INDEBTEDNESS oi 1 THE LAND-MOLDING CLASSES. 5 



these occasions have probably been over-estimated, or the operation of 

 other causes in producing debt has been overlooked by the officers 

 who have attributed the ryot's burdens so largely to this cause. This 

 oversight would indeed be a natural consequence of the fact that it is 

 only on marriages or similar occasions that expenditure by a Kunbi 

 comes under observation. The amount spent by a Kunbi of average 

 circumstances on the marriage of his son is from Rs 50 to Rs 75, a 

 sum which by itself even at 24 per cent, interest could be repaid with- 

 out much difficulty if his average margin of profit was not forestall- 

 ed by other debt, and he were treated with fairness and moderation by 

 his sowkar. The constantly recurring small items of debt for 

 food and other necessaries, for seed, for bullocks, for the Government 

 assessment, do more to swell the indebtedness of the ryot than an 

 occasional marriage. 



As a matter of fact the ryot's surplus is, in the majority of cases, 



already forestalled. Even those who are in fair 

 Inherited debt. 



circumstances and solvent have usually to main- 

 tain their credit by handing over all that can be spared of their crop 

 'on account' to their sowkar, and the poorer must do so under pain of 

 civil process. There has never been a time when a large proportion of 

 them were not under the burden of debt, and their present indebtedness 

 is in great part a legacy from their forefathers. The enquiries of the 

 Commission enable us to state with some measure of certainty that 

 the chief cause of the present indebtedness of the ryot is ancestral 

 debt. 



It was hoped that the permanent title and the light assessment 



guaranteed by the survey settlement would so far 



Stimulus to borrow- increase the ryot's profits, and stimulate his indus- 



ing given by survey try that, by degrees he would free himself from 



settlement contempo- . 



rary with stimulus the debt which hung round him. The increased 

 incr' e a"ed n faJ!S ll Potion and the stimulus to agricultural enter- 

 recovery. prise did indeed follow as anticipated, but 



debt instead of diminishing, increased. The 



facilities for recovery of debt offered by our civil courts had 

 called into existence an inferior class of money-lenders dealing at 

 exorbitant rates of interest with the lower strata of the agricultural 



o 



poor. As the value of the ryot's title under the survey settlements 

 came to be recognized, and his eagerness to extend his cultivation grew 



