17-2 POLICY FOE WESTEEN INDIA 



forward any active agricultural policy involving a 

 departure from the present state of affairs. But un- 

 fortunately this picture hardly agrees with the well- 

 known facts regarding the poverty of the peasantry, 

 their low standard of living and the inevitable 

 distress that follows a failure of the rainfall, such 

 as we have learned to expect every few years in 

 the Deccan. This outstanding fact of the poverty 

 of the peasant, and all the ills that result from 

 it, has long been the subject of comment of numer- 

 ous writers ; and critics of British rule in India have 

 not been slow to blame the Government for not 

 inaugurating an active, forward policy to improve 

 the economic condition of the masses. As an 

 example of another view of the Indian peasant the 

 following picture * of Indian village life as seen by 

 H.H. The Aga Khan may be quoted : " The ill-clad 

 villagers, men, women and children, thin and weakly, 

 and made old beyond their years by a life of under- 

 feeding and over-work, have been astir before day- 

 break and have partaken of a scanty meal, consisting 

 of some kind or other of cold porridge, of course 

 without sugar or milk. With bare and hardened 

 feet they reach their fields, and immediately begin to 

 furrow the soil with their lean cattle of a poor and 

 hybrid breed, usually sterile and milkless. A short 

 rest at midday and a handful of dried corn or beans 

 for food, is followed by a continuance till dusk of the 



*" India in Transition," by H.H. The Aga Khan (Lee Warner, 

 1918). 



