CHAPTER XI

COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING

SCOPE OF THE CHAPTER.

297. The prosperity of the agriculturist and the success of any policy of general agricultural improvement depend to a very large degree on the facilities which the agricultural community has at its disposal for marketing to the best advantage such of its produce as is surplus to its own requirements. Transportation is an integral part of marketing, and modern commercial development tends everywhere to enhance the value and importance of good communications. The building of railways in India has made commercially possible the movement of produce from areas of surplus production to other parts of the sub-continent, while railways, together with the steamship, have linked the cultivators of India with markets throughout the world. Local distribution of commodities has been facilitated by the construction of a road system of which the more important roads are, for the most part, metalled and bridged. But other roads and lanes in India are usually in a bad condition and good markets are of little help to the cultivator unless he can transport his produce to them cheaply and promptly. The handicap imposed on the cultivator in selling his produce by the lack of a passable route between his holding and the local market town may bar to him the markets of Europe or America. We propose, first, to discuss the present state of communications in India as an essential preliminary to the consideration, in the second part of this chapter, of the marketing and distribution of agricultural produce.

THE IMPORTANCE OF GOOD COMMUNICATIONS.

Communications

298. As a factor in rural progress, we consider improvement of communications of the utmost importance. Improvement in communications and the spread of literacy are intimately related, for the closer connection between town and country which an improvement in the communications between them brings about must inevitably stimulate the more backward rural community to demand a higher standard of education as part of a higher general standard of living. Isolation perpetuates ignorance. Good roads promote the free exchange of ideas no less than that of merchandise. Here, however, we are concerned mainly with the material aspect of the question, that is, with communications as they affect the prosperity of the cultivator. Good communications, in combination with efficient marketing arrangements, enable produce to be moved cheaply and quickly to places where the demand for it is active and secure the equalisation of prices for particular classes of produce throughout the country, and both these factors react favourably on the price which the average cultivator receives. They frequently open out to him alternative markets and the element of competition between market and market that follows usually operates greatly to the advantage of the producer. Defective communications between the point of production

and the local market hinder the movement of goods and make primary marketing costly, the additional charge ordinarily falling upon the shoulders of the cultivator. In extreme cases, difficulty of communications may leave the cultivator entirely at the mercy of the local dealer who alone has at his command enough pack or cart bullocks to undertake the transport of produce to the nearest market. In the case of produce exported from the area of production to meet a distant demand, the addition to the cost of primary marketing resulting from defective communications may appear trivial when viewed from the angle of the consumer in relation to the prices paid by him. But from the point of view of the cultivator, such charges may, when measured over the whole volume of his produce marketed in any season, represent a substantial diminution of the return which he may receive on his industry. The cost of transportation does not depend on distance alone, nor does it always vary directly with distance; the difficulties arising from the distances between the points of supply and demand may be offset by improvements in communications and cheapening of transport. Efficient communications exercise an immediate effect on the factor of time which is an essential element in the price factor. Time assumes a special importance where the disparity in prices tending to induce movement is one that fluctuates so rapidly that the margin may be narrowed and the transaction rendered unprofitable after the goods have been consigned; or where the extreme perishability of produce renders rapid transport essential or imposes prohibitive charges for refrigeration and other special treatment. provision of good communications in any area will often bring within the range of profitable cultivation several crops, not one of which could be grown on a commercial basis until its extraction from the area of production was made commercially possible by the cheapening of transportation. It has been the improvement in communications since the middle of the last century that, more than any other factor, has brought about the change from subsistence farming to the growing of money crops, such as cotton, jute, groundnut and tobacco, and this tendency is active at the present time. Again, defective communications, by increasing the cost of importing goods into any area, raise the price of such goods to the villager. In short, the true income of the cultivator is largely dependent on the efficiency of communications.

The

A consideration which is often overlooked in this connection is that bad communications tend to increase the amount of absentee landlordism with its consequent evils. The large landholder has little inducement to live on his estate and to do his best to develop it, if, by so doing, he is cut off from the society of his fellows and from other amenities to which he has become accustomed.

Again, bad communications, by imposing a constant strain on the health and stamina of the draught animals, seriously reduce their efficiency for the all important work of cultivation. In areas in which the marketing of kharif produce coincides with the preparation of the ground for, and the sowing of, rabi crops, bad communications seriously aggravate the strain which must in any event fall on the bullock power of the tract at this period of the year.

A COMPARISON WITH OTHER COUNTRIES.

299. We have dwelt at some length, in Chapter I, on the benefits which improved communications in India have already conferred upon the rural community. It must not, however, be inferred from this that we regard the present state of communications as satisfactory. In spite of the developments of the last half century, this is very far from being the case and India must still be regarded as a backward country in respect both of railways and roads. The Indian Railway Committee of 1921 pointed out the "humble position" that India occupies if a comparison is made between the milage of railway per head of population in this and other countries. The position occupied by India in this respect will be clear from the following Table. The figures, have been taken from the " Railway Statistics of the United States of America for the year ending December 31st, 1926, " published by the Slason Thompson Bureau of Railway News and Statistics of Chicago. The countries included in this Table have been selected because their extent, or the predominantly agricultural character of their population, or both, make a comparison with India of special relevance.

