51. Evidence of BARU JAGA MOHAN BRATTICHARJYA, Deputy Magistrate and Deputy Collector and Personal Assistant to Commissioner, Chittagong.

With remarks by Mr. W. B. Oldham, Commissioner of Chittagong.

1. I was Excise Inspector of the Dacca Division for five years, and Excise Deputy Collector for the same period at Burdwan and Monghyr.
(I have never had to specially study the ganja question.- W. 0.)

2. Yes ; the same local names as above.

3. In Dacca, Mymensingh, on the banks of rivers, and in Monghyr at the foot of the hills near Baha Chowki, a village about 11 miles from the town.
( Also in Chittagong, Chittagong Hill Tracts, Noakhali, Tippera and Hill Tippera. In the Darjeeling District it is abundant -W. 0.)

4. Siddhi and bhang plants.

5. Not known. But a damp soil apparently encourages the wild hemp.
( I have only seen it in valley and sub-montane tracts.-W. 0.)

6. Generally dense.

7. (a) In Rajshahi. 8 to 11. Not known. 12. Not known.
( No. In Hill Tippera manufactured ganja is imported; also into the Hill Tracts where Hindustani workmen and artificers require it.-W, 0.)

13. Yes, to Rajshahi. The rest not known to me.

14. Yes.
(a) In Rajshahi.
(c) In Monghyr to a large extent, most of the bhang consumed in the province being prepared there.

15. There is no particular method adopted in preparing bhang. The leaves are plucked and dried in the sun, and then stored as bhang

16. Yes; in Dacca and Mymensingh the wild hemp plant is cut down and left on the thatch of the house to dry, and then kept stick and leaves together for use as bhang. I have seen wild ganja plants, but not in flower.
( I was told in Darjeeling that ganja could be prepared from the wild hemp, but the preparation was unattractive.-W. 0.)

17. Not known.

18. Ganja and bhang deteriorate by keeping. I do not know anything about charas. They do not quite lose their properties. With ordinary care they keep good about two years. Damp is the cause of deterioration. This might be prevented by keeping the drugs in tin-lined boxes.

19. Yes ; that is my experience.

20 In the districts where I served the use of charas was almost unknown. The majority smoked ganja.
(In the Sonthal Parganas the reformed or Hinduized Sonthals, who call themselves Kharwars and who eschew alcohol, have taken to ganja. In Tippera, where the Muhamrnadans are strict fakirs, and so obliged to refrain from all intoxicants, ganja is largely consumed.-W. 0.)

21. My experience is that tastes vary according to localities. In Burdwan and Monghyr the staple is round ganja. In East Bengal it was flat in my time.

22. Not known.

23. Yes; in Mymensingh and Dacca to a very small extent by the lowest classes as a substitute for ganja.

24. Up-country men living in Bengal use bhang as a drink largely.

25. Is stationary. The fluctuations are casual.

26. (a) About 90 per cent. ganja smokers.
(b) About 10 per cent.
(c) As regards bhang, moderation is the rule, and I have never come across a case of excess.

27. The working classes, the cultivating classes, boatmen, and fishermen.
Hard work and aquatic habits lead to the practice. In Dacca the weaver class, which is a wealthy one, generally smoke ganja.
The sanyasis all over the country are addicted to the excessive use of ganja. It is said to protect them from the effects of exposure.
(It is taken as a prophylactic to fever by people who have to work in the ivet.-W. 0.)

28. (a) One pice worth of ganja generally, from one-twelfth to one-sixteenth of a tola.
(b) About four to five times this cost and quantity.

29. Black pepper is pounded with bhang, and drunk in a solution of sugar.

30. Ganja is often smoked in company. Bhang also during the Durga Puja. It is confined to the male sex. But prostitutes in East Bengal do smoke ganja, and children very rarely.

31. (a) and (b) Ganja smoking is easily formed, and it is difficult to break it off.
(c) No.

32. In East Bengal, on the occasion of the puja of Trinath, ganja smoking is considered essential, and is sometimes excessive. Confirmed smokers generally congregate. Their example might prove injurious. Bhan g is drunk during the Durga Puja on the Nahami day.

33. Bhang is not in disrepute, though ganja smoking is. Ganja smoker, like opium eater, is a term of opprobrium. I am not aware of any particular baths for this sentiment, except that it is an opinion handed down from father to son, and people seldom analyse it. I am not aware of any custom sanctioning the worship of the plant.

