Miscellaneous. 



144 



[Feb. 1908. 



and this view is still upheld by those 

 authorities who maintain that the Indian 

 peasant knows all that is worth knowing 

 about the capabilities of his soil and the 

 cultivation of the crops suited thereto. 



On the other hand, competent scientific 

 observers lay stress upon the complex 

 and difficult conditions of agriculture in 

 India, point to the wonderful improve- 

 ments which Western science has 

 affected in Europe and America within 

 the last century, and assert confidently 

 that the same principles, when applied 

 to India, will promote the efficiency of 

 agriculture in a remarkable degree. 

 This school would have us believe that 

 their antagonists, eminent though they 

 may be in all other branches of human 

 knowledge and practical administration, 

 yet have an insufficient acquaintance 

 with the history of agriculture and of 

 the progress of science. 



In every country the position of agri- 

 culture is closely connected with the 

 economic history of the people. It 

 would clearly be impossible to place 

 before you within the narrow limits of 

 an hour's lecture, a comprehensive 

 account of the vast range of subjects 

 which invite discussion ; and I am com- 

 pelled not only to confine myself to a 

 few of the more salient aspects, but to 

 treat even these with a wide generality 

 of statement. I have drawn my illustra- 

 tions chiefly from Western India, to 

 which my personal experience extends, 

 and since India is a continent, every 

 statement must be taken as subject to 

 numerous exceptions. 



Influence op Caste. 



The assumption that agriculture in 

 India is a stationary art, stereotyped in 

 the mould in which it was cast thousands 

 of years ago, is a common misapprehen- 

 sion. It is no doubt true that in early 

 days changes took place slowly. If the 

 system established under the laws of 

 Manu— whereby all society was divided 

 into four sections, the Brahman (priests), 

 the Kshatriya (warriors), the Vaisya 

 (traders and agriculturists), and the Sudra 

 (menials)— secured the tradition from 

 father to son of tne specialised know- 

 ledge of agriculture in a distinct caste, 

 and represented an advance on the 

 primitive methods of nomad barbarism, 

 it nevertheless tended, at a time when 

 education was confined to Brahmans, to 

 prevent the communication of ideas, and 

 the transference of agricultural improve- 

 ments from one tract to another. Every- 

 thing in India has its roots so deep down 

 in the past that this old-world system 

 exercises a potent influence on the 

 conduct of the people at the present 



day. When we find the great landlords 

 of the Brahman and soldier castes hold- 

 ing themselves aloof from the practical 

 administration of their estates, we are 

 reminded that agriculture is scarcely 

 mentioned in the voluminous records of 

 the sacred books which prescribe the 

 daily duties of Brahmans and warriors 

 in minute detail. In certain tracts, in- 

 deed, the belief is current that orthodox 

 Brahmans are not permitted to engage 

 in agriculture. Fortunately, these pre- 

 judices are not of universal application, 

 and are waning ; and where, as in parts 

 of Western India, the Brahmans were 

 compelled by the increase of their 

 numbers to undertake secularised occu- 

 pations, they brought agriculture to a 

 very high pitch of perfection. 



This interesting fact deserves a mo- 

 ment's digression in view of the criti- 

 cisms that are sometimes heard of the 

 inefficiency of the Brahman as a man of 

 business, and the futility of seeking his 

 aid in the improvement of agriculture. 

 It may be admitted that the Brahman 

 will not turn to practical work in the 

 field or laboratory except under the 

 pressure of severe compulsion ; for he is 

 not only as tenacious of his claims to a 

 free maintenance by the community as 

 the high-born classes of Western Europe, 

 but also honestly reluctant to abandon 

 the doctrines of his religion, which forbid 

 the acquisition of wealth and enjoin 

 abstinence and meditation in his closing 

 years. The law of self-preservation, 

 however, has never appealed to the 

 Brahman in vain. The intellectual 

 pliancy which enabled him to incor- 

 porate animistic beliefs in his philosophy, 

 and to undermine the popularity of 

 Buddhism, will not fail him in the 

 present crisis. 



There are evident signs that he re- 

 cognises the overpowering constraint of 

 the Material Age in which his lot has 

 been thrown — that Kali Yuga — when 

 "the visages and institutes of caste, of 

 order and of rank, will not prevail, nor 

 yet the precepts of the triple Veda." As 

 a hundred years ago Brahman soldiers 

 took a conspicuous share in the conquest 

 of India for the East India Company, so 

 now Brahman students are preparing to 

 play their part in the industrial and 

 agricultural awakening of India. 



To return to the cultivator : the rigid 

 distinction of castes, and the absence of 

 guidance or control by the superior 

 landlords have been the underlying 

 causes of the variations in agricultural 

 skill and the irregularity of pro- 

 gress exhibited in homogeneous tracts 

 throughout the country. But early re- 

 cords, if scanty, suffice to show that in 



