture, are, I think, susceptible of improvement. So far the rules, however, have worked well enough, partly because the supply of drugs has been ample and cheap and partly because the people generally have not known or realized how far they might go without violating the law and rules. They see that all excisable commodities are a Government monopoly, and, except where hemp is cultivated or collected for sale, they have a belief that its cultivation would render them liable to penalties. The ignorance is shared by some of the officials, who occasionally take cognizance of cases where a few plants are found growing in or about a man's house. In such cases he never pleads that he is entitled to grow them; he always denies the fact or alleges that the plants grew spontaneously without his knowledge. If drugs were forbidden or made prohibitive in price the case would at once alter, cultivation, collection, and manufacture would have to be placed under such control and restriction as might be found possible. 15. The question of manufacture as well as growth of bhang has, perhaps, been sufficiently explained in the foregoing paragraphs. In the case of ganja the manufacture and growth cannot well be separated. The hemp plant, as I have stated, can be, and is grown everywhere, but the production of good ganja requires either the extirpation of the male plant or the isolation of the female plant. The regular cultivation of ganja in this way is not carried on openly anywhere in these provinces. The whole of the ganja offered for public sale is imported. At the same time it would be incorrect to say that ganja is nowhere grown or manufactured. Careful enquiry has elicited reports from several districts that a small amount of ganja is surreptitiously made. I have endeavoured to verify this by obtaining specimens of the local manufacture. It is naturally difficult to obtain a clandestine article, but I have succeeded in getting specimens from Ghazipur and Sultanpur, which have been handed over to the Commission. In appearance the Ghazipur ganja is better than the ordinary "pathar," and not much inferior to Bengal "baluchar" (flat). The other is much the same as " pathar." I hope to obtain further specimens which will be duly submitted. These two samples are clearly made from unfertilized flowers, and the people who made them knew the necessity of preventing fertilization. In Ghazipur the male plants are extirpated and the ganja is prepared from the female flower by a process which closely resembles that employed in Bengal. It sells, I am informed, for two annas per tola. The method of cultivation and manufacture in Sultanpur has not been described. 16. The deduction is significant and instructive. Ganja, of fair or good quality, can be made, and is made, locally. People understand 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 Bundelkhand 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. 20. The chief districts from which bhang is exported are Gonda, Gorakhpur, Bahraich, Basti, and Kheri, the Tarai (Naini Tal), Bareilly, Pilibhit, Saharanpur, Gorakhpur, and Fatehgarh; but any of the other districts mentioned in my 8th paragraph are capable of yielding a practically unlimited supply, and bhang is occasionally procured from them. In Saharanpur a separate contract is given for a wholesale depôt. It only fetches a few hundred rupees and is almost invariably taken by the contractor for retail vend in the district. Elsewhere the local contractor does some business in wholesale export, or the contractors of other districts send their agents to purchase direct from the owners or occupiers of land who collect and store the plant. This export, or, more correctly speaking, transport, within the provinces is effected under passes issued by the Collector of the district in the form printed as Appendix XL, in the North-Western Provinces Excise Manual, which is framed for opium, but also used for hempdrugs. The rules will be found in chapter X of the Excise Manual. 21. The three main localities from which ganja is imported are— 1. Bengal. 2. Khandwa in the Central Provinces. 3. (a) Gwalior. (b) Bundelkhand Native States. That imported from Bengal is almost exclusively the cheapest kind, "flat ganja." I believe some very small quantities of the superior kinds are occasionally imported, but I have never seen any. This import business is chiefly in the hands of a large Patna firm who hold contracts for several districts in these provinces and also supply other contractors. Some contractors, however, obtain their supplies direct from Patna, Rajshahi and Buxar, or from the border districts of Saran and Champaran. This is entirely a matter for their own choice. The Bengal Government impose a duty which is now Rs. 6 per seer on flat ganja. This is collected and credited in Bengal. Till the 1st April 1892 these payments were subsequently credited to this Government by inter-provincial adjustment. Since that date they remain to the credit of Bengal. The cost price varies considerably according to the character of the crop and the state of the market. Within the last two years it has been as high as Rs. 70 per maund and as low as Rs. 9.
