PROVISION OF BORROWING FACILITIES. 851 



The above has been simply a sketch of the development of the 

 Fund idea; as regards the Nidhis themselves, it is found that they 

 have been promoted either by a philanthropic desire to relieve men 

 from usury and provide a means of saving either for specific purposes, 

 such as marriages, house-building, &c., or for general thrift, or by a 

 hope of obtainig profit for the promoters, or by a mixture of both 

 expectations. Individual energy has always been the proximate 

 cause ; merchants, officials and vakils have, in most cases, been the 

 active promoters. Sometimes public meetings were called or printed 

 notices issued, but generally it appears that the society developed by 

 simple accretion, not after the first effort by an active in-gathering 

 of members. 



The history and general principles of these Nidhis having been 

 given, it will be well to describe them further under the following 

 heads, viz., (1) objects, (2) principles and constitution, (3) methods, 

 (4) Government intervention, (5) results, (G) advantages, (7) defects, 

 (8) difficulties. 



Objects. These are described as the facilitation of savings, the 

 relief of members from old debts, the deliverance of them from usury, 

 the accumulation of a fund for special purposes, such as marriages, 

 the grant of loans on good security for all purposes, whether for 

 domestic ceremonies or maintenance, for expenditure on jewellery, 

 on house-building and repairs, on land, &c. Members alone are 

 generally contemplated, but, in fact, surplus funds are frequently 

 lent in small lots to outsiders at a somewhat increased rate of 

 interest ; in such cases the material security must be carefully looked 

 to, since the society lacks that derived from a borrower's membership. 

 An unexpressed object is also the provision of salaries or profits for 

 the promoters, directors or officers a perfectly legitimate object, but 

 one that is apt to interfere with benefits to borrowers and members, and 

 tends to departure from the strict rules of the society. The receipt 

 of deposits is not usually a primary object, in some societies it is only 

 of subsequent introduction ; in hardly any has it obtained any 

 considerable position. It will be seen that the scope of the societies 

 is limited, they are not Banking societies so much as Mutual Loan 

 societies, and they thus fail in one great function of banking, ri:., 

 the concentration of idle hoards for productive purposes. 



Principles anil Constitution. Classes of Society. There are 

 several classes of Funds, the regular permanent Nidhi, the 



