186 POLICY FOE WESTEEN INDIA 



that a bad farmer cannot hope, even in prosperous 

 times, to survive many seasons. In rural India, 

 however, the competition is less keen, the standard 

 of living lower, and the principle of community of 

 goods which characterises the joint family system 

 tides the less effective members over their difficulties, 

 and keeps them in their places to the obstruction of 

 the more effective members of the community. It is 

 by no means contended that there are no good farmers, 

 nor can it be expected anywhere that all farmers will 

 reach a high degree of excellence : all that is suggested 

 is that, owing to the causes mentioned above, the 

 proportion of bad and indifferent farmers is unduly 

 large. 



The situation may be summed up thus : The 

 majority of farms are of the wrong size and the wrong 

 shape: they are not permanent units and are not 

 susceptible of orderly and adequate improvement. 

 The majority of farmers are deficient in skill, industry 

 and energy, and balance a low standard of endeavour 

 by a low standard of living. 



Is it then desirable that Government should pass a 

 series of legislative enactments to parcel out the land 

 into innumerable economic holdings of standard shape 

 and size, to dictate to the farmer what crops he shall 

 grow and how he shall grow them, to hustle him into 

 greater activity by official interference ? It is neces- 

 sary at this point to state emphatically that no general 

 policy of this nature is suggested. So far as Govern- 

 ment is concerned the cultivator has always enjoyed 



