Garhjat ganja
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| Kind of name | Product name |
|---|---|
| Also called | Gurjat ganja Gurjati ganja Garhjati ganja Gujrat ganja |
| Refers to | Ganja from the Tributary States of Orissa, taxed at its own rate in the Orissa Division of Bengal |
Garhjat ganja (also Gurjat ganja) was the name used in the excise administration of Bengal for the ganja of the Garhjat, the Tributary States of Orissa, in present-day Odisha. It was in use only in the three districts of the Orissa Division: Cuttack, Puri and Balasore.[2]: 5 Under the excise rules of the 1890s licensed vendors could import it under pass and sell it at a lower duty than the ganja of Rajshahi, but more of it was smuggled in than was imported.[3]: 6, 9[2]: 5 At Puri the priests of the Jagannath temple drank it as bhang.[4]: 45 In 1889 the Government of Bengal held it to be a form of bhang that was drunk and not smoked; in 1890 it reversed that view and called it "a true ganja like the Rajshahi article, but inferior".[5]: 354
Name
The Bengal excise memorandum written for the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission in 1893 says that Garhjat ganja, "as its name implies, comes from the Garhjat or Tributary States of Orissa".[2]: 5 The commission's report and the memorandum spell the name Garhjat. The officials who gave evidence from Orissa wrote Gurjat,[6] and David Prain described the ganja of the Orissa States as the one "known in the Excise Manual as 'Gurjat' gánjá".[7]: 10 A Commissioner's letter of 1887, read into the evidence, has Gurjati ganja.[8]: 21
The name was already in official use in 1871. A report of the Board of Revenue, dated 20 July 1871 and printed in the papers laid before the House of Commons in 1893, speaks of "what is called Gurjat ganja"; elsewhere the same report writes Gujrat ganja.[1]: 68, 70–71 The historian Utathya Chattopadhyaya counts Garhjat ganja among the "place-based identifiers" of colonial excise, names that "mapped on to differential rates of duties, taxes, and fees" in different parts of India.[9]: 13
The product
The 1871 report called it "much inferior in narcotic power" to the ganja grown in Rajshahi.[1]: 68 The excise memorandum of 1893 gave the reason for its lower duty: it was "not manufactured with as much care as Rajshahi ganja. It contains more leaves and seeds and less resin". It also stated that it came in one form only, flat.[3]: 9 K. G. Gupta, Commissioner of Excise, told the commission that it was like flat ganja in shape and sold for about one-sixth of the price of the Rajshahi drug.[4]: 44 Two Collectors of Cuttack described its making. E. H. C. Walsh wrote that it was "only dried, and not flattened or rolled like the Rajshahi drug": the flowering tops of the female plants were cut off when dry and tied together.[10]: 68 G. Stevenson called it "simply the plant dried"; the part used was the upper part of the plant.[6] At Puri, the assistant manager of the temple said that the leaves and flowers were not imported separately but "on the one plant in bundles".[11]: 430
For his report of 1893, Prain examined two samples of Gurjat ganja from Orissa, probably of the 1891–92 crop. He judged that the plant had been cultivated and the ganja made "with a good deal of care", but the samples were "full of seeds and full of small leaves". The flowering tops were much less glandular and sticky than those of the 1892 ganja from Naogaon. The heads had been prepared to look somewhat like round ganja but were tied in bundles like flat ganja. The smell of ganja was fainter than in the 1892 crop, with "a distinctive, disagreeable, rancid odour" besides.[7]: 29–30 In his analysis the Gurjat sample gave 3.46 per cent of ethereal oil, against 5.71 to 6.36 per cent for the Bengal samples of four seasons.[7]: 33
Abhilas Chandra Mukerjee, an inspector of excise for Bengal, reported that "the best Gurjat ganja in all the Tributary States grows in Bodh, Khandpara, and Athgarh". In Keonjhar it was sold at a fair held every year at Kusaleswarhat, which lasted three months.[12] Two writers took up the plant itself. Hem Chunder Kerr wrote in 1877: "If the ganja-bearing plant be a distinct variety or species, the plant common in the Gurjats belongs to it."[13]: 107 E. V. Westmacott, a former Commissioner of Excise, said that "the Gurjat plant differs both from the cultivated and self-sown plant of Bengal".[14]: 8
Excise
In 1871 licensed vendors brought it from the States under passes issued by the excise office at Puri, stored it in the government warehouses there and sold it at a duty of eight annas a seer. The consumption recorded in Puri rose from 18 maunds 31 seers in 1867–68 to 39 maunds 10 seers in 1870–71. The Board of Revenue suspected that more came into the other Orissa districts untaxed under the name of puttee, "which appears to be nothing but flat ganja", nominally for making siddhi but smoked like round ganja.[1]: 70–71 The duty was raised to one rupee a seer on 1 January 1877 and to four rupees in December 1878.[3]: 9
