Cannabis in India: A fairly long story
Cannabis is illegal in India. But even so, its prevalence is notable in the social and spiritual panorama of India. In fact, it is particularly popular among the ascetics and mendicants, and a variant called ‘Bhang’ is consumed and frequently offered as part of the festivities. So deeply intertwined is cannabis with religion in India, that one of the main deities of Hinduism, Shiva, receives the nickname of ‘Lord of Bhang’. And this is due to the quite long history of the plant in the subcontinent.
Social and spiritual acceptance of cannabis in India through the centuries
It is known that cannabis, a sun -loving plant, originated in the steppes of Central Asia, from where it was brought to India through human migration between 2000 and 1000 to. C. The Geographer Barney Warf, in his research article ‘High Points: An Historical Geography of Cannabis‘, he said that the plant was probably introduced into India through a series of Arias Arias Arias.
However, unlike many other countries to which it was transported, "India developed a continuous tradition of psychoactive cannabis cultivation, often with medicinal and religious connotations". It is known that the cultivation and consumption of marijuana has reached its ‘greatest flowering’ in India … ‘local farmers often consulted with pode or parakdar specialists, known as‘ ganja doctors, ”Warf wrote.
In Vedic literature a lot of reference is made to cannabis along with its medicinal and spiritual properties. In Atharva Veda, for example, cannabis is praised for being a cure for diseases and also for fighting demons. In a section of a anthem of the Scriptures, translated by Professor Mark S. Ferrara in his book ‘Sacred Bliss: a spiritual story of cannabis‘, reads:
‘That cannabis and jangid.
Ferrara said that ‘the practitioners of this ancient religious tradition used cannabis as a medicinal grass, and due to their centrality in enchantments and spells, cannabis was considered a’ sacred herb ‘because of their power to overcome the disease, despair andcalamity’.
One of the most important medicine treaties in the ancient Indian world, ‘Sushruta Samhita’, written between the III and VIII centuries to. C., recommended cannabis for phlegm, cold and diarrhea.
At the same time, the Vedas also narrate a strong association between Shiva deity and cannabis. The sociologist Theodore M. Godlaski, in his article, ‘Shiva, Lord of Bhang‘, published in 2012, said a popular myth about the fascination of deity for cannabis. “When the gods stirred the heavenly ocean with the top of Mount Mandara, a drop of amrita (Sacred nectar) fell from heaven. Where he landed, the first cannabis floor sprouted. Lord Shiva brought the mountain floor for humanity’s benefit, ”said Godlaski.
Give. More often smoke the highly resinous buds of the female plant or the resin itself (hashish) in small clay pipes, which are known locally as chillum. Godlaski described in great detail the ritual of smoking chillum: “smoking chillum does not do alone, but in a circle of smokers. The first person fills the bowl and passes it to the second. The second person takes the bowl to the forehead and pronounces a short formula, often ‘Bum Shankar!’This dedicates the act to Shiva’.
But the religious consumption of marijuana is not limited to the ascetics. During festivals like ‘Shivratri’ and ‘Kumbha Mela’, the Bhang is consumed in large quantities and marijuana burns and exhales as offering to Shiva. It is important to point out that cannabis spiritual consumption is not limited to Shiva’s worshipers, nor does it only take place in the Indian subcontinent. "Cannabis serves not only as an important sacrament for Hindu Mendicants, but also for Islamic Sufi, Chinese Taoists, members of African cults Dagga and Jamaican Rastafaris," Ferrara wrote.
Criminalization of cannabis consumption
The consumption of cannabis in India caught the attention of Europeans shortly after landing. European navigators and explorers frequently sent reports on the extensive consumption of ‘Bhang’. The Portuguese chronicler of the 16th century Garcia da Orta made this observation about Bhang’s drink: ‘I think it is so used and by so many people that there is no mystery about it’.
The British were also amazed by the popularity of cannabis in India. In 1798, the British Parliament approved a law to tax the Bhang, La Ganja and Las Charas. The fundamental reason for the tax, as expressed, was to reduce the use of cannabis ‘for the good of health and sanity of the natives’.
In the course of the 19th century, the British made several attempts to criminalize cannabis in India. In 1894, the Government commissioned a high -range study on cannabis consumption in India, its cultivation, commerce and social impact and health. The report of the Indian Hemp Drug Commission, 1894-1895, concluded:
“Seeing the issue in general, it can be added that the moderate use of these medications is the rule, and that excessive use is comparatively exceptional. Moderate use practically does not produce harmful effects … However, the damage caused by excessive use is limited almost exclusively to the consumer itself;The effect on society is rarely appreciable ’.
The first real impulse to criminalize cannabis consumption in the country occurred in 1961, at the narcotic convention, which then facilitated the promulgation of the NDPS law. At this point, the United States was essential to boost the world towards a prohibitionist approach to drug use. In August of this year, a report written by the Center for Legal Studies Vidhi Center for Legal Policy said that, although India succumbed to international pressure, he ignored the racist origins of the American war against drugs. "The United States war against drugs began as a clearly racist propaganda against the African -American and Hispanic population," said the report."This racial bias in drug regulation has resulted in a disproportionate number of arrests of African Americans for cannabis consumption, which has become the center of an important political reform in the United States," he added.
In the 1961 Convention, the Delegation of India opposed its intolerance to the social and religious consumption of cannabis. Consequently, when the NDPS law was promulgated in 1985, the BHANG was excluded from cannabis drug definition for social reasons for social reasons. The handling of Charas, Ganja and the mixture of forms, however, was criminalized.
Despite being illegal, it can hardly be said that the popularity of marijuana has decreased. A 2019 report from the National Treatment Center for Aiims Drug Dependents said that about 7.2 million people in India are addicted to cannabis. In addition, in recent years, non -profit organizations and groups of activists have actively campaigned for the legalization of cannabis in the country.
It should also be noted that the impact of the legislation against cannabis feels more strongly the poor and marginalized of the country. Vidhi’s report prepared: ‘Our next investigation shows that almost all the people arrested and condemned for cannabis consumption in Mumbai were an salaried worker and an inhabitant of the marginal neighborhoods or the street’. He added: ‘This demonstrates how the law, although it is supposed to be applied uniformly in all social and economic strata, is disproportionate to the poor and marginalize even more to the already vulnerable’.
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