Talk:Papers Relating to the Consumption of Ganja and Other Drugs in India (1893)
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How the return was read
The whole return was read for this page on 3 October 2026 in two copies. The first is the digitisation in House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, whose page images are not in printed order: images 1–50 are pp. 1–50, images 51–124 are pp. 101–174 and images 125–174 are pp. 51–100. Every printed page is present once. The second is the Gokhale Institute's scan linked from the infobox. It opens with the paper's printed wrapper and then runs in order, so that its image n is printed p. n − 1, and each of its 174 printed pages matches the text of the first copy.
Both copies carry OCR text. Every quotation on the page was compared with both texts, and where they disagreed the passage was read on the page images. Two misprints in the return are paraphrased rather than quoted: the Government of India's letter says the quantity of ganja consumed in Bengal "has fallen of by 27 per cent." (p. 6), and the report of the Madras Inspector-General of Police has "commited" (p. 84).
Where the papers disagree with one another
The article reports each of these as the papers give them and does not choose between them, except where it says so.
The Chief Commissioner of Mysore's letter of 23 February 1872 gives the Bangalore asylum "a total of 250 admissions" over five years (p. 12). The 1873 Resolution, summarising that letter, gives "a total of 280 admissions" (p. 88). Both give 82 cases put down to ganja.
The papers give four dates for Bengal's three rates of duty on ganja. The Board of Revenue's report of 20 July 1871 says that on round ganja "a higher rate of duty, viz., Rs. 3 per seer, commenced to be levied in 1864", and that "Since 1864 the duty has remained unchanged" (p. 70). The extract from the Bengal government's report of 3 June 1872 says "In 1869 the system was introduced of charging duty at three different rates" (p. 66). The 1873 Resolution says that the rate of one rupee "continued until 1859-60, when the system was introduced of charging duty at three different rates" (p. 90). The Government of India's letter of 1892 says "In 1864–65 the system was introduced of charging duty at three different rates" (p. 5).
Kimberley's despatch of 20 October 1892 says that "During the autumn of last year Mr. Mark Stewart drew attention in the House of Commons to the baneful effects of the above-mentioned drug" (p. 92). The question it refers to is dated "16th July 1891" in the enclosure to Cross's despatch (p. 3). The article gives the date of the enclosure.
The Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal's letter of 31 August 1872 names the active substance of ganja "carmalin" (p. 67). Macnamara's reports, from which its figures come, name it "cannabin" (p. 74). The article uses Macnamara's word.
Taj-ud-din Hussain's name is printed in two forms. The West Berar commissioner's letter has "Mr. Taj-ud-din Hussain" (p. 23); the Buldana deputy commissioner's covering letter and the heading of the translated report both have "Mr. Iajoodeen Hoosain" (p. 25). The article uses the first.
Where later accounts differ from the return
Mills (2000, p. 44) writes that the report gathering the 1871 replies "was lodged in the House of Commons library by William Caine MP". The return's title page records an address of the House dated 21 February 1893 and an order to print of 3 March 1893, and Hansard records Caine's motion for the address on 21 February (vol. 9, cc. 87–88). Mills also dates the founding of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission to April 1893 (p. 44) and Caine's question to March (p. 44) and to April (p. 60) of that year. Hansard has the question on 2 March 1893 (vol. 9, c. 822). The article follows the title page and Hansard for these dates and cites Mills for his reading of the papers.
Hynd (2021, p. 53, note 42) cites the return as "British Parliamentary Papers, 66 (Hansard, London, 1891)". The title page gives London, Eyre and Spottiswoode for Her Majesty's Stationery Office and 1893, and Mills (2000, p. 195) places the paper in volume 66 for the session of 1893–94.
What the page leaves out
The provincial replies describe users and communities in the terms of their writers. Ascetics and others appear as "the idle classes" (p. 11) and forest peoples as "jungle tribes" (p. 12); violence is "running amuck" (p. 41); one Berar officer describes an intending criminal as reducing himself "to the condition of a savage wild beast" (p. 20). The article quotes few such passages and attributes those it uses.
The replies' discussions of muddat, an opium preparation used in Berar (pp. 19–28), and the Board of Revenue's paragraphs on the excise of taree, or palm toddy (p. 71), fall outside the page's subject. The Bengal duty tables for 1853–1871 and 1864–1892, the Assam table and Macnamara's tables of samples are summarised and not reproduced.
Kerr's report and Watt's article are described here only as parts of the return. Kerr's report has its own page; Watt's article is taken from A Dictionary of the Economic Products of India.
Title and category
The title page heads the paper "East India (Consumption of Ganja)". The address it answers, as Hansard prints it, asks for "Copies of the following Papers relating to the Consumption of Ganja and other drugs in India". The running heads print "Papers relating to the consumption of ganja and other drugs in India" across every opening. The page takes the running title with the year added, the form in which the Gokhale Institute catalogues the paper and in which Mills (2000) and Chattopadhyaya (2026) cite it. The heading form redirects here, with and without the year.
The infobox sets the regional category to India, as the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission page does, because the papers range over the provinces of British India.