PROVISION OF BORROWING FACILITIES. 295 



to carry those ideas into effect : the ryots themselves are generally 

 shrewd, while the village leaders are accustomed to combined effort and 

 system, as in the difficult task of water distribution from great tanks, 

 compared with which the labour and organization required for manag- 

 ing petty thrift and credit societies, are but small. The success of 

 the Nidhis, even in villages, proves that there is absolutely no neces- 

 sary hindrance to the successful working of association either in the 

 law or in the conditions of society, although it is most desirable in 

 the interests of further action, that certain positive improvements 

 shall be introduced aud privileges granted. What is really wanted 

 is the advent of men of zeal, enthusiasm, devotion and perseverance 

 who will take up the Western ideas and methods, and, by personal 

 labour, solve the difficulties of the problem not on paper but in actual 

 practice ; the philanthropic reformers of the East must sit down 

 in the villages as did their prototypes of the West, and must there 

 establish the petty societies which, as in Europe, shall contain the germ 

 and promise of infinite potentialities. There can be no higher honour 

 for any man than to achieve the role of the SCHULZII-DELITZSCH 

 or the RAIFFEISEN of India, and the possibility of filling that role is 

 within the power of hundreds of men in this Presidency. 