The Bengal ganja is known here as "baluchar" from the name of a village in Bengal, whence it is supposed to come. It is used chiefly in the eastern districts forming the Benares and Gorakhpur Divisions, but a little still finds its way further west, where its superior quality secures for it a certain, though small, demand in spite of its much higher price. The high quality of the Bengal drug is universally admitted, and I believe that weight for weight it possesses greater intoxicating power. This point could be best determined by a chemical analysis. Its appearance would indicate that it contains more of the resinous secretion, but, so far as I know, it seems to be preferred on account of its flavour and less unpleasant aftereffects. Notwithstanding its better reputation and its older trade connection, the Bengal drug is losing its hold in the market here. The decrease in Bengal exports attracted the attention of the authorities there, and I was asked about a year ago to ascertain the causes. The result of my enquiries was to show that the consumption of baluchar was falling off because of (1) the successive increases of the duty levied in Bengal and the consequent enhancement of price; (2) the increasing competition of the cheaper "pathar" ganja from the Central Provinces, Gwalior, &c.; (3) extended use of charas. No doubt cause (2) is greatly fostered by cause (1), and is a consequence as much as a cause. But I think in any case the cheaper drug was bound to assert itself and gradually supplant the dearer article. The difference in price is considerable. Baluchar has lately been generally retailed in our towns at six annas per tola, while pathar sells at one anna and half an anna. 22. In those districts where the use of baluchar prevailed I do not think the pathar ganja was, at first at least, openly offered under that name. It was rather used to adulterate baluchar. Ordinary specimens of the two are easily distinguishable to the experienced eye. But there is sufficient resemblance to make adulteration easy. I have no doubt a good deal of pathar is sold as baluchar. The Commission will remember that on their inspection of the two chief drug shops in Allahabad the vendors professed to have no "pathar" for sale, but on visiting the contractor's storehouse a quantity of pathar was there found in stock. Last year Babu Ganga Bishen, the head of the Patna family, and the largest contractor in the provinces, was found in the Nimar district engaging with the cultivators to manufacture their ganja so as to resemble baluchar and instructing them in the process. This had occurred also on a previous occasion. I have handed to the Commission a specimen of Khandwa ganja which I found on sale in a shop here and which approaches baluchar in quality and appearance. All these circumstances seem to indicate that the duty on Bengal ganja has reached a point which must lead to its gradual exclusion from a market where it has to compete with the cheaper products of other localities. I should also add that the districts in which there is reason to believe that locally grown ganja is surreptitiously prepared are chiefly districts in which baluchar is used. In Garhwal a substance is produced and used which might be classed with either ganja or charas. After the charas has been extracted from the female flower the powdered or broken flowers are mixed with hemp seed and smoked in a chillum. This seems akin to the "garda" of the Punjab. The ganja coming from the Central Provinces is known here as "pathar," "pattiyara or pattiyala," possibly on account of its leafy character. It has more waste in the shape of stalk and leaf and apparently less of the resinous secretion than the Bengal drug. But, as I have already said, it can be prepared to simulate the latter.
Mds. Mds. 1882-83 503 1887-88 1,145 1883-84 2,472 1888-89 1,879 1884-85 741 1889-90 3,237 1885-86 4,223 1890-91 1,530 1886-87 229 1891-92 1,450
I need not here attempt to describe its method of cultivation, preparation, storage, wholesale price, &c., because such information can be more accurately procured from the Central Provinces. Our contractors who bring it from Khandwa pay no duty there, but have to meet warehouse and registration fees, which, I believe, come to about Rs. 2 per maund. It varies a good deal in quality according to the season and probably also according to the skill of the cultivators who grow and prepare it. Many of the specimens I see contain more or less seed, showing that the male plants have not been completely extirpated. Pathar, whether from the Central Provinces or Gwalior, &c., is most largely used in the central districts of these provinces and in those western districts where ganja is consumed at all. It is gradually making its way in the eastern districts, where it is supplanting baluchar. I do not think the import of Khandwa pathar is increasing just at present. The figures marginally noted show the imports for the last 10 years. From what some of our contractors have told me, I think Gwalior ganja has been gaining ground, as it has latterly been rather cheaper owing perhaps to bad crops in the Central Provinces and the heavier railway freight to many of our districts. The construction of the Indian Midland Railway has apparently improved the market for Gwalior ganja. 24. The Gwalior ganja is of the same character and appearance as the Central Provinces "pathar." It is known here by the same name and is used in the same places and by the same people, in fact it stands on exactly the same footing as the latter. Like the latter, too, it seems to vary considerably in quality. On an average I should say, it is neither better nor worse than that which comes from Nimar. It is the product of careful cultivation and preparation. Colonel Pitcher, Director of Land Records and Agriculture for the Gwalior State, has kindly supplied a memorandum on this point prepared by his Assistant, Pandit Gopal Ram, which will be found as an appendix to this report. The State duty of Rs. 5 per maund must be calculated on the drug stripped from stalk and waste and ready for use. My enquiries here show that our contractors pay duty to the farmer at the rate of Re. 1-8-0 to Rs. 2 per 100 bundles. The fact seems to be that the farmer, paying a lump sum to the State, collects the duty in the way he finds most convenient to all concerned, and is not very particular provided he gets a fair offer. The incidence of the duty on weight of the drug is very much a matter of conjecture or estimate. I have no doubt myself that the actual incidence on the cleaned stuff comes in the end to less than Rs. 5 per maund. Some of the contractors I have spoken to have been under the belief they paid less dues in Gwalior than Khandwa. The Gwalior ganja as a rule is despatched by rail from Antri on the Indian Midland Railway, The State is bound by treaty not to permit the export of intoxicating drugs, &c., by any route or direction formerly barred by the Inland Customs line. This restriction had been disregarded, but the attention of the Darbar was called to it in 1887, and they took measures to enforce it. The principal measure, curiously enough, was to double the duty on ganja exported to British territory. The convenience now afforded by the Indian Midland Railway, added to the above restriction, now confines the conveyance to the railway, but I have no doubt that if the inducement existed, it would be quite easy to smuggle in the drug at many points of our land frontier. 