Holi
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Holi is the Hindu spring festival held at the full moon of the month of Phalgun, in February or March. A bonfire is lit on its eve and on the day itself people throw coloured powder and water over one another.[1]: 387–391 In northern India and Nepal people drink bhang, the cannabis leaf, at the festival in milk drinks such as thandai and eat it in sweets. In 1894 the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission found "overwhelming evidence to establish the almost universal use by the people of bhang at the Holi festival" in the North-Western Provinces.[2]: 161 Licensed bhang shops have their peak demand at Holi.[3]
In Bengal the same full moon is kept as Dol Jatra or Dol Purnima, a festival of Krishna and the last festival of the Bengali year.[4] In the Bombay Presidency of the 1890s it was called Shimga and in southern India the Kama festival.[2]: 164[5][6]
The festival
In 1894 the folklorist William Crooke gave two stories for the bonfire. In one it honours a female demon called Dundhas. In the other it burns in memory of Holika, sister of the demon king Hiranyakashipu, who tried to burn his son Prahlada, a devotee of Vishnu, and was herself consumed.[1]: 387–388 Crooke drew on F. S. Growse's account of the Braj country around Mathura, where the festival was kept "with special care". At Barsana the veiled women of the town beat the men of neighbouring Nandgaon with long bamboos in a mock fight. The fire was lit the next day. On the day after, red powder mixed with talc was thrown from the balconies onto the crowd below.[1]: 389–391
J. R. Drummond, Deputy Commissioner of Gurgaon, told the commission that Holi "ushers in the Hindu new year as Christmas does with us. It is a season of relaxation and good-will", and that "the Holi season for bhang-flavoured sweets covers ten days".[7] Yeshwant Nilkanth, a Bombay official, called Shimga "the Saturnalia of the Hindus, when more or less indulgence, nay even license, is allowed".[5] The anthropologist Owen Lynch, who worked among the Chaube Brahmans of Mathura, wrote in 1990 that on Holi "traditional restraints and tabus are broken".[8]: 101
Drinks and sweets
In the Meerut district in the 1890s bhang was boiled in ghi, strained, mixed with sugar and made into a kind of barfi called majum, which "is offered to every visitor whether he consents or not to eat it". The same witness, the Deputy Collector Lala Dina Ram, wrote that at Holi the well-to-do pounded milk, sugar, almonds and raisins with the bhang to make a richer drink "generally called massala or thandai".[9] In Almora in Kumaon, where no one ate or drank bhang, almost all the men smoked charas to excess for the five days of the festival, beat drums, sang and danced. They also ate a sweet made with ganja called majum or lakshmibilas.[10]
In Mumbai in 2015 bhang for Holi was sold as bhang ki goli, pills of freshly ground cannabis with poppy seeds and dried fruit, for 50 to 200 rupees each in paan shops, general stores and dairies. The pills were mixed into thandai, lassi or soft drinks or eaten in sweets.[11]
A Mathura physician told the commission that seeds of dhatura were mixed with bhang at Holi "to accelerate its intoxicating power".[12] A Calcutta doctor with a large practice among Marwari families had attended a hundred cases of "poisoning by bhang and ganja", which were "common only during the Holi festival"; none was fatal and the longest intoxication lasted 36 hours.[13] In 2024 doctors reported the case of a 28-year-old man who had a heart attack after drinking bhang at Holi.[14]
The commission's evidence
Most of what the commission heard about Holi came in answer to its question 32, which asked whether any custom, social or religious, attached to the use of hemp drugs. Its report summed up the answers province by province. In the North-Western Provinces "the custom is now a general one, and ... where the Holi festival is observed, there the practice of consuming bhang during its observance is common".[2]: 161–162 In Bihar, where Holi was "observed more generally" than elsewhere in the Lower Provinces, bhang was commonly drunk at the festival.[15] The report found bhang used at Holi in the Punjab, the Central Provinces, Berar and the Bombay Presidency. Certain classes in many princely states kept practices like those of British India "at the Holi and Shivratri festivals".[2]: 162–165 In the Kumaon hills the drug was taken only "in the form of majum by a few well-to-do people in the towns at the Holi festival".[16]: 135
Among its witnesses from the North-Western Provinces the commission found opinion "about equally divided" on whether bhang at Holi was a social custom or a religious observance.[2]: 161 Dharma Nand Joshi, a Brahman settlement officer in Garhwal, wrote that at Holi and Shivaratri "it is considered meritorious, though not essential, to smoke charas and drink bhang or eat majum". Many who never touched these drugs on other days, he wrote, took them then "as a religious obligation".[17] A medical practitioner at Nator in Rajshahi held the use of bhang at Holi and Dasara to be "entirely a social custom" with "no connection whatever with any religion".[18] J. F. Tuohy, civil surgeon at Saharanpur, recorded a jail prisoner's statement that Holi "is the festival when its use is most general" and that "any one who did not drink it then was not a Hindu".[19]
M. D. Moriarty, civil surgeon at Meerut, understood "that in the festival of the Holi the higher castes of Hindus drink bhang in the same way that the lower castes drink alcohol".[20] In a village near Lucknow in 1959–60 the anthropologist Khwaja Hasan found that Brahmans used hemp drugs while they abhorred alcohol.[21]: 238–239 The wider religious setting of bhang, from Shiva to Durga Puja, is the subject of Cannabis in Hinduism.
