Evening star., 1943-08-05
Vale Of Kashmir,'
India S Play Spot,
Has Much Poverty
Second OF a SerieS.)
BY PRESTON GROVER,

Associated Press Foreisn Correspondent.
SRINAGAR, Kashmir, India
this garden spot of India, this vale
of Kashmir" which has been the
playspot of moguls, poets and vice.
roys for centuries, lie samples of all
the political and economic ailments
which have made India a chronic
headache to England even while it
remained the Jewel of the empire" :"
KaShmir is princely state, ruled
by his highness. Maharaja Harisingh,
and is generally considered second
only to fantastically wealthy Hy-
derabad in Importance. Situated in
the high country of Northern India,
it Is one of Britains strategically
important frontiers, for it borders
not only on China and Afghanistan,
but on Russia.
T talked with most of the i'm
portant persons in the capital, in
cluding the maharaja, who could
help me find what made the State
tick. When one cautious British Of
fetal voiced alarm that should at
tempt to interview leaders of the
principal agitation groups, one Of
the maharajas ministers expressed
regret that such a thing had oc-
Cured and made certain there would
be no further hindrance.
Kashmir is big state territorially,
lying in s,.s midst OF the worlds
highest anu frost rugged mountains,
the Himalayas. Peaks padded with
glaciers tower $4,000 feet and more
into the air. At their feet labors
congested population of hungry Hin
dus and Moslems so unschooled and
so poorly fed that they are often de-
scribed as the most abject of India's
poverty-ridden millions
Little of Soil Is TilIable.
The soil is rich. but only such a
small part of it can be farmed that
in some spots as many as 1900 per-
sons must live on the produce OF a
square mile. Even highly indus
trialized Rhode Island supports only
STA to the mile. A census report
of 1941 put the population at 4,02l.-
900 and that was virtually the peak
load the land could support without
resort to intense induStrialization
Yet every year, in spite of the heavy
death rate common to India, 40
900 new mouths, the equivalent of
a small city, must be fed. During
the last 10 years the population in
creased by 100000, and the rate of
increase is rising steadily. Social
workers plead in vain for birth con-
troll clinics.
The result is mad scramble for
work and subsistence. The average
wage of rural workers Is 10 to IL
cents a day. In the towns and
cities the average of unskilled work
ers is Is cents, while skilled wood
carvers and weavers responsible for
Kashmir's most famous products get
an average OF 40 cents a day. Col
lege graduates are eager for work at
80 rupees month. That is roughly
$40.
OF course. these conditions cam
not be compared with American
standards of living, but the census
report was gloomy about the whole
outlook. Skilled laborers often are
in debt to their masters and cam
not quit There are no labor un-
ions to bargain. Peasants mortgage
their crops in advance. Fewer than
six persons in a hundred can read
and write, while among women 1t is
barely one in two hundred. The
census said Indebtedness was gen.
eral among all classes.
Just as in the rest OF India, there
is no quick, sure answer to the
troubles. If more and better farm
land is added by irrigation or drain
age. the increase in food causes
more people to survive the hard
life and in no time at all the old
poverty level is reached.
Want Maharaja to Remain.
There are two political organiza-
tions in the state, one following the
general pattern of the national
congress of Ghandi and Nahru, the
other patterned on M A. Jinnah's
Moslem League. In general there
is not dimes worth of difference
in their major aims. They both
want the maharaja to remain, but
want his power trimmed to that of
a constitutional monarch like the
II y -