INDIA'S POVERTY AND ILLITERACY 17 



basket with cowdung, put the basket on her head, carry- 

 it out to the fields where it was to do its work, then 

 return for another load, and each time she came back 

 she loved and fondled her little one. She was a glad, 

 happy, proud little mother, singing at her work. The 

 Maharajah of Bikaner, that Indian King who was one 

 of the Indian representatives at the Peace Confer- 

 ence in Paris, invited me to draw up a scheme for 

 agricultural development m his country. It involved 

 travel over the state and took me about three weeks. 

 When I returned to Allahabad the little mother was 

 walking round sad and disconsolate. I said ''Hello 

 Nanki, what is the matter?" ''0 Sahib, he died," she 

 replied. **Why did you not take him to the Mem-Sahib. 

 You know my wife would have given you medicine for 

 him?" She answered, ''It was not medicine he needed 

 but food. I could not nurse him. With four cents a 

 day, could I buy milk for him and food for myself? 

 Why Sahib, if I could not nurse him he had to die." 

 Many Indian mothers have Nanki 's experience. 



Investigators like Sir William Hunter or Lord Cur- 

 zon, or those Indian gentlemen who have spoken of the 

 poverty of their country in the Indian National Congress, 

 whether pro- or anti-British, are all agreed that the aver- 

 age per capita income for India ranges between seven 

 and twenty-five dollars per year. This works out at less 

 than three to six cents per day per person for the whole 

 population. When we remember that India has a large 

 and wealthy class of lawyers, merchants, money-lenders 

 and landlords, it is obvious that many of the village folk 

 have less than three cents a day upon which to live. 

 About one third of the people of India are living at a 



