doing their best with it, but they did not see how they could hold on for more than another month. They have no grain at home, and some of the cooking pots have been sold. A bullock cart came by, and some farmers from Sarvala, a village eight miles off, seeing us talking, pulled up to ascertain what it was all about. Would they be willing to say how things were going with them? I asked through the interpreter. no objection. They made "Gutal farmed 225 acres, and had no crops. He had 100 beasts last years, bullocks, buffaloes, and two horses, and has lost seventy. Last year's crops were worth from 1000 to 1200 rupees. He paid 500 rupees to the Government and 500 for labour, and borrowed money for maintenance. "Dulladha owns 135 acres, and has lost fifteen cattle out of his stock of twenty-two. After paying assessment-350 rupees-last year, and the expenses of the farm, he was able to pay his way with his family working on the farm. His ancestral debt is 5000 rupees, and up to last year he has paid interest on it in money or in kind. "The third Sarvala man was in good circumstances, and his companions discreetly moved away after explaining that his maternal uncle had left him great riches, and such was my own embarrassment that I forgot to take down his name. The prosperous nephew owns 300 acres, but this year there was no produce, and out of 120 beasts, 20 remained, the others having died for want of fodder. "The three had been served with notices of assessment. I did not see the actual notice, but the following is a literal translation of the Mahratti from a copy of which I have since obtained :— NOTICE. A. B., Inhabitant of Village Taluka District You are informed that the land marginally noted and the assessment marginally noted are in the revenue records. The assessment for year, being Rs. and you have not paid it yet. instalment of was due on This notice is therefore given to you that if the instalment of Rs. the notice fee, total within ten days from the date of this notice stricter measures will be taken according to the law, and the whole assessment for the current year will be recovered will be liable to pay account of the non-payment of instalment. at once, and you as fee on Date. Cold comfort this for people who are brought as low as the peasants of France before the Revolution, who have ruin and hunger as their daily portion, while plague and cholera stand over them ready to strike. To them appears the Government of the British Empire in the likeness of the broker's man. The Government may explain that what it wants is to get the money from those who can afford to pay, and especially from the 'bunya'; to which I would reply that recovery from the 'bunya' will in nine cases out of ten only increase the burdens of the cultivator, that it is difficult to discriminate between those who are able to pay and those who are not, and that even if the selection could be managed with a certain rough justice, the sight of Government beginning to distrain-I hear of 'examples' being made as I travel about the country -will break what little is left unbroken in the hearts of the people, and lead them to suppose that their own homes and lands are going to follow." Bengal Punjab Madras Bombay |