IV INTRODUCTION 



of indebtedness was not confined to Bombay alone. 

 The Pamino Commissioners of 1882 and 1901 drew 

 prominent attention to the wide-spread character of this 

 evil and suggested various legislative and executive 

 measures to remedy it, among which were : (1) an altera- 

 tion in the practice and procedure of civil courts and 

 the institution of special courts and agencies for the 

 cheap and summary disposal of suits against agricultural 

 borrowers ; (2) restrictions on the alienations of lands ; 



(3) the establishment of co-operative credit banks ; and 



(4) the introduction of a large measure of elasticity in 

 the collection of land revenue. The first had already 

 been incorporated in the Deccan Agriculturists' Relief 

 Act ; the second was found suitable for special areas such 

 as the Punjab and Bundelkhund ; the fourth was adopted 

 as a general executive measure in almost all provinces ; 

 and the third were introduced by legislation for the pur- 

 pose of providing facilities for cheap credit to the ryots. 

 A measure, akin to this, had been proposed in 1884 by 

 SIR W. WEDDERBURN, then a District Judge in the Bombay 

 Presidency. It consisted in the establishment, as an ex- 

 perimental measure, of an agricultural bank in Poona, 

 which was intended to take over the functions of the 

 village money-lender on condition that it should restrict 

 its dealings with only the solvent class of cultivators and 

 supply to that body capital on definite terms to be appro- 

 ved by Government. The proposal was, however, nega- 

 tived by the Secretary of State on the score of its financial 

 unsoundness. The co-operative credit societies which 

 were established in 1903, on the urgent and emphatic 

 recommendation of the Famine Commission of 1901 were 

 designed to utilise the combined credit of the agricul- 

 tural population for the purpose of making loans on 

 their own responsibility to their fcllowmen at a small 

 rate of interest. The measure has proved an unqualified 



