2 MARCH 1945, Page 9

THE GOSABA EXPERIMENT

By H. G. RAWLINSON

S the problem of Indian rural poverty soluble? In 19o3 the I question occurred to a Calcutta merchant of the name of Sir Daniel Hamilton. Hamilton was a hard-headed Scot, who had risen from a lowly position to a senior partnership in the great firm of Mackinnon, Mackenzie and Co. When asked what made him take the matter up, he replied, "I had a taste for farming and a desire to do something for the man who was denied the chance to earn an honest livelihood." In 1903, he determined to put his ideas into practice. The site selected was, at first sight, the most unlikely possible—a tract of land at Gosaba, about fifty miles south-east of Calcutta. It was in the heart of the Ganges delta, a malaria-infected jungle intersected by streams of brackish water and inhabited mainly by tigers, crocodiles and a few wandering bee-hunters and fishermen. Hamilton's proposals were received with derision. But he persevered. He leased from the Government a plot of 22,000 acres on a forty-years contract, with option of renewal. He collected a band of "down and outs," all too numerous, alas! in and around Calcutta, and with the aid of an enthusiastic Bengali gentleman, Mr. Muzumdar, began to reclaim the land. The task seemed at first insoluble ; the jungle had to be cleared, bunds erected to keep out the sea, artesian wells sunk to obtain drinking water, and the soured soil dug up and exposed to the sunlight to make it fertile. But Hamilton's energy was infectious, and in due course, Lady Hamilton performed the ceremony of laying the final clod of earth on the embankment of the last lot of reclaimed land.

The next task was to find the settlers. The Indian peasant viewed with deep suspicion this novel scheme started by a foreign landlord. Was it a fresh attempt to victimise him? The first colonists were drawn from among the labourers who had helped to clear the land ; and doubts were set at rest when each received an advance of Lzo, to be repaid in easy instalments, for the purchase of agricultural implements. After this it was a question of selecting the right type. The colony, after set-backs which would have deterred anyone but a stubborn Scot, grew and prospered, and today the visitor to the spot fuxls a prosperous little town set like an oasis in its waving green rice-fields. In the centre is the tiny church, for Gosaba boasts a community -of Indian Christians, some goo strong. Hard by towers the tall chimney of the co-operative rice-mill, a

landmark tot miles around. Other buildings are the dispensary and the Middle English school. Education is a strong feature of Gosaba, and the annual budget is Li,000 ; the day schools are attended by 850 scholars ; instruction is of a practical character ; the Middle English school has attached to it a weaving school and an experimental farm, so that the children are taught to make their own clothes and grow their own food. Of the 21 village schools, each has a garden, and a plot where the headmaster can grow what he requires. The population of Gosaba at the moment consists of 16,000 people, and is only limited by the size of the estate itself.

Sir Daniel Hamilton retired after his colony had been planted on firm foundations, and lies at rest in his native Scotland. But Gosaba goes on. This is a remarkable fact when we remember the number of experiments of the kind which have sprung up in India, and, after the departure of their originator, have gradually withered and died. The reason is that Hamilton had the wisdom to make his colony self-supporting. It has learnt to run itself. The community manages its own affairs on the co-operative credit system, of which Sir Daniel Hamilton was one of the pioneers. Every village in the Gosaba commonwealth has its Co-operative Society ; there are now twenty-four, with a working capital of L2,000 and a reserve fund of £3,000. A central co-operative store supplies the villages with such articles as they do not provide for themselves. But the pride of the community is the Jaimini Co-operative Mill, which is owned by 600 shareholders and is the keystone of the arch, for Gosaba exists on its rice. Here the cultivators bring their grain to be husked, and then marketed by the Central Co-operative Paddy Sale Society in Calcutta, where Gosaba rice, which is grown from selected seed, always fetches a high price. The consequence was that when the terrible famine of 1943 stalked through the land and hundreds of thousands died of starvation, Gosaba was not only totally unaffected, but was actually able to help its neighbours with food.

One of the reasons for the success of Gosaba is the fact that it is free from the two great curses of Indian village life, the money- lender and the lawyer. Dr. Hodge, the veteran missionary who has made an intensive study of Gosaba, has an interesting story to tell of Arjun Mondol, one of the oldest colonists. In I9ti he fell into the hands of the money-lender, and his original debt of fifty rupees had soon swollen to five hundred. His little farm of twenty-five acres was mortgaged up to the hilt, and alter paying the interest on the loan, the family was left with ten pounds a year to live on. Sir Daniel Hamilton paid off the debt from the central bank, the money to be repaid by instalments, and set Arjun on his feet again. Other villagers came forward with similar tales, and the same course was followed. Now the money-lenders have left Gosaba. It doesn't pay. There is very little litigation in Gosaba, as crime is practically unknown and civil disputes are settled in the immemorial way by the panchayat or council of village elders.

When one reads of the success of the experiment, the question at once arises, why not repeat it on an ever-expanding scale? And might not similar experiments in co-operative rural effort be of use to meet the problem of the resettlement of the people on the land in post-war England?