Mathura and Braj
The commission's report called the Chaubes of Mathura "the greatest and most notorious bhang drinkers in the whole of India".[16]: 135 In the 1890s consumption was heavy at Mathura, Benares and the other holy places on the Ganges.[16]: 135 The commission found the evidence insufficient to judge "how far the habit is connected with the religious observances at the temples".[2]: 162 Gour Das Bysack, a retired deputy collector in Calcutta, wrote that "excessive habitual drinkers, such as Chowbeys of Muttra" took a chhatak of the drug a day.[22]
Lynch found that bhang was "the drink of choice on Holi" among the Chaubes in the 1980s. They called the plant a medicinal herb given by Shiva. The drink was offered daily to Dauji, Krishna's brother Balarama, at his temple at Baldev near Mathura.[8]: 100–101 They often made the drink as a cold thandai, prepared together amid jokes and gossip: black pepper, almonds, pistachios, raisins and sugar were ground with the leaf in a mortar, mixed with water or milk and strained. The first drops were poured over the mortar and pestle for Shiva before the vessel went round.[8]: 101 In 2015 the Indo-Asian News Service reported that bhang and thandai "were in great demand" in Mathura at Holi.[23]
Bengal and Bihar
In Bengal the commission found the cup of bhang passed round on Bijoya, the last day of Durga Puja, to be the most important occasion of its use, while Holi was "observed more generally in Behar".[2]: 159–160 Bysack set the two side by side: on "Bejaya Dasami evening ... in Bengal, and Holi in the Upper Provinces", bhang was offered "in the shape of sherbet" to every member of the family and to every guest.[22] In Dinajpur the Court of Wards' manager Rasik Lal Ghose wrote that "bhang is taken by the up-country people on Dol Jatra or Holi days, and by others on Dasami and Kali Puja days".[24] The Bengali side of these festivals is treated under Cannabis in West Bengal.
In 2022 the Press Trust of India reported that people in West Bengal "drink 'bhang'" on Dol Jatra.[4]
Licensed sale
In the Central Provinces of the 1890s majum was a confection of ganja, ghi and sugar whose use was "for the most part confined to the Holi and Moharam festivals". Its shops were sold by auction; the right to make and sell it was "ordinarily ... restricted to the Holi festival".[25] In the Nizam's Hyderabad some majum shops in the districts were temporary and made and sold majum "only in Moharrum, Holi, and such other festivals".[26]
After independence H. C. Mookerjee, vice-president of India's Constituent Assembly, argued in essays of 1948 and 1949 for a "new bhang policy". He accepted that "certain religious observances of Hindus" needed bhang, among them "the Holi and Dewali festivals of Upper India". He proposed that the state make bhang available to worshippers before such festivals, in the way that "the red powder used during holi" reached the markets beforehand.[27]: 224
Licensed bhang shops renew their licences with the local excise department and draw a monthly quota that is the same in every month, so their owners stock up in the slack months for the festivals. At Holi the shops have their peak demand, for thandai and bhang golis alike.[3] A Varanasi seller told the United News of India in 2007 that Maha Shivaratri and Holi were "the two festivals which all thandhai sellers wait for".[28]
Law and enforcement
The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 defines ganja as the flowering or fruiting tops of the cannabis plant, excluding the seeds and leaves when not accompanied by the tops, so that bhang, made from the leaves, falls outside the definition.[29] In 2022 the High Court of Karnataka found no evidence before it that bhang was made from charas or ganja and held that the Act nowhere names bhang as a prohibited drink or drug.[30]
Police and excise raids around Holi have targeted bhang and cannabis sweets. In Mumbai the Anti-Narcotics Cell announced Holi crackdowns on bhang in 2014 and 2015; in 2015 its deputy commissioner said that bhang was not an NDPS substance but that sellers and consumers would be "booked under prohibition act".[31][11] In Telangana the Prohibition and Excise Department's task force seized ice-cream kulfis and sweets laced with cannabis in the Dhoolpet area of Hyderabad at Holi in 2025. The task force arrested six people in 2026 for selling bhang mixed with ganja in Begum Bazaar and Dhoolpet during Holi.[32][33] Excise officials in Odisha seized 520 kg of bhang at Bahukhanda near Bhubaneswar in February 2024, stock meant for sale in the city at Holi.[34]
In Nepal the Narcotic Drugs (Control) Act of 1976 prohibits the cultivation, sale, possession and consumption of cannabis.[35] In Nepal, Holi has long been an occasion for drinking alcohol and "bhaang-infused lassis".[36] The Kathmandu Post wrote in 2019 that bhang "is traditionally associated with Holi and is still consumed across Nepal and India".[36]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Crooke, William (1894). An Introduction to the Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India. Allahabad: Government Press, North-Western Provinces and Oudh – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. I: Report. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. ch. IX, "Social and religious customs", paras. 431–450, pp. 159–166 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Khan, Arman (17 March 2022). "Where do Indian Bhang Shops Get Their Legal Cannabis From?". VICE. Retrieved 13 November 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Bengal celebrates colourful Dol Jatra with pomp and gaiety". EastMojo. Press Trust of India. 