Baluchar (cannabis)
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| Kind of name | Product name |
|---|---|
| Also called | Baluchur Balucher Bilúchar Baluchari Baluchar ganja |
| Refers to | Ganja from Bengal as sold outside the province, most often its flat form |
| Country | India Bangladesh |
|---|---|
| Places | Bengal Presidency North-Western Provinces |
| First recorded | 1881[1]: 138 |
Baluchar (also baluchur or balucher) was the name under which ganja from Bengal was sold in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh in the late 19th century.[2] The Indian Hemp Drugs Commission reported in 1894 that Bengal ganja "holds the first place in public favour". Only a small quantity of it left Bengal, but its fame was "carried all over the country by the religious wanderers" and its name was "very widely known".[3]: 154 Many witnesses used the name for flat ganja, the form that Bengal sent up-country; others gave it to round or broken ganja. In the North-Western Provinces baluchar was sold beside pathar, the much cheaper ganja of Khandwa and Gwalior, which the commission found had superseded it on price and which was mixed into it and sold under its name.[4]: 110–111
Name
The commission's report spells the name baluchar. Some witnesses wrote baluchur[5] or balucher.[6] E. T. Atkinson wrote bilúchar in a passage on the ganja of the North-Western Provinces that George Watt quoted in his article on the hemp plant, reprinted by the House of Commons in 1893.[7]: 164–165 In Shahabad, in Bihar, George Grierson's Bihar Peasant Life (1885) recorded baluchari among the words for imported ganja, beside jasari, ganja from Jessore.[8]: 46
Thomas Stoker, Commissioner of Excise for the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, told the commission that Bengal ganja was "known here as "baluchar" from the name of a village in Bengal, whence it is supposed to come".[2] S. P. Roy, the municipal analyst of Allahabad, wrote that Bengal's flat, round and broken ganja "generally go under the name of baluchar ganja, from the name of a place in Rajshahi where it is solely cultivated and produced".[9]: 174 Poorna Chandra Banerji, an assistant surgeon at Benares, said it was imported from "Baluchar, a village on the other side of Patna, near Hajepur".[10] Other witnesses said that baluchar came from Patna,[11][12] "Murshidabad and Patna districts"[6] or "Hat Naogaon in the Bengal Presidency".[13]
Which ganja the name meant
The Ganja Mahal of Bengal issued its ganja in three forms: flat, round and broken or chur (see Ganja#Grades).[3]: 154 Stoker found that the ganja imported into the North-Western Provinces from Bengal was "almost exclusively the cheapest kind, 'flat ganja.'"[2] F. W. Brownrigg, Deputy Commissioner of Sultanpur, answered that flat ganja "is uniformly known as baluchar", while broken ganja was called pathar or patiara.[14] Witnesses in Bengal used the name in the same sense. In Calcutta and its vicinity flat ganja was known "by the name of baluchar ganja" and round ganja "by the name of Jessore ganja".[15] A teacher at the Temple Medical School in Patna said that flat ganja "is called baluchar ganja in this place".[16]
Other witnesses attached the name to a different form. A medical practitioner at Bhagalpur put "chur or baluchur or broken ganja" third among Bengal's varieties.[17] The tahsildar of Nawabganj, in Bara Banki, said that flat ganja was "locally known as pathar" and that chur, "popularly known as baluchar", was used in the eastern districts.[18] The superintendent of the central jail at Lucknow found the usage changed within Oudh: "Flat ganja is termed pathar in Lucknow; in Fyzabad, baluchar."[19] At Ajmere round ganja was called baluchar and flat ganja pathar.[20] At Cuddapah, in the Madras Presidency, smokers preferred "round or chur ganja, called baluchur".[21]
In the trade of the North-Western Provinces
Stoker named three sources of the province's ganja: Bengal; Khandwa, in the Central Provinces; and Gwalior with the Bundelkhand states. The Bengal import was chiefly in the hands of "a large Patna firm"; other contractors bought direct from Patna, Rajshahi and Buxar or from the border districts of Saran and Champaran. Bengal collected its own duty on the drug, by then six rupees a seer on flat ganja, before it left the province.[2] Baluchar was smoked chiefly in the Gorakhpur and Benares divisions, in the east of the province.[2] A little went further west, where its quality kept it "a certain, though small, demand in spite of its much higher price".[4]: 111
Atkinson set the two kinds side by side: "Two sorts of ganja are sold in these Provinces: the pattar and the bilúchar." In the lines that follow in Watt's article, the pattar came chiefly from Holkar's territories and retailed at three to four rupees a seer; the bilúchar came from Lower Bengal and sold at 10 to 12 rupees.[7]: 165 The commission quoted what Mr. Wall, "late Commissioner of Excise", had written in 1881: "owing to increased duty levied on baluchar ganja in Lower Bengal, the consumption of charas has largely increased everywhere."[1]: 138