The commission's report sets out the changes that followed. In 1878, fearing for the excise revenue of Orissa, the government raised the duty and prohibited cultivation within three miles of the British frontier. In June 1882 it prohibited the import of Garhjat ganja and bhang altogether, though the ban was not enforced until 1884, and from 1882 it taxed Rajshahi ganja in Orissa at lower rates than elsewhere in the province.[5]: 353–354 In 1889 it gave up the attempt to stop cultivation and decided to allow imports again. It now took the view that Garhjat ganja "was taken as a drink and not smoked", and that it stood "on a different footing altogether from the well known deleterious drug imported from Rajshahi". The import was to be taxed at eight annas a seer, the rate for bhang. In 1890 the government changed its mind and asked for a duty of Rs. 2-8 a seer, which the Government of India sanctioned.[5]: 354
Orders regulating the import were issued in March 1892, and from 1 April 1893 the duty was Rs. 3-8 a seer.[5]: 354 A vendor applied to the Collector of his own district for a pass naming the State where he would buy, and paid a fee of two rupees; local officials in the State weighed, packed and sealed the bales. In September 1893 the Board, as an experiment, confined purchases to the States under the immediate control of the government.[3]: 6 To check smuggling, the most that a person could possess was cut from 20 tolas to five in 1892, and the smallest quantity a vendor could import from eight maunds to one.[5]: 355 The rates for 1894 were Rs. 3-8 a seer for Garhjat ganja and Rs. 4-8 for flat Rajshahi ganja in Orissa. Elsewhere in Bengal flat ganja paid Rs. 6 or more; the excise memorandum gives the competition of Garhjat ganja as the reason for the lower Orissa rates.[3]: 8 The commission concluded that "the smuggling of Garhjat ganja and bhang continues unabated".[5]: 356
The ganja also crossed into the Central Provinces. The Bengal Government had argued that it was "much less noxious" than the ganja of the Central Provinces and could not compete with it. A local enquiry found that the drug smuggled into Sambalpur from Boad and Gangpur "was ganja proper; differed little from that grown in Nimar". Bengal then suggested a duty on all Garhjat ganja imported into the Central Provinces.[15]: 74
The commission found that the policy towards the States had "undergone several changes" and had been framed "solely with reference to the Orissa Division". It recommended that the Bengal Government induce the chiefs of the States to control production, and added that "the matter should at length be fully and finally dealt with".[5]: 356
Drunk or smoked
When it explained that the word bhang was also used for any hemp drug taken as a drink, the commission gave this example: "Ganja pounded up and made into drink becomes bhang. This is the way in which Garhjat ganja is used at Puri."[16]: 59 Several officials told it that the Bengal Government's view of 1889 had been wrong. G. Toynbee, who had served about ten years in Orissa, called it "a mistake in fact to suppose that the Gurjat ganja was used entirely or mainly as a drink", while defending the policy of that year.[17]: 15 Stevenson said: "It was a mistake to suppose that Gurjat ganja was not smoked. It is smoked."[6] H. G. Cooke, Commissioner of the Orissa Division, said that the government's earlier ground, that Gurjat ganja was less deleterious than the Rajshahi drug, "has apparently been admitted to be a mistake of fact".[8]: 21 Westmacott answered that "the plant in the Gurjat mahals is not much better than bhang, but is used for smoking".[14]: 6
Use differed from place to place. Kanti Bhushan Sen, the special excise deputy collector at Cuttack, said it was used mainly for smoking in Cuttack district and in the States, and for drinking in the town of Puri.[18] Walsh wrote that when it was smoked it was pounded and mixed with tobacco.[10]: 68 H. R. H. Coxe, the Collector of Puri, said that it was "sometimes used in drink; but so also is the Rajshahi ganja", and that the main use of both, as far as he knew, was smoking.[19]: 71
At Puri
The excise memorandum of 1893 reported that the drug was "in great demand with the priests of the famous shrine of Juggernath" and with the attendants of other temples in Orissa. Pilgrims, mendicants and others brought it in small quantities as an offering to the priests. Of the 90 arrests in Bengal for smuggling ganja or siddhi in 1892–93, 80 were made in Puri.[2]: 10 Gupta named the priests of the temples of Jagannath, Bhubaneswar and Satyabadi as drinking it "in the same way as bhang".[4]: 45
Brajendra Nath Ray, the excise deputy collector at Puri, counted over 17 maunds of Gurjat ganja and over 72 maunds of Rajshahi ganja consumed in the district in ten months of 1893–94. Nearly all the Gurjat ganja was consumed in Puri town, and no bhang licences were issued in the district: "The Gurjat ganja is used as bhang. It is not much smoked in Puri town. The Pandas and others drink the stuff."[20] Nityananda Dass, the assistant manager of the temple, said that its servants mostly drank hemp and used Gurjat ganja, the flowers mixed with the leaves. They preferred it to the siddhi of Bengal. When Gurjat ganja was prohibited they had drunk Rajshahi ganja, but "they said it was too strong". He believed that smuggling was the main source of supply.[11]: 430 Coxe told the commission that pilgrims were not searched: "It would be monstrous to search pilgrims, to search the carts or bundles of pilgrims for Gurjat ganja."[19]: 71 Chattopadhyaya writes that Garhjat ganja supplied the temple towns of Puri and Cuttack and could also be found in Calcutta.[9]: 100
Strength
