Pathar (cannabis)
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| Kind of name | Product name |
|---|---|
| Also called | Pathar ganja Pathiyara Patiyara Pattiyara Pattar Khandwa ganja Gwalior ganja |
| Refers to | Ganja made in the Central Provinces, the Gwalior State and neighbouring states, as sold in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh |
Pathar (also pathiyara, patiyara or pattar) was the name under which ganja grown in the Central Provinces and the Gwalior State was bought and sold in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh in the late 19th century. It came chiefly from the licensed tract of Khandwa, in the Nimar district, and from the Gwalior State, whose ganja was sent out by rail from Antri.[1]: 110[2] Excise officers, drug contractors and other witnesses before the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission of 1893–94 used the name for this ganja, which was greener and much cheaper than the Bengal ganja sold in the same market as baluchar.[3][1]: 110 The Commission wrote that Khandwa ganja "does not bear any comparison in the appreciation of smokers with baluchar".[3]
Name
The Commission's report spells the name pathar, pathiyara or pathiyala;[1]: 111 T. Stoker, the Commissioner of Excise of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, wrote that the ganja of the Central Provinces was known in his province as "pathar," "pattiyara or pattiyala".[2] F. W. Brownrigg, the Deputy Commissioner of Sultanpur, wrote patiara and patiyara.[4] A witness from Banda wrote patharia.[5] J. Cockburn, an opium officer at Meja Road in the Allahabad district, called ganja either "Bengalia or baluchur" or "Dukunee or pathar".[6]
In the Central Provinces, H. V. Drake-Brockman, the Officiating Commissioner of Excise, called the province's own product "pattar" ganja and said that it corresponded most nearly with the flat ganja of Bengal.[7]: 14 Vinayak Balkrishna Khare, an excise daroga (inspector) at Nagpur who had worked in the Nimar district, said that the only ganja made in the province was flat ganja, which was locally called "pathar ganja".[8] The Commission itself wrote of "the Khandwa ganja or pathar".[3]
Stoker suggested that the ganja was so called "possibly on account of its leafy character". The Commission repeated the suggestion as his.[2][1]: 111 Mahomed Hassein, a drug contractor of Lucknow, said that the cut crop was trodden and heaped up "so that the buds become rather flat, and hence called pathar".[9]: 342 Drake-Brockman wrote that he had not been able to discover the etymology or the primary meaning of the word.[7]: 12
The product
In the Khandwa tract the flower heads were broken off with about 12 inches of twig and spread on a threshing floor, where they were trodden for four or five days, turned and dried in the sun. The twigs came out pressed flat and stripped of much of their leaf. The cultivator then built them into a stack five or six feet high under heavy weights. About a week later the ganja was packed in gunny bags and taken to the storehouse at Khandwa.[10]
Khandwa ganja was green and had much more leaf left in it than the Bengal drug.[3] Stoker wrote that it had more waste in stalk and leaf and apparently less of the resinous secretion than Bengal ganja, that its quality varied with the season and with the skill of the growers and that many of the samples he saw held seed, a sign that the male plants had not all been removed.[2] In the markets of Allahabad and other districts, wrote S. P. Roy, the city's municipal analyst, pathar ganja came in flattened masses, much greener than baluchar. The colour earned it the further name kacha ganja.[11]
Witnesses in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh attached the name to different commercial forms of ganja, among the flat, round and broken grades of the Bengal trade. Brownrigg, in Sultanpur, wrote that broken ganja was known as pathar or patiara and that flat ganja was "uniformly known as baluchar".[4] Babu Bholanath Chatterji, a deputy collector at Mainpuri, called round ganja pathar and said that it came from Khandwa and Gwalior.[12] R. A. K. Holmes, superintendent of the Lucknow central jail, wrote that flat ganja was termed pathar in Lucknow and baluchar in Faizabad.[13] Jaideo Sahay, a tahsildar in the Bara Banki district, wrote that flat ganja was locally known as pathar, while chur went popularly by the name baluchar.[14]: 102 The Banda witness equated patharia with chur.[5]
Gwalior ganja
