Cannabis in India has been known to be used at least as early as 2000 BCE. In Indian society, common terms for cannabis preparations include charas (resin), ganja (flower), and bhang (seeds and leaves), with Indian drinks such as bhang lassi and bhang thandai made from bhang being one of the most common legal uses.
As of 2000, per the UNODC the "prevalence of usage" of cannabis in India was 3.2%. A 2019 study conducted by the All India Institutes of Medical Sciences reported that about 7.2 million Indians had consumed cannabis within the past year. The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment's "Magnitude of Substance Use in India 2019" survey found that 2.83% of Indians aged 10–75 years (or 31 million people) were current users of cannabis products. According to the UNODC's World Drug report 2016, the retail price of cannabis in India was per gram, the lowest of any country in the world. A study by the German data firm ABCD found that New Delhi and Mumbai were the third and sixth largest cannabis consuming cities in the world in 2018, consuming 38.2 tonnes and 32.4 tonnes of cannabis respectively .
History
Antiquity
Bhanga is mentioned in several Indian texts dated before 1000 CE. However, there is philological debate among Sanskrit scholars as to whether this bhanga can be identified with modern bhang or cannabis.
Cannabis sativa is one of the candidates for the identity of the plant that was used to prepare soma in Vedic period. Soma was an intoxicating ritual drink that is highly praised in the Rigveda (c. 1700–1100 BCE).
Atharvaveda (c. 1500–1000 BCE) mentions bhanga as one of the five sacred plants that relieve anxiety. Sayana interpreted bhanga as a type of wild grass, but many scholars identify bhanga with cannabis. The relevant verse:
Sushruta Samhita (c. 600 BCE) again mentions bhanga, as a medicinal plant, and recommends it for treating catarrh, phlegm and diarrhea.
According to Gerrit Jan Meulenbeld and Dominik Wujastyk, Chikitsa-sara-sangraha (c. late 11th century) by Vangasena is the earliest extant Indian text that features an uncontested mention of cannabis. It mentions bhanga as an appetiser and a digestive, and suggests it in two recipes for a long and happy life. Narayan Sarma's Dhanvantariya Nighantu, a contemporary text, mentions a narcotic of the plant. Nagarjuna's Yogaratnamala (c. 12th–13th century) suggests that cannabis (mdtuldni) smoke can be used to make one's enemies feel possessed by spirits. Sharngadhara Samhita (13th century) also gives medicinal uses of cannabis, and along with ahiphena (opium poppy), mentions it as one of the drugs which act very quickly in the body.
Cannabis also finds its mention in other historic scriptures like Dhanvantari Nighantu, Sarngandhara Samhita and Kayyadeva Nighantu. It is also referred in Ayurveda as an ingredient in various recipes of pain relievers and aphrodisiacs, but in small quantities. Ayurveda however does not use cannabis for smoking recipes.
The Hindu god Shiva is said to have chosen cannabis as his favorite food, after having spent one night sleeping under the plant's leaves and when eating of it in the morning refreshed him. Another legend suggests that when the poison Halahala came out from the Samudra manthan, Shiva drank it to protect everyone from it. Later, bhang was used to cool him down. Shiva Purana suggests offering bhang to Shiva during the summer months. But not all devotees offer bhang to Shiva.
Many Ayurvedic texts mention cannabis as vijaya, while tantric texts mention it as samvid.
Colonial India
Portuguese India
Following the Portuguese seizure of Goa in 1510, the Portuguese became familiar with the cannabis customs and trade in India. Garcia de Orta, a botanist and doctor, wrote about the uses of cannabis in his 1534 work Colloquies on the Simples and Drugs and Medicinal Matters of India and of a Few Fruits. Garcia noted that bhang was used to improve work and appetite and enable labour, and "I believe that it is so generally used and by such a number of people that there is no mystery about it.” Fifteen years later Cristobal Acosta produced the work A Tract about the Drugs and Medicines of the East Indies, outlining recipes for bhang.
British India
The British Parliament enacted a tax on bhang, ganja and charas in 1798, stating that the tax was intended to reduce cannabis consumption "for the sake of the natives' good health and sanity". In 1894, the British Indian government completed a wide-ranging study of cannabis in India. The report's findings stated: