THE INDIAN INDUSTRIAL PROBLEM 561 



to a foreign yoke or to the endurance of an almost continuous 

 state of internal discord and anarchy have deprived the people 

 of that individualism which finds its highest expression in 

 collective effort. Social customs and caste restrictions militate 

 against progress and the general prevalence of early marriages 

 handicaps the race, not only by imposing the cares of domestic 

 life upon students and even upon children who ought to be at 

 school but also because such immature unions result in offspring 

 deficient in physical vigour and lacking force of character. 

 These are deeply rooted obstacles which cannot easily be 

 removed. Emancipation from the tyranny of a grotesque and 

 unique social code has begun and the movement for greater 

 individual freedom of action will be accelerated by the increasing 

 tendency of Indians to travel in other parts of the world. 

 Climate again is a factor which must be taken into account — 

 it induces indolence on the one hand and renders existence 

 easy with but a moderate degree of exertion on the other. The 

 position is one of extraordinary difficulty and complexity; the 

 future well-being of India demands, in fact, a careful con- 

 sideration of the various elements before any policy is finally 

 framed to guide the administrator through the years of rapid 

 change which lie before us. Educated Indians want work — 

 there is work for them to do but it is work they dislike and 

 their education has not removed their prejudices or rendered 

 the task any easier by training them for it. 



The Revival of Native Industries 



The educational methods can be changed but it will take 

 a generation to show any result ; in the meantime, the evils 

 arising from the lack of suitable employment must be checked 

 and a system of industrial development devised to deal with 

 the existing state of things. Enterprise on a grand scale can 

 be left to grow in the manner it has done during the last half- 

 century and at present need not concern us. Our attention 

 should be concentrated on the decaying indigenous industries : 

 hand-weaving, working in metals, tanning and leather manu- 

 factures, on all the petty industries which supply the simple 

 needs of the people. Labour must be trained to work more 

 efficiently — there must be less of brute force and more of skill, 

 the primitive tools of the artisan must be superseded by better 

 implements ; subdivision of labour must be introduced and from 



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