Talk:Nepal charas trade

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Page scope

Nepal charas trade treats the movement of charas, ganja and bhang from Nepal into India and beyond: the colonial trade through Nipalganj to Lucknow and the smaller flows into Bengal in the 1880s and 1890s, the smuggling of the 1940s and 1950s, the licensed trade of 1961 to 1973, the prohibition of 1973 and 1976 and the trade as UNODC, the INCB and India's Narcotics Control Bureau describe it since. The export of Bengal ganja into Nepal in the same years is included because the colonial sources treat the two flows together. Cannabis growing and use inside Nepal belong to Cannabis in Nepal; the competing Central Asian supply to Yarkand charas trade; Bengal's own licensed trade to Bengal Presidency cannabis trade. Routes are described at the level of country, state or city that the cited sources use.

Data verification

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Discussion

Sources

Colonial documents. The report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894): its first volume, the memorandum of T. Stoker, Commissioner of Excise for the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, with the note on Nipal (Shahjahani) charas by the Deputy Commissioner of Bahraich appended to it, and the evidence of witnesses from those provinces. George Watt's Dictionary of the Economic Products of India (1889), David Prain's report on ganja (1893) and the Gazetteer of the Province of Oudh (1877). These are excise and revenue sources, written by officials of the province that received the drug; the Deputy Commissioner's information came, in Stoker's words, from the Nepalese frontier officials and the local traders.
Earlier travellers. William Kirkpatrick's account of his mission of 1793 (published 1811) and Francis Buchanan-Hamilton's Account of the Kingdom of Nepal (1819). Both describe charas in Nepal and where it came from, not a trade to the plains.
After 1900. A speech in the Bengal Legislative Council in 1931, from Utathya Chattopadhyaya's Ganja Matters (2026); India's annual reports for 1942 and 1945 as quoted in the Bulletin on Narcotics (1953).
1961 to 1979. James Fisher's chapter in Cannabis and Culture (1975) is the source for the Kathmandu market, the licence fees, the price of charas and the five Terai districts; Fisher worked in Nepal as a Peace Corps volunteer from 1962 to 1964 and was in Kathmandu in 1973. The annual reports of the International Narcotics Control Board for 1969 to 1978; telegrams of the United States embassy in Kathmandu and the State Department, 1974 to 1976, printed in Foreign Relations of the United States; the English text of the Narcotic Drugs (Control) Act published by Nepal's Department of Drug Administration, which is the text as later amended.
Since the 1990s. UNODC's South Asia regional profile (2005) and its World Drug Report and Bulletin on Narcotics (2006); the INCB's reports for 2015, 2024 and 2025; the annual report of India's Narcotics Control Bureau for 2014; the annual drug report of Bangladesh's Department of Narcotics Control for 2021. These agencies report what national police and customs services tell them; their figures are given as their estimates.
Press. Two press reports of 2026, cited through their News items: the Delhi police case and the Gandaki Province law.

Where the sources disagree

Quality. Prain (1893), Stoker and UNODC (2006) rank Nepal charas above Central Asian or Indian charas. The Nepal Darbar told the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission that Yarkand charas was preferred in Nepal, and some witnesses from the North-Western Provinces and Bihar put the charas of Multan, the Punjab or Herat first.
How much crossed at Nipalganj. The Deputy Commissioner of Bahraich reported a figure for the yearly export from Nipalganj but warned that it was to be taken with caution, and wrote that much more had come into British territory some years before. Stoker gave 25 to 50 maunds a year, and the Commission adopted his figure.
Bengal. The Bengal excise memorandum and the Commission say the trade in Nepal charas had died out and was never large; the import in 1880–81 was under half a maund. Several Bengal and Bihar witnesses nevertheless named "Nepal" or "Nepali" charas as the kind chiefly used or preferred, and one Calcutta witness said the province's charas came only from Nepal, while the excise memorandum says Bengal obtained its charas from Amritsar and Mirzapur. The witnesses may be using a trade name rather than naming where the charas was made; the sources do not settle it.
Mahadeva ganja. Stoker had been told that an inferior ganja called Mahadewa used to be imported from Nepal. The Commission traced the name to a place in Barabanki and thought him probably mistaken.
What happened in July 1973. Fisher (1975) dates the revocation of all licences to 16 July 1973 and states that trafficking became illegal but possession and use did not. The INCB's report for 1973 speaks of an announcement by the Prime Minister of an intention to prohibit cultivation and export, its report for 1974 of an "administrative decision" not yet backed by law, and its report for 1976 of "the administrative decision of July 1973". An article in New Spotlight (2020) says growing, trade and consumption were all banned on 16 July 1973.
Who pressed for the ban. Fisher names middle-class alarm in Kathmandu, the United States government and the INCB. The INCB's reports show its own pressure from 1969 to 1972; the United States telegrams printed for 1974 to 1976 show the embassy pressing for a narcotics law. Articles in the Kathmandu press since 2019 attribute the ban to pressure from the Nixon administration.
The date of the 1976 Act. The English text gives the date of authentication and publication as 2033/6/10, converted there to 22 September 1976; the INCB reports the law promulgated "in September" 1976. The English text includes later amendments, so its penalties are not those of 1976.
Revenue. Fisher puts the government's loss from the end of licensing at about $100,000. A 2025 article in Voice of History, citing a 2019 source, describes $100,000 as the revenue expected each year.
Nepal's share of the hashish seized in India. About 40 per cent for 2002 (India's Narcotics Control Bureau, quoted by UNODC in 2005); 21.95 per cent for 2014 (the Bureau's report for 2014; its report for 2015 gives the same figure again); 21.9 per cent for 2015 (the INCB's report for 2016).
Seizures in Nepal. For the fiscal year 2023–24 the INCB's report for 2024 gives 1,056 kg of resin and more than 35 tonnes of herb, its report for 2025 about 675 kg of resin and more than 38 tonnes of herb. For 2009 the INCB's report for 2010 gives 16 tonnes of cannabis, the World Drug Report 2011 17 tonnes of herb.
Where Nepalese resin went beyond India. China, India, Canada, the United States and Germany (UNODC, 2005); the United Kingdom, Denmark, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Canada (World Drug Report 2006); overland to India and China and by air to Canada, Japan, the Russian Federation, the United States and Europe (INCB, report for 2015).
Wild or cultivated. UNODC (2005) and the INCB describe cannabis growing wild in the hills, where eradication is hard; the INCB in 1976 describes the western hills as having both wild and cultivated plants. Fisher (1975) writes that in the Terai cannabis does not grow wild but is widely cultivated.

