UNECONOMIC HOLDINGS 69 



there is no intention of opening the discussion of 

 the relative economic advantages of large and small 

 farming. The spirit of Hindu law and the spirit of 

 Indian agriculture favour a wide distribution of the 

 land and its cultivation by peasant farmers ; and it 

 is not in any way desired to suggest that the forma- 

 tion of large estates, worked on a capitalistic basis, 

 would be more suitable or desirable for the people of 

 the country, either from a social or from an economic 

 point of view. All that is intended is to make it 

 clear that the principles of subdivision and frag- 

 mentation have been pushed so far that in many 

 localities the great bulk of the land is seriously 

 affected, and there is hardly a holding that will now 

 conform in size and shape to economic requirements. 

 The distribution of the land amongst the peasants is 

 such that a large and increasing proportion of them 

 have not got an economic holding. In many cases 

 this presents grave difficulties to effective cultivation 

 even by existing methods, and offers a fundamental 

 obstruction to the introduction of improved technical 

 methods or economic organisation calculated to in- 

 crease the quantity and value of the outturn or to 

 cheapen its production. It is not with a view to 

 interfere with the fundamental conception of the 

 peasant farmer that any suggestions are made, but 

 in order to render possible the creation and mainten- 

 ance of small but economic holdings on which a 

 peasant farmer can take adequate advantage of the 

 natural facilities which exist, and can improve his 



