CHAPTER III. 



BELIEF or INDEBTED AGRICULTURISTS. 



\_Efftractsfrom the Proceedings of the Governor General's Council, 

 dated the 20th June, 1878.'] 



BOMBAY INDEBTED AGRICULTURISTS' RELIEF BILL. 



The HON'BLE MR. COCKERELL said that, the proposal to legislate on 

 this subject was one of the results of the investigation conducted, and 

 the report made, by the Deccan Riots Commission in regard to the 

 very serious disturbances which took place in certain districts of the 

 Bombay Presidency about three years ago. 



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The investigation instituted by the Commission had elicited a 

 mass of valuable information in regard to the dealings between the 

 ryot and the money-lender, and as to the condition and circums- 

 tances of the agricultural industry generally in the Deccan 

 districts. The fact of the extreme indebtedness of a large section 

 of the agriculturists in the districts in which the investigation 

 was made had been conclusively established : nor was this general 

 state of debt, though it had assumed much larger dimensions 

 of late years, of recent origin ; it had existed in some degree almost 

 from the time of the conquest of the Deccan and its annexation 

 to British territory. There had, however, been intervals of pros- 

 perity: the settlements of 1836-37 recognized for the first time, 

 or created, the agriculturist's proprietary interest in his land, and this 

 gave him a considerably enhanced credit with the money-lender ; then 

 the construction of railways and public works, and the stimulus given 

 to the cultivation of, and trade in, cotton throughout these districts 

 by the American War, followed in succession, causing a free expendi- 

 ture of money and consequent rise in the value of agricultural 

 produce. This tide of prosperity began to ebb after 1866-67, and 

 by 1870 prices had fallen, and an adverse state of things set in, which 

 culminated in the disturbances of 1875. The small ryot's condition 

 had been rendered worse further by a marked increase of population 

 without any corresponding expansion of the area under cultivation, 