The comparison, in the Table below, between the milage of roads in the nine major provinces of India and the United States of America is of interest.

With these preliminary observations, we pass, first, to a consideration

of the roads.

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HISTORICAL.

300. Until 1854-55, such main roads as existed in India were in charge of military boards, one for each presidency. One historic highway deserves special mention. In the middle of the sixteenth century, the Emperor Sher Shah built a highway from the Punjab to the city of Sunargaon (Calcutta). During the Governor Generalship of Lord William Bentinck (1828-1835), the idea of a highway connecting the north of India with Bengal was revived and resulted in the famous Grand Trunk Road linking Peshawar with Delhi and Calcutta. In 1855, the boards were abolished, and their duties taken over by the newly organised Public Works Department. With this step the era of road making in the modern sense may be said to have commenced though, even before that date, considerable progress had been made in the construction of metalled roads between the large cities of what are now the United Provinces. It was about this time that the influence of railways upon the construction of roads began to make itself felt. As the railway system extended, it became increasingly necessary to build roads to feed the railways rather than to compete with them and this in turn led to a demand, which remains to-day far from being completely satisfied, for bridged and metalled roads which would give access to the railways at all times of the year. Another stimulus to road construction came later with the adoption of the policy of local control over local affairs initiated by Lord Mayo and developed by Lord Ripon. Criticisms of the condition of the roads maintained by local authorities were frequently made in the evidence before us and it is, therefore, worthy of mention that the extension of local control was, at the outset and for long, accompanied by considerable improvement in local communications.

TION.

66

301. Roads, bridges, ferries, tunnels, ropeways, causeways and other THE PRESENT POSI- means of communication except such as have been declared by the Governor General in Council to be of military importance, are a transferred subject in all the major provinces. The extent to which local governments have delegated to local authorities the responsibility for the construction and maintenance of roads varies greatly from province to province, as does the measure of financial assistance given by the Government. Decentralisation has been carried to its furthest point in Bengal. In that province, the total road milage maintained by the district boards is 35,200 as compared with 1,615 miles maintained by the Public Works Department outside Calcutta. The entire cost of construction and repair of the district board roads is met from the roads and public works cesses and the Government give no direct subsidy towards it. With the exception of a few hill roads and of roads in the Agency tracts of Madras, the roads in that province are also entirely in charge of the local authorities but they receive very substantial financial assistance from provincial revenues. The whole cost of the maintenance of trunk roads within certain limits, as well as that of constructing bridges and causeways on them, is borne by the Government, provided the condition of these works is satisfactorily reported on by the Public Works Department. The Government also contribute half the cost of maintenance of second class

roads and of the construction of bridges and causeways on them, subject to a maximum which is fixed for each district. Other roads are a charge on local funds. In other provinces, except the Punjab, roads fall into two main classes, those of provincial importance which are maintained by the Public Works Department and local roads which are maintained by local bodies. Except in the United Provinces, where grants are given only in special cases, the expenditure incurred by local bodies on local roads is met in part by subsidies from provincial revenues. Some provincial roads in the Central Provinces have been handed over to district boards and the whole estimated cost of construction and maintenance of these roads is met by a grant from provincial revenues. In all provinces, except the Punjab and the United Provinces, the sanction of the local Government, the Commissioner of the division or of an officer of the Public Works Department is required to the plans and estimates of original works when the estimates exceed certain prescribed limits. Such sanction is only required in the United Provinces when the district board does not possess a qualified engineer. Works costing more than Rs. 5,000 have then to be carried out by the Public Works Department, and the same agency is also employed for works in Assam which are beyond the capacity of the district staff.

Roads in the Punjab have been classified very systematically. Class I roads consist of the arteries of the road system. These radiate mostly from Lahore and are so arranged that every district headquarters is on one of the roads of the system, as are also towns with a population of over 20,000. Class II roads are those second in provincial importance to class I. They include roads passing through more than one district, those connecting towns with a population of 5,000 and over, important trading centres and markets and places of pilgrimage with each other, with the railway and with the arterial road system; they also connect all tahsil headquarters with the headquarters of the district. Other roads fall in class III. All class I roads have been taken over by the Public Works Department and are a charge on provincial revenues. Roads in class II are in charge of district boards but the cost both of maintaining and developing them is shared between government revenues and local funds. The proportion of the cost which is borne by provincial revenues varies from district to district. The provincial contribution takes the form of a grant-in-aid which is made by the Communications Board which has recently been constituted for the province, on consideration of the circumstances of the district.

It should be added that the roads, or rather lanes, connecting villages, which are not on any through line of communications, with the road system of the district do not ordinarily come within the purview either of the Public Works Department or of the local boards, though in some provinces, such as Bombay, small amounts are occasionally spent on them by the local boards concerned. Such roads, which are often mere tracks that can only be used during dry weather, are a matter for the villagers themselves. In Madras, the Government have, however, since 1925-26, given an annual grant of several lakhs of rupees for their

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