In the cedar forest mountains outside Manali, a tourist town in the Kullu Valley of the Indian Himalayas, Ajay* plies his trade.
“Me and my family do everything together,” he said, showing a photo on his phone of hundreds of cannabis plants in a forest clearing.
“Our hash field sits on top of the mountain. It’s grown in the wild. Sometimes the police come and cut it down, and that’s it. They don’t say anything else. They can’t prove it’s me, because we grow it at the top of the mountain – very high up, three hours walk minimum. No man’s land,” he explained.
“It’s better to grow there, you get more THC at the top. We start growing in April, and in September and October we harvest, pitching a tent and stay there for fifteen days near the field.”
Ajay mainly sells to a close circle of friends, and enjoys an occasional toke himself.
“When we have good smoker around us, we smoke chillums,” he continued, referring to a small clay pipe used in India and Nepal. “When we’re not with good smokers, we smoke joints, because the chillum is like 3-4 puffs in one go. It’s a full-on, bullet train. It’s not for rookies, not everyone can handle it.”
Manali, and the state it’s in, Himachal Pradesh, attracts crowds of both Indian tourists and foreign backpackers alike, in no small part due to its reputation for high-quality hash.
“A few people are not with it, but the majority is fine with selling hash,” Ajay explained. “The place I’m from, 90% of people are selling hash. You will find hash in every house; it’s in our culture. Those times when we have nothing, we survive only by rubbing hash.”
If Ajay and his friends are caught, they risk a lengthy spell in jail or, in the best-case scenario, a shakedown from crooked cops. Despite arguably being the birthplace of global cannabis culture, India is compelled to enforce international anti-narcotics agreements, meaning cannabis and hash are just as illegal here as anywhere else.
But in January, judges in the Delhi High Court ruled that the government must review the current laws against cannabis within six months. As the deadline for the judges’ order rapidly approaches, TalkingDrugs examines the history and future of the 420 debate in India.
A green history
There are references to cannabis, or ganja in Sanskrit, in the Atharva Veda, a Hindu holy book dating back to 2000 BC, where it is listed as one of the five most sacred plants on Earth and described as a “liberator” and “source of happiness.”
It is most closely associated with the god Shiva, and consumed on occasions such as Holi, the festival of colours, usually in the form of bhang – boiled together with milk, sugar, and a combination of various spices and nuts to make a sort of ganja lassi. It’s also smoked, of course, and it is not uncommon to see a group of sadhus (Hindu holy men) sitting around puffing on chillums at Shiva temples.
“[Bhang] is widely used in many religious places in north India and in my state, Odisha,” Akshaya Bahibala, author of Bhang Journeys, told TalkingDrugs.
“People take marijuana as bhang, as a drink, almost every day. It’s like a daily dose of high, but smoking is not as common in many parts. For instance, in my hometown Puri in Odisha, now a lot of people smoke, but earlier it was bhang. Most people in rural India do not have a lot of problems with marijuana. At a lot of Shiva temples, people still smoke… There has never been very strong opposition to marijuana because, until 1985, it was legally allowed for everybody to buy and sell, mostly through government dealerships. The government in Odisha was producing ganja and selling it to the public.”
In the 20th century, India came under heightened pressure (principally from the United States) to abide by international anti-narcotics agreements, and in 1985 Rajiv Gandhi’s government finally passed the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, which effectively outlawed cannabis – although an exception was made for bhang, as well as hemp and other industrial and scientific purposes.
Cultivation and sales of the happy herb, however, are punishable by up to ten years imprisonment, while personal possession can earn up to six months. Prohibition was not imposed everywhere at once. For example, ganja remained legal in Odisha, on India’s eastern coast, until 1989 when the NDPS was locally applied in the state.
Since then, India’s been waging a war on weed. In 2022, there were 144,812 arrests under the NDPS Act, up from 81,778 in 2018. In Mumbai, an estimated 87% of all the arrests in 2018 were for cannabis, the vast majority of arrestees being low-income workers, homeless or slum-dwellers. In the impoverished countryside of eastern and central India, ganja cultivation was closely associated with tribal communities living in remote hilly jungles where until recently the police dared not tread, fearing an ambush from Maoist guerrillas.
But India is a huge nation, and enforcement is not entirely consistent.
“The police ignore people smoking unless there’s a large quantity, then you can get into trouble,” explained Bahibala.
“But otherwise in each state in India you’ll find people smoking, and you can find it easily if you want to buy it. I mean, all the [sadhus] are smoking chillums in front of the Prime Minister of India in the holy gatherings in Banaras, and all these places. Nobody is telling them off because we consider them as holy men. But it is still illegal. So, I think we have a society where, you know, there is a larger acceptance for it, but we are still hypocrites. We don’t want to talk about it.”
Building bottom-up momentum
Just as in many other countries, a grassroots campaign challenging prohibition is gaining momentum. The non-profit organisation Great Legalisation Movement (GLM) was founded in 2014 by Viki Vaurora, a former journalist from Bengaluru. The GLM organised India’s first pro-cannabis marches and protests in 2017 and 2018, disseminated information via YouTube and Facebook, and helped patients such as cancer sufferers obtain cannabis oil.
In 2019, the GLM filed a petition with the Delhi High Court contending the provisions of the NDPS criminalising marijuana. The petition does not seek to overturn the NDPS, but merely argues the current legislation is too restrictive. The wheels of justice turn slowly, but on 23 January the judges conceded that since India does not outlaw cannabis outright, there is room for manoeuvre, and gave the central government six months to respond. At the time of publishing, there has been no official response yet.
In the past, legal challenges to end prohibition have led to reforms. A long-running court case filed by Rastafarian lawyers successfully paved the way for South Africa’s legalisation in 2024. Other efforts have had more mixed results.
Although Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled all the way back in 2018 that the marijuana ban was unconstitutional, the government has dragged its feet about actually rewriting the law, leaving the business in the hands of the cartels. A similar ruling in Georgia legalised cannabis use – but only use, not possession, meaning if you have a spliff in your pocket and you see a policeman, you better start smoking. Finally, a case in Japan filed by artist Ryujiro Oyabu is awaiting an appeal to the Supreme Court.
Considering the cultural context, legalisation is not outside the Overton Window in India the way it is elsewhere in Asia. For instance, two years ago prominent politician Dharamvira Gandhi suggested that Punjab in northwest India legalise opium and cannabis as an alternative to chitta (heroin).
But Bahibala is cautious, referring to India’s experience with alcohol prohibition.
“People have accepted drinking as cool since it’s more social,” he said. “People need to accept smoking as that social, only then it will happen. So there is still going to be some time before it happens.”
Another challenge is India’s state system, explained Bahibala: “nationwide policies might be a bit difficult. For instance, some of the states are dry states, where we still have a ban on alcohol, since we are also governed by state laws, each state has its own law. A few states might actually make it legal, and a few states again are going to keep it illegal.”
* Name has been changed for confidentiality.
