146 



RELIEF OF INDEBTED AGRICULTURISTS. 



was lent designedly to secure the unwary ryot 

 for ever. 



as a bondslave 



Diminished ability to repay arose partly from greater pressure 

 on the land by the population, which had grown 45 per cent, in the 

 thirty years ending with 1875. The proportion of 167 souls p^r 

 square mile becomes extremely heavy after making allowance for 

 mountains, forests, &c., and for the defects of the cultivable soil and 

 the climate. But even the cultivable area cannot be, on an average, 

 as productive as in former days. When only a half of it was culti- 

 vated, the best soils were chosen, fallows were readily allowed ; the 

 waste land and forest supported cattle freely ; the stable manure was 

 sufficient. Now all is reversed. The waste land has disappeared ; 

 the cattle and manure are insufficient in proportion ; the jungles 

 have become reserved forests ; the poor soils reduce the average ; and 

 the general result is a lower yield per head for subsistence or repay- 

 ment of debt. Again, the ryot's solvency was reduced by a great 

 fall in prices after the close of the American war. Between 1836 

 and 1866 prices rose from fifty-six to eighteen seers per rupee : 

 between 1866 and 1874 they fell again to fifty seers. With the various 

 causes of low prices ; with questions such as those of the effect of 

 levying revenue in money instead of in kind ; of the sufficiency of the 

 circulating medium, or of the action of the so-called 'Indian tribute/ I 

 am not now concerned ; for our present purpose, to note the fact of the 

 fall is sufficient. A series of bad seasons has, likewise, supervened. 

 Finally, the effect of an absence of stimulus to exertion in lessening 

 ability to repay must not be overlooked. Where the ryot is hope- 

 lessly involved, and all produce goes to the creditor,- a bare subsistence 

 being given back, what inducement can there be to add to the latter's 

 gains ? The ryot pays off less ; his debt on paper increases, and 

 what more ? He thinks it 'as well to be hung for a sheep as for a 

 lamp/ 



To our revenue system must in candour be ascribed some share in 

 the indebtedness of the ryot. Time would fail me were I to 

 attempt to enter here into the elaborate question of the pressure of 

 the land-revenue demand, nor does my subject require that I should 

 do so. The Commission's report and the other enquiries to which 

 I have referred contain the fullest information on the subject. Suffice 

 it to say that it is amply proved that the riots had no imrnediate 

 connection with the revision of assessment, which was neither 



