192 POLICY FOE WESTERN INDIA 



from failure of rain, and the man who can finance 

 his operations from time to time without being 

 crushed by a heavy rate of interest, will work with 

 the greater energy which arises from confidence. 



X. There is a second group of causes which affect 

 the energy and enterprise of the agricultural classes. 

 The family and caste organisations weaken the feeling 

 of individual responsibility and personal initiative 

 which count for so much in the achievement of pro- 

 gress. The general attitude of mind produced by 

 such systems seems to be an easy-going tolerance 

 which aims at no more than protecting the least 

 efficient from disaster and tiding over present diffi- 

 culties, regardless of the future. This attitude of 

 mind expresses itself in demands for frequent remis- 

 sions of revenue which the land could well afford to 

 pay if it were properly worked, in proposals that 

 obligations incurred to the village sowhar or to the 

 village Co-operative Society need not be enforced, 

 in suggestions that Government should provide free 

 grazing in ordinary times, and in times of scarcity 

 should be responsible for the maintenance of cattle 

 for which the owners hardly attempt to make any 

 adequate provision. It is by no means contended 

 that the solution of the agricultural problems of India 

 can be found in a system conducted on rigid principles 

 of business economy ; but the tendency is at present 

 too much in the opposite direction. The result is to 

 bolster up the inefficient, and to sacrifice the hope of 

 the future for the convenience of the present. 



