DESIEE FOE PEOGEESS 169 



consider whether it is possible to formulate a forward 

 policy calculated to secure general agricultural pro- 

 gress at a more rapid rate. 



Before, however, we attempt this task it is essential 

 to consider whether India wishes for agricultural 

 progress, as denoted by enhanced production resulting 

 in the greater material prosperity of the peasantry ; 

 and, if so, what price she is prepared to pay for it. 

 Now, there can be no doubt that amongst the people 

 in general the desire for such progress is not so strong 

 in India as in many other countries. Speaking of 

 rural India Professor Mukerjee says: "There is no 

 desire for a better, more comfortable living, both 

 amongst the cultivators as well as amongst the 

 artisans. The village communities are the most 

 complete and the most contented in the world. 

 Within their self-sufficing confines, trade is no vulgar 

 source of profit for which men scheme and strive, 

 but a calling, often a holy calling, handed down from 

 father to son through generations, each with its own 

 unchanging ideals, its zealously guarded crafts." 

 This is, no doubt, a fairly correct estimate of the 

 typical attitude of many Indian cultivators, though 

 it hardly agrees with some of the opinions expressed 

 in the last chapter ; and it is only in the present time 

 that any marked change of attitude is observable. 

 This has led many people to question the desirability 

 of schemes put forward for the material advancement 

 of the peasantry. With reference to some such 

 schemes, a former Governor of Bombay remarked not 



