Reconstructing India

Front matter

a ees aes re ete Gees i thd

3 a) Pyne aa

Pelee

Preface

In view of the extensive changes which are now being made under the new Government of India Act, it is necessary to study Indian political, economic and social problems in a new light.

It is the spirit and intention of the Act to prepare the country for full responsible government, and it should certainly be the endeavour of the people to remove at once every stumbling block from their path and to take the most complete advantage of this new opportunity.

The Indian mind needs to be familiarized with the principles of modern progress, a universal impulse for inquiry and enterprise awakened, and earnest thinking and effort promoted. By these and other means a new type of Indian citizenship—pur-

Vv vi PREFACE poseful, progressive, and self-respecting — should be created, and a self-reliant nationhood developed.

This book seeks to indicate, however imperfectly, the avenues towards reconstruction now open. It attempts, in a constructive spirit, to outline a scheme of true national life, and for the high task of achievement invites co-operation from all parties.

The author may claim some measure of administrative experience, as he has spent, many years in the service of the British Government in India and in leading Indian States. He has, on several occasions, travelled outside India for the purpose of obtaining first-hand knowledge of world conditions and problems.

The book has had to be written whilst away from home and under other difficulties. The author is indebted to several friends and assistants for material help in its preparation.

M. VISVESVARAYA.

Lonpon,

10th October, 1920.

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Contents

PAGE PREFACE . . s ; : ‘ Vv Tue InDIAN PROBLEM : ; in 1 InpiA IN RELATION TO PROGRESSIVE COUNTRIES . . : é 2 17 POLITICAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE RECONSTRUCTION THe CENTRAL GOVERNMENT . aD PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. ; 57 Loca SELF-GOVERNMENT . ; . 74 FINANOE . Cosa 3 i : 95

ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION

Economic ACTIVITIES IN ADVANCED

Chapter I The Indian Problem

Tue Great War subjected all countries to. a severe test, revealed weaknesses in the political, social and industrial structure, — previously unsuspected, and forced statesmen to undertake reconstruction on a comprehensive scale.

The first place in all programmes of reconstruction has necessarily been assigned to the repair of ravages wrought by war and the conversion of war machinery to productive use. Next has come the strengthening of national defence. Then have followed measures for increasing production, especially of manufactures and shipping, and the extension of foreign commerce, particularly the export of manufactured goods. Great emphasis has also been placed on the importance of extending 1 B education, and on the necessity of improving social conditions and raising the standard of living among the labouring classes. India, happily, has had no devastated cities to reconstruct, no ruined homesteads to restore, and no sunken ships to replace. Her problem of demobilization has been comparatively small. She has, however, incurred for the first time a heavy unproductive debt, and has had to face the problem of high prices and food scarcity. Reconstruction on an extensive scale is more urgently needed in India than in other countries, because political, social and economic developments have been insufficiently considered for many years past, and because, in consequence of such neglect, the standard of living has reached a level far below the minimum recognized in civilized communities as necessary for decent existence. The Japanese Government fifty years ago undertook a comprehensive programme of reconstruction. The lead then given is still being vigorously followed. Asa result, life in Japan to-day is one sustained effort toward self-improvement, and already the average standard of earning there is three to four times what it is in India.

As a dependency, India has had no reconstruction programme. She is, therefore, called upon now to begin much of the work which Japan has already successfully accomplished. She has to rebuild a structure dilapidated by the neglect of ordinary repairs.

One of the greatest deficiencies which India has to make up is her lack of facilities for securing education. To-day, three villages out of every four are without a school-house, and about 30,000,000 children of school-going age are growing up without any instruction. The officials have been so opposed to compulsory education that, until quite recently, they were disinclined even to permit municipalities willing to bear the cost to introduce such a system. No wonder that barely seven per cent. of the Indian population can read and write, whereas in progressive countries eighty to ninety per cent. of the population is literate.

The universities are utterly inadequate in number for so large and populous a a RECONSTRUCTING INDIA country, and fall far short of modern requirements in equipment. The provision for technical and commercial education is meagre in the extreme.

