140 



RELIEF OF INDEBTED AGRICULTURISTS. . 



ment, then, indeed, we must perhaps sit down and sit out the process 

 of gradual transfer of the rights of property from the one class to 

 the other, merely softening, if need be, the fall of the sufferers. 

 But consideration will show that no such circumstances exist in the 

 Deccan. The Mahratha kiM is not the defective and useless 

 creature postulated. No such material composed the armies of 

 Sivaji and his successors, which defeated the Moghuls, overran half 

 India, and founded an empire of which the remnants still flourish 

 around us. As a soldier, the Mahratha in olden days was as enter- 

 prising as he was hardy, equally able to c bide a buffet' and to strike 

 a blow. At present, he furnishes material perhaps second to none 

 in India for the purposes of modern war. All representations of him 

 as thriftless, enervated and puny are incorrect. As a peasant-pro- 

 prietor, he is no unfavourable specimen of the class. MR. CHAPLIN 

 and our other early authorities give him credit for many sterling 

 qualities. He is still represented by the Commission as 'a simple, 

 well-disposed peasant, contented with the scantiest clothing and 

 hardest fare,' not without 'masculine qualities' and f a stubborn endur- 

 ance,' though still mostly uneducated, and consequently without a 

 broad range of intelligence. Of course, improvidence and slovenly 

 cultivation may be detected in individuals or particular localities. 

 But we must not expect too much. Under British rule, the kiimbi 

 has undoubtedly progressed as fast as adverse circumstances allowed. 

 He works his fields to the best of his lights, and in the dry season 

 travels far in search of day labour, or with his cart on hire. During 

 the late famine he displayed resources equally creditable to his thrift 

 and his good feeling. His embarrassed condition seems to be rather 

 his misfortune than his fault, induced by the calamities of the last 

 century, the obligation of ancestral debt, the burden of the land- 

 revenue demand formerly in amount and latterly in imposition 

 and the facilities for extortion conferred by our laws upon his 

 creditors. 



On the other hand, those into whose hands the land is now 

 observed to be passing are not yearning for it in order to improve 

 it by their intelligence, enterprise and capital. With solitary excep- 

 tions, the transferees are the professional money-lenders, who have 

 no wish even to hold the status of landed proprietors, much less to 

 invest their capital in comparatively unprofitable agricultural experi- 

 ments. Often too they are alien s, who return home after a time. 