Stoker found that consumption of baluchar in the province was falling. He put the fall down to the successive increases in the Bengal duty and the higher price that followed. He named two other causes: competition from the cheaper pathar of the Central Provinces and Gwalior; the wider use of charas.[2] The commission concluded that Khandwa and Gwalior ganja were "far cheaper than that of Bengal with its high duty", which was reason enough for their having superseded it.[4]: 110 It also found that the supply of a cheaper article had counteracted the higher cost of baluchar brought about by the Bengal duty.[1]: 137
Against pathar
In the towns of the province baluchar retailed at six annas a tola, against one anna or half an anna for pathar.[2] The commission's report puts pathar at 1½ annas a tola[4]: 110 and, by the seer, baluchar at Rs. 20 to Rs. 30 and pathar at Rs. 2½ to Rs. 5.[1]: 136 Brownrigg found baluchar preferred, while "the poorer folk take patiyara, from necessity, not from choice."[14]
The commission found Khandwa ganja green and much leafier than baluchar. It wrote that the Khandwa drug "does not bear any comparison in the appreciation of smokers with baluchar. The latter is a very special article, and no ganja will be found to compare with it in any province."[22] Stoker believed that, weight for weight, the Bengal drug "possesses greater intoxicating power" and that smokers preferred it for its flavour and less unpleasant after-effects.[2] Roy, by contrast, called pathar "a much stronger form of smoke than baluchar ganja" and said it was also called kacha ganja for its green colour.[9]: 174, 177
The commission's report found "reason to believe that pathar is frequently passed off as the better quality of drug, and is used also for adulterating it". Shops sold the smokable part picked off the stems, which made this possible; on the branch the two were "readily distinguishable".[4]: 110 Stoker wrote that in the districts where baluchar had been used, pathar was at first not offered openly under its own name but "used to adulterate baluchar". He had "no doubt a good deal of pathar is sold as baluchar". When the commission inspected the two chief drug shops in Allahabad the vendors said they had no pathar for sale, but a quantity of it was found at the contractor's storehouse. Stoker also reported that Babu Ganga Bishen, head of the Patna family and the largest contractor in the provinces, had been found in the Nimar district engaging the cultivators "to manufacture their ganja so as to resemble baluchar" and teaching them how.[2] The commission thought baluchar sold for less in the villages than in the cities "probably because it is adulterated with pathar, which is anything from one-twelfth to one-sixth of the price of the other".[1]: 136 A witness at Meja Road, in Allahabad district, said that baluchar "is nearly always adulterated with pathar".[5]
Beyond the North-Western Provinces
In Assam, the commission wrote, Bengal ganja "is distinguished by the epithet mohini".[3]: 154 J. W. U. Macnamara, the civil surgeon at Tezpur, listed ganja "or mohini bhang among the Assamese". He took mohini to mean "pleasant, seductive, or agreeable" and said it was a name the Assamese gave to the growing hemp plant.[23]: 551, 553
The Diwan of Khairagarh, a state in the Central Provinces, said that flat ganja was preferred in that province and called baluchur there, but that it was hard to get and round ganja was used in its place.[24] In Gujarat the sadhus of Dakore counted baluchar among three kinds of ganja, "that in which the leaves are flattened and are with twigs"; the witness who questioned them added that it was hardly to be had in Gujarat.[25]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. I: Report. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. ch. VIII, "Extent of use and the manner and forms in which the hemp drugs are consumed", paras. 354–364, pp. 135–138 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Memorandum on hemp drugs in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, by Mr. T. Stoker, Commissioner of Excise". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. III: Appendices, Miscellaneous. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. paras. 21–22, p. 28 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. I: Report. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. ch. VIII, "Extent of use and the manner and forms in which the hemp drugs are consumed", paras. 415–429, pp. 154–158 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. I: Report. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. ch. VII, "Trade and movement of the hemp drugs", paras. 289–291, pp. 109–111 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. J. Cockburn, Assistant Sub-Deputy Opium Agent, Meja Road, Allahabad District". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. V: Evidence of Witnesses from North-Western Provinces and Oudh and Punjab. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. witness no. 4, pp. 41–42 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Pandit Mewaram, Brahman, Retired Deputy Collector, Lakhimpur". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. V: Evidence of Witnesses from North-Western Provinces and Oudh and Punjab. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. witness no. 57, pp. 94–95 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Article on Cannabis sativa". East India (Consumption of Ganja): Return to an Address of the Honourable the House of Commons, Dated 21 February 1893. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office. 1893. pp. 155–174 – via Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics.