Lack of liberality in this respect, and absence of official encouragement of indi-. genous enterprises, have kept Indians from developing new and expanding old industries and extending commerce. At the same time, the world competition has made it impossible for the indigenous industries to thrive. Indians have, therefore, been driven more and more to the land.

Nearly three-fourths of the population is solely dependent upon agriculture, which, owing to poverty and lack of education, is still conducted with crude, old-fashioned methods and implements, and without any scientific attempt to renew the fertility of the exhausted soil. The yield per acre is small, and the farmer is able barely to eke out a miserable existence. In spite of these chronic conditions, no provision has been made to enable the rural population to find profitable work by developing agricultural or cottage industries. This is especially to be deplored, because farming operations in India occupy only six or seven months out of the year. The development of the natural resources of the country has been restricted because Indian directing energy has not been given free scope, and British direction available in India has been limited. Had Indians received support and encouragement from Government, they, with their old skill at handicrafts, might have produced manufactured goods at arate that would have made them formidable competitors in the modern industrial world.

Substantial success in trade and commerce is impossible to-day without large capital and combines. In the United Kingdom, such combinations are encouraged and assisted by Government. In India, on the contrary, they are regarded as a menace to British trade and, therefore, to British supremacy, and discouraged. _ Industry is even penalized. Excise duty

is, for instance, imposed upon cotton manufactures. Canada taxes all imported goods ; 15 per cent. on cotton goods from the

United Kingdom and 22 to 23 per cent. on those from the United States. The duty is put on with the express intention of protecting the Canadian manufacturer from foreign competition.

In India, on the other hand, not only are cotton goods imported practically free, but the government actually imposes an excise duty on the products of the local mills to enable the British manufactures to compete successfully with them. Nowhere else in the world would such an obvious attempt to handicap industry be tolerated.

Indians engaged in trade and commerce in foreign countries have no financial or political backing, and foreign intercourse is discouraged. Shipping, as an industry, has practically died out.

The cumulative effect of these policies upon the economic condition of the people has been most deplorable. An unskilled labourer in the United States or Canada earns more in a week than the Indian worker earns in a whole year. The estimated average wealth of the Indian population is less"than one-twentieth of the corresponding average for the United Kingdom, and about one-thirtieth of that for the United States. And yet the 325,000,000 of Indians have not only to feed and clothe themselves, but also to support one of the costliest administrations in the world.

The low output of production in India is mainly due to the fact that men and women are engaged in a lower order of occupations there than in other lands. The higher occupations are under non- Indian control. While careers are open to Britons at home and abroad, wherever they may choose to carry on their life work, Indians find the doors of opportunity closed to them in their motherland, and are not welcomed evenas labourers in civilized countries.

The present system of governance aims at preserving order rather than ensuring progress. Peace and security are maintained, moreover, by autocratic methods, and the activities of the people are restricted and their national growth stunted in the process. Again and again, during recent years, antiquated regulations have been employed to deprive Indians of liberty without charge or trial, and, not satisfied with these drastic powers, the administration, during the last decade, has armed itself with legislation enabling it to interfere with freedom of press, speech and movement in a manner unknown in any civilized country.

The people themselves are, as a rule, passive and unagegressive. They are guided rather by the opinion of the caste or community than by a common national standard of life, thought and work, by centuries-old traditions and superstitions rather than by the collective experience of the modern world. Foreign travel igs interdicted. Through leaning on others, large numbers of people have become reduced to social parasites.

The existence in India of millions of persons of the depressed classes, whose very touch is considered pollution by the caste people, is to be condemned on humanitarian as well as economic grounds.

The backwardness of women’s education, and the restriction of their employment to domestic duties and, among the agricultural classes, to casual field work, without their being given any recognized status or reward, is also holding back the country. It is inevitable that where such a large proportion of the population is kept unemployed or partially employed, or engaged in inferior poorly paid occupations, the per capita production should be very small, and the efficiency and prosperity of the nation, as a whole, very low.

