428 PROVISION OF BORROWING FACILIT'lfiS. 



co-operative societies is not to be regarded as part of the ordinary 

 duties of the district staff, though Government has also declared that 

 it fully recognizes that enthusiastic officers can do much to help the 

 movement.* What I have said so far may not, on first considera- 

 sion, seem to have much to do with " co-operative banks and popular 

 education." But exactly why my remarks are relevant will be 

 understood when I mention that many of our best co-operative workers 

 in the Central Provinces are Government officers, lawyers, merchants, 

 landlords, bankers, Government pensioners, and the like, If the 

 co-operative movement is to be attractive to men of so many kinds, 

 the field of enterprise which it is to cover must be a broad one. It 

 must appeal to the heart and the intellect and not only to the purse 

 or to a sense of duty. 



The mere lending of money is not in itself the aim of co-operative 

 banking. At first, of course, we must be careful not to undertake 

 too much. Ambition we must have if we are to accomplish great 

 things ; but ambition must not be separated from caution. Of all 

 forms of co-operation co-operative credit is the easiest, and it is with 

 " credit " that Indian co-operation commenced. The organization 

 of co-operative concerns is, in these modern times, a business in which 

 paid expert service cannot be dispensed with, and it is essential that 

 people should understand that until the credit machinery is running 

 smoothly and regularly, and until its limitations are properly under- 

 stood by those in charge of it, a great deal of harm can be done to 

 the movement by persuading or allowing men who have only entered 

 upon their co-operative studies to embark on schemes which are too 

 advanced for them. In India, at present, I am afraid that the 

 tendency is to press too eagerly for the introduction of very advanced 

 forms of co-operation, the result being that there is a distinct danger 

 of bringing in too much Government departmental assistance at the 

 expense of self-help. 



Now if we fail to insist on " self-help " in one of the many 

 branches which co-operative enterprise may undertake we shall find 

 it difficult to preach " self-help " as regards the other branches. I 

 hold, it is true, that the time when the co-operative movement f will 

 be able to proceed altogether independently of Government will never 

 come. Indeed, when we look at co-operation in other countries we 



* Government of India (Department of Revenue and Agriculture) Circular No. 5* 

 299-22 (paragraph 3) dated Calcutta,, the 20th March 1909. 