The witnesses did not agree on how strong it was. Gupta found it "decidedly inferior in quality, containing more leaves and seeds and less narcotic matter than the Rajshahi drug".[4]: 44 At Puri, Nityananda Dass put it above the Rajshahi siddhi, "which is only leaves", but below Rajshahi ganja.[11]: 430 Sen, on the other hand, wrote that it lacked the flavour of Rajshahi ganja and was "decidedly more harmful and stronger than the Rajshahi drug".[21]: 155–156 He had ten smokers smoke both kinds in front of him. The four who could tell them apart, old smokers of Rajshahi ganja, said the Gurjat ganja gave them a burning sensation in the stomach. He concluded that "the general opinion is that Gurjat ganja is the stronger and the more harmful".[18] Old smokers and licensees told Ray that it was the stronger of the two.[20] The enquiry in Sambalpur found that the drug smuggled there was smoked like Nimar ganja and, "so far from being less harmful, actually produced more lasting intoxication".[15]: 74
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Papers Relating to the Consumption of Ganja and Other Drugs in India (Return to an Address of the House of Commons, dated 21 February 1893). London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office. 1893 – via Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Memorandum on hemp drugs in Bengal, by Mr. K. G. Gupta, Commissioner of Excise, Bengal". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. III: Appendices, Miscellaneous. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. paras. 8–19 and 44, pp. 4–6 and 10–11 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Memorandum on hemp drugs in Bengal, by Mr. K. G. Gupta, Commissioner of Excise, Bengal". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. III: Appendices, Miscellaneous. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. paras. 22–43, pp. 6–10 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. K. G. Gupta, Commissioner of Excise, Bengal". 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. witness no. 17, pp. 44–48 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. I: Report. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. ch. XVII, "Systems of Native States", paras. 696–739, pp. 343–358 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. G. Stevenson, Magistrate and Collector of Cuttack". 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. 14, p. 37 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Prain, D. (1893). Report on the Cultivation and Use of Gánjá. Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Press – via National Library of Scotland.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. H. G. Cooke, Officiating Commissioner, Orissa Division". 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. 8, pp. 18–22 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 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.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. E. H. C. Walsh, Officiating Magistrate and Collector of Cuttack". 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. 27, pp. 68–70 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Babu Nityananda Dass, Assistant Temple Manager, Puri". 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. 198, pp. 429–430 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Babu Abhilas Chandra Mukerjee, Brahmin, Deputy Magistrate and Deputy Collector, on deputation as 2nd Inspector of Excise, Bengal". 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. p. 174 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ "Report on Cultivation of, and Trade in Ganja in Bengal by Mr. Hem Chunder Kerr". 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. 94–154 – via Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. E. V. Westmacott, Commissioner, Presidency Division; late Commissioner of Excise, Bengal". 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. 2, pp. 6–8 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Memorandum on hemp drugs in the Central Provinces, by Mr. H. V. Drake-Brockman, Officiating Commissioner of Excise". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. III: Appendices, Miscellaneous. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. paras. 3–66, pp. 57–74 – 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. V, "Methods of cultivation and matters connected therewith", paras. 151–154, pp. 59–60 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. G. Toynbee, Commissioner, Bhagalpur Division". 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. 4, pp. 14–15 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Babu Kanti Bhushan Sen, Baidya, Special Excise Deputy Collector of Cuttack". 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. 62, oral evidence, pp. 156–157 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. H. R. H. Coxe, Offg. Magistrate and Collector of Puri". 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. 28, pp. 70–71 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Babu Brajendra Nath Ray, Excise Deputy Collector, Puri". 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. 70, pp. 200–201 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Babu Kanti Bhushan Sen, Baidya, Special Excise Deputy Collector of Cuttack". 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. 62, pp. 150–156 – via Internet Archive.