Talk:Malwa

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Page scope

Malwa treats the cannabis growing region of the Malwa plateau in western Madhya Pradesh: the Indore, Dewas, Ujjain, Ratlam, Mandsaur and Neemuch districts and the Bhopawar growing area. The Malwa region of the Indian Punjab is a different place and is not covered here. The districts as administrative units are treated at their own pages, such as Indore District.

Data verification

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

Discussion

Why the region is mapped

The Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. The Indore State's memorandum (vol. III, p. 164): cultivation in a few Narmada mahals and at Sanwer, north of Indore, 66 to 354 bighas over twenty years. Gunion's memorandum (vol. III, pp. 158–160): Dewas, 39 and 9 bighas at two villages; Ujjain "extensively cultivated" by report. The report (vol. I, paras. 142–146): the same, and Caldecott's statement that cultivation went on "all over Malwa".
Caldecott's own evidence (1895 supplementary volume, Central India Agency witness 7).
Since 2000 (press reports, read in full): Neemuch district, 2022 and December 2025 to January 2026; Mandsaur district, January 2025; Dewas district, October 2026; Ratlam district, three raids between 30 September and 17 October 2026; and the Bhopawar districts, 2022 and October 2026. Patrika's feature of 16 October 2026 reports cultivation cases across the Malwa and Nimar districts.

Growing status

Active, on the police reports since 2022. The colonial evidence covers 1873–74 to 1893–94 in Indore and 1893–94 elsewhere. No source read here says when the licensed or untaxed cultivation of the 1890s ended. The Free Press Journal's Palda report (24 November 2022) quotes unnamed sources saying the farming had gone on for ten years; the article does not use it.

How the border is drawn

The border is the union of nine districts in OpenStreetMap: Indore (administrative relation 1976160), Dewas (1976213), Ujjain (1976162), Ratlam (1976133), Mandsaur (1950091), Neemuch (1950092), Dhar (1976159), Jhabua (1976161) and Alirajpur (9529703), with the slivers of the live Nimar, Barwani and Khandwa borders along the district lines subtracted, then simplified: about 46,600 km² in one part. The Bhopawar area is cut inside it.
The region is drawn on the districts where a source read here places cultivation, in the 1890s or since 2000. Indore, Dewas and Ujjain rest on the 1893–94 evidence; Ratlam on the 2026 raids and on Caldecott's Western Malwa Agency, which held the Rutlam and Jaora states; Mandsaur and Neemuch on the raids since 2022.
Left out: Agar Malwa and Shajapur (no cultivation report found), Rajgarh (one report of 70 plants, Patadi, August 2023) and the eastern plateau (Bhopal, Sehore, Vidisha). The Indore State's Narmada mahals lie in the Nimar region.
The map point (23.18, 75.39) is a central point of the border.

Source conflicts

Wild growth. Gunion found no spontaneous growth in Central India, the Indore memorandum said no wild hemp was found in the State and Caldecott called wild growth "generally unknown" throughout Malwa. Against them, Mahomed Hassein (vol. V, witness 253) speaks of the "self-grown plants of Ujjain and Malwa"; Gunion reports a gorakhi ganja made from the wild plant in Jaora; and W. E. A. Armstrong of the Meywar Bhil Corps (1895 supplementary volume, Rajputana witness 1), chiefly from what he was told, wrote that the plant grew wild in any jungle in Malwa. The article gives the cultivation and attributes each wild claim; the region is not mapped on wild growth.
Caldecott's "all over Malwa". The Commission warned that his mention of charas made the statement doubtful. The article quotes him and the warning.
The Undar count. ETV Bharat's body text and Patrika give 2,948 plants; ETV Bharat's headline and web address say 2,998. The article uses 2,948.

After 1894

The Imperial Gazetteer of India (1908) entries for the Indore, Ratlam and Sailana states and the Ujjain district name no hemp crop; a crop list is not evidence that it was not grown.
I. C. and R. N. Chopra (Bulletin on Narcotics, 1957) list Madhya Bharat among six states where cultivation was still allowed in 1956, with 71 hectares, and name no district. The article does not use the figure, since no source read here places it in these districts.

Accessions

No accession on the wiki lies inside the border (checked 21 October 2026). COC-IND-MAD-0120190001 carries the tag "Indore" but no collection place.

Sources

Hemp Drugs Commission, 1894–1895. Vol. I paras. 78, 142–146, 215, 330–331 and 703–710; vol. III pp. 158–160 and 164; vol. V witness 253; the 1895 supplementary volume, Central India Agency witness 7; read on the page images.
Imperial Gazetteer of India (1908), Gwalior State and Bhopawar Agency, read on the Digital South Asia Library page images.
Press reports since 2022, read in full; dates from each page's own metadata.
District administrations of Ratlam and Alirajpur, "About District", read on 21 October 2026.