56 



JVofes on Ryotwar, or 



[Jan. 



The ryots of Southern India are also, like all individuals of limited 

 means and edncation, improvident. They are in eight cases out of 

 ten in debt.* It must surely be idle to look to them, for the forethought 

 which shall store up every small gain of a favourable year, to meet an 

 adverse season. This providence can and does exist, only in educated 

 and highly civilized communities, and is the very reverse of the natio- 

 nal characteristic of the Indian agriculturists ; not one of whom imm 

 high to low, scruples to involve himself irretrievably in debt for mar- 

 riage or funeral ceremonies. A system therefore, which throv^^s upon 

 the Indian cultivator, the whole onus of providing for every emergency, 

 and requires from him the forecast, to meet all the variations in the 

 market, as well as those of the seasons, is manifestly ill adapted to his 

 present character, and condition, and little calculated to enable him to 

 realize property in the soil. 



The system is likewise, I conceive, unsuited to the existing state of 

 society in Southern India, of which the preponderance of the agricul- 

 tural class is a peculiar feature. This feature of Indian society renders 

 the demand of a permanent annual money rent, not only highly dis- 

 advantageous to the ryot, but, it may even be said, unjust. For the large 

 excess of the agricultural population over all the other classes, of not 

 less than eight to one, necessarily brings an immense surplus of grain 

 into the market in favourable seasons. Prices in consequence fall ex- 

 ceedingly low, there being no foreign vent for grain in Southern India ; 

 and the ryot, in lieu of gaining largely, not infrequently receives less 

 money for the whole of his crop brought to market, in productive years, 

 than in an average season, or in one a little below it. He therefore 

 finds more difficulty in paying his money tax at such periods; and he 

 may be now occasionally even a loser, and his gains must at all 

 times be very inconsiderable in abundant and favourable seasons. 

 Whence then in the present state of society is his profit to come from, 

 to meet the loss and deficiences of unproductive years, and of seasons 

 of excessive drought? The rule now in force, of an invariable annual 

 demand in money on an average crop, and at average prices, 

 makes no provision for this peculiar condition of society. It is assum- 

 ed, in the teeth, I think, of facts, that the profits of favourable seasons, 

 always are, and will be adequate to meet the demand of unfavourable 

 years ; and the whole burden of failure in the season, or fall of price, 



* " The difficulty lies in the character of the ryots whose improvidence renders them 

 to so great a degree incapable of realizing property when the means are put in their 

 power." — Court of Directors, Rev. Sol. 



" The debts and embarrassments in which the whole of the agricultural population 

 is plunged." Mr, Elphinstone.— /«c/. Sel, iv. p. 14. 3. 



