FIELD LABOUKEBS 141 



victory, nor can its morale survive constant defeat. 

 So it is with the Deccan cultivators, many of whom 

 have neither the equipment nor the confidence that 

 leads to victory. 



Let us go into the details of their position. Begin- 

 ning at the bottom of the scale we have the landless 

 labourer who works for hire, a class which is steadily 

 recruited from the smaller land-holders as the pressure 

 of population in the most densely peopled tracts 

 squeezes them out of the position of land-holders. 

 In former times labourers were commonly employed 

 as saldars, or yearly labourers, and often remained in 

 the same employment for many years together, not 

 infrequently serving the same master from father to 

 son for several generations. Saldars are still to be 

 found in most parts of the country in relatively small 

 numbers, doing the permanent work of substantial 

 cultivators ; but the tendency nowadays is for the 

 labourer to prefer to work for daily wages or on the 

 piece-work system, and the long time service of olden 

 days is now most common in the part of Khandesh or 

 Gujarat where Bhils and Dharalas work for the larger 

 land-holders. Formerly it was common for contracts 

 to be made which bound down these people to the 

 conditions of serfs, and it is only in the present time 

 that these classes are beginning to show the indepen- 

 dence that other labourers have shown for some time 

 past. 



But the change of conditions does not end there. 

 Employers of agricultural labour throughout the 



