174 



remarks on the increase of population alluded to the difficul- 

 ties in this respect. We can only hope that, as institutions 

 and practices, which not very long ago appeared as immov- 

 able as the everlasting hills, have been undergoing transform- 

 ation, the difficulties referred to will, in the course of the 

 next half a century, disappear. Meanwhile, the lower classes, 

 to whom the difficulties are not applicable, will have an 

 advantage over the higher classes. 



66. After what has been stated above, it is hardly neces- 

 sary to say much on the question which 

 tion^of the^'^^opSXon engaged the attention of the Government 

 live on insufficient food Qf India two vcars ago, viz., " whether the 



in ordinary seasons r , '',. n .-i ^ j • rv 



greater proportion oi the population suner 

 from a daily insufficiency of food." It is exceedingly difficult 

 to give a categorical answer to a question of this kind without 

 having a definite idea as to what is meant by insufficiency 

 of food. As to certain broad facts, however, there can be 

 no doubt. The population is mainly agricultural and a consi- 

 derable portion miserably poor, not in the sense of wanting 

 the means of subsistence in ordinary seasons according to the 

 standard which the conditions of climate and resulting 

 national habits formed in the course of ages have established, 

 but in the sense of being without resources to fall back upon 

 when adverse seasons appear in succession. That standard 

 includes little more than the barest necessaries of hfe, the 

 secondary wants being few ; and, when adverse seasons occur, 

 there is a section of the population which has to reduce its 

 rations and live partly on wild fruits and such other inex- 

 pensive food as can be picked up on the way side. This class 

 forms the lowest stratum of the population and its condition 

 has been desci'ibed by Mr. Turner, the Collector of Vizaga- 

 patam, in the following terms. He says that the people of 

 this class " require very little tamarind and curry powder, as 

 they live mainly on cunji. This requires much salt to make 

 it palatable. They use, as relish, onions and green chillies, 

 which they procure from the farm or otherwise without 

 buying. They generally consume ragi or cumbu or such 

 other inferior grains as their employers disburse to them as 

 wages. During the season when the palmyra bears fruit, 

 they for the most part live on these fruits which they can, 

 to a large extent, get gratis. In the mango fruit season they 

 collect the wind-fallen young fruit and boil and use it for 

 one substantial meal at least. At other times they live on 

 sweet potatoes. They buy no fuel. The female members 

 and children pick up here and there the droppings of cattle 

 and dry twigs and leaves of trees and utilize -the same as 



