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estate, which his son will either enlarge or dissipate according as he inherits his 

 father's good qualities, or is corrupted by the surroundings which a well-to-do 

 lad is too often brought up in ? 



86. The subject of the relation of the cultivator to the money-lender is 

 perhaps the one most constantly discussed in any paper dealing with agriculture 

 in India. As a rule, the ryot is pictured as hopelessly in the grasp of a merciless 

 creditor who takes the entire result of his labour, and barely doles him out suf- 

 ficient to keep body and soul together, and that only as long as there is any 

 prospect of more being got out of him. 



87. I am not prepared to say that up to a certain point this is not true. 

 A large proportion of the cultivators are in debt, some hopelessly, but many 

 only from year to year. There are many who do not remember the com- 

 mencement of their indebtedness, and cannot say how much they now owe. 

 There are many more who borrow, it is true, year by year, but they punctually 

 pay, and can state within a few annas the amount against them in the banker's 

 books. There are a very large number who do not owe a pice. 



88. I have made extensive enquiries on this subject, and have had the 

 results tabulated. I do not pretend to say that the statements made are 

 absolutely and beyond doubt trustworthy, but every possible care has been taken 

 to obtain correct answers. I have, as far as possible, verified the statements 

 myself from the banker's books, and rarely found discrepancies. I have myself 

 enquired minutely into the circumstances of the person questioned, and, as far 

 as possible, made him give a reason for every statement made (e.g., 1 have made 

 him give the details of his cultivation, why he wanted money, and so forth); where 

 there has been the least suspicion that a body of ryots have been, for any reason, 

 foisting on me a ready-made tale, I have rejected their statements. Though I 

 am aware how little reliance is or can be placed on Indian statistics, I only sub- 

 mit that these are as trustworthy as care in their compilation could make 



them : 



Statistics of indebtedness. 



