rupee and, in times of scarcity, it may rise to four seers. Very little calculation is required to show how great has been the rise in the price of land in terms of food grains or, to put the matter somewhat differently, to indicate the value of the enhanced credit based on the land when utilised to purchase food in periods of scarcity. It is this which provides the explanation for one outstanding feature of all recent famines, the absence of the small landholder from relief works. The landless labourer has not this new source of credit to fall back on and, when prolonged drought makes all agricultural operations impossible, his position rapidly declines to one of acute distress.

DEVELOPMENT AND IMPROVEMENT COMMUNICATIONS.

OF

7. The rise in the value of land as a source of credit would be, in itself, of little use unless there were in existence the capital available in liquid form to meet demands for accommodation nor would it suffice in the long run unless the landholder were in a position to redeem, in times of plenty, the debt incurred to tide over distress. Both these conditions have been fulfilled first by the development and, later, by the improvement of communications which have facilitated trade, opened up new markets, stimulated the expansion of commerce and, by so doing, have resulted in a marked increase in wealth. The failure of the local food supply in times of drought offers to trade an opportunity for enhanced activity and legitimate enterprise but, in earlier days, there was neither the capital nor the organisation which enabled this opportunity to be seized. In the famine of 1866, private traders in Orissa proved unable to meet the demands upon them and were unable to overcome the difficulties in the way of importing food. Prices became merely nominal and money was spurned as worthless. A similar lack of strength amongst traders was revealed in the famine of 1868-69 in Ajmer, when men with money in their hands died for want of food. Measures designed to improve the lot of the cultivator alone could not achieve their object unless they were supplemented by others aimed at relieving obstacles to trade. The great lesson to be learnt from the Orissa famine of 1866 was the need for more extensive and, as funds permitted, better communications. In the generation which followed that famine, the internal communications of India underwent a revolution. The effect of improved communications in stimulating production and facilitating distribution has been great. Their influence in another direction is also becoming increasingly marked. The old self-sufficing type of agriculture is in some measure being replaced by a more commercialised system in which the cultivation of 66 money crops, "that is, crops intended entirely for sale such as cotton, jute and oil-seeds is increasingly prominent. The cultivator has begun to look beyond the present needs of his family, and the and the demands of the market are more and more determining what he shall produce. Improved communications have stimulated that growing organisation of trade and commerce which has proved one of the most important features in increasing the resisting power of the people. They have brought with them that

practical certainty of finding a market which has encouraged production and they have made possible that increase in wealth which is reflected in the investment of funds in a multitude of improvements. They have been amongst the most potent factors in breaking the vicious circle of economic stagnation and in setting India on the road of economic progress. How great has been the change wrought by these and other factors in regard to famine is shown by the history of the famine of 1896-97, which affected an area of 225,000 square miles in British India with a population of 62 millions. Although the areas in which severe distress prevailed were greater than in any previous famine, private trade proved able to regulate the supply of food throughout India : the uniform level of prices all over the country testified to the effect of the extensive system of railways in facilitating distribution; and the unprecedented success of relief measures was a clear indication of the possession by the community as a whole of a reserve of strength which enabled it to meet the most widespread dearth on record.

No action of the State can prevent a failure of rain, and the distress consequent on the stoppage of agricultural operations; but it is important to emphasise that famine now consists in the lack of employment, and so of purchasing power, and not in the lack of available food. When, owing to the absence of rain, the small cultivator and the landless labourer are deprived of the means of earning their daily bread, the measures adopted by the State are effective in placing within their reach alternative means of livelihood.

IRRIGATION WORKS.