Stoker wrote that the ganja of the Gwalior State was of the same character and appearance as the pathar of the Central Provinces, was known by the same name and was used in the same places by the same people. It was "as a rule" sent by rail from Antri on the Indian Midland Railway.[2] The Commission judged Gwalior the largest source of the ganja used in the North-Western Provinces, larger than Khandwa and far larger than Bengal, and, following Stoker, placed Gwalior ganja on the same footing as the pathar of Khandwa.[1]: 110 From what contractors told him, Stoker thought that Gwalior ganja was gaining ground, having lately become rather cheaper, perhaps because of bad crops in the Central Provinces and heavier railway freight to many districts. The Indian Midland Railway, he wrote, had apparently improved its market.[2]
Kampta Pershad, a deputy collector at Basti, placed the production of pathar at Khandwa, at Jalgaon and in Gwalior territory, among other places.[15] E. T. Atkinson's Himalayan Districts had stated that "the pattar is imported chiefly from Holkar's territories", meaning the Indore State. Answering for that state, its minister quoted the passage and wrote that his enquiries satisfied him "that neither patter, nor charas is now produced, in this State at least."[16]
In the North-Western Provinces and Oudh
Stoker named three sources of the province's imported ganja: Bengal, Khandwa and Gwalior with the Native States of Bundelkhand. He found that the sale of Bengal ganja was falling because of repeated rises in the Bengal duty, "the increasing competition of the cheaper 'pathar' ganja from the Central Provinces, Gwalior, &c." and the spread of charas. In the towns baluchar was retailed at six annas a tola.[17] His table of prices put pathar of all sorts at half an anna to one anna a tola retail. Wholesale, pathar from Gwalior cost 7 to 14 rupees a maund, duty included, and from Khandwa 10 to 16 rupees, dues included, against 10 or 12 rupees for Bengal flat ganja, besides a Bengal duty of 240 rupees a maund.[18] Contractors who brought it from Khandwa paid no duty there, only warehouse and registration fees which Stoker believed came to about two rupees a maund.[2]
Pathar was used most in the central districts of the province and in the western districts where ganja was smoked at all. In the eastern districts Stoker found it gradually displacing baluchar. Over the ten years to 1891–92 imports of Khandwa pathar varied between 229 maunds (1886–87) and 4,223 maunds (1885–86); in 1891–92 they were 1,450 maunds. Stoker did not think they were rising.[2] The Commission concluded that the cheapness of Khandwa and Gwalior ganja against the heavily taxed Bengal drug "appears to be a sufficient reason for their having superseded it".[1]: 110 It quoted Stoker's view that the nearness of Khandwa and Gwalior and the cheapness of the drug there "seem to have given them a monopoly of the business in pathar".[19] Richard Wall, Commissioner of Excise of the province from 1880 to 1891, told the Commission that most of the ganja used there was not Bengal baluchar but pathar from the Central Provinces and elsewhere.[20]
The Commission's estimate of consumption in the province treated the average smoker's yearly allowance as a quarter baluchar and three-quarters pathar. It put pathar at anything from one-twelfth to one-sixth of the price of baluchar[21]: 136 and gave prices of 2½ to 5 rupees a sér for pathar ganja against 20 to 30 rupees for baluchar.[21]: 136 Cockburn said that pathar ganja was also made in the plains of the province, in the Haidargarh tahsil of Bara Banki and in Faizabad and Pratapgarh.[6]: 41
Passing off and adulteration
Stoker believed that where baluchar was the established drug, pathar was at first sold not under its own name but mixed into baluchar. The two were easy to tell apart for "the experienced eye", but alike enough to make adulteration easy; he had "no doubt a good deal of pathar is sold as baluchar". When the Commission inspected the two chief drug shops of Allahabad, the vendors said they had no pathar for sale, but a quantity was found at the contractor's storehouse. Stoker also reported that Babu Ganga Bishen, head of the Patna family whose firm held contracts for several districts and the largest contractor in the provinces, had been found in the Nimar district engaging cultivators to make their ganja resemble baluchar and teaching them how. Stoker gave the Commission a sample of Khandwa ganja bought in a shop that approached baluchar in quality and appearance.[17]
The Commission found reason to believe that pathar was often passed off as the better drug and used to adulterate it. The ganja was sold in the shops with the smokable part picked off the stems, which made this possible, though the two kinds were "readily distinguishable on the branch".[1]: 110 It thought baluchar was probably cheaper in the villages than in the towns because it was mixed there with pathar.[21]: 136 Cockburn wrote that Bengal ganja "is nearly always adulterated with pathar".[6]: 42
Reputation
