354 



PROVISION OF BORROWING FACILITIES. 



promoters and directors who are Madras business men, through the 

 natural and in this case undiverted desire for gain, and lastly through 

 the fact that the only law governing societies is a Commercial or 

 Trading Company law, these essentially Co-operative societies have 

 largely diverged, and are daily diverging more and more, in the path 

 of mere trading societies. The same tendency is observed in the 

 Schulze-Delitzsch societies in Germany, and the inference seems 

 unavoidable that if profits, dividends, and large stipends or honoraria 

 to directors and office-bearers are put forward as attractions to members 

 and administrators, the effort after them will soon become dominant, 

 and substitute the competitive struggle for the co-operative march. 



Methods. Under this head will be described the general 

 working of a regular Nidhi, its clientele and administration, 

 its funds, loans, &c. 



Clientele. In most cases the Nidhis have been started in 

 considerable towns, Trichinopoly, Coimbatore, Salem, Bellary. 

 Tadpatri, &c., by the official, professional and trading classes ; the 

 main rule of the Nidhis, viz., the regular monthly payment itself 

 shows this. It is these classes who are most likely from their 

 intelligence, knowledge and requirements to begin associations of 

 this class. Accordingly it is found that the proportion of members 

 of these classes is, up to date, altogether overwhelming ; the following 

 table for the thirteen Nidhis which alone have given information as 

 requested, brings this out clearly : 



In this table the principal and working profession of eacfy member 

 is given, e. g., a vakeel is a professional man even if he owns land, 

 "merchants" include money-lenders and shop-keepers, "others" 

 includes pensioners who are numerous. It will be seen that the 

 four classes of officials, professional men (vakils, school-masters,&c.), 

 merchants and shopkeepers account for 5,351 out of 7,686, or nearly 



