Asiatic Quarterly Review (Full Title: The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review, and Oriental and Colonial Record): Volume XIII, No. 26 [‎476r] (76/238)

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The Poverty of the Rayat.
with. Now that is a very serious matter, and one that
takes Indian famine out of the category of Divine visita
tion and brings it into that of evils remediable by man.
The local authorities are aware of this, and have pro
posed a remedy which is now the subject of active experi
ment. If the individual Rayat be so poor and his credit
so low that he cannot raise money, let it be tried whether
combination will help him. Union fait force, as the Belgians
say, and it is accordingly proposed to establish co-operative
associations in the rural districts, which may be able to
lend and borrow, and fund the means of making advances on
reasonable terms, to needy agriculturists. 1 he experiment
is certainly interesting ; the difficulty is very tersely stated in
Sir C. Elliott’s paper already cited, and the local press has
confirmed his criticism. To start a co-operative credit
association requires capital, and it is natural to ask in any
such case whence that capital is to come. An aggregate
of ciphers will not make a sum, and a pauper peasant is
but a cipher. One is reminded of Thackeray’s remark
when an impecunious friend spoke of a mutual “ Hand-in-
hand ” society. “ I quite see,” said the great author, “ the
members have nothing, and they lend it to one another.”
There is but one man probably in a small village com
munity who has either financial resources or habits of
business—namely, the local money-lender, who makes the
necessary advances to the agriculturists on the security of
the crops and the land. For such accommodation he
charges a high rate of interest, and if he is to be invited to
join a loan fund paying a reasonable dividend, he must
be offered material compensation. From this there is no
escape; call the man Shylock, if you will—Shylock, as
has been observed elsewhere, must be either conciliated or
cashiered.
If we proceed to ask, What are the necessities by virtue
of which a usurer exists in every Indian village? we are
met with two explanations. None who know the facts will
deny that a perennial demand for cash arises from the
THIRD SERIES. VOL. XIII.
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