333 



Mr. James Bird on the Country 



[Oct. 



miserable inhabitants, forsaking their homes to seek for food and shel- 

 ter in the neighbouring countries, extend the evils which follow a 

 partial monsoon. 



After a favourable rainy season, however, the Dekkan teems with 

 grain; though such is the irreparable loss caused by a bad one, that 

 several prosperous years can scarcely bring with them a recompense. 

 The little property of the people is expended in retaining their exist- 

 ence : their cattle die for want of food. There are few of them so 

 provident as to think of laying in a stock of grass from the Konkan 

 against a bad season ; and their fields remain uncultivated ; as they 

 have not the means of doing so without getting more deeply in debt to 

 an artful set of foreigners, the Gujar and Marwari Banias, who come 

 here intentionally to raise a fortune, and take every advantage of the 

 poor cultivators which chance throws in their way. 



This is not a fanciful picture, and is a state of things obvious to all 

 making the inquiry ; for the evil has been demonstrated by the fatal 

 experience of the last two years, in the former of which but little rain 

 fell, and almost none during the latter. I have ascertained, by repeat- 

 ed inquiry, that when many of the villagers are pressed for subsistence 

 in the hot season, it is usual for Banias to advance grain, on the con- 

 dition of its being repaid double when the ensuing harvest ripens. 

 The crop, therefore, raised by the cultivator is actually in the hands of 

 tne Bania before it has been cut down; and as the cultivator is his 

 dependent, he has no remedy but to run again the same course. 



In a country like the Dekkan, so liable to have alternate good and 

 bad seasons, a wide field is open for the intrigues of such men ; and 

 the evil of the system is too great not to require a check from the 

 legislature,— when it is an observation, not alone applicable to the 

 natives of India, that men get into debt in proportion as the means of 

 doing so become facilitated. 



The government and its officers are much disposed, no doubt, 

 to ameliorate the condition of the inhabitants ; and there is reason 

 to think that the mild spirit of British jurisprudence prevails in all 

 that has been done for the country. It is to be feared, however, 

 that its servants, in their over-zeal for the interest of the govern- 

 ment, may mislead it, and adhere too strictly to former custom in 

 their assessments of lands. It may also be doubted if the assess- 

 ment of former governments forms a fair criterion for our guid- 

 ance; since our executive is so good, and every thing so mi- 

 nutely noted, that the people are deprived of many advantages de- 

 rived from the grass and waste lands under the negligence of our 

 predecessors. 



The inhabitants generally betray signs of great poverty. To see 