25. Dattia. Chattarpur. Sampthar. Kadaura (Baoni). Of the same class as the Gwalior ganja is that imported from some of the Bundelkhand Native States. I give in the margin the name of those States from which ganja has been from time to time procured by our contractors. To these may be added Dholpur, which is under the Bhartpur agency. The plant is cultivated in Dattia, Sampthar, and Chattarpur to some extent, and the drug is not, so far as I could observe, distinguishable from Gwalior ganja. In all these States there is some duty on export, but it seems to be variable and unequal. In one place I am told it is two annas per rupee of the price of the drug which would be about Re. 1 to Rs. 2 per maund. In another place it is said to be Re. 1-9-0 on each purchase irrespective of quality. But these rates require confirmation. I am not sure that all the ganja brought from these States is of local growth; some of it, I suspect, comes from Gwalior or Khandwa originally. I learnt in Hamirpur that the Chirkari State supplies itself from Khandwa. I believe also that ganja as well as bhang finds its way from our districts into adjoining native territory. The import of ganja from these States is inconsiderable and irregular. It is only brought into a few of our Bundelkhand districts, but it is a source of supply which is capable of extension. 26. Before quitting this part of the subject I ought to mention that these and other Native States not only adjoin, but are interlaced and intermixed with British territory. There are numerous native villages scattered over our districts, and in some cases considerable tracts entirely surrounded by British possessions. The capital and a great part of the Chirkari State is situated in the middle of the Hamirpur district. All these places serve as centres from which excisable commodities are freely smuggled into our territory. The country being wild and mountainous prevention is impossible. I have elsewhere mentioned that a small quantity of very inferior illicit ganja is introduced from Nepal. I am told that there recently used to be authorized import of an inferior sort of ganja known as Mahadewa from Nepal; but I have been unable to verify this or get a specimen. A little pathar ganja still comes from Indore. The supply from this quarter used to be large. Ganja of a potent sort is said to be also procurable in Rewah, but whether of local growth or imported from the Central Provinces is not clear. A small amount of ganja is exported from Bahraich into Nepal. It is imported ganja. 27. I have mentioned all the sources, so far as I can discover, from which ganja is at present imported. But within recent years ganja in considerable quantities has been brought from places further south. Holkar's territory, Berar, Mewar, Nasik, Nasirabad, and Khandesh, and perhaps other places in the Bombay Presidency are sources from which supplies have been drawn within the last ten years. Latterly, however, the proximity of Khandwa and Gwalior and the cheapness of the drug there seem to have given them a monopoly of the business in pathar. But in considering the possible sources of supply, the places I have mentioned should not be overlooked. 28. The great bulk of the charas consumed in these provinces is brought from Yarkand and Bokhara. It comes through the Punjab, and the Commission can procure there better information than I can give them concerning its manufacture, quality, transport, &c. Some information on the subject will be found in my predecessor's letter of 29th August 1881 to the address of the Board of Revenue, of which a copy, I understand, has been supplied by the Board to the Commission. I am told by the traders that the charas from Central Asia is now less pure than it used to be. It is also much cheaper at present than it was some years ago, but the price is liable to considerable fluctuations. 29. The other sources of supply are Nepal and our own hill districts, Almora and Garhwal, A small amount also finds its way from Thibet into both British and Native Garhwal. A little is also sent from Garhwal into Thibet. The drug imported from Nepal is known as Shahjahani or Saljahani charas and is introduced through the Bahraich district from Nepalganj. A small amount is also introduced from Nepal into British Garhwal or Kumaun. I append a report by the Deputy Commissioner of Bahraich describing the method of production and manufacture. His information was, I believe, derived from the Nepalese frontier officials and the local traders. This charas is of a very superior quality and commands a high price; Rs. 10, 1st quality, and Rs. 3, 2nd quality, per seer. At present it seems all to go to Lucknow, where it is retailed at Rs. 35 or Rs. 40 per seer. Some used to be sent to Cawnpore. The importation appears to have fallen off, as the Yarkand charas has become cheaper, but its better quality still secures a market for the Shahjahani drug. Dr. Watt states on the authority of Dr. Gimlette that Nepal charas sells in Katmandu for Rs. 2 and in the Tarai at Rs. 3 per tola (Rs. 160 and Rs. 240 per seer). If these figures are correct, they show how enormously the drug must be adulterated before it reaches our market. I remember once hearing that very superior Nepal charas has been sold in Lucknow at its own weight in gold. This source of supply could, no doubt, be again largely extended if the demand arose. I believe the amount at present imported is from 25 to 50 maunds a year. 30. The hemp plant, I should add, is also cultivated in the Native Hill State of Tehri Garhwal, but none of the products which include charas are said to be imported into our districts at present. 31. The whole of the charas produced in the Himalayan hill districts is locally consumed and is also supplemented by the import of Yarkand drug which is cheaper and which is said also to be gaining favour because it is more potent. I find it difficult to believe this latter statement because I have little doubt the Himalayan charas is much the purer. It has been described to me as milder (colder) and less injurious than the other. This can best be settled by a chemical analysis, and for this purpose I am procuring specimens, which will be submitted. Possibly the more pungent taste of the Yarkand charas may be due to substances with which it is adulterated. But that it contains more of the true hemp resin I find it difficult to believe. My predecessor appears to have been misled in describing the Kumaun charas as inferior. The price paid by the contractor is from Rs. 5 to 8 per seer, about twice or thrice the price of the imported charas. It is difficult to estimate the amount of the annual produce, as much of it is consumed by the people who make it, or is illicitly sold. So far as the contractors' statements go only five or six maunds annually pass into their possession. This must be a small part of the produce, which, moreover, could be largely extended if there were a sufficient demand. 32. I have made many enquiries to ascertain if true charas is in these parts of India ever extracted from the plant grown in the plains. I have now got definite information of two localities in which this occurs. It was stated incidentally that some charas is made by the ganja cultivators in Gwalior. Colonel Pitcher has kindly verified this through his Assistant, Pandit Gopal Ram, who reports that "a certain amount of charas is obtained in this (Gwalior) State by scraping off the resin which adheres to the hands in cutting the ganja plant. In tahsil Antri the cultivators do not care much about the charas. In tahsil Kalaras, district Narwar, I hear charas is obtained in small quantities by the same process as in Kumaun and Garhwal." The second locality is in the Kumaun Tarai and Bhabar, where the practice was possibly introduced by the hill men who come down to cultivate there. The method is the same as that employed in the hills. The flowers of the wild plant are rubbed in the hands and the resin which adheres is scraped off. No record can be kept of the amount so prepared, but it does not as yet seem to be considerable. I have obtained specimens' of this charas from both Gwalior and Kumaun, and will submit them to the Commission. It is a fact of first-rate importance to know that charas can be and is manufactured in the plains and from the wild plant. This at once enlarges immensely the possible sources of supply. It has been stated that charas is collected in Sind and Central India by the traditional process of men, naked or leather clad, running through the hemp fields. The story seems to require verification. It seems strange that no charas is produced in all the handling which the Bengal ganja undergoes in the process of preparation.
