The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-03-27
THE RYOTS OF INDIA,
Why People Who Cultivate the Soil
Go Hungry.
: w. Stevens in London Mail.


-. W. Stevens, in London Mail.
1t is scarce exaggerating to say that every
rich native in India is fat wherefrom you
infer that the hundreds of millions of skele-
tons are lean because they must-because
they live from harvest to seed time and
through to harvest again with bellies half
empty.
But they are a patient people. the villag
ers of India; they have been hungry these
thirty centuries or so, and it has never oc
CURED to them that they have any claim
to be filled. They grumbled little, to be
sure-what tiller of the soil ever did else I?
| They could not get enough water from the
government canal, and the Christmas rains
had not fallen. and they were poor men.
when, In due course, we went out TO in
spect everything-from the fields TO the
cakes of cow-dung fuel that were being
stacked and covered up against the rainy
| season-the landlord observed broken well,
and offered to pay one-half of its repairing
| If the village would pay the other. They
responded with effusion that if the sahib
would find bricks and mortar and labor they
would do the rest. Yet, instead of begging
| from the landlord they desired that their
| lords would honor them by drinking a cup
| of milk. So two little earthen cups were
brought, of the material of flower pots and
| into them was poured milk, still hot from
| the udder. Their lords drank, and then the
cups were smashed to earth. They were
useless now; the man of meanest caste
| would never drink out of a cup that had
been profaned by white lips. Water was
| brought. and the man who had poured out
| the milk washed his hands thoroughly. The
landlord asked his manager If he would
| take milk, too; he shook his head. with a
smile. For he is a Brahman, and is as
much above drinking from vessel that a
| lower caste has touched the lower caste
| is above drinking after a sahib
Now, the bits of potsherd were still
| tumbling on the ground, there struck up a
| loud, half-rollicking, half-wailing chorus be-
hind the corner of the wall. There appeared
little group OF women in very faded gar
ments, half-veiling their faces carefully,
| half-turning their backs These were low
| caste wome l. and they were singing a hymn
expressive of the virtues of the landlord
| That also is use and won't The subject of
| their prais e called up one grand-dam and
| gave her silver. and the chorus stopped
| amid the approving salaams of the village
| Ihey will call you Lord and Protector
| OF the Poor they will sing hymns TO you /;
| put they smash the bowl you drank from.
| WHAT could be more eloquent of the land of
| contradictions?
The cutivator. to whom both these for
malitles are religion, is not. you will have
| concluded a being of developed intelIigence
tie Is neither beautiful nor rich gifted nor
| INDUSTRIOUS, nor especially virtuous, nor even
am lie has only one point of inter-
and forty millions of him. He is clothed
In calico and fed on unleavened dough
| called chapUttieS and on pulse. He has two
| Observation-Disclosures and funerals Al
| THESE he spends all he has and more: to
make up. he borrows from the village bum
| ma, VINO IS shopkeeper and Shylock in one
| Inc Dunnla charges 31R per cent as a mini
| num- When harvest comes, he takes over
| the ryots corn and credits him for il. nor
| az market price. but on q scale of his own.
| Inc ryot keeps back enough. PERHAPS for a
| rev weeks food; after that he must come
| 10 the bunnia for seed at sowing-time and
| weekly Tor MS children's rood. The BURMA
| lends him back his corn at 37I5 to n
per cent. Presently. it may be. the bunnia
| takes one of the ryot's bullocks in part pay
ment, and the man makes shift TO plow
| WIN one. He does ii very badly though
not much worse than he would have done
| win me TWO Then. perhaps, the bunnia
| takes the other bullock and then-but rare
| ~, Tor this Is killing the goose-the land or
| Efe without paying his creditor anything be-
g9hd all that he has, less his bare livelihood
m ain ne Oh 6ies happy and bequeaths the re-
| NeNertheiess, when the landlord offers TO
| puy crops at market rate and advance seed
corn al market rate, charging only per
| cent: interest, the cultivator smiles cum
| nihg!y ana uecllnes. He knows that the
landlord will not lend him for weddings and
funerals and If he borrows seed from the
| landlord neither will the bunnia: so he goes
| back to his 31Iz. He has only his own ig-
| horalce, Incidence and thriftleSsnesS tn
tIahk Tor his wretchedness. He is miser-
! able. and he il content. Everybody else i'm
India has a grievance; the cultivator. the
| backbone or the country and the worst used
| man in ii. has none
That his situation really is his fault Won
may convince yourself by going on ten miles
or so TO Jat village. The Jats are q not
! very illustrious tribe. whose center n hun
| dred years ago was Bhurtpur; at that period
| they rose TO military eminence and when
| ever they were short of cash looted Agra
| seVerest defeats we ever got in India AS
| cultivators the Jats are excellently good
| being both expert and of unwearied in
| dustry.
Even before their village peeps from be-
| hlnd ITS thlckets you notice that the road is
| eXceptonal-not metaled. OF course, but still
flat and fairly level. The bulOcks you meet
| in the heavy-wheeled carts are big and well
| thriven. In the village itself the houses are
| mostly or sun-dried mud, il is true, but
| they are stable and lofty; moreover before
| several of the best lay piles of fire-burned
| brick. One Croesus actually had q tai
| burned-brick gateway with a many-pointed
| seen than earthen, which is Il sure sign OF
| prosperity. Then there was a little hole in
corner wall for a lamp at night. which
| reeked of public spirit. and in one rich mans
court were no less than two horses. Hi.
| house was we'll built and furnished entirely
| will six wood-framed cord-strung bedstead:
and brazen pots, but his twO-year-old flly
will bring him little fortune at the horse
| fair next month.
Even in the excitement Of the landlord.
visit the secret of Jat prosperity was plair
enough. Simply work. AT the entrance L
| the village the sugar mill going-thre'
rollers revolved by lever which two oxer
| pulled round and round AS a boy thrust il
| the cane the squeezed fragments of stall
fell out one side to be used for fuel, and th'
| juice ran into a tank on the other. 1t wa.
| boiling in watts under roof hard by, an(
the yellow result-pease pudding you would
| have called ii at ten yards-was already be
ing made into cakes of the finished product
The man who invented the machine get
back its cost in two years hire of ii, anC
has made a fortune. But the Jats do wei
with their sugar, despite the rent of the ma
chine. They work day and night at il. yok
relieving yoke OF oxen, and they toll thus a
| everything.
| 4 Conscience Stricken Georgian.
L Voc ,fr .ia1