34. Yes, as the giving up of all confirmed habits. The prevention, however, as in the case of tobacco smokers, will be felt as a temporary suffering. With a large number of consumers, the use of ganja is not a daily habit, and the restraints of self-denial will ultimately prevail with them. In the matter of creating a powerful craving ganja is much inferior to opium, but in eases where it has been generated the privation will be surely felt. There would be about 10 per cent. of these.

35. (a) and (c) Yes; ganja and eharas by pro.. hibiting cultivation but not bhang, which grows abundantly in a wild state in several districts.
(6) It would not be easy at all to consume ganja illicitly, for a plant could not be cultivated. with anything like the secrecy with which distillation of liquor can be managed.
(d) Certainly for a time like the discontentcaused by the abolition of the outstill system, and to a greater extent.
(e) In no sway.
(f) Yes, in the cases of persons who cannot get on without some sort of stimulant.
(I concur. I supply ganja to our Hindustani artificers in the Lushai Hills.-W. 0.)

36 Not to my knowledge, but many people use both.

37. I know almost nothing about charas.

38. Chur, being the droppings of the flower, does not contain so much of the resinous matter as the other two kinds do, and is consequently not quite so strong.

39. The drinking of bhang is popularly believed to be less injurious than ganja smoking.

40. (a) I am not aware of ganja being used by native doctors. In dysentery bhang is prescribed.
(b) In East Bengal bhang is also used in treating the bovine species, and in Burdwan it was habitually given to the Raj Bari elephants as a tonic.

41. (al Bhang is used as a digestive, or at least an appetiser.
(b) and (c) Ganja is so used.
Well-to-do Beharis use bhang in the way indicated, and fishermen, boatmen, palki-bearers, and coolies in the way indicated in (b) and (c).
(Tide my note to question 35, which shows that we find it beneficial in the circumstances. -W.0.)

42. Apparently harmless, because consumers of this class look quite healthy and robust. But medical experts only can tell whether moderate, but habitual, use ultimately tells upon the constitution.

43. Yes.

44. In the case of those who use ganja and bhang moderately, it is refreshing and exhilarating, and the latter creates appetite. The effect would last for an hour or so, and is followed by a slight depression, which passes off quickly without causing any uneasiness.

45. I am not in a position to answer these questions, as I had no occasion to watch any consumer of the kind referred to.
(Of the mad men whom I have found confined for examination in jails, the madness of, I think, nine out of ten was attributed to ganja. Tide also my note on question 20. We certainly thought that it emboldened and made more reckless and troublesome the Kbarwar Sonthals who were sometimes very troublesome.-W. 0.)

46. I have seen half-witted people, who are hard ganja smokers; and evidently the weakness of the brain had been brought on by excess.

47 and 48. I have no knowledge on this point, though heredity in this respect also is quite possible. There is always the strong inducement of example.

49. (a) Not that I know of.
(b) Prostitutes use these as cheap intoxicants.
(d) Opium is said to induce impotence, but not hemp.

50. Ditto.

51. (a) Yes, in the sense that there is a large proportion of bad characters m the poorer classes who are the majority using these drugs, especially ganja.
(b) None that I know.
(Fide my notes to questions 20 and 45 as regards political offences.-W. 0.)

52. Pilfering is associated with excessive use of ganja and opium.

53. Not to my personal knowledge. But excessive ganja smoking certainly weakens the brain, and may thereby lead to crime.

54. Kali Puja and ganja smoking are said to be the indispensable preliminaries of a dacoity.

55. I am not aware of such cases.
(I have known many cases of drugging, but none in which ganja was used. Dhatura was the ordinary agent.-W. 0.)

56. I am not aware that anything is mixed with ganja or charas and smoked. In the drink prepared from bliang, sugar is added to fortify it. The admixture of &attire, is not known to me.

57. Not known to me.

58. Yes ; it is working well.

60 and 61. I do not know much about the practical working of the rules controlling its cultivation.

62. The cultivation of bhang could only be controlled if the wild plant could be entirely suppressed. But this is not feasible.

63 and 64. None.

65. Yes.

66. Yes, because the quantity of ganja in the three kinds varies. There is a large quantity of sticks in the flat, less in the round, and it is entirely absent from chur.

67. No.

68. Yes. But ganja, unlike chandu and madak, is not generally smoked on the premises and there is nothing objectionable about the shops.

69. Ganja shops are never considered a nuisance and no one even objects to the site. Public opinion is never hostile to these shops, and therefore it is never consulted.

70. There are no facts regarding the importation or smuggling of ganja from Native States. Yes, duty is paid. There is no general use of untaxed drugs.
(I have made close enquiry about this. We have no reason whatever for thinking that untaxed ganja is used : nor in Darjeeling, where the wild cannabis is so abundant, was a case ever detected. -W. 0.)