8. The possibility of remedying, by means of the provision of irrigation facilities, the obstacles to agricultural prosperity, consequent on the unequal distribution of the rainfall and its liability to failure or serious deficiency has naturally received special consideration. If ever interest on the subject appeared in danger of flagging, the vagaries of the monsoon speedily revived it. Wells, tanks and canals have been in use in India from early times and, although the aggregate achievement from both public and private sources is enormous, the work of planning and construction still goes forward. But as no scheme for the rapid enhancement of production over a large area can hope for financial success unless efficient means for the distribution of that production exist, railways are as essential to the large canals as the large canals have been to some of the railways. Neither canals nor railways can be built without capital, and capital might have waited upon the enhancement of production that only canals and railways could bring about, had it not been for the loans which the Government of India were able to raise through the sound credit which they had built up in the markets of the world.

DEVELOPMENT

OF

9. Two other important factors, both external to India, have exercised a profound influence upon agricultural economy. The Suez Canal was opened in 1869; the steamer with its cheap freights and comparatively rapid transport followed soon after. What these have meant to Indian agriculture is clear. from the figures of

OVERSEAS COMMUNICA

TIONS.

overseas trade. When the Suez Canal was opened, exports were valued at Rs. 80 crores. For the three years ending 1926-27, the average value of the annual exports exceeded Rs. 350 crores. By far the greater part of the volume of exports is contributed by agricultural products, cotton, jute, oil-seeds and tea being the chief items.

THE ABSENCE OF LARGE SCALE FARMING IN INDIA.

10. Internal peace has been unbroken for several generations, railway comunications are now fairly satisfactory, roads have been improved and extended, there is free access to external markets and the principal agricultural products of India find a ready sale in them. But India is still pre-eminently the land of the small holder. Large scale farming, even in the altered conditions of to-day, though open to many is practised by few. The large landholder, and there are many such, leases his land on rent to a number of petty cultivators. The typical agriculturist is still the man who possesses a pair of bullocks and who cultivates a few acres with the assistance of his family and of occasional hired labour. For the absence of large scale farming in India there are many reasons. Among them are the obstacles to agricultural progress generally which have been discussed in preceding paragraphs and which have now been largely, if not entirely, removed. Others are the obstacles to development which continue to exist. Of the pressure of population on the soil, of poverty and its concomitant indebtedness, of illiteracy, of conditions unfavourable to health, we shall have much to say in the course of this Report. But there are two influences militating against the spread of large scale farming in India which deserve special mention here. To the influence of the laws and customs governing inheritance amongst the Hindu and Muhammadan community reference has already been made. These laws and customs vary among different communities but, broadly speaking, they favour the partition of immovable property among a number of heirs. The small holdings which have resulted from this have been rendered still smaller by the desire of each heir to gain possession of a plot of the best land even if this entails his accepting another of the worst. The second influence has been that of the tenancy legislation which is in force throughout the greater part of British India. The primary object of this legislation has been to give the tenants on an estate security of tenure, but its effect has been to render it difficult for the larger landholders to obtain unrestricted possession of compact blocks of land. But, even if greater opportunities for large scale farming operations had been open to the larger landholders, the lack, until recent years, of men with the requisite training to carry on such operations would have prevented full advantage being taken of them.

THE PRESENT ECONOMIC POSITION.

11. It is thus, in the main, with the needs of a vast population of small cultivators that we are concerned. Though our Commission is the first to be appointed specifically to examine and report on the conditions of agriculture and rural economy in India, it is by no means the first Commission which has made recommendations for the promotion of the

welfare and prosperity of the rural population of this country. The investigations into agricultural conditions carried out by the successive Famine Commissions of 1880, 1898 and 1901, by the Irrigation Commission of 1903 and by the Committee on Co-operation of 1915 have resulted in measures of great and lasting benefit to the people. We would here take the opportunity of acknowledging the assistance we have derived from their Reports. Those of the Famine Commissions were landmarks in the history of the agricultural development of India.