Georeferencing

A town on the route is given a point where two gazetteers, Wikidata and OpenStreetMap, put it within about 2 km of each other. Points are entered to two decimal places.

Kathmandu: 27.71, 85.32. Wikidata 27.710, 85.320; OpenStreetMap 27.708, 85.321; 0.2 km apart.
Nepalgunj: 28.06, 81.63. Wikidata 28.050, 81.617; OpenStreetMap 28.059, 81.626; 1.3 km apart.
Lucknow: 26.84, 80.93. Wikidata 26.847, 80.947; OpenStreetMap 26.838, 80.935; 1.6 km apart.
Kolkata (Calcutta): 22.57, 88.36. Wikidata 22.567, 88.370; OpenStreetMap 22.573, 88.364; 0.8 km apart.
Delhi: 28.67, 77.22. Wikidata 28.667, 77.217; OpenStreetMap 28.666, 77.217; the same point to two decimal places.

Mumbai is given without a point: Wikidata (19.076, 72.877) and OpenStreetMap (19.055, 72.869) are 2.5 km apart. Nepal and Bangladesh, a country each, and Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, each a state, are given without a point.

Infobox

Period. The first year is 1880, from the import of Nepal charas into Bengal in 1880–81, the first year for which a cited source gives a figure. The Gazetteer of the Province of Oudh (1877) already lists charas among the imports from Nepal into Gonda, without a year for the trade; the infobox therefore gives the period in words from the 1870s. There is no last year: the trade is still reported.
Route. Nipalganj (Nepalgunj) is where the charas of the 1890s entered the Bahraich district; Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are the states UNODC (2005) names as the way into India. They are alternatives at one stage. Lucknow is where the charas of the 1890s was sold, Calcutta where the Commission thought a little still went; Delhi and Mumbai are the cities UNODC names; Bangladesh is where its Department of Narcotics Control reports cannabis from Nepal. Kathmandu was the market of the 1960s and is where UNODC places the transhipment of cannabis by air. Gonda, Bahraich, Cawnpore and Birgunj are in the text only.
Legal status. Changed over time: charas from Nepal entered British India legally in the 1890s, with an export duty levied at Nipalganj; India banned the use of charas in 1945; Nepal licensed the cultivation and sale of cannabis from 1961 and revoked the licences in 1973; the Narcotic Drugs (Control) Act of 1976 prohibits the trade.
Scale. Stoker's estimate for the 1890s and the Narcotics Control Bureau's share for 2014; the other figures are in the article and above.

Images reserved in the article

One image has a place in the article but is not yet uploaded:

File:Nepal-charas-trade-route-map.jpg (The colonial trade), a map to be drawn: an outline map of Nepal and northern India with dashed schematic lines in two colours. For the 1890s, from the hills of Nepal through Nipalganj (Nepalgunj) and the Bahraich district to Lucknow, with an earlier branch to Cawnpore, and Bengal ganja carried the other way into Nepal (177 maunds in 1892–93). For the 2000s, from Nepal into Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and on to Delhi and Mumbai, and towards Bangladesh. Kathmandu and Calcutta marked as cities. No crossing points, roads, rivers or vehicles.