568 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



It has not yet accepted the factory system nor will it do so 

 willingly, the undivided family has to be reckoned with and 

 the extreme subdivision of property renders productive effort 

 on a large scale difficult. Comfort rather than luxury, a 

 moderate rather than a vast fortune — these are the ideals of 

 enlightened Indians. It would be foolish to imagine that as 

 India now stands in relation to the British Empire and to the 

 rest of the world it could disregard the external influences to 

 which it must always be subjected but there is no reason why it 

 should not strive to move forward to a goal more in harmony with 

 its own traditions than is that presented by Western civilisation. 



In England, America and Australia there is a widespread 

 movement in favour of small holdings instead of large farms 

 and much evidence is now available to show that where the 

 conditions are suitable this method of cultivation tends to the 

 more general diffusion of prosperity and contentment. In India 

 small holdings are universal. Industrial operations, except in 

 so far as they have been changed by the advent of Europeans, 

 have also been carried on by men of small means and they have 

 survived to the present day mainly because of the inherent 

 vitality of such a system. There is no necessity to abandon 

 this way of working but we must improve it and bring the 

 status of Indian artisans to the same level as in other countries 

 which have in recent years made so much progress. 



There are greater prospects of the small manufacturer being 

 able to compete with the big than there were a few years ago, 

 as recent progress in science and the mechanical arts has done 

 much to raise the efficiency of working on a small scale. Not 

 by any means in all directions but in some and those more 

 particularly which are likely to flourish in India. The cost of 

 power has been enormously reduced especially in the case of 

 very small plants, so that the small user of power is in a 

 much better position to compete with the large user than was 

 possible only a few years ago. There is in consequence a 

 perceptible reaction against production on a large scale and 

 a tendency to make greater use of the elasticity which allows 

 small works more readily to adapt themselves to changes and 

 fluctuations in trade, cyclical or otherwise. 



Again it is evident even in the most highly developed 

 industrial countries that the human factor is becoming more 

 important and in the distribution of profits between capital and 