Each enquiry in its turn brought on record valuable material. The Commissions investigated their problems in the light of the knowledge of the day and their proposals embody the latest ideas current at the time. Most of their suggestions have led to measures designed to remedy defects in the economic system so that there has been an almost. continuous series of legislative and administrative attempts to deal with the problem of poverty amongst the rural community. Whether, in fact, the economic position of the cultivating classes has improved and is improving is a matter on which there are still differences of opinion. Among a population so large as that of India, there must be examples of every stage of progress and decline but, if the position is viewed as a whole, there should be little room for honest doubt that there has been substantial progress.

Since the series of enquiries into famine came to a close in 1901, great economic changes have taken place in India. The development of irrigation on a vast scale in the Punjab, and, to a smaller extent, elsewhere has immensely increased the resources of the country: railways and roads have been extended and the effects of the improvements both of internal and external communications have made themselves increasingly felt. It took India nearly a generation to re-act to the great changes in these respects which have been mentioned but, since the commencement of the present century, the evidence of growing prosperity has been manifest to everyone whose acquaintance with India extends over the last twenty-five years. That there still remains much to be done and that great improvements have still to be carried into effect will be clear from the remainder of our Report. In a country so extensive as India, the effects of any single measure are apt to be so dispersed that they can be discerned with difficulty, but the cumulative effect of the measures of the last eighty years cannot be ignored.

THE PRESENT AGRI

12. In concluding this chapter, we would add a few remarks on the problems immediately before us. The large development of the export trade, on which we have CULTURAL POSITION. commented, has been secured after providing for the increasing population, to which, according to the Census Report of 1921, some 62 millions were added in British India alone, between 1872 and 1921. That production has increased is beyond. dispute some part of this increase is due to the enhancement of yield resulting from the expansion of irrigation but a far larger part is due to the spread of cultivation. Only a small proportion of it can be attributed to the introduction of higher yielding varieties

of crops and it is doubtful if any appreciable increase in yield can be attributed to the adoption of better methods of cultivation or the increased use of manures. In a country with such a long history, little surprise need be felt that a system of tillage based on experience should have reached a stage beyond which further progress was bound to await scientific discovery. That in many places, the system of agriculture followed has attained a very high standard is matter of common knowledge; the cultivation of rice in the deltas, for example, has reached a marked degree of perfection and the wisdom of many agricultural proverbs stands unchallenged by research. The careful terracing of the hillsides, the various methods of irrigation from wells and tanks, the construction of accurately designed channels from the streams to the fields and similar achievements in improving land disclose skill, ingenuity and patient labour. Although they affect but a small proportion of the area under crops and though the works are simple and their benefit narrowly confined to their immediate neighbourhood, their importance is considerable and it should not be overlooked when contemplating the larger works of Government. In the conditions in which the ordinary cultivator works, agricultural experts have found it no easy matter to suggest improvements and the fact remains that the cultivator has, in the main, met new demands by breaking up new areas rather than by intensification of method, the employment of more efficient implements or the use of manures. In spite of the progress that has undoubtedly been made and of the great increase in gross wealth of the country, the ordinary cultivator on his tiny plot is still a man of small resources, with small means for meeting his small needs. He requires all the help which science can afford, and which organisation, education and training can bring within his reach.

In existing conditions, the activities of the agricultural departments have touched but a fractional part of the country. But though, throughout our Report, we have dealt at length with the problem of improving the efficiency of these departments and of extending their activities over the whole area of agricultural India, we have regarded this as merely one aspect of the far wider problem of creating an environment in which the cultivator will be willing to receive and to put to the best possible use the advice and help which the agricultural and other departments are in a position to place at his disposal. Our enquiry has, therefore, extended to the activities of all departments which are closely concerned with rural welfare. We shall endeavour to show the contribution which each of them, Agricultural, Veterinary, Forest, Irrigation, Co-operative, Public Health, Education, and Industries, can make to the creation of an environment favourable to progress in all directions. Our object, in short, has been to suggest ways and means of assisting the advance of the rural community towards a fuller life. These must be designed at once to awaken the desire in that community for better things and to arm the individual member of it against the temptations that beset him, without impairing either his self-respect or his spirit of manly independence.