ADMINISRATION 33. The excise on hemp-drugs is administered under Act XXII of 1881 and rules thereunder. The administration is carried on by the ordinary district staff. The central controlling authority is the Board of Revenue. The Commissioner of Excise has the power of a Revenue Commission under the Act. His statutory powers are limited to those defined in sections 54 and 14 of the Act. He has little initiative or final authority, and acts chiefly as an intermediary between Collectors and the Board. There is one uniform system of administering the drug revenue for the whole provinces. The right of sale over a fixed area is farmed to a contractor, who is at liberty to procure his drugs wherever he likes and to sell them at any price he chooses. No distinction is drawn between the different sorts of hemp drugs; all are included in the same license and are stored by the farmer on his own premises. There is no import duty here of any sort. The contracts are usually for an entire district—in some cases for tahsils or parganas. There is nothing to prevent a contractor having separate contracts for several districts. The ordinary period is for one year, but contracts are now often given for two or three years and the longer periods always fetch proportionally higher sums. The chief reason for this is that there is an enormous difference between the wholesale and retail prices, and an out-going contractor can flood the market with cheap drugs, which lessen the sales of the new contractor for weeks or months. The number and locality of the retail shop has been fixed by the Collector subject to the orders of the Board and is revised from time to time. Shops are only located in places where a demand exists. The maximum proportion is one to every 10,000 of the population. In a very few cases this is exceeded for special reasons. In more cases the proportion is less. In the tabular statement which accompanies this memorandum, the number of shops before 1878-79 cannot in many cases be stated, as the returns showed only the number of farms. A general revision of the number of drug shops was undertaken some time ago, and considerable reductions effected which will come into operation in the year now commencing (1893-94). For that year the total number of shops in the provinces is 3,673, being one for every 12,770 of the population. A list of the shops is notified at the time of sale, and no alterations are permitted without sanction. The contractor either sublets the shops or works them through his servants. As a rule, he holds the best shops in the large towns in direct management, and sublets the rest. He keeps the wholesale vend in his own hands and supplies his servants and sub-lessees, charging the latter at prices which leave him a large margin, and he makes his profits partly in this way and partly by requiring cash payments from sub-lessees. The shop licenses are all issued by the Collector on printed forms (Appendix XX, Excise Manual). When the contractor has made his arrangements, he applies to the Collector, filing a list which shows the names of the shops and licensees. This is compared with the sanctioned list of shops, and the licenses are made out in the Collector's office and given to the contractor. If he wishes at any time to change the retail vendor, he can do so by applying to the Collector and returning the first license. I do not know of any case in which an objection was ever made on public grounds to the number or locality of drug shops. If any such objection were made, it would receive due consideration. The neighbours are not affected by the presence of these shops, as there is rarely any consumption on the premises. 34. The contracts are sold by auction in each district at the time of the other annual excise settlements. As a rule of course the highest offer is accepted, but it is sometimes found necessary to arrange otherwise. Regard is paid to the solvency and respectability of the rival bidders. The Collector has always the prices of previous years to guide him, and is obliged to explain any substantial fluctuations. These depend on the competition, on the character of the season, and on the variations in the cost price of drugs. The number of capitalists engaged in the trade is not very large, and nothing is commoner among them than combinations to keep down the price. I have noticed this point in my annual report for 1891-92. Latterly, I think, the value of these contracts has become better known and the contractors' profits shorn to more reasonable dimensions. Measures have also been taken to defeat combinations, and with good results. Still it is a defect in the system that it leaves the whole of the revenue collected here to be determined by the competition of the auctions. The advantages of the system are that a large revenue is very easily and cheaply collected and that smuggling and other evasive or illegal acts are minimized. The contractor has no reason to commit them himself, and it is his interest to detect any one attempting them. This is no small advantage from an administrative point of view. Retail prices are under the existing system kept at the highest possible point. 35. The rules which govern the import of all forms of hemp-drugs will be found in the Excise Manual, Chapter X. All import, export, and transport is under passes signed or countersigned by the local authority. In the case of ganja and bhang the only importers are our own contractors. Charas is also brought in by Panjabi traders, who sell to those of our contractors who do not care to procure their supplies direct from the Panjab. These traders frequent a few centres to which they convey their stock. Their sales are all reported and duly registered on their passes. They take out no licenses as they sell only to contractors, for whose convenience they are permitted to trade in the manner described. The legality of this arrangement is questionable and will be considered when the rules come under revision. Some of these traders themselves hold district contracts, and in such cases of course their proceedings are open to no objection. Sometimes contractors, instead of importing from foreign provinces, obtain their supplies from contractors of other districts. This happens in the case of drugs in small demand or in the event of sudden emergencies. Such consignments are conveyed under pass. In these ways a good deal of transport of drugs takes place from one part of the provinces to another. The amount of smuggling from outside the provinces is, I believe, quite inconsiderable: the reason is given above. A little ganja and charas finds its way over the frontier, no doubt at many points in the possession of travellers, fakirs, and the like, who chiefly bring * Ganja and charas, 5 tolas. Bhang, it for their own consumption. Within the legal limits of quarter seer. possession* this cannot be prevented. I have no reason to believe that any illicit traffic or sale occurs which is worth taking into consideration. Occasionally drugs brought from one district are illicitly sold in another to the injury of the contractors. This can rarely be done without the connivance of some licensee of the district from which the drugs are brought, and is usually the result of hostility between rival contractors. The authority of the police and revenue staff is always exerted to suppress such practices. But there is undoubtedly a considerable consumption of bhang and a certain, though small, consumption of ganja locally produced which pays no tax direct or indirect. How this happens will be sufficiently understood from what I have said in the earlier part of this memorandum. It would be difficult to check and impossible to wholly suppress this consumption. Illicit import would easily and rapidly increase if stringent measures were adopted to repress trade in, and consumption of, drugs.
