3d 



a distance to the Tahsildar's or Collector's cutcherry^ for example, 

 they generally travel on foot or, in exceptional cases, usually of age or 

 infirmity, on a pony not worth above 7 or 8 rupees. 



5. It may, perhaps, be replied to all this that such are the simple 

 habits of the country, and that the people are satisfied, and require 

 no more. This is no doubt true as a fact, to this extent at least 

 that, in the absence of sufficient promise of success, these people 

 abstain from active effort to better their circumstances. But if it 

 be meant that they choose to be poor when they might be rich ; that 

 they are satisfied with the necessaries of life when they might 

 command some of the comforts and luxuries ; that they are content 

 to have only their physical wants supplied when they might rise to 

 the perception and enjoyment of intellectual pleasures ; then I deny 

 the truth of the assertion. And I must add that, if true in any 

 degree, it would only prove the ignorance and debasement of the 

 people to whom it relates. 



6. The foregoing description refers to the better class of ryots, 

 men who are above the world and well ofF; but the condition of the 

 great majority is much worse. From the oflScial list of puttahs for 

 the Revenue year 1848-49, it is seen that out of 1,071,588, the total 

 number of puttahs (excluding joint puttahs) in the fourteen principal 

 ryotwar districts, ^ no fewer than 589,932, being considerably more 

 than half, are under 10 rupees each, and in fact average only a small 

 fraction above 4 rupees each ; that 201,065 are for amounts ranging 

 from 10 rupees to 20, and in fact averaging less than 14j rupees 

 each ; and that 97,891 are for amounts between 20 rupees and 30, 

 and in fact averaging only 24| rupees ; and thus that 888,888 puttahs, 

 out of a total of 1,071,588, or considerably* more than three -fourths, 

 are for amounts under 30 rupees, and in fact averaging less than 8f 

 rupees. 



7. Now it may certainly be said of almost the whole of the ryots 

 paying even the highest of these sums, and even of many holding to 

 a much larger amount, that they are always in poverty and generally 

 in debt. Perhaps one of this class obtains a small sum out of the 

 Government advances for cultivation, but even if he does, the trouble 

 that he has to take and the time he loses in getting it, as well as 

 the deduction to which it is liable, render this a questionable gain. 

 For the rest of his wants he is dependent on the bazaarman. To him 

 his crops are generally hypothecated before they are reaped, and it 

 is he who redeems them from the possession of the village watcher by 

 pledging himself for the payment of the kist. These transactions 

 pass without any written engagements or memoranda between the 

 parties, and the only evidence is the Chetty's own accounts. In 

 general, there is an adjustment of the accounts once a year, but 

 sometimes not for several years. In all these accounts interest i> 

 charged on the advances made to the ryot on the balance against him. 



Chingleput. 

 Salem. 

 Madura. 

 Nellore. 

 North Arcot. 



South Areot. 



Tanjore. 



Trichinopoly. 



Tinnevelly. 



BeUary. 



Cuddapah. 

 Coimbatore. 

 Canara. 

 Kurnool. 



