Talk:Fatehgarh

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Page scope

Fatehgarh treats the historical cannabis growing area of the Farrukhabad district of the 1890s, today Farrukhabad and Kannauj districts, where hemp was grown as a field crop for bhang, and the Katiari pargana of Hardoi across the Ganges, part of whose bhang was sold on through Fatehgarh. The town of Fatehgarh and the districts as administrative units are treated at Farrukhabad District, Kannauj District and Hardoi District.

Data verification

Record source conflicts, dating problems and sources not used here. Keep narrative content on the article.

Discussion

Why the area is mapped

• The excise inquiry of 1883 records hemp cultivated in Farakhabad and Hardoi (Hemp Drugs Commission report, vol. I, para. 41).
• The official returns of regular cultivation in Farakhabad or Fatehgarh district, fourteen years from 1879–80 to 1892–93, between 72 and 336 acres a year (vol. I, para. 104).
• Stoker's memorandum. Hemp cultivated "to a small extent" in Hardoi and Fatehgarh, about 1,000 maunds a year, the Hardoi produce taken across the Ganges "and thence exported as Fatehgarh bhang", about 800 maunds a year; the only open commercial cultivation in the provinces outside the hill districts (vol. III, para. 9, p. 25); Fatehgarh a chief bhang-exporting district (para. 20, p. 28).
• The witnesses of 1893–94. Kannauj: Lachmi Narain (witness 238) and Sheikh Hifazat Hosain (235). Fatehgarh: Hakim Asghar Hosain (174). Hardoi and Katiari: Hakim Muhammad Ali (175), Raggha of Chochpur (217), Shimbhu Nath (256), Thakur Parshad (251). Lucknow: Sarupchand (252), Rughober Dyal Misra (48).
• The title follows the sources: Stoker's memorandum calls the district Fatehgarh, and the Hardoi produce left through it as "Fatehgarh bhang". The sources describe one crop and one trade on the two banks, so Farrukhabad and Katiari are treated as one area.

Growing status

The status is Historical. The evidence runs from the returns of 1879–80 to the Commission's report of 1894; in Farrukhabad the official figures were rising at the end, and in Hardoi the witnesses describe a decline but no end. No later source read for this page says whether hemp is grown there now; nothing since 2000 was found in Farrukhabad, Kannauj or Hardoi.

Years grown

The infobox gives 1879 to 1894. The first is the opening year of the official returns, 1879–80 (vol. I, para. 104); the last is the Commission's report of 1894, which reads the returns as showing the cultivation increasing (same paragraph). Both are years the sources cover; neither marks a start or an end.

How the border is drawn

• The border is the union of two districts in OpenStreetMap, Farrukhabad (administrative relation 1958605) and Kannauj (1959123), simplified: about 4,300 km² in one part. Kannauj was part of Farrukhabad district until 1997.
• Katiari is not drawn. The Katiari pargana of Hardoi matches no present-day unit: Hardoi's tahsils and development blocks do not carry the name, and no boundary for it was found. Drawing a whole Hardoi tahsil would claim far more than the sources describe. Katiari is named in the article.
• The border stops at the district line with Rohilkhand (Shahjahanpur) to the north.
• The map point (27.23, 79.57) is a central point of the border; the border is not drawn from it.

The tatia village

Stoker says the bhang was known as tatia "from a village in Fatehgarh district" but does not name the village. Hakim Muhammad Ali (witness 175) names Thathia, "towards Farukhabad", among places where wild bhang grew. OpenStreetMap shows a village called Thathia in Kannauj district today. Whether it is the village Stoker meant is not established.

Source conflicts

• The size of the crop. The official return gives 336 acres in 1892–93; the district's Joint Magistrate and Excise Officer gives 561 bighas the same year, falling from 691 (vol. I, para. 104). For yield, Stoker gives about 1,000 maunds for Hardoi and Fatehgarh together; Lachmi Narain 1,000 for Farrukhabad and 200 for Hardoi; Hifazat Hosain 1,500 and 250; Hakim Muhammad Ali about 200 for Katiari, against 1,000 formerly. The article gives each figure with its witness.
• Increase or decrease. The Commission reads the Farrukhabad returns as increasing; the Hardoi witnesses all describe a decrease. The article keeps the two districts apart.

Accessions

No accession on the wiki lies inside the border (checked 20 October 2026).

Sources

• Hemp Drugs Commission, 1894. Vol. I paras. 41 and 103–108, vol. III pp. 25 and 28, and the vol. V witnesses cited, all read on the page images. The OCR misprints several names and numbers: Lachmi Narain is witness 238 (not 288); the 1,500-maund figure is witness 235's (Hifazat Hosain); witness 217 is Raggha of Chochpur.
• District administrations. The "About District" pages of Farrukhabad, Kannauj and Hardoi, read on 20 October 2026.

Evidence not used

• Pandit Badri Pershad of Farrukhabad (witness 219) says hemp is grown along cotton and sugarcane fields but not used as an intoxicant, and is "only known as patsan". The Commission warns that patsan is Hibiscus cannabinus and that many witnesses were misled by the word (vol. I, para. 105); his answer is read as concerning that plant.