THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, JULY 3, 1907. THE INDIAN RYOT AND THE BRITISH "RAJ."

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8478, 4 July 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, JULY 3, 1907. THE INDIAN RYOT AND THE BRITISH "RAJ."

A "plain story of the position of the Indian ryot," appears in the, Advocate of India, of April 10th, from "An Indian" ..who writes in English with remarkable simplicity, directness and effectiveness. "Indian" says our imperialism, our trade, our Budgets, are beyond the small Indian tillers of the soil, from the midst of whom "Indian" has himself "sprung up." The ryot is either happy or unhappy according as there is a supply of food, firewood and mud for the walls of his hut. His purview is bounded by the limits of the village and beyond that factor in his daily life he has small concern. He appreciates the security we have given him, he recognises the blessings of the railroads, posts and telegraphs, but these things are far outweighed if the stomach is pinched. But the ryots are, we are told, drifting in the existing circumstances into a condition of deep misery. They look to the '"raj" to give them more grain and more fuel. "One may tell them," writes "Indian," "but'in vain, that the scale of wages has ' risen and is rising all round, that the things besides the bare necessaries ot life are cheaper day by day, that new centres of trade and commerce have sprung up, and are springing up daily, that the activities there prove that the country is prospering, and that more and more gold and silver flow into the country every year, and that at least ought to be admitted to indicate that the country is getting richer. The backbone of the population of India will only nod their heads. They sincerely believe they are getting poorer. They say they have nothing whatever to do with our gold. They assert that they could formerly sometimes give their wives and children silver ornaments; but now, on the other hand, the ornaments are either sold or are being sold away. Brass ornaments are taking the place of the silver. The rise in wages does not help them, since they prefer to starve on their fields but will not go to the nearest town for labour. Rise in wages means to them only more cost of production,

since they have now to pay three annas to a labourer employed by them on their fields, instead of the two they paid formerly. They admit that the produce of their fields brings to them more silver than it brought before; but they allege that the additional silver goes not to them but to the labourer and to the landlord, whose dues are now treble and double what they were before. They say they care for no other thing in life as much as they do for foodgrains, fuel, and a house of mud or grass to give them shelter against the rain and the sun." The following passage has a peculiar interest in regard to the continued reports of Indian disloyalty and one of the more active causes of discontent: "Occasionally the small tillers of the soil have to put up with petty annoyances from their village chowkidars or]the superiors. Occasionally insults are added to their injuries from some of the sahebs or their servants when they visit the villages on shikar or otherwise. However, al I these evils, are taken as evils, inseparably connected with the life in which their Jot is cast. They may give rise to murmurings, to vapourings and even to feelings of superficial disloyalty for the time being; but when that is past, the backbone of the population of India resumes its normal position, and stories of the little acts- of justice and mercy of this or that saheb begin to go round their circles." On the knees of the gods is the solution of a grave problem. "It may," observes the Advocate of India, "be accepted that India must pay the price for its love of sitting on its own doorstep dreaming of rich harvests without sowing seed. Hope alone lies in the spread of education, and happily indications are not wanting that a liberal educational policy will rapidly bear good fruit."