14 THE INDUSTRIAL UNIT: THE VILLAGE 



belong to a socially higher rank than the majority of 

 the rural population, and are thus in a position to 

 command the respect of their fellow-villagers inde- 

 pendently of the power which is conferred upon them 

 by the monopoly of the land. Next to them are the 

 petty farmers or cultivators, who constitute the largest 

 of the three classes ; these men rent from the landlord 

 small parcels of land which they usually hold on a 

 yearly tenure, and, were it not for the associations 

 now inseparable from the term, they might be de- 

 scribed simply as cottiers. The last class is made up 

 of such artisans as the carpenter, the blacksmith, and 

 the potter, who assist agriculture by making or re- 

 pairing agricultural tools, or supplying the domestic 

 wants of the agricultural population. To this class 

 also belong the village servants, who perform the 

 menial offices of the village, and who are the common 

 drudges of the little community. Although the per- 

 sons in this last category follow a variety of occupa- 

 tions, the whole class is relatively small, because there 

 are few villages so large as to demand the services of 

 more than one carpenter or potter. 



These different classes are bound together by the 

 solidarity of their interests. All the persons who are 

 maintained, in whatever capacity, by one industry, 

 have a common interest in its prosperity. When the 

 raw material is imported from a great distance, or the 

 methods of manufacture are complex, or the sale of 

 the finished product is effected far from the factory, 

 this solidarity of interest is apt to be obscured. But 

 in a small community depending entirely upon agri- 

 culture, the sense of solidarity is strong ; it is patent 

 that all classes in an Indian village must suffer from a 

 drought which suspends husbandry altogether, or from 

 a frost, which kills the ripening grain in the ear. 

 When the cultivator cannot sow his seed, the landlord 

 has no difficulty in realizing that he can get no rent 

 nor the artisans in anticipating similar misfortunes for 



