Asiatic Quarterly Review (Full Title: The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review, and Oriental and Colonial Record): Volume XIII, No. 26 [‎475v] (75/238)

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The Poverty of the Ray at.
income which must be at least 40 per cent, of the yearly-
revenue—in other words, to transfer a portion of the pay
ment of revenue from the customary Oriental source to
the comparatively small section of the community that is
capable of taxation. For the so-called “land-tax” of India
—as has been so often pointed out—is not a tax at all;
the Rayat would pay the same amount of rent whatever
became of it, and the Ma’afidars, who pay nothing to the
State, are no better off than the Zemindars who do.
Nevertheless taxation, in the true technical sense, is
always difficult in a region where the population is poor
and unrepresented ; an Indian has only to abstain from
litigation and luxury, and his obligatory contribution to
the necessities of the protecting power will be limited to
an excise upon the salt which seasons his daily diet.
The present writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. would be far from admitting that no
administrative reform can be based upon statistical inquiry ;
on the contrary, the report of Sir A. MacDonnell’s Com
mission shows that several important reforms may be
suggested. So far as these relate to famine relief, they are
matters of detail to be discussed by experts. Sir Charles
Elliott has criticised some of them very ably in a recent
number of the Asiatic Quarterly, and when the proposals
of the Commission were embodied in legislative action at
Bombay the native members of the Council voted against
them to a man. But there is something of even greater
importance than the relief of famine distress—namely, the
prevention of its occurrence. People do not now suffer
from this kind of calamity in civilized countries such as
England and France. The question may naturally be
asked, Why is India so particularly afflicted? Setting
aside physical difficulties—though such undoubtedly there
are-we can see that if the people had money enough the
pressure of occasional short crops would not cause so much
misery. It has indeed been stated that during all the late
trouble there was a sufficient stock of food in the country
or every inhabitant, had there only been money to buy it