INDUSTRY IN INDIA Sta,—All the facts cited by Sir Stanley
Reed in his letter are no doubt correct, and yet there must be many living, like myself, among the villages of India, who would consider that Wing-Commander Grant- Ferris, M.P., gave a truer picture of recent history. It may be that the chief failure of the Government has lain in the absence of any appearance of planning and leadership ; and in this respect Lord Wavell has made an auspicious start. Not only in regard to the famine, but in his recent speech (most inadequately reported in England) he has shown himself personally concerned with the welfare of the people of the country, and it is to be hoped that this new emphasis on social and economic develop- ment will continue to be at least as prominent as the usual emphasis on political problems.
There has, however, also been real lack of planned development. I have lived for a good many years in the backward Province of Bihar, which has•been goirerned without distinction as long as I have known it. Its Co-operative Society has been a by-word for its oppressive exactions. the .Government Experimental Farm that I know best is of little use to those who seek help on agricultural or horticultural matters: the great iron mines in the south of the Province were lying almost idle before the war, although labour was cheap, the people were hungry, and the country cries out for development: Ranchi, the summer capital of the Province, has been allowed to grow into a great town with no water- supply and no drainage system. It is not surprising if we have thought our rulers too busy with politics to care about us.
It seems to me possible that a scheme of development to cover five or ten years, planned and controlled by the Central Government, and with the Viceroy's personal enthusiasm behind it, might unite Indians in constructive effort as no political formula ever could. It would be a big undertaking, and a new Service would probably have to be created, because the overworking of officials has been a great cause of stagnation in the past ; but it seems to me to offer the only hope of peaceful progress Archdeacon of Chota Nagpur. At the College of the Ascension, Selly Oak, Birmingham.
Previous page
