IXDKIiTKD.NESS OF TliE LAND-HOLDING CLASS MS. 21 



harvest from drought, should involve him in difficulties beyond his 

 ability to meet. Even in such eases the money-lender would be 

 deterred from extreme measures by popular opinion, and by the 

 knowledge that he could count on no support from the ruling authority 

 in selling up and reducing to destitution a member of the class on 

 which the payment of the laud revenue depended. Thus, though 

 the cultivator (in the absence of any power of obtaining loans on the 

 security of his holding) was never deeply involved, he was seldom 

 free from debt, and lived the life of a contented serf, exempt from 

 the risks and responsibilities \vhich accompany the possession of 

 independent rights, but also without any stimulus to raise himself 

 or improve his position. 



3. The changes which have been introduced uudr the British 

 Administration are for the most part those which will always occur 

 in the progressive development of social life from a simple to a 

 more advanced stage. Of these changes those which have affected 

 the lauded classes consist chiefly in their admission by the State to 

 better denned rights of property in their holdings, combined with the 

 more complete recognition of the force of contracts, and the obligation 

 on the courts of justice to enforce them. It is to be expected 

 in every forward movement in the education of a people that while 

 the result is beneficial to the country as a whole, some classes or 

 individuals will fail to display the qualities needed to benefit by the 

 advantages offered, and will suffer inconvenience under the novel 

 circumstances to which they are unable to adapt themselves. But 

 although a section of the landholders has thus suffered, we ought not 

 to overlook the fact that the class as a whole has prospered under 

 British Administration, and that the more enterprising and substantial 

 landowners have greatly benefited by the enlargement of their 

 proprietary rights, and by the moderation with which the land 

 revenue is now assessed. 



4. We learn from evidence collected from all parts of India that 

 about one-third of the landholding class are deeply and inextricably 

 in debt, and that at least an equal proportion are in debt, though not 

 beyond the power of recovering themselves. It is commonly observed 

 that landholders are more indebted than tenants with occupancy rights, 

 and tenants with rights, than tenants-at-will, a result obviously 

 attributable to the fact that the classes which have the best security 

 to offer are the most eligible customers of the money-lenders. 



