There is, of course, another side to this pleasing picture,
which would weigh more than it does in discussions on India but that its exponents have such a habit of exaggeration. The people as a whole are far richer under us than under the Moguls, but the upper class has fewer careers ; the Land-tax, though moderate, is too rigidly levied, and too often reassessed; and, owing to the frightful increase of the population, the "submerged tenth " becomes a larger and more troublesome body. For the first and last of these evils we can see no cure at present ; but we are happy to observe that Lord Curzon is studying the second one with an open mind. He inclines, we see, to the right remedy, much longer leases—they should last for two generations at least—and the local authority should haie some power of remission or collection by instalments. If the Viceroy could add agricultural banks lending money at 8 per cent., and so supersede the village usurers, he would, we believe, earn the gratitude of the most impoverished section of the peasantry,—the men of hereditary debts.
Previous page
