Eastern Bengal and Assam District Gazetteers: Jalpaiguri (1911)
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| Author | John F. Gruning, Indian Civil Service |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Composed | Before 1911; its revenue figures are for 1907–08 |
| Published | 1911 |
| Publisher | Pioneer Press |
| Place | Allahabad |
| Volumes | 1 (a volume of the Eastern Bengal and Assam District Gazetteers) |
| Total pages | 155, with a two-page index |
| Volume | (single volume) |
|---|---|
| Pages | pp. 127–128 |
| Chapter | Chapter XII, "General Administration", under the marginal heading "Excise" |
| Plates | none |
| Regions documented | Jalpaiguri |
| Preparations | Ganja |
| Uses documented | Excise revenue; consumption, which the gazetteer says was "mostly confined to people from up-country" |
| Taxonomic significance | Defines ganja as "the dried flowering tops of the female hemp plant (Cannabis sativa)". |
| Digital facsimile | View the Digital Library of India scan |
|---|
Eastern Bengal and Assam District Gazetteers: Jalpaiguri is the district gazetteer of Jalpaiguri by John F. Gruning of the Indian Civil Service, printed at the Pioneer Press in Allahabad in 1911.[1]: title page It is a volume of the Eastern Bengal and Assam District Gazetteers. The district had been transferred to the province of Eastern Bengal and Assam when the province was created in 1905.[1]: title page, 124 The gazetteer's chapter on general administration records the ganja revenue of 1907–08 and says that the consumption of ganja was "mostly confined to people from up-country".[1]: 128
The gazetteer spells the district Jalpāiguri and calls the Rajbanshi Rājbansis and the Mech Meches. This article uses current spellings in its own voice and keeps the gazetteer's forms in quotation.
Gruning wrote as an officer of the Indian Civil Service. The gazetteer describes the district's peoples in the terms of the colonial administration. It quotes a settlement report's description of the Rajbanshi as "Hindus when it suits them to be so, and Meches when they obtain pork and wish to eat it". It presents their list of "twelve principal deities" as showing "what a large part demonology plays in the religion of the people".[1]: 42 The gazetteer is evidence of how the district's administrators saw its people as much as it is a record of cannabis. It is read here in that double light.
The gazetteer
Fourteen chapters treat the district's physical aspects, history, people, public health, agriculture, forests, natural calamities, land revenue, rents and wages, trade, communications, general administration, local self-government and education. The fifteenth is a gazetteer of places, which ends at p. 155; a two-page index follows.[1]: plan of contents The Digital Library of India's scan of the 1911 printing is on the Internet Archive.[1]
Gruning's preface acknowledges the "great assistance" of Sunder's Report on the Survey and Settlement of the Western Duārs (1895). It thanks J. A. Milligan of the Indian Civil Service, Settlement Officer of Jalpaiguri, for the map of the district.[1]: preface The gazetteer quotes the description of the Western Duars in Hunter's Statistical Account of 1876. It takes its account of the war with Bhutan from the Summary of Affairs in the Foreign Department of the Government of India, from 1864 to 1869. For its account of Bhutan it thanks C. A. Bell, Political Officer in Sikkim.[1]: 2, 21
The district was formed on 1 January 1869, when the Titalya subdivision of Rangpur was united with the Western Duars taken from Bhutan.[1]: 25 It covered 2,961 square miles. Its population at the census of 1901 was 787,380.[1]: 1 The gazetteer counts the Rajbanshi, or Koch, at 321,170 in 1901, more than two-fifths of the population.[1]: 34
Ganja in the excise paragraph
Under the marginal heading "Excise", the chapter on general administration states: "After land revenue the excise duties on spirituous liquor, opium and ganja contribute the largest part of the revenue of the district." Excise brought in Rs. 3,07,932 in 1907–08. More than 75 per cent of it, Rs. 2,33,171, came from country spirit distilled from molasses and the flower of the mahua tree.[1]: 127 Licences to brew the rice beer pachwai at home brought in Rs. 2,614 in fees.[1]: 128 On ganja the gazetteer says:
The consumption of ganja, i.e., the dried flowering tops of the female hemp plant (Cannabis sativa) is mostly confined to people from up-country; the receipts from this source were Rs. 55,411.[1]: 128
Opium brought in Rs. 13,093. The gazetteer says that it was used by Chinese carpenters and some of the immigrants from the plains districts of Bengal and that the labourers of the tea gardens "hardly ever touch it".[1]: 128 The whole excise revenue was Rs. 1,44,534 in 1892–93, Rs. 2,49,486 in 1902–03 and Rs. 3,07,932 in 1907–08; in the gazetteer's words it had "more than doubled in fifteen years". The gazetteer adds that the Rajbanshi and the Muslims "drink little or no liquor while Meches drink all they can get". The chief consumers of country spirit, it says, were the tea-garden labourers.[1]: 128