Rusticus loquitur

Front matter

Sees

PRINCETON, N. J.

PURCHASED BY THE HAMILL MISSIONARY FUND.

Preface

Turs book is an attempt to deal with sides of village life left untouched or only lightly grazed in my former book, The Punjab Peasantin Prosperity and Debt: for example, the peasant’s relation to landlord, pir,! mullah, and priest; his supplementary means of subsistence; new developments in his farming; the social and economic position of women; emigration, housing, and rural sanitation; the village community and rural reconstruction. ‘The book came to be written because last cold weather in the course of my official duties as Registrar, Co-operative Societies, Punjab, I undertook an extensive tour on horseback with the primary object of finding out what headway Co-operation was making in the countryside. The tour was designed to give mea bird’s-eye view of the province as a whole and took me through the submontane belt at the foot of the Himalayas, the country bordering on Hindustan and Rajputana, the well-tilled but congested area between the Sutlej and the Beas, the prosperous canal colony of Lyallpur, the rainless and comparatively primitive tract along the Indus, and finally, across the northern uplands which look towards the Frontier. It fell into two parts, and, following linguistic and to some extent climatic division, I have called the one the eastern, and the other the western Punjab. Throughout I have sought to ascertain what the peasant does and what he thinks on each question, believing that this is an indispensable preliminary to all schemes for his betterment. This explains the title, for which perhaps a word of apology is due to my Indian readers. I chose it because it exactly expresses the standpoint of the book. The subtitle is due to a phrase constantly used by the more intelligent peasants I met in contrasting the old order and the new. 1 Muhammadan religious leader.

x PREFACE

As to the form of the book, there are, says Arthur Young, two methods of writing travels: ‘to register the journey itself, or the result of it’. I have tried to combine both, giving in the first two parts the journey as it occurred from day to day, and in the third a brief summary of its results upon my mind. If beyond a few scattered references little is said on the political questions of the day, it is because they are of small interest to the peasant, who would probably endorse Sir Rabindranath Tagore’s remark: ‘Our real problem in India is not political: it is social.’! The Indian peasant stands for something more enduring than political forms. He represents a way of life as old as civilization itself. Though this life varies with climate, race, religion, and age, it has an underlying unity which makes peasants everywhere akin. To understand the peasant in one country is therefore a step towards understanding him in another; and it may almost be said that he is the real link between East and West. He is, too, the strongest link on the chain that binds the ages. What a Latin writer wrote of him over 1,500 years ago might equally well have been written of the Punjab peasant to-day: ‘rusticam plebem, quae sub divo et in labore nutritur, solis patiens, umbrae negligens, deliciarum ignara, simplicis animi, parvo contenta, duratis ad omnem laborum tolerantiam membris; cui gestare ferrum, fossam ducere, onus ferre consuetudo de rure est.’ 2

In conclusion I must gratefully acknowledge all that was done to smooth my way by the many members of the co-operative staff with whom I came into contact on my tour, and also the great assistance rendered in the subsequent verification of doubtful points in the 1nformation given me. I have done my best to write with 1 Nationalism, p. 97.

2 The peasant folk who are nurtured in labour under the open sky, patient of the sun, careless of the shade, ignorant of pleasure, simple in mind, and content with little; with limbs hardened to the endurance of every kind of toil, and well accustomed in the rustic way to carry the sword, dig the trench, and bear the pack (Vegetius, Epitoma Rei Militaris, lib. I, cap. 3).

PREFACE xl the fullest possible consideration of the feelings of those I met on my way, and I trust that, if unwittingly I have caused offence, it will be believed that no offence was intended. On the contrary, I appreciate keenly the patience and courtesy shown by all concerned in answer- . ing my innumerable questions. A word of special gratitude is due to my old colleague, Mr. C. F. Strickland, I.C.S. (retired), who was good enough to read the first two parts of the book. I am also under obligation to the Librarian of the India Office for placing at my disposal the many official publications that had to be consulted while the book was under preparation.

Vil:

XI.

CONTENTS PART I: THE EASTERN PUNJAB

. HosHraRPUR—THE Una TAHSIL .

Marriages, Education, and Hinduism.

. HosH1aRPUR—THE GARSHANKAR ‘I AHSIL

The Difficulties of the Peasant Proprietor.

. AMBALA .

Rajputs and Better Tesey

. GuRGAON.

Rural crewed, Woman: a Beast.

JULLUNDUR Houses, Emigration, soe Work.