The social customs of India promote a fairly rapid growth of population. Early marriage is the rule, and children are born into a world in which no provision has been made for their maintenance. In a country like Norway, where people marry at about 25, the rate of increase of population is slow, and it is, therefore, possible to maintain a _ high standard of living. India has still to learn that it is better to have a small, well-trained, prosperous population, than to have millions of half-starved, inefficient people retarding the progress of the country by their dead-weight.

Hope is to be derived, however, from the fact that India possesses potential energy of unparalleled magnitude. Her greatest asset is the inherent intelligence of the people. Though relatively to the total population the percentage of illiteracy is appallingly large, yet the aggregate volume of literacy compares very favourably with that to be found in European countries, not excepting the United Kingdom itself. As many, or more, children are attending educational institutions in India as in the United Kingdom. There are more undergraduates in the eight Indian universities than there are in all the universities of the United Kingdom.

Under favourable conditions, with steadfast perseverance in a settled national policy, and by the introduction of science, modern machinery, and up-to-date business methods, the production of the country from agriculture and manufactures could easily be doubled within the next ten and trebled in fifteen years. Foreign trade could likewise be doubled in a similar period. In less than fifteen years the high percentage of illiteracy could be reduced to a fraction of what it is at present. The constitutional reforms, sanctioned under the Government of India Act, of December, 1919, will, if worked in the spirit in which they were conceived by the British statesmen responsible for them, greatly increase India’s opportunities. That such reforms were given so important a place in the British programme of reconstruction, demonstrates Britain’s goodwill towards India. That a reasoned comprehensive scheme of this magnitude was matured, in spite of persistent opposition, and placed upon the Statute Book in times of great political unrest, is a tribute to the genius and earnestness of its sponsors. But for Mr. Montagu’s perseverance and breadth of view, the reforms might have meant merely increased popular representation in the legislative councils, the people being left to fight the bureaucracy in order to obtain, one by one, the internal reforms they desired. The scheme has defects. Its scope might have been wider; but it is wellintentioned, and so far as it goes, complete.

It must be remembered that the people’s standards are higher to-day than they have ever been in the history of Indo- British relations. In order to create conditions favourable to progress, there must be a radical change in the system of Imperial control over Indian affairs, and in the official attitude towards the people’s aspirations and Indian problems generally,

The reforms scheme will doubtless give the people a substantial voice in local affairs, but that, in itself, will not be sufficient.

The public activities of the country have hitherto yielded scanty results, because they have not had a reasoned scheme of national life behind them. State policies, to be successful, must have for their sole aim the good of the people, and must be precise and adapted to their understanding, tastes and means.

There should, moreover, be an effective organization, independent of Government, to survey and catalogue the problems and needs of the nation, and to refer such problems to all classes of society for study, with a view to benefiting the country as a whole. This would create in the people the power of joint thought and joint action, and stimulate the growth of mass consciousness, the truest tests of a nation’s efficiency.

It will be necessary ie study world conditions as well as local conditions in order to discover the weak points in the Indian system. The deficiencies must, then, be catalogued and plans formulated. This book is an attempt, though a very imperfect one, in this direction.

Next, a favourable atmosphere must be created. It is hoped that the constitutional reforms will help to do this.

Thirdly, the leaders must carry on press and platform propaganda to stimulate the people. The masses must be made to understand India’s position relative to modern conditions. They must be shown how the work that lies before the country is to be performed. Differences between the various communities or races, and between castes and creeds permanently residing in the country, must be sympa~ thetically adjusted, and where possible, eliminated. The people must be taught to associate in their daily work for a common object and with common aspirations. They must realize that anything they may do to help each other will be a service to the motherland. Above all, the country as a whole must join in constructive effort with the rest of mankind.

