140 THE HUMAN FACTOE 



While, therefore, we may deplore the physical 

 poverty of a tract like the Deccan, we may solace 

 ourselves with the recollection that a civilisation 

 which is based on natural advantages, and not on 

 the energy of man, contains within itself the seed of 

 its own destruction. The land may be good or bad, 

 and the plough may be good or bad, but it is the man 

 behind the plough who counts for most in the long 

 run. Let us consider the progress of his struggle 

 with nature in the Bombay Deccan. 



The picture of the tropical cultivator leading a life 

 of contented indolence, his simple wants supplied by 

 a bountiful nature, has no relation to the conditions of 

 the Deccan with its thin layer of soil and its light and 

 capricious rainfall. The Deccan picture would rather 

 represent a perpetual struggle in which the cultivator 

 has frequently found himself on his back. The early 

 years of the nineteenth century saw desolation in the 

 land, and the last years of that century saw this 

 calamity averted only by elaborate administrative 

 efforts. So far the victory has been with nature, and 

 the Famine Belief Code, while it secures the best 

 terms for the vanquished, affords evidence of the 

 defeat. If, therefore, we hold that nature can smother 

 her favoured children with too much kindness, we 

 might expect that the niggardliness which she displays 

 to her step-children in the Deccan would brace them 

 to strenuous efforts. In part this is so ; but the 

 struggle has been too severe for many. Without its 

 essential equipment the bravest army cannot expect 



