EXTREME POVERTY OF THE MASSES 247 large provincial town in India. It was so seventy years ago. In the Inquiry of 1813 Mr. Robert Rickards was asked: Have the natives of Bombay, to your knowledge, evinced any antipathy to the consumption of the useful staple commodities of Great Britain, or of any other country?' He answered: So far from any antipathy to the use of any European commodities, those articles are very much coveted in every part of India.' Further asked: 'To what circumstances do you mainly consider it is owing, the slight foreign and internal commerce of India in comparison with the extent and fertility of the country, and the vast population it possesses?' Mr. Rickards answered: 'I ascribe it, and always have done, to the extreme poverty of the great mass of the population, chiefly occasioned by the pressure of our fiscal institutions.' There is no need to go to distant periods in respect of which it may be urged that the conditions compared with those existing to-day have altered: the last three decades of the nineteenth century will suffice. I submit a table showing the value of all imports in the years 1870, 1880, 1889-90, and 1898-99. It is as follows: Cotton Twist, Yarn, etc. 2,715,370 2,745,306 2,321,731 1,687,097 Ivory ... ... ... I 118,022 184,727| 152,161 161,137 Compiled from the Statistical Abstracts of British India, Nos. 14 to 34. ALLEGED INCREASE OF POPULATION 249 Reckoning in everything, including Treasure, save Government Stores, to be immediately dealt with, the 1880 shows an increase of £4,563,111 over 1870, or 10 Population, including vast areas newly annexed-over one hundred thousand square miles in extent—and, in spite of most severe famines and plagues, is alleged to I 6 'Alleged.' In the Bengal Administration Report for 1871-72 the following significant paragraph concerning the under-estimation of population in bygone times appears :— 'Partial computations of the population, not without some value, have here and there been made by individual officers in some districts; but, on the other hand, in other districts, mistakes, clerical errors perpetuated without observation, and other causes, have rendered the estimates much more wide of the mark than those of former days; and the official statements have become more and more discrepant. As an illustration of the extreme point to which want of statistical knowledge of the people had reached in these provinces, the following figures are given, showing the difference between the population of some important districts as given in grave statistical returns by the authority of Government within the last few years, and stated in the Administration Report of 1870 "according to the latest returns," and that now ascertained by census :- have increased by 45,547,273 since 1871. Had there been no famine, and had normal conditions of peace and prosperity prevailed, such as British peace and British administration should surely ensure, such, indeed, as was laid down by the Government of India in 1884 as a reasonable expectation, these would have been the figures of population To the imports given above must be added Government Stores, as follows: "It will be seen that in these cases the population varied from a third to a seventh of that now ascertained." Similar results will always happen when popular impressions are submitted to the test of scientific processes. Whether the subject be population, or area, or agriculture, or tenures, or commerce, or other matter of importance, no Government which does not possess statistical knowledge can be said to possess the data on which alone a sound administrative system can be based. . . . Including Government Stores, the complete figures for the four decennial periods are: First, it must be premised that for the Feudatory States and for Asiatic countries which can only obtain their foreign imports across the British frontier, a deduction must be made. The Feudatory States, 213 in number, cover an area of 595,000 square miles, against British India 964,903 square miles; their population is over 63,000,000. Exactly how much of the imports goes into these States has not been definitely ascertained. All things considered it would not be unfair to take onefourth, omitting Government Stores, but, for argumentative purposes, I will be content with one-sixth, say £10,000,000 sterling. The Trans-frontier trade is with the following countries: Lus Bela Khelat, Zhob, and adjoining Kandahar and adjoining regions Kabul 1 The Government Stores figures for 1873 are taken, being the earliest available. |