60 PKOGRESS IN WESTERN INDIA 



difficulty. As a rule this man is of less value to him- 

 self or to the community than the man who can de- 

 vote his whole time to his own holding. He knows 

 that he does not depend on his land for a living, and 

 consequently his cultivation is usually inferior and his 

 outturn less. On his land he spends part of the year 

 playing at the casual cultivation of a few acres, which 

 will yield him a poor return for the time that he 

 spends at it, and he is often away from his holding 

 when climatic conditions demand that the essential 

 tillage should be done. His efforts often amount to 

 no more than drilling seed into untilled land with the 

 help of borrowed bullocks, and reaping what poor crop 

 results. When the crop is reaped he is in no hurry to 

 exchange an easy life for the more strenuous one of a 

 hired labourer. He hangs about his home and reduces 

 his standard of living until he is again driven to look 

 for work by sheer necessity. There are, of course, 

 many individuals in this class of whom the above 

 remarks are not true ; but frequently the men of this 

 class are the victims of their circumstances. They 

 have little incentive to strenuous labour; their 

 organisation is bad, whether as land-holders or as hired 

 labourers, and they suffer from the evils of casual and 

 intermittent labour, which in time react on their 

 character. Speaking generally, they have not been 

 able to take advantage of the factors which make for 

 progress, but have suffered from the opposing factors. 

 Except in so far as they have been able, as labourers, 

 to take advantage of the higher rate of wages and the 



