Upper Doab
More actions
| Upper Doab | |
|---|---|
| HistoricalGrown here in the past; no recent record either way | |
| Hierarchy | |
| Gene Pool | South Asian Gene Pool |
| Geography | |
| Country | India |
| Province/State | Uttar Pradesh |
| Districts | Saharanpur District, Shamli District, Muzaffarnagar District |
| Coordinates | 29.57, 77.54 |
| Landscape | |
| Area | 6,100 km² |
| Terrain | Approximately Muzaffarnagar and Shamli districts and the part of Saharanpur District south of the Western Terai: plain between the Ganges and the Yamuna |
| Growing history | |
| Grown | 1883[1]–1894[1] |
| Earlier names | Saharanpur and Muzaffarnagar districts |
| Documentation | |
| Appellations | 0 |
| Accessions | 0 |
| Conservation | |
| Populations | none documented yet |
Upper Doab is a historical landrace cannabis growing area at the head of the Ganges–Yamuna Doab in western Uttar Pradesh, India. It is drawn on Muzaffarnagar and Shamli districts and on the part of Saharanpur District that lies south of the Western Terai. In the 1880s and 1890s the excise department of the North-Western Provinces and witnesses before the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission described hemp growing wild and in abundance in Saharanpur and Muzaffarnagar, where its leaves were gathered for bhang and sold through the district drug contractors.[1][2][3]
The tract
Muzaffarnagar's district administration places the city in the middle of the "highly fertile upper Ganga-Yamuna Doab region", at 272 m above sea level.[4] Saharanpur District has the Shivalik hills on its north and north-east, and the Yamuna separates it from Haryana on the west; Haridwar, to the east, was part of the district until 1989.[5] Shamli, on the Haryana border west of Muzaffarnagar, was a tahsil of Muzaffarnagar District before it became a district of its own.[6]
The witnesses found the plant in the low ground. The Collector of Muzaffarnagar, D. F. Addis, said that it grew wild in all parts of his district, "particularly in the low lands near the rivers and near the canals".[7] Chaudhri Ghasi Ram, a landowner of Maulaheri in the same district, named the canal banks among its moist places and said it grew densely.[3] Charanji Lal, a drug contractor, said that it grew freely in sand on the banks of rivers.[8] Muzaffarnagar lies on the line the Commission drew across the province: north of it the spontaneous growth was abundant, and south of it, in the central belt, it did not deserve to be called wild.[1]
History
The excise inquiry of 1883 in the North-Western Provinces listed Saharanpur and Muzaffarnagar among the fourteen districts where the hemp plant grew wild and was made into bhang.[1] In his memorandum for the Commission, the Commissioner of Excise, T. Stoker, placed Saharanpur among the districts where the plant grew "absolutely wild in great profusion". He added Muzaffarnagar with a "perhaps": the plant was reported to grow freely there in the low lands of the rivers.[9] The Commission's report noted that Stoker had left Muzaffarnagar off his list of districts of wild growth, and that the produce there was considerable.[1]
Saharanpur was among the chief districts from which bhang was exported. A separate contract was let there for a wholesale depot; it fetched only a few hundred rupees and was nearly always taken by the district's retail contractor. Elsewhere the local contractor did some wholesale trade, or contractors from other districts sent agents to buy from the owners or occupiers of land who collected and stored the plant.[10] The Moradabad Deputy Commissioner, R. W. Gillan, said that the bhang made in Saharanpur, Bijnor and the Terai was enough to supply Rohilkhand.[11]
Gathering and trade
Charanji Lal, who had been a drug contractor all his life, said that the plant grew most abundantly in Saharanpur, and put the bhang prepared in Saharanpur at 4,500 maunds a year, against 2,500 from Umballa.[8] Lala Nihal Chand, an honorary magistrate of Saharanpur, described an abundant spontaneous growth in Saharanpur and Muzaffarnagar and no cultivation; bhang was "largely manufactured" in Saharanpur, while no ganja or charas was made there.[2] In Muzaffarnagar the drug contractor collected the bhang for sale in his shops, and people bought it there.[3] Addis said that there was no cultivation in his district, and that the drug contractor sold on average 60 maunds of bhang and 34 maunds of charas in the district.[7]
Accessions
No accessions documented yet.
Recent news
No news items are recorded for this growing area yet.
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. I: Report. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. ch. III, "The existence, prevalence, and character of the spontaneous growth", paras. 41–44, pp. 23–24 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Lala Nihal Chand, Honorary Magistrate, Saharanpur". 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. 178, p. 247 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Chaudhri Ghasi Ram, Landowner, Maulaheri, Muzaffarnagar 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. 187, p. 256 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ District Administration, Muzaffarnagar. "About District". Official Website of Muzaffarnagar, Government of Uttar Pradesh. Retrieved 20 October 2026.
- ↑ District Administration, Saharanpur. "About District". District Saharanpur, Government of Uttar Pradesh. Retrieved 20 October 2026.
- ↑ District Administration, Shamli. "About District". District Shamli, Government of Uttar Pradesh. Retrieved 20 October 2026.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. D. F. Addis, Magistrate and Collector of Muzaffarnagar". 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. 4, p. 4 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Charanji Lal, Bannia, Contractor, Jagadhri, Saharanpur". 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. 258, p. 351 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Memorandum on hemp drugs in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, by Mr. T. Stoker, Commissioner of Excise". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. III: Appendices, Miscellaneous. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. para. 8, p. 25 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Memorandum on hemp drugs in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, by Mr. T. Stoker, Commissioner of Excise". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. III: Appendices, Miscellaneous. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. para. 20, p. 28 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. R. W. Gillan, Officiating Deputy Commissioner, Moradabad". 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. 21, p. 22 – via Internet Archive.