CONSUMPTION.
36. In the tabular statement which accompanies this memorandum, the columns showing the quantities sold retail, are necessarily blank. Any record of the sort would have to be kept by the retail vendors, and, if it could be maintained at all, would be utterly untrustworthy. It follows, therefore, that statistics showing the amount of drugs actually consumed or retailed are nowhere available. This is inevitable. Where a commodity is issued as required, like opium or country spirits, from a Government depôt on payment of a fixed duty, such a record can be kept, and it may fairly be assumed that the whole amount issued is consumed within the year. But this is not the case with hemp-drugs. The amount consumed can only be inferred from the amount of imports and exports. This might not be correct for any one year, because the imports of one year are often consumed or exported in the next. But over a series of years the net imports of charas and ganja will afford a very fair indication of the consumption if allowance is made for waste and deterioration. In the case of hemp-drugs this is not inconsiderable, for they deteriorate rather rapidly. Even an accurate return of the import and transport of bhang would fail to show the true consumption, as there is a large amount locally grown of which no trustworthy return could be secured. The statistics of import and export are, I regret to say, very defective. In the absence of any fixed duty and with a revenue determined solely by the license-fees no provincial record of the traffic has been kept up. An enquiry commenced a year and a half ago showed that even complete figures for 1890-91 were not always available. Hence the fragmentary character of the details in columns 11 to 18 of the tabular statement required by the Commission. Even such figures as are available in the years anterior to 1891-92 must be received with caution, as I am not confident that allowance has been made for transfers from district to district, and there is much risk that the same drugs may have been counted twice and the provincial total thus exaggerated. More accurate figures and for a longer period could be furnished to show the total imports of ganja from Lower Bengal and the Central Provinces. But in the absence of correct information from the other sources of supply these are useless as an indication of the Provincial consumption. The official returns of bhang are peculiarly apt to be misleading. They give the imports and exports district by district, and, as bhang is moved a good deal about the provinces, there has been considerable opportunity for error as long as no regular register and return of the consignments was maintained. Moreover, these statistics can take no account of the bhang consumed in districts where it is grown. In the case of untaxed bhang this must always happen, and I doubt if any system of registration will secure very accurate returns of even the bhang which passes through the licensed dealers' hands. The trade returns are of little value. An attempt to utilize them has shown that much of the imports and transports follow routes by which they escape registration. 37. The special enquiries which were made in 1881-82 give the amount of imported ganja to be approximately 4,451 maunds. The later and I think more trustworthy returns show a total import of 4,935 maunds in 1890-91 and 4,187 maunds in 1891-92. The imports of charas are similarly shown to be 1,135 maunds in 1881-82, 1,091 maunds in 1886-87, and 1,286 maunds in 1887-88. For 1890-91 the returns show maunds 1,133-30-9 and for 1891-92 maunds 1,217-4-12. Collating these figures, it might be reasonable to assume that the imports of ganja are between 4,000 maunds and 4,500 maunds yearly and the imports of charas between 1,100 maunds and 1,200 maunds. These figures, however, exaggerate the actual consumption because, besides other reasons, there is good deal of waste. Both ganja and charas deteriorate by keeping and considerable quantities become useless from this cause. On the other hand there is a certain consumption of locally-grown drugs of both kinds which cannot be ascertained. 38. The average consumption per head of ganja is estimated by Babu Hem Chander Kerr at 1 ½ seers per annum. This appears to me a very high estimate. In the case of baluchar retailed at 6 annas per tola it would mean for an ordinary consumer an outlay of Rs. 45 per annum, a quite impossible figure. Ganja is generally smoked in company, and a pice worth will go round two, three, or more people. It is also smoked several times a day. I should put two pice a day or Rs. 11-6-6 per annum as the maximum possible per head. This would represent less than half a seer yearly in the case of baluchar. On the other hand, baluchar sells for half the price in the villages, though consumption there is relatively much smaller. Pathar sells for one anna or half an anna a tola, but more of it is used in each pipe. Two pice worth a day of this would represent about 4 1/2 seers yearly at the latter, and 2 1/4 seers at the former price. Taking one thing with another and averaging all sorts of ganja, I should think a seer a head would be about the amount annually consumed by those who habitually indulge in the drug. This would give 180,000 consumers for the 4,500 maunds imported, if it were all used. My observations go to show that those who use ganja and charas indulge in them habitually and regularly. The craving is perhaps not so dominant and the abandonment not so difficult as in the case of opium. But where they can be procured, they are, as a rule, regularly taken. This is not the case with bhang. 39. Concerning the average consumption of charas, I have received most conflicting statements. But every one agrees that a much smaller quantity of it makes a dose. I should say half a seer per head yearly would be a fair estimate. That would represent 92,000 consumers of the 1,150 maunds imported. These figures are on the basis of habitual consumption and would be susceptible of increase if there were many occasional consumers. But on the other hand considerable abatement must be made for drugs imported, but not consumed. I submit these calculations with much diffidence, for I am aware that anything like absolute accuracy is unattainable. They are framed on the highest scale, and would show that even so computed only a very small proportion of the population is addicted to the use of these drugs. 