18 March 2022. Retrieved 13 November 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Yeshwant Nilkanth, Pathare Prabhu, Superintendent, Office of Survey Commissioner and Director of Land Records and Agriculture, Bombay". 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. witness no. 49, p. 111 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of the Rev. W. Robinson, Missionary, London Missionary Society, Salem". 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. witness no. 147, p. 359 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. J. R. Drummond, Deputy Commissioner, Gurgaon". 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. 13, p. 386 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Lynch, Owen M. (1990). "The Mastram: emotion and person among Mathura's Chaubes". In Lynch, Owen M. (ed.). Divine Passions: The Social Construction of Emotion in India. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 91–115.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Lala Dina Ram, Deputy Collector, Meerut 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. 38, p. 56 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Pundit Gunga Datt Upreti, Brahmin, Retired Deputy Collector, Almora, Kumaon". 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. 56, p. 93 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Ramaswamy, Radhika (5 March 2015). "Mumbai cops to crack down on bhaang makers, sellers, users". DNA. Retrieved 13 November 2026.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Janki Das, Brahmin, Baid, Muttra". 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. 171, p. 239 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Kailas Chandra Bose, Kayasth, Medical 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. witness no. 185, p. 344 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Kumar, Barun; Chawla, Omna; Nigam, Abhimanyu; Singh, Pankaj Kumar; Singh, Anupam (2024). "Interaction of cannabis cultural use and health: a case of acute myocardial infarction following consumption of cannabis beverage (Bhang)". Toxicology Reports. 13 101755. doi:10.1016/j.toxrep.2024.101755.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. I: Report. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. ch. IX, "Social and religious customs", para. 434, p. 160 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 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 Dharma Nand Joshi, Brahmin, Settlement Deputy Collector, Garhwal". 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. 49, p. 79 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mohim Chunder Roy, Brahmin, Medical Practitioner, Nator, Rajshahi". 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. 186, p. 344 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Surgeon-Major J. F. Tuohy, Civil Surgeon, Saharunpur". 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. 87, p. 128 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Surgeon-Lieutenant-Colonel M. D. Moriarty, Civil Surgeon, Meerut". 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. 79, p. 118 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Hasan, Khwaja A. (1975). "Social aspects of the use of cannabis in India". In Rubin, Vera (ed.). Cannabis and Culture. The Hague: Mouton. pp. 235–246. doi:10.1515/9783110812060.235.
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Babu Gour Das Bysack, Retired Deputy Collector, 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. witness no. 77, p. 215 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ "Holi celebrated with fervour in Braj". Business Standard. Indo-Asian News Service. 6 March 2015. Retrieved 13 November 2026.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Babu Rasik Lal Ghose, Court of Wards' Manager, Dinajpur". 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. 75, p. 213 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Central Provinces memorandum". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. III: Appendices, Miscellaneous. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. p. 80 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "His Highness the Nizam's Dominions memorandum". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. III: Appendices, Miscellaneous. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. p. 133 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ "'Bhang' consumption doubles on Maha Shivratri". Oneindia. United News of India. 16 February 2007. Retrieved 13 November 2026.
- ↑ The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985(Act No. 61 of 1985), 1985, section 2(iii).India.
- ↑ Roshan Kumar Mishra v. State of Karnataka. High Court of Karnataka (26 August 2022). Criminal Petition No. 6611 of 2022.
- ↑ Ramaswamy, Radhika (16 March 2014). "Holi: festival of colours or Bhang?". DNA. Retrieved 13 November 2026.
- ↑ "Drug-laced ice-cream, sweets seized in Telangana's Dhoolpet". Telangana Today. 14 March 2025. Retrieved 13 November 2026.
- ↑ "Six arrested for selling ganja-laced bhang during Holi in Hyderabad". Telangana Today. 3 March 2026. Retrieved 13 November 2026.
- ↑ OB Bureau (22 February 2024). "Excise officials seize 'bhang' & ganja meant for Holi celebration near Bhubaneswar". OdishaBytes. Retrieved 13 November 2026.
- ↑ "लागू औषध (नियन्त्रण) ऐन, २०३३" [Narcotic Drugs (Control) Act, 2033] (PDF) (in नेपाली). Nepal Law Commission. Retrieved 30 September 2026 – via Kathmandu Metropolitan City.
- ↑ 36.0 36.1 "No fear Holi". The Kathmandu Post. 20 March 2019. Retrieved 13 November 2026.