CHAPTER XVIII 



Government not to blame for everything that is wrong For In- 

 stance, the early marriages, the borrowing of money which 

 cannot be repaid, poor men selling themselves into slavery 

 Agricultural banks Local committees to regulate loans and 

 rate of interest People must reform their fashions and 

 energise their own advancement. 



OF course, it is quite proper to abuse the Government 

 for everything that goes wrong in India, the same 

 as in every other country, and there is no doubt 

 all the Governments of the world amply deserve 

 all the abuse they get. But for all that, it is not 

 fair to say that the Government alone is to blame 

 when things go wrong. When a nation has the 

 absurd custom of marrying little children so that 

 a woman of twenty-eight may be a grandmother, 

 and at forty-two a great grandmother, and at fifty- 

 six a great-great-grandmother, how can the nation 

 hope for wealth and prosperity ? The continuous 

 following on of more children and more children 

 gives them no chance to make a bargain, they have 

 to take anything that is offered them. If they are 

 landowners, they have to keep dividing up the proceeds 

 of their property between more and more children. 

 If they are small cultivators, they have to keep 



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