HAPPY INDIA 141 



(3) There is peace over all the land (except 

 insignificant frontier fights) that is, over a 

 larger area and larger population than has ever 

 known such peace before. 



(4) The people are strong and capable in 

 body and mind, highly moral and religious, 

 trying to do their duty by themselves and by 

 their neighbours. 



Their cultivators of the soil, artificers, 

 mechanics, clerks, accountants, lawyers, 

 preachers, teachers, writers, statesmen, mer- 

 chants, manufacturers, sailors, are making 

 necessary allowances for differences in climate, 

 comparable to those of any other nation. 



(5) There is great mineral wealth, including 

 oil and coal, and there is also hydraulic power 

 far beyond any possible need. 



(6) This great country and this great people, 

 with its enormous well-ordered population, 

 sufficient for all the work it has to do, could, 

 if wisely guided, support double its present 

 numbers in health, plenty and pleasure. 



These are the natural advantages ! 



But what is the present situation ? And what 

 has it been for the last fifty years ? 



This : The people have engaged in a desperate, 

 hopeless, foolish, futile, ignorant, careless struggle 

 to increase their numbers at the rate of about 

 5,000,000 a year, or 250,000,000 in fifty years, and 

 Nature, outraged by this absurd assault, has struck 