If, as suggested in this book, the utilization of India’s man power and material resources is placed in the forefront of national aims, if the people’s general and technical knowledge is developed, if private initiative is stimulated, if all the latest inventions and discoveries are applied to increase production, if foreign experience is adapted to Indian conditions and fully utilized and useful foreign institutions readily adopted, if in short, all the improvements necessary and possible are introduced, the development of India, politically, economically and socially, will proceed at a pace which may be one of the outstanding features of the coming generation.

The immediate future will put all persons and institutions to a severe test. The forethought and vigour with which Indians apply themselves to their new task, their capacity for joint action, their ability to maintain harmonious relations between all races and communities, and the co-operation which they will be able to secure between themselves and Government agencies, will determine the pace of their progress.

If the British cordially help the Indians to build up their industry and trade, the resulting effect on India’s prosperity will be immense, while the volume of benefit, even to Great Britain, will be far greater than it is at present. Such help will bind the two countries together by the strongest of links, namely, common interests.

British business interests and trade will assuredly not suffer in the long run. With increase of production, there will be gain all round—to the producer, to the manufacturer, to the middleman and merchant, to every one who takes part in building up the country’s prosperity. With such growth, although British interests may, as time goes on, seem smaller relatively to Indian interests, there is no reason why they should not increase in actual volume, as has been the case in Canada. There is room for both Britain and India in the great reconstruction work that lies before the country. Both will benefit, if the exclusive or partisan spirit is replaced by Sympathy and active co-operation.

Chapter II India In Relation To Progressive Countries

BEFORE attempting to prepare a programme of reconstruction for India, it is necessary to consider her economic and social conditions, in relation to those of progressive nations, to discover where and why she lags behind. It will not be sufficient merely to compare her present achievement with her own past record. The results of such a survey may be hurtful to Indian pride, but if India aspires to occupy a dignified position in the comity of nations, she must face facts.

One has but to glance at vital statistics to realize the gravity of the situation. According to the census of 1911, the population of British India was 244,267,542, and of the Indian States 70,888, ae or 17 a total of 315,156,396 for the whole Indian Empire. Accurate revised figures will not be available until after the census has been taken in 1921; but it is probably safe to estimate that the actual present population of India is 325,000,000.

In 1911 the population was spread over an area of 1,093,074 square miles of British territory and 709,583 square miles of Indian States, representing a total area of 1,802,657 square miles. Thus there was an average of 175 persons to the square mile for the whole of India. The density of population in British India proper was 223 and in the Indian States 100 persons to the square mile. The corresponding figures for the United Kingdom were 374, for Japan 356, and for the United States of America 31.

Although the average density of population is only 175 persons to the square mile for the whole country, there are districts in the Madras Presidency where the density goes up to 1,488. There are districts in Bengal with a maximum density of 1,163 persons and in Bihar and the

United Provinces of 882 persons to the square mile.

The United States, with a population of 91,972,266 persons, stands, among progressive countries, next to British India, with her population of 244,267,542. But while America has large resources of surplus arable land, in India all soil fit for profitable cultivation has long ago come under tillage. Usually the resources in such areas are taxed to the uttermost, and since at least three-fourths of the population are dependent on agriculture, even the partial failure of a single monsoon is often attended by widespread disaster. This is one explanation of the comparatively high death-rate and the low average duration of life in the country.

The average death-rate for all India for the past ten years has been 31-8 per thousand. The corresponding recorded death-rate in other countries is 21:9 in Japan, 15-12 in Canada, 14-6 in the United Kingdom, 14:0 in the United States of America and 10-5 in Australia.

The average life of an Indian is estimated at 23 years, as compared with 45 to 55 in Western countries. Climatic influences are not to be disregarded, but in the main this is undoubtedly due to the low standard of living in India, and the lack of healthy and orderly growth of the population.

The average birth-rate in India for the past ten years has been 38-2 per thousand. The figure for Japan is 34-2, for the United States 31-3, for Canada 27-8, for Australia 27:7, and for the United Kingdom 21-1.

Religio-social practices make for early marriage, andas aresult the average birth-rate is so high that, in spite of the appalling death-rate, the population is increasing rapidly, approximately at a rate of five per thousand per annum. This may not prove an unmixed blessing, if new industries are not introduced and new careers provided in the country, or an outlet found for the surplus population outside India.

