Miscell 



[November, 1910. 



of Indians to travel in other parts ol 

 the world. Climate again is a factor 

 which musf'be taken into account — it 

 induces indolence on the oue hand and 

 renders existence easy with but a 

 moderate degree of exertion on the 

 other. The position is one of extraord- 

 inary difficulty and complexity ; the 

 future well-being of India demands, in 

 fact, a careful consideration of the 

 various elements before any policy is 

 finally framed to guide the administrator 

 through the years of rapid change which 

 lie before us. Educated Indians want 

 work — there is work for them to do but 

 it is work they dislike and their edu- 

 cation has not removed their prejudices 

 or rendered the task any easier by train- 

 ing them for it. 



The Revival op Native Industries. 



The educational methods can be 

 changed but it will take a generation 

 to show any result; in the meantime, 

 the evils arising from the lack of suit- 

 able employment must be checked and 

 a system of industrial development de- 

 vised to deal with the existing state of 

 things. Enterprise on a grand scale can 

 be left to grow in the manner it has 

 done duriug the last half century and 

 at present need not concern us. Our 

 attention should be concentrated on the 

 decaying indigenous industries : hand- 

 weaving, working in metals, tanning 

 and leather manufactures, on all the 

 petty industries which supply the 

 simple needs of the people. Labour 

 must be trained to work efficiently— 

 there must be less of brute force and 

 more of skill, the primitive tools of the 

 artisan must be superseded by better 

 implements, subdivision of labour must 

 be introduced and from the crude 

 simplicity of each family as a unit of 

 productive effort strong combinations 

 must be evolved either by co-operative 

 working or by the concentration of 

 manufacture in small factories. That 

 this can be done there is not the least 

 reason for doubt. Every well directed 

 effort that has been made on these lines 

 has met with success and if, so far, the 

 sum total of the results is insignificant 

 compared with what has to be done, it is 

 because the experimental stage has only 

 just been passed through. Individuals 

 scattered over India have attacked the 

 problem according to their lights and, 

 whilst many have failed, some have 

 succeeded. A critical review of the 

 circumstances of each case leads to the 

 general conclusion that success has in- 

 variably been due to the application ot 

 scientific methods and practical ex- 

 perience ; that the failures might in 



most cases have been predicted from 

 the outset, as ''essential] elements to 

 success were neglected and more zeal 

 than discretion displayed in dealing 

 with the difficulties that had to be 

 overcome. 



It would serve no useful purpose to 

 cite instances of misdirected enterprise 

 the failure of which bas engendered in 

 Indian minds a deep-seated distrust of 

 the tools and appliances which in 

 modern times have so enormously re- 

 duced the amount of human labour to 

 be expended in converting raw mat- 

 erials into a form suited to the 

 needs. The poverty of India mea- 

 sured by European standards is undeni- 

 able but the requirements of the people 

 are extraordinarily small and, except in 

 times of famine, there is but little of the 

 destitution and misery which are to be 

 found in the great centres of civilisation. 

 There are signs, however, that a struggle 

 for existence is beginning to be felt, due 

 to the increasing pressure of the popula- 

 tion on the soil, to the expanding needs 

 of the educated classes, and to. the grow- 

 iug inequality in the distribution of 

 wealth, Within the last few years there 

 has been a marked rise in the price of 

 food grains, which presses severely on 

 the landless labourers in the villages and 

 upon the artisans and workers in the 

 towns. The old order of things is 

 changing, and India is being steadily 

 drawn into the stream along which the 

 nations of Europe and America are 

 being hurried to a by no means clearly 

 discerned destination. 



There is in the country much unrest 

 which is far from being ot political 

 origin. The problem for the statesman 

 who will have to control the adminis- 

 tration of India is to provide outlets for 

 this newly awakened energy and to 

 direct it in such a manner as to satisfy 

 the growing aspirations of the vast 

 population. Hitherto the intellectual 

 classes of the country have held almost 

 entirely aloof from the rest of the people, 

 whom they have looked down upon and 

 despised. They have left the working 

 classes to face the growing difficulties of 

 their position, careless of everything 

 outside the range of their own immed- 

 iate interests ; now that they are forced 

 by internal competition to take a 

 broader outlook, they find themselves 

 incompetent to deal with the practical 

 problems which await solution ; to bring 

 about a healthier state of things it is 

 necessary that means should be devised 

 whereby they may be associated with 

 the artisans and workers of the country 

 to their mutual advantage. The future 