40. The use of bhang is much more general. It is also much more harmless or even positively beneficial. I am informed that in Bengal Dr. Prain has pronounced bhang to be more harmful than ganja. I have not been favoured with a copy of his report, and so I cannot examine his reasons, which may be peculiar to Bengal. But I can affirm with much confidence, as the result of repeated enquiries, both official and private, and of personal observations extending over many years, that bhang as used in these provinces is not only the least harmful of all forms of hemp-drugs, but is largely used and much esteemed as a tonic by very many people who do not take it for its intoxicant effects and who only use it at certain seasons and in certain states of health. I cannot frame any estimate of the number of bhang consumers. Only a portion of those who use it, take it regularly all the year round and it is used in very variable quantities. There is no safe estimate of the amount consumed, and it is used for other purposes than human consumption. 41. The returns showing the annual revenue from hemp-drugs are complete and some deductions may be drawn from them. To facilitate this I append an abstract statement showing the district and provincial revenues since 1873-74.
Revenue from Hemp Drugs from 1873-74—1892-93.
It is necessary, however, to remember that abnormal figures which appear in this table are in some instances due to the method of keeping accounts on which the Accountant General's Department insists. For instance, some part of the unusual increase in 1886-87 is caused by the inclusion in the returns for that year of the security advances made on account of the following year. In the previous year the sums shown were those paid on account of the year of report. In the last year 1892-93 these security advances for 1893-94 are not shown, as they had not been made when the statement was compiled. In some cases, again, security advances have been refunded where sanction to a contract has been refused by higher authority, but the sums have still to appear in the accounts. I must also observe that these figures do not take account of the very large revenue collected in Bengal on ganja consumed in these provinces, and which from 1884 to 1892 was credited to us by inter-provincial adjustment though it was not reported to this Department and does appear in our Excise returns. In 1889-90 this was as much as Rs. 1,37,741, but has since fallen off. 42. Still these figures on the whole give a fairly correct view of the progress of the provincial revenue from this source. In the twenty years since 1873 the receipts have grown from Rs. 4,07,822 to Rs. 7,06,788, or over 73 per cent. In Oudh the increase has been over 193 per cent., in the N.-W. Provinces it has been 50 per cent. For this increase I assign three causes:— 1st.—Increased general prosperity which has shown itself in a larger expenditure on excisable commodities. 2nd.—Better administration, which has secured a larger proportional revenue from the amounts consumed. 3rd.—An increased use of hemp-drugs. These causes are, of course, mutually co-related. That the causes in operation have not affected hemp-drugs alone is clear from the fact that there has been a similar growth in other branches of excise revenue. The receipts from country spirits have increased between 1873 and 1892 from Rs. 11,70,242 to Rs. 21,16,977 in the N.-W. Provinces and from Rs. 5,52,364 to Rs. 11,04,949 in Oudh, a gross increase of 87 per cent. In the case of spirits at least this revenue is gained not on a larger, but on a smaller consumption. Owing to the extension of the distillery system and to administrative improvements, which have checked fraud and peculation, the gallonage has actually diminished, while revenue has increased. 43. The first substantial increase of drug revenue began in 1881-82. After that it was, though more irregular in Oudh than the N.-W. Provinces, continuous and rapid for both provinces. This movement must, in my opinion, be associated with the reforms which originated with the Excise Committee of 1877. Some of these had a direct effect on hempdrug revenue. For instance, a most important measure was to place the Excise Department of each district in charge of a selected Covenanted Assistant Collector. The contract system requires particularly efficient and honest management, which was thus secured. It is a matter of regret that the depletion of the Covenanted European Staff has latterly led to this salutary measure falling a good deal into abeyance. There are many indications in the tabular statement that contracts used, for one reason or another, to be given in some cases for much below their real value. Without multiplying instances I may point to Unao, Rai Bareilly, and Sultanpur in 1885-86, where the revenue rose at one bound from Rs. 12,991 to Rs. 30,350 from Rs. 9,166 to Rs. 19,918, and from Rs. 4,583 to Rs. 11,800, or to Partabgarh in 1886-87, where, after allowing for advance payments, the revenue jumped from Rs. 4,469 to Rs. 11,483. In all these cases the higher revenue has since been fairly sustained. These and such like instances indicate leakage, which has since been stopped. In some cases, as in Azamgarh in 1882-83, a large enhancement was gained by granting separate contracts for each tahsil and so admitting competition. The annexation to Oudh of the N.-W. Provinces seems to have been followed by better methods, which partly account for the more rapid growth of the drug revenue in the former province. 