Of the 315 million people inhabiting India, including the Indian States, only 18,500,000 persons (16,900,000 men and 1,600,000 women) were returned as literate in the census of 1911. This means that only one out of every seventeen persons or 5-8 per cent. of the population are able to read and write. This was the state of affairs nine years ago. The percentage is perhaps slightly higher now, but it is deplorably low as compared with other advanced countries. The corresponding percentage of literacy is 95 in Japan, 94 in the United Kingdom, and 90 in the United States.

The number of existing schools for elementary education in British India is 142,203 and the number of pupils attending them is 5,818,730, of whom 5,188,411 are boys and 630,319 are girls. Taking all classes of educational institutions together, there is, in British India, one institution for every 1,717 persons of the population.

The school-going population in advanced countries varies from 15 to 20 per cent. or more of the entire population. Taking 15 per cent. only as a basis for calculation, the population of school age in India may be reckoned at 18,731,054 boys and

17,909,077 girls. The number actually attending the schools is 6,621,527 boys and 1,230,419 girls. That is, one boy out of every three and one girl out of every fifteen fit to be at school are actually attending educational institutions. The expenditure on education in British India from all sources, including fees, in 1916-17 was 11-2 crores of rupees,: giving a rate of Rs. 14-4 per head of school-going population or 7 annas per head of the entire population. The corresponding expenditure in other countries was Rs. 388 per head in the United Kingdom, Rs. 104 in Canada, Rs. 13 in Japan and Rs. 114 in the United States of America.

The provision for technical and commercial education in India is pitifully meagre. The students receiving technical and industrial education throughout all India num- © bered only 16,594 in 1917-18.

The statistics quoted show that the education of girls is neglected even more than that of boys, and that technical

* A note on the Indian currency and rates of exchange willbe found on page 95, education is practically non-existent. Most of the technical and commercial work of the indigenous population is being performed in an indifferent manner by persons who have learnt their trade by practice or who have obtained only home training of a rudimentary character. The Government and public effort in this direction has been negligible. It may be stated with truth that no serious attempt has been made to educate or to equip the nation for an industrial and commercial career, to enable it to earn a decent living and to hold its own amongst civilized nations.

The number of newspapers and periodicals published in India in 1917-18 was 3.978, which works out at about twelve per million of the population. The corresponding number per million persons in the United States was 225, in the United Kingdom 199, and in Japan 50.

There is a vast amount of Press activity in countries like the United States. It is recorded that the circulation of periodicals of all classes in that country, including dailies, reached, in 1914, the enormous figure of 205,000,000. Many of the dailies are made up of about 24 pages, imperial, the Sunday editions running to 100 pages or more.

The Press is a great educative force in all advanced countries, notably in America and the United Kingdom. In parts of the former country, the Press has taken upon itself the task of stopping corrupt practices and keeping the officials up to the mark in the proper discharge of their duties.

The indigenous Press of India is a poorly equipped and persecuted agency. We have Press Acts and Press control in varying degrees of rigidity both in British India and the Indian States, and the Press as a whole has no enthusiastic support in politically influential circles in any part of the country.

Except for a small expenditure annually incurred for purposes of coast defence, there is no Indian Navy to speak of. For decades, India has been entirely dependent for protection upon the British Navy: and this policy has not been revised even when other units of the Empire have been permitted to have their own navies. The depredations wrought, without any challenge, by the Emden in Madras, during the early period of the War, emphasized the necessity of creating an Indian navy.

In normal times, the Indian Army consists of about 70,000 British and 140,000 Indian troops, the latter officered entirely by Englishmen, making a total peace strength of about 210,000 of all arms.

Of the total British forces engaged in the recent Great War, the United Kingdom gave 75 per cent., all the overseas dominions together 12 per cent. and India 13 per cent.

