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XIX 



or occasionally thirty-four measures of paddy are substituted for the 

 varagu. When taken on again for the harvest, which commences in 

 December^ the labourers employed receive as their remuneration 5 

 per cent, of the grain harvested. This is called calavassam, the 

 labourers receiving five kalams out of every 100 kalams got in. 



The extra hands who are taken on when agricultural operations 

 are in full swing are paid daily wages, either in money or kind or 

 both. If in money, the wage is one anna per diem and two meals 

 of cunji ; if in kind two Madras measures of paddy, besides the 

 cunji. 



Going back again to the permanent farm labourer or as he is 

 known in the south the "padiyaP' or " padiachy," it would not appear 

 at first sight that his lot was a very prosperous one. The value of 

 the grain which he receives as wages from June to November does 

 not exceed, even at present prices, Ks. 2 per mensem. Twenty 

 years ago, however, it did not represent a rupee, so that although 

 he receives now the same quantity as he formerly did, he is certainly 

 better off (for he cannot consume it all) than he was then. But he 

 makes a great haul at the harvest and in addition he occasionally 

 cultivates a small portion of his employer's estate on his own account. 

 He receives, moreover, at the different festivals small presents from 

 his employer, and on the occasion of a marriage or other ceremony 

 in his own family a loan to meet the necessary expenses is rarely 

 refused. It is true that this system must more or less tend to 

 prevent the labourer from ever emerging from that position, but this 

 is not universally the case. Instances not unfrequently occur of 

 these men setting up as independent farmers, although whether their 

 condition is thereby ultimately benefited may admit of question. 

 One bad season generally suffices to ruin them, and then they go 

 back contentedly to their old place. I use the expression advisedly, 

 for it is within my own tolerably varied experience that a bond of 

 union exists in India between the landholder and his labourers, which 

 prevents the latter, as a rule, from following the example of their 

 brethren at home in striking for higher wages just at the time when 

 their services are most needed. But the laws of supply and demand 

 are inexorable, and though the landholder in India is prudcmt enough 

 not to create an inconvenient precedent by raising the rate of 

 wages whenever labour is in greater request than usual, he is still 

 sufficiently alive to the requirements of the times by a judicious 

 enhancement of loans and presents during the period of pressure to 

 secure himself against the difficulties which at this moment beset the 

 farmers in England. There is, moreover, in this country a feeling of 

 sympathy between the employer and his men, which is not to be 

 found in European countries, where the latter are regarded as so 

 many machines out of which a certain amount of work is to be got, 

 and that done, the bargain is at end. A mistaken philanthropist 

 might make great capital at a public meeting in England out of the 

 figures which I have given above, but my experience leads me to 

 believe that the " padiyal " in India, with his comparatively scanty 

 wage, is better off than the farm labourer at home with his 9$. or IDs. 

 a week. 