44. Some of the measures of excise reform have indirectly affected drugs by raising the price of country liquor. It seems to me impossible to doubt that restrictions on the use of spirits, either in the shape of prohibitive prices or diminished supply, tend to stimulate the use of drugs. I have dealt with this point in my Annual Reports for 1890-91 and 1891-92. I find running through all the Excise Reports for many years past assertions that drugs have been taking the place of liquor. I may point here to a few specific instances which seem to confirm that view. It will be seen that the drug revenue fell in certain districts of the Rohilkhand Division (Bareilly, Shahjahanpur, Budaon), during the years 1880-81 to 1883-84. The reason of that fall was that outstills were introduced at the beginning of that period into portions of these districts, and liquor in such areas became cheap and accessible. At the close of the period the outstills were abandoned, and this, coupled with other changes, made liquor again dear, and the supply scanty. On this the drug revenue at once revived. Within the last two years the contraction of the outstill area in Bijnor and Pilibhit and the enhancement of the still head duty on distillery liquor has been followed by an increased importation of charas and an enhancement of the drug revenue. The same phenomenon has been observed in other parts of the provinces. The history of the Banda district is also a case in point. During the years 1864-71 the distillery system was in force. The drug revenue then averaged Rs. 7,661, rising in 1870-71 to Rs. 8,090. The distillery system was condemned as unsuitable to the district and was abandoned in favour of the outstill or farming system. The drug receipts fell in 1872-73 to Rs. 4,256, and in 1873-74 to Rs. 3,650, and notwithstanding the general provincial improvement are now below Rs. 6,000. The fall of drug revenue in 1872-73 is due altogether to the change of system which made country liquor again accessible to the people. In the North-Western Provinces the most marked increase of drug revenue has been in the eastern districts belonging to the Gorakhpur and Benares Divisions. These are the districts in which the habit of spirit-drinking was most prevalent and where the enhancement of price and curtailment of supply under the Central Distillery System has been most severely felt. Before the introduction of that system these districts furnished 40 to 50 per cent of the total revenue of the North-Western Provinces from country spirits. I find that in 1862-63, when the system was introduced, the percentage was 48. The percentage of the total provincial revenue from hemp-drugs furnished by the same area in that year was only 18. In 1890-91 the former percentage had fallen to 31 and the latter had risen to almost 32. In 1862-63 the drug contract for the Benares district was Rs. 7,000: in 1890-91 it had risen to Rs. 44,000. Oudh was essentially a spirit-drinking province. The consumption was everywhere large. The administrative changes have affected it more than the North-Western Provinces. In Oudh the S. H. D. before 1877 was 12 annas per gallon, in the North-Western Provinces it was Re. 1-8. In that year a uniform duty of Re. 1 was imposed in both provinces. The figures already quoted show that while the drug revenue of the North-Western Provinces has increased by Rs. 50 per cent., that of Oudh has increased by Rs. 193 per cent. Meanwhile the liquor revenue from Oudh has increased by Rs. 100 per cent. only. A reference to the tabular statement will show the very low incidence of drug revenue in the Bundelkhand districts where the outstill system is in force. I am unwilling to prolong this memorandum by accumulating figures and arguments on this point. But it is one which seems to me to deserve the most serious consideration. Facts, figures, and opinions point irresistibly to the conclusion that the measures which have been taken to restrict the supply of country spirits and increase the revenue from it have tended pari passu to stimulate the use of drugs. If it be admitted that so long as human nature remains unchanged, some form of stimulants will be used, it follows that any measures to restrict drugs will be only half successful unless they are accompanied by measures which will render less harmful stimulants more accessible. It is necessary to remember that even behind hemp-drugs there are deeper depths. Dhatura, strychnine, aconite, and other poisons may occupy the field from which spirits and hemp-drugs are excluded. 45. There is one other matter which I would like to mention before quitting the subject of the provincial revenue from hemp-drugs. In his otherwise admirable monograph on the hemp plant, the author of the Dictionary of Economic Products has committed himself to many severe strictures on the fiscal and administrative policy of this Government. I have no hesitation in asserting that he has been largely misled by fallacious conclusions from erroneous statistics. It would be out of place here to enter into a detailed examination of his errors, some of which lie on the surface. But as his work is, no doubt, in the hands of the Commission, I would venture to record a warning against accepting either its statistics or its conclusions as far as these provinces are concerned without a careful scrutiny or without a reference to those who could explain supposed anomalies or defects. Prices. 46. I have at various places mentioned the current prices of the different drugs. I here give them in collective form. The wholesale prices are those at which the contractors procure them. The retail prices are those at which the public buy them. There is a third set of prices at which contractors supply their sub-licensees, but these are merely for the adjustment of accounts. The retail prices are only approximate. They vary very widely from place to place. Besides district variations, prices are often twice or thrice as high in large towns as in rural parts. They are also lowest at the borders of districts where they come into competition with the drugs of other vendors. Prices also vary with the amount purchased. When sold by weight in any quantity, the drug is cheaper; when sold in made up packets or doses, the price is higher. I doubt if retail prices vary much from year to year. The vendors in every year charge as much as they can get, and as the difference between cost prices and retail prices is enormous, there is always a large margin of profit, A rise of cost price comes out of the profits of the contractor or the Government revenue, or both. But wholesale prices vary very much from year to year, according to the supply and demand and to the duty which may be imposed on the produce or in transit. The prices here given are those now current. It is hardly necessary to add that all prices vary with the quality of the articles sold. These drugs deteriorate rapidly and are often sold off at nominal prices, a circumstance which will frequently account for the extraordinary discrepancies in reported rates.
