The Washington herald., 1922-05-28
.RDIALAND BARONS
TRAMPLE TENANTS
UNDER IRON HEEL
Oudh Farmers Crushed
By Forced Labor and
Concealed Rents.
VICTIMS OF GRAFT
New Laws, Assuring Toilers
Of Justice, Bitterly Fought
BY Aristocracy.
VICTIMS OF GRAFT

LUCKNOW. May 27.-The as
founding backwardness of 1ndias
social development is nowhere more
clearly evident Than in the Oudh.
where the owners of great landed
estates have held powers over their
peasantry that belong In the most
distant ages of a forgotten feudal-
ism. The rights and interests OF
these "barons of Oudh," until this
year upheld by British law, reduced
the workers of the land to virtual
slavery. Forced labor, contribu.
tons in kind not only to the estate
owner but his underlings. concealed
the pockets OF the land barons. and
the right Of eviction under which
the peasant was forced to pay
heavily for a renewal Of lease
or lose the fruits of the labor OF
the best years OF his life. made his
existence more difficult than that
of any other peasantry.
Such social conditions. coupled
with the primitive living conditions.
throw back the average 0udh
farmer to an age quit and forgotten
many centuries ago by tlllers OF
the soil in the Western world.
In Abject Misery.
visited several of the villages
in which lived tenants of some Of
the Oudhs great land owners, and
the pictures took away in my
mind were pictures OF such abject
misery, such dead inertness, that /
wondered how men in the year Of
o,,l xr-tt h.
out protest such a life of sodden
hopelessness. Surely the call Of
freedom sounded 500 years ago in
England and more than a century
ago in France must have been heard.
even in this remote corner Of the
earth, before today.
have already tried to picture
the life OF the Indian villager in the
Punjab. But he. for all his back
ward methods. his utter lack of edu-
cation. and his ages-gone outlook
on life, Is a free man. for he owns
the soil he tills. Not SO the peas.
ant of the Oudh.
Trusts to Mature.
Here the land groans and cries
out with the burden of the teem-
Ing millions IL ls oPSh ~
support Often more than 1000
persons seek nourishment from one
square mile of soil. The head OF
swarming family rents his tiny plot
of ground. scratches its face little
with a wooden plow. plants his
seed in these shallow scars, and
trusts to natures beneficence TO
bring him a good harvest. When
his crops ripen he cuts them with
a small knife. piles the straw In an
open place and drives his two oxen
round and round upon II to trample
out the grain. This process com
plete, he winnows II in a sieve
hardly larger than a milk tin. sacks
and markets it. In a good year his
crops bring him perhaps 200 rupees
not enough to starve on.
For this he pays on the average
so rupees to the landlord. and In
addition makes a direct contribu-
tion of his crops. Finally. he must
work one OF two days a harvest.
at a time when he should be bend
ing all his efforts to the gather
ing of his own crops. for the land
owners. and pay small graft to the
landlords agent.
Evicted After seven Years.
Probably he has taken his lease
at the age of sixteen or seventeen.
and started to rear a family. Year
after year his wife brings children
into the world, which, more often
than not, a merciful Providence re-
moves. At the end of his seven
wears some one else covets the home
he has made for himself and is able
10 nav a larger bonus for the re-
newal of the lease. Out he goes
with his young family to find anoth-
er home under even worse conoi-
tions than those he leaves.
True, the land owner may say with
reason that the rents fixed by law
are out of keeping with the value
of the land. Under the old Oudh
rents act, he is permitted to in
crease the rental only one anna per
rupee at the expiration of every
seven-year term of lease. but he has
more than made up the difference IN
concealed rents. on which the gov
ernment gets no revenue. ana IN
forced labor and direct and Indirect
contributions.
1t is against these practices that
the oudh peasant has complained
more or less sporadically during the
last century, but not until last year,
when he learned the meaning of
collective bargaining, was he able
to make any impression on the
mind Of the land barons.
THE great trouble with these
land owners" said Col. ]. c. Faun-
thorpe. who has just completed his
of the Aka move
ment for the government. "is that
they have not realized the force of
the aErarian movement which has
spread out of Europe into the East
They do not realize that unless they
make concessions and deal fairly
with their tenants. the peasants
will soon relegate them to the same
limbo which swallowed the feudal
barons of France in the days of the
revolution and those of Russia In
our own times.
THE new land acts, which assure
to the owner~a fair rental for his
land. and to the tenant a life lease
of his farm, which do away with all
the petty graft accepted and hal
lowed by the custom of centuries,
have met with opposition from the
very men who should be heartiest
In their cooperation. They will not
march abreast of the times"
1t was not surprising. then. that
such movement as the Aka should
have developed in the Oudh. The
cali Of the land and desire for its
ownership is the first instinct in the
heart Of the farmer of every CLINE
and race. This passion has been
satisfied In the West not without