36 HAPPY INDIA 



In considering the question of famine and food 

 shortage in India, we must bear in mind that most 

 countries which depend on their harvests for their 

 food are liable to food shortage and famine. It 

 is only in recent times that England has escaped 

 from famines. Eighty years ago England depended 

 on its corn crop to a great extent, and if the harvest 

 was deficient poor people died by thousands. It 

 is only since Free Trade was established in 1850 

 that by means of our coal exports, and exports of 

 manufactured goods, we have been able to claim 

 food supplies from any part of the world that had 

 a surplus, and in that way, and in that way only, 

 have escaped from periodical famines. 



It is quite easy to see why the Indian peasant is 

 now excessively poor in most parts of India. It 

 is simply this : the condition of the soil is too poor, 

 it does not yield enough ; it does not yield one-half 

 of what the British soil yields. What would be the 

 condition of the British farmer and the British 

 labourer if for all their labour they only got one- 

 half of their present produce per acre ? Yet the 

 Indian labourer works very hard, and he and his 

 family give minute and particular care, working 

 often from morn till dark, and yet the produce 

 per acre is not more than one-half of the British 

 produce per acre. When one considers that out 

 of this half he has to pay rent, he has to pay a salt 

 tax and some other taxes, it is not surprising that 

 his economic condition is extremely bad : the only 

 wonder is that he can exist at all ; and he exists simply 