BHANG.
SELF-GROWN FROM SUB-MONTANE AND HILL DISTRICTS. Wholesale. Re. 1 to Rs. 2 per maund besides cost of railway freight. Retail. Generally one to two annas per quarter seer (Rs. 10 to Rs. 20 per maund). In large towns it goes higher, reaching as much as Re. 1 per seer.
TATIA FROM FARAKHABAD. Wholesale. Rs. 4 to Rs. 6 per maund besides freight. Retail. Two to four annas per quarter seer (Rs. 20 to Rs. 40 per maund). In large towns higher rates prevail.
GANJA.
BALUCHAR FLAT Wholesale. Rs. 10 or Rs. 12 per maund, besides duty at Rs. 240, and freight from Bengal. Retail. Six annas per tola in towns, 4 annas in rural parts (Rs. 30 and Rs. 20 per seer).
GANJA PATHAR. GWALIOR, &C. Wholesale. Rs. 7 to Rs. 14 per maund, including duty and exclusive of railway freight. KHANDWA. Rs. 10 to Rs. 16 per maund, including dues and excluding freight. Retail. All sorts of Pathar. Half an anna to one anna per tola (Rs. 100 to Rs. 200 per maund).
CHARAS.
YARKAND OR BOKHARA. Wholesale. Rs. 60 to Rs. 80 per maund. Inferior or damaged stuff as cheap as Rs. 40 or Rs. 30, very superior Rs. 100 and upwards. Retail. Generally 3 annas per tola (Rs. 15 per seer). Is sold as low as one and a half annas and in large towns at 5 annas (Rs. 25 per seer).
NEPAL SHAHJAHANI. Wholesale. Rs. 400 per maund (an inferior sort, Rs. 120).
Retail. Four annas to 5 annas, 7 annas, and 8 annas per tola (Rs. 20 to Rs. 25, Rs. 35, and Rs. 40 per seer).
KUMAON. Wholesale.
Rs. 200 to Rs. 320 per maund.
Retail. About 2 annas per tola (Rs. 10 per seer), doubtful.
47. I would again call attention to the great disproportion between the wholesale and retail prices of ganja and charas. In bhang the scale of profit is not so high because it has to compete with the wild or illicit plant. The high prices are due to the monopoly of sale under which the contractor exacts the very highest price he can without creating illicit competition. He does not wish to extend his sales because he finds a greater profit in smaller sales and higher rates. CONTEMPLATED CHANGES OF SYSTEM. 48. Finally I come to the proposed modifications of the present system. A suggestion has more than once been made to impose an import duty on hemp-drugs, but it did not meet the approval of the higher authorities. It is also open to the objection that the Excise Act does not authorize the imposition of an import duty. I made a representation on this subject some time ago. Since then the Excise Act has been amended by Act X of 1893. That Act, as I understand it, deals only with imports from beyond British India. The statutory power seems still wanting to control imports and impose import duty on drugs brought from other parts of British India. If this view is correct, a further amendment of the Excise Act is required to legalize the arrangements now suggested. 49. I do not think it possible to impose either an import duty or a fixed local duty on bhang. The opportunities for evasion are altogether too extensive. For bhang we must trust, as at present, to our contract license fees. But it might be well to prohibit the import of bhang altogether. The province can supply its own wants, and there would be always some risk that ganja or charas might be surreptitiously introduced under cover of a pass for bhang. But for ganja and charas I think it both possible and desirable to impose a fixed import duty. For this purpose it will be necessary to make rules to control both local cultivation and manufacture and import. Briefly I would suggest rules to provide for the following heads:— (1) To prohibit cultivation (as opposed to spontaneous growth) except for the manufacture of bhang or fibre and to permit it for bhang only under license from the Collector. (2) To prohibit absolutely the cultivation or protection of the plant for the production of ganja or charas and to prohibit the manufacture of those drugs. Power might be reserved to Government to relax this rule in any special locality and permit the cultivation and manufacture under license with such duty as might be fixed. (3) The two foregoing rules not to be applied to the hill districts where hemp is grown for fibre and charas obtained as a subsidiary product. Export of charas to the plains might be prohibited. (4) The rules not to take cognizance of wild spontaneously grown plant. But any one desiring to collect, store, or sell the same, or to prepare any drug from it, to obtain a license from the Collector. (5) To consolidate and improve the rules controlling the import of ganja and charas. The import of bhang might be prohibited. (6) To impose an import duty on ganja and charas. The duty should be light at first, say from Rs 50 to Rs. 80 per maund on pathar ganja and from Rs. 80 to 100 on charas. It could be increased by degrees. It would probably be best to collect the duty at the place of import in these provinces, and to make prepayment of the whole or part of the duty a condition precedent to the issue of the pass. The Bengal duty on baluchar ganja is already sufficiently high; but it should be made possible to levy it in these provinces. (7) To establish, if necessary, bonded ware-houses at a few central places where drugs could be stored duty free on import and the duty levied on removal. (8) To continue the present system of farming the right of vend; but it should be made possible for the authorities to control the storage and issue of drugs by the contractors so as to prevent forced sales at nominal prices during the last days of an expiring contract. It might also be found practicable and advisable to limit licenses to the sale of one or more forms of hemp-drugs to the exclusion of others.
T. STOKER, Commissioner of Excise.
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