Cockburn found pathar bitter, with an inferior aroma and less strength than baluchar, which "will consequently go four times as far".[22] In Sultanpur, Brownrigg wrote, "The poorer folk take patiyara, from necessity, not from choice."[4] Kampta Pershad called it more intoxicating than baluchar and said that it caused dizziness and that its smoke tasted bad, for which reason it was thought the inferior drug.[15] Lala Sheo Pershad, a banker of Cawnpore, held that pathar ganja was "much stronger than baluchar ganja".[23] Roy reported that it was said to be very harmful.[11]
The proposed import duty
Stoker proposed that the North-Western Provinces tax the ganja and charas brought in from other provinces and states, beginning with a light duty of 50 to 80 rupees a maund on pathar ganja, to be raised by degrees. In his reading the Excise Act gave no power to levy such a duty on drugs from other parts of British India; he asked for it to be amended.[24] The Commission reported the proposal, which had the support of the member of the Board of Revenue in charge of excise, for an import duty "at first of Rs. 50 to Rs. 80 per maund on pathar ganja from the Central Provinces and Native States". It agreed with the proposals, subject to remarks made later in the report.[25] In its resolution of March 1895 on the report, the Government of India agreed with the Commission that the drug was better taxed at its source of supply, in which case no import duty was needed.[26]: 19
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 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.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 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. 23–24, p. 29 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 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.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 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.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Hakim Buland Ali Khan, Pathan, Zamindar and Physician, Banda". 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. 160, p. 227 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 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.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. H. V. Drake-Brockman, Officiating Commissioner of Excise, Central Provinces". 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. 9, pp. 12–17 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Vinayak Balkrishna Khare, Brahmin, Excise Daroga, Nagpur". 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. 22, p. 43 – 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). 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", para. 247, p. 96 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 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, p. 174 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Babu Bholanath Chatterji, Bengali Brahman, Officiating Deputy Collector, Mainpuri". 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. 52, p. 87 – 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 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.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of K. Kampta Pershad, Officiating Deputy Collector, Basti". 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. 53, p. 87 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Memorandum by Mr. R. H. Gunion on hemp drugs in Central India". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. III: Appendices, Miscellaneous. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. p. 159 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 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.
- ↑ 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. para. 46, pp. 39–40 – 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. VII, "Trade and movement of the hemp drugs", para. 292, p. 111 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. Richard Wall, Barrister-at-Law, Indian Civil Service (retired), 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. 233, p. 311 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 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. 354–364, pp. 135–138 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 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, p. 44 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Lala Sheo Pershad, Rai Bahadur, Khattri, Banker, Cawnpore". 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. 254, p. 347 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 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. 48–49, p. 41 – 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. XVI, "Provincial systems examined", para. 657, pp. 320–321 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Government of India (21 March 1895). Resolution No. 1369 Ex. [on the Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission] (Report). Calcutta: Finance and Commerce Department, Separate Revenue (Excise). VIII. Control and taxation, paras. 46–67, pp. 14–22 – via National Library of Scotland.