One of the greatest of Indian social difficulties is the
mortgage question. The peasantry in every province run themselves into debt, chiefly for their daughters' marriage expenses, and pledge their fields as security. The local usurer charges often 32 per cent., piles up compound interest, and at last seizes the land, leaving the peasant to cultivate on the barest wages which will support life. Under the Mussnlman regime there was a check, the peasants when driven to despair burning the usurer's books, and occasionally himself with them ; but we cannot tolerate that kind of wild justice, and hundreds of villages grow disaffected and even rebellious. Lord Curzon intends to apply a drastic remedy. A Bill has been introduced for the Punjab only, which practically makes of the freeholders tenants in perpetuity, bars eviction on mortgage altogether, and forbids the use of the fields as security for more than fifteen years. The experiment is a
great one, and will have far-reaching consequences, as it must necessarily raise the rate of interest on land loans ; but it will be supported by peasant opinion, and may cure an admitted and most serious evil,—the increase in India of a class of landless men. We should prefer "life or fifteen years" as the term beyond which a pledge of land is not legal, but of course one serious difficulty will remain. The peasant is allowed to sell his tenure to another agriculturist, who may be the usurer's trustee.
Previous page
