Fakir Singh: Harold Bkghie's Saint. 



145 



wiiith the Governnicnt could not at first undertake, 

 and then, when ihcy have demonstrated that it is a 

 practical, useful proposition, the Government with this 

 object-lesson before it takts up the idea and extends 

 it throughout the Empire. 



After silkworms mid land banks, perhaps the most 

 useful thing that the Fakir Singh has had and has still 

 in hand is the development of village industries. 

 People are still on the land in India : although there 

 is a certain tide setting in towards the factories of 

 great cities, and tj keep people on the land, you 

 must help them to make a living on the land. 



" They can be helped in two ways," he said. " One 

 is to help them to buy at cheap rates improved 

 machinery, instea<l of going on with their rickety 

 machines. You do a great thing for a woman when 

 you give her a good spinning-wheel in place of a bad 

 one, and show a man where he can get a loom which 

 can turn out twice as much cloth of better quality 

 than that wlich he was producing before. That is 

 the first thing- to improve the efificiency of the 

 worker by furnishing him with up-to-date appliances 

 for handling his niaierial. The second thing is to 

 help him to bring it to the market. Co-operative 

 proJuction goes hand in hand with co-operative 

 distribution. It would have been no use for the 

 Government to have tried this. At first it was neces- 

 sary for us to go (Jown among the people, wearing 

 their clothes, leading their lives, eating their food, 

 becoming ourselves Indians as it were, so as to win 

 their confi 'ence and to show that we care for their 

 we'fare ; then they tell us their troubles and point out 

 their difficultie:'. 1 hey are an honest people, the 

 Indian villagers. \o\i learn to love them very much 

 when you live among them. It is a great joy in my 

 life to feel that this day and every day we are helping 

 them to a better life.' 



"Wcli," sail I ; ''silkworms, land banks, improved 

 ,. inning- wheels, co-operative distribution — anything 

 else?" ^ 



"Ch! heaps of other things," said Fakir Singh; 

 " still, there is more to follow. There is one thing 

 we have very nun h at heart at present, and that is the 

 introduction of the eucalyptus tree into India. The 

 Government tried it and often failed, and being dis- 

 couraged they wi T'- inclined to desist. But on making 

 inquiries I found <ait they had tried the wrong sort 

 of eucalyptus. There are any number of kinds of 

 eucal)plus trees, >onic of which are grown on the 

 frosty hills, otiiers of which thiive best near the sea 

 shore. NV'e collected a great deal of information 

 regarding the right kinds. A great tree, the 

 cu< alyplus ; it grows quicker than any other and 

 jiroduces hard wood, and it is the greatest pre- 

 ventive of mal.iria that has yet been discovered. 

 W'e have devotei! .\ good deal of attention to the 

 planting of trees. We have borrowed from America 

 the institution of .\rbour Day, and one day in the 

 year all the childr' 11 in our schools go out to plant 

 '.rccs. Another d.i\ in the year we go out to see how 



they are thriving. It is attention to little details whieh 

 secure us the success of all these operations. The 

 discovery that by putting a simple porous earthen- 

 ware pot of water beside a newly-planted tree 

 keeps the soil moist has saved thousands of the 

 little trees from perishing. Another thing which is 

 vitally necessary is the improvement of their method 

 of agriculture, so as to enable them to keep more 

 stock on less land. The gradual enclosure of the 

 forests has deprived the peasant of much of his 

 grazing ground, ^^'e have to explain to him now 

 that he can no longer pasture his cow upon ten acres, 

 that by improved methods of culture he can keep ten 

 cows on one acre, although that of course is somewhat 

 exaggerated. 



" The welfare of the people is what wo Keep con- 

 stantly in view. Help the people to help themselves, 

 and to improve their economic conditions at the same 

 time that we are labouring to save their souls. That 

 is the great object which we keep constantly before us. 

 We have sixty million of outcast people in India, 

 with whom the educated Brahmin will have nothing 

 to do." 



"What relations have you with the Government? ' 



"The very best," said Fakir Singh. "Of course, 

 you may think I am prejudiced, having been in the 

 Civil Service myself, but I must say that after all 

 deductions have been made it seems to me that the 

 Indian Government is the best Government existing 

 in the world. I do not think you will find in any 

 other administration in the world a standard of duty 

 so high as is to be found in the Indian Government. 

 Their relations with us have always been most cordial. 

 They have handed over to us from time to time the 

 care of professional criminals with whom they could 

 do nothing. In India there are whole communities, 

 the members of which return themselves to the census 

 as professional robbers, who live by robbing. For 

 generations they have practised brigandage and 

 dacoity as a means of livelihood, and it is these 

 peojile that we are after. The great thing to teach 

 them is that there are other means of making a 

 living which are more desirable than that of looting 

 villages and waylaying travellers. In one case the 

 Government gave us an old fortress as a base from 

 which ta conduct our operations. The criminals, 

 after having served their time in gaol, were handed 

 over to us to settle on the land to make them 

 industrial citizens, and we have had great success. 

 The Indian nature is very responsive to kindly treat- 

 ment : the great thing is to establish confidence, to win 

 their hearts ; when that is done all the rest follows." 



" \Vhat about the police?" 1 asked. 



" Well," .said Fakir Singh, " 1 must say the (Jovern- 

 ment makes the best of the materials that are available. 

 It reminds me of a story General Booth is fond of 

 telling of a very fine lady who was at one time taken 

 in a vision to see the celestial city. Her angel guides 

 showed her various beautiful mansions prepared for 

 the just when they passed over. ' .A"'! >vhi»-. i>. th n 