- ↑ Chattopadhyaya, Utathya (June 2026). Ganja Matters: Empire and the Pursuits of Cannabis in British India. Oakland: University of California Press. doi:10.1525/luminos.276. ISBN 9780520425699.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of S. P. Roy, Brahmin, Municipal Analyist, Allahabad". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. V: Evidence of Witnesses from North-Western Provinces and Oudh and Punjab. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. witness no. 120, pp. 174–177 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Assistant Surgeon Poorna Chandra Banerji, Brahman, Benares". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. V: Evidence of Witnesses from North-Western Provinces and Oudh and Punjab. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. witness no. 99, p. 145 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Pundit Rughober Dyal Misra, Brahman, Offg. Deputy Collector, Lucknow". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. V: Evidence of Witnesses from North-Western Provinces and Oudh and Punjab. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. witness no. 48, p. 73 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of M. Mahomed Hassein, Drug Contractor, Lucknow". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. V: Evidence of Witnesses from North-Western Provinces and Oudh and Punjab. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. witness no. 253, pp. 341–342 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Lala Thakur Pershad, late Drug Contractor, Fatehpur City". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. V: Evidence of Witnesses from North-Western Provinces and Oudh and Punjab. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. witness no. 246, p. 331 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. F. W. Brownrigg, Officiating Deputy Commissioner, Sultanpur". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. V: Evidence of Witnesses from North-Western Provinces and Oudh and Punjab. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. witness no. 12, p. 12 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Madhab K. Das, Kayasth, Private Practitioner, Calcutta". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. IV: Evidence of Witnesses from Bengal and Assam. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. Bengal witness no. 158, p. 373 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Assistant Surgeon Akbar Khan, Teacher, Temple Medical School, Patna". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. IV: Evidence of Witnesses from Bengal and Assam. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. Bengal witness no. 124, p. 322 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Nocoor Chander Banerji, Brahmin, Medical Practitioner, Bhagalpur". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. IV: Evidence of Witnesses from Bengal and Assam. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. Bengal witness no. 144, p. 355 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Jaideo Sahay, Agarwal, Officiating Tahsildar, Nawabganj, District Bara Banki". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. V: Evidence of Witnesses from North-Western Provinces and Oudh and Punjab. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. witness no. 61, pp. 101–102 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Surgeon-Lieutenant-Colonel R. A. K. Holmes, Superintendent, Central Jail, Lucknow". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. V: Evidence of Witnesses from North-Western Provinces and Oudh and Punjab. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. witness no. 77, p. 116 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. G. W. Gayer, District Superintendent of Police, Ajmere". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. VII: Evidence of Witnesses from Bombay, Sind, Berar, Ajmere, Coorg, Baluchistan, and Burma. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. Ajmere witness no. 2, p. 360 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of K. Vematasoobiah, Veishya, Trader and Pleader, District Munsiff's Court, Cuddapah". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. VI: Evidence of Witnesses from Central Provinces and Madras. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. Madras witness no. 164, p. 390 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. I: Report. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. ch. VI, "Preparation of the raw drugs from the cultivated and wild plant", paras. 248–250, p. 96 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Surgeon-Major J. W. U. Macnamara, Civil Surgeon and Superintendent, Lunatic Asylum, Tezpur". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. IV: Evidence of Witnesses from Bengal and Assam. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. Assam witness no. 20, pp. 551–555 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Syed Mohamed Husain, Extra Assistant Commissioner; Diwan, Khairagarh State". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. VI: Evidence of Witnesses from Central Provinces and Madras. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. Central Provinces witness no. 15, p. 28 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Desaibhai Kalidas, Brahmin (Khedaval), Government Pleader and Public Prosecutor, Kaira". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. VII: Evidence of Witnesses from Bombay, Sind, Berar, Ajmere, Coorg, Baluchistan, and Burma. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. Bombay witness no. 104, p. 197 – via Internet Archive.