HAPPY INDIA 51 



to condemn the Government of India. It is the 

 most horribly ruinous, unprofitable, uneconomical, 

 and wicked thing it is possible to do, and yet the 

 Government never stirs a finger to prevent this 

 from being done. It may be said, " Why blame the 

 Government ? Surely the people can take care of 

 themselves." That might be, but there is a Govern- 

 ment, a Government which interferes and regulates, 

 has policemen and magistrates, and prisons and 

 soldiers, which maintains the present order of things, 

 which knows that the present order is wrong, but 

 which allows this wrongdoing to continue. 



It is many years since Englishmen of scientific 

 attainments, chemists, agriculturalists employed by 

 the Government to advise, and other officials high 

 in office, have pointed out that this burning of the 

 manure as fuel was wrong and ruinous, but the 

 ordinary answer is, " Oh ! it cannot be helped, 

 there is no other supply of fuel for the poor people." 

 Yet this wicked thing is not done everywhere. It 

 is not done in Gujarat. In that province there are 

 plantations from which fuel can be cut for the use 

 of the inhabitants, and which also provide shelter 

 and food for the cattle. 



What can be done in Gujarat can be done all 

 over the rest of India. The Government of India 

 can spend money when it likes, it can send an army 

 to Tibet and a great army to Afghanistan, it can 

 maintain armies fighting in the north-west ; but 

 when it comes to fighting the poverty of the people 

 the Governor-General and the other Governors and 



