259 



Tlie evidence of Mr. Grant, Sir Thomas Munro, Messrs. 

 Mellor, Boiirdillon and Pelly, referred to in previous por- 

 tions of this Memorandum, will show the extent to which the 

 ryots in the Northern Circars and the Ceded Districts were 

 dependent on the sowkars in former days for their means 

 of subsistence. The extracts, printed as appendix VT.-C. 

 (5 and 6), from Mr. Warden's report and Buchanan's Journey 

 in Mysore, Canara and Malahar furnish particulars as regards 

 the state of things in Malabar. There can be no doubt that 

 agriculturists as a class have gradually been emancipating 

 themselves from the thraldom in which they had been held 

 by the money-lending classes formerly, and that the mono- 

 polyi^* and the tremendous power and influence exercised by 

 the latter classes have been breaking down. In the Godavari 

 and the Kistna districts the ryots, it is reported, " instead of 

 being in the hands of sowkars, are becoming sowkars them- 

 selves," or in other words, the transactions are getting more 

 and more to be between the agriculturists themselves, the 

 richer ryots lending to the poorer. In Bellary, it is stated 

 that, " whereas about 40 or 50 years ago there used to be 

 only a few important ryots and sowkars scattered here and 

 there in villages and taluks, each having at times a number 

 of families depending on him as so many parasites, the 

 present aspect is that wealth and importance are more 

 generally distributed." The Acting Registrar of the South 

 Arcot district, referring to the condition of things in that 

 district as well as Chingleput, states : "I have experience 

 of two or three districts, and I am able to state that the 

 improvement is marked and is perceptible to all unprejudiced 

 observers. Nearly one-half of the huts that existed 25 years 

 ago have disappeared, and tiled houses have taken their 

 places. Houses which were tiled then have changed their 

 dimensions and appearance now. So in clothing and other 

 comforts. Agriculturists have in their turn become money- 

 lenders and have learnt to dispense with the aid of the 

 professional money-lenders, to a very great extent. The 

 improvement in material prosperity can be easily gauged by 



''* See para. 62 ante. Compare the following remarks of Sir Alfred LyaU : " There 

 is much vague talk aboat the English rule in India being the paradise of money-lenders ; 

 but the great bankers of Upper India with one accord look back regretfully from 

 these levelling times of railway and telegraph to the golden days of immense profits 

 upon daring ventures, when swift runners brought early secret news of a decisive 

 battle, or a great military leader offered any terms for a loan which would pay his 

 mutinous troops. In those times a man whose bills were duly cashed in every camp 

 and court of the Northern Provinces had often to remit specie at all hazards, and the 

 best swords of Rajpntana were at the service of the longest purse. A tremendous in- 

 surance policy«was paid to some petty chief or ca-ptain of banditti, who undertook, by 

 hook or hy crook, to cut his way across the country and deposit the treasure at its 

 apjiointed place, and who almost always discharged his contract with great daring and 

 iidelitv." 



