PROVISION OF BORROWING FACILITIES. 4-27 



Popular education can, in fact, very well commence with instruction in 

 co-operative principles and methods. If European critics only 

 understood the conditions under which we work, and if they 

 were faced with the actual task of organization of India, they would 

 immediately grasp that Indian Registrars are right when they say 

 that "co-operative cloth must be cut according to Indian means." 

 and when the time comes to write the history of the movement in the 

 twentieth century it will be remarked, I think, that whereas co- 

 operative ideas were, in European countries, a product of education, 

 the movement in India was, from the very outset, a means of 

 education, it was not education's child. 



No Registrar who understands his business will try and import 

 an excessive element of officialdom into co-operative institutions, for 

 he knows well enough that success in organization and solid perma- 

 nent results are not to be obtained by sham co-operation. But a 

 just sense of proportion is necessary to keep the movement on safe 

 lines ; and it is of vital importance that those who are at the helm 

 of co-operative policy should remember that in Germany and in 

 England, as well as in other advanced countries, the co-operative 

 movement was of popular origin and was at first opposed by Govern- 

 ment. In India, on the other hand, the movement has been directly 

 inspired by Government in order to raise the skill, character, and 

 productive capacity of those persons described in the preamble to 

 Act 2 of 1912 as "agriculturists, artisans, and persons of limited 

 means/' a wide description covering some millions of people, but 

 still, in my humble opinion, not nearly wide enough, unless, indeed, 

 it is accepted that there is nobody in India whose means are un- 

 limited and that therefore the scope of the Act is as broad as it can 

 be. Unfortunately, amongst the classes especially contemplated by 

 the Act the standard of education is extremely low. But as that 

 etandard is raised it is obvious that the prosperity of the country 

 must also rise ; for with the growth of skill, character, and productive 

 capacity wants and aspirations will certainly increase. In fact the 

 healthy development of co-operation must induce a general advance 

 in jfrosperity which will affect all classes in India. The movement 

 is, in truth, calculated to benefit and educate everybody no matter 

 whether officials or private persons and whether within the scope of 

 the preamble to the Act or not. It must be remembered that the 

 Government of India has definitely stated that the organization of 