During the War, the Government of India recruited, on a voluntary basis, over 600,000 combatants, and more than 400,000 non-combatants. Including the contribution made from the standing army India, therefore, in round figures sent on foreign service 1,300,000 men.

The annual military expenditure in India was £21,000,000 before the War, and has recently risen to the high figure of over £40,000,000.

The corresponding expenditure on defence in some of the other countries for 1913-14 is shown below :—

Army. Navy. millions £.| millions £.

United States E 2 30 Zi, United Kingdom . ‘ 28 44 Japan . 5 ; ’ 7°69 5°4 Australia. ; : Dy Canada 5 : 15 rounded on three sides by the sea, and on the fourth by an almost impassable mountain wall, India spends on defence in normal times more than twice the amount required to maintain the Empire of Japan.

The number of post offices in India in 1917-18 was 19,410. Ten years previously (i.e. in 1907-8) there were 17,777 offices. Considering the vastness of the country, neither the present number nor the latest recorded decennial growth can be said to be adequate. The number of letters, newspapers, parcels, etc., conveyed by post offices in 1917-18 aggregated 1,147,922,768, giving a rate of 3-6 articles for every individual inhabitant. The corresponding rates in other countries were 147 in Australia, 123 in the United Kingdom, 136 in the United States and 34 in Japan.

The number of telegraphic messages conveyed in India during 1917-18 was 19,897,787 or 6-3 for every 100 inhabitants. The corresponding rate in the United Kingdom was 198, in Canada 154, and in Japan 73.

The telephone has come very largely into daily use for business in all advanced countries. According to the latest statistics available, the number of telephone instruments in use for every 10,000 inhabitants was 1,850 in Chicago, 1,170 in New York, 800 in Montreal, 480 in Sydney, 390 in London, 200 in Tokyo, and only 4 in Bombay and 3 in Calcutta.

Production may be considered under two heads, namely, agriculture and industries, the latter including mining, fisheries, etc. Under agriculture, British India has a cultivated area (including double cropped land) of 265,000,000 acres, of which nearly 47,000,000 acres are irrigated.

Taking good and bad years together, the value per acre of irrigated crops, in normal times, may be put down at Rs. 50 per acre and of dry cropsat Rs. 15 peracre. The total agricultural production before the War was valued at about Rs. 562 crores or £375,000,000. The estimates of production under agriculture for other advanced countries are: The United States, £4,277,000,000; Japan, £300,000,000 ; Canada, £247,000,000 ; the United Kingdom, £239,000,000, and Australia, £73,000,000.

The statistical information available regarding Indian industries is very inadequate, although accurate information in this respect is especially necessary in the case of a country so industrially backward as India. Basing the estimate upon a knowledge of what is going on in the Provinces, the production from industries may be reckoned at about one-fifth of that from agriculture.

The total production of British India, excluding the value of live-stock, minerals, fisheries, ete., may roughly be estimated at £450,000,000, and the total, including all these sources, will probably not exceed £600,000,000. This gives a rate of production valued at about Rs. 36 per head of the population.

These figures are in the nature of a guess and presumably tentative. In view of the poverty of the people, it is important that a more correct balance-sheet of their resources be maintained, so that both the Government and the people may keep the figures in mind and endeavour to improve conditions from year to year.

The per capita production in the United States and Canada is £40-6 and £29-5 respectively under agriculture and £46-0 and £72-1 under industries. There is no reason why corresponding figures should not be available for India, but, as a matter of fact, they are not.

In India, the production under factory industries is very small compared with that under agriculture, and insignificant in comparison with other leading manufacturing countries.

The value of imports, both merchandise and treasure, into British India amounted to £109,570,000, and of exports from the country to £163,263,000 during 1917-18. The total sea-borne trade was £272,833,000.

This gives a rate of £1-1 per head of population, without making allowance for the population of the Indian States. If that allowance be made, the rate works out to £0:9 per head. The corresponding figures for other countries are: £62-6 in Canada, £40-:0 in the United Kingdom, £37-2 in Australia, £17-0 in the United States, and £6-4 in Japan.