A NEW RURAL INDIA
By BRIGADIER F. L. BRAYNE
THE plans for the post-war development of India so far pub- lished by the Central Government and provincial governments have not excited enthusiasm on the public's part. They consist merely of a series of schemes, department by department, without any over- all picture of what India will look like when they have been carried out. They make no direct attack on the standard of living and they make no attempt to change the psychology of the general masses of the people.
This defect is perhaps the result of the departmental method. Each water-tight department has prepared its plans, and they have been put on a list from which such selections have been made as " finance " would allow. Such a method seems bound to fail. The first requisite for the success of any plan is to catch the imagination of the people. To uplift a continent is a gigantic task ; in addition to the efforts of every department and every official it will require much hard work, much saving and scraping and self-denial from every man, woman and child. It is obvious, therefore; that we must paint a picture of the standard of living aimed at, of the future home, village and town we desire to see. These plans will have something for everyone, so that every man, woman and child will be interested. When the picture has been completed it can then be broken down into various departmental jobs, and we can be sure that nothing has been omitted.
Let us try this method for rural India. Imagine a flight over the countryside when planning is complete. We shall see much bigger fields than there are now, many of them fenced and all of them levelled, and, where the slope demands it, terraced and embanked. Thy roads will be straight, and, wherever they cross an irrigation channel there will be a bridge. We shall see more canals, dams and wells, many of them power-driven tube-wells, and plenty of electric pylons and far more trees and orchards. The pastures and woods will be real grass and real trees, not a rapidly spreading desert. Erosion has been stopped by the closing of all pasture to grazing and the levelling and terracing of all arable land.. Eroded land is being steadily reclaimed ; floods and droughts are less violent and devastating ; water is carefully preserved ; the scattered holdings have been consolidated ; many farmers have left the crowded villages to live on their farms, and the best and most suitable crops of all kinds are grown, including a vast increase in fruit and vegetables. When we study things at close quarters we see a vast improvement In the livestock of all kinds. Dairy-herds are common ; all cattle are stall-fed, and there are no herds of useless beasts jostling each other for a starvation ration on crumbling pastures. Poultry, of im- proved breeds, and bees are seen everywhere and are properly kept. The carts are rubber-tyred, and therefore the roads are not deeply rutted. The farm implements are of new and better design, and all the usual village crafts—and many new ones—are using modern equipment and are well-organised.
We hardly recognise the village itself. It is tidy and sanitary. All manure and rubbish goes into a series of well-sited and recently- dug pits. There are latrines of a practical self-servicing kind. A circular road runs round, outside the houses. There are gardens and a playing-field. The wells are sealed and fitted with pumps, tanks and taps, with separate bathing-places for men and women. The streets are paved and drained, and the sewage-water is disposed of in the fields or in little patches of trees, flowers and vegetables. The extra space gained by the departure of many of the farmers to live on their farms has given more room to those who stay, and they all have little compounds bright with flowers. There is no promiscuous digging of earth for building and repairing houses. This is care- fully controlled, and all unwanted ponds and depressions have been filled up. The village is administered by a panchayat or council, and every possible activity of both men and women is organised by co- operative societies, including, of course, the financing of fanning and crafts, marketing of produce, and selling of seed and implements.
There are a women's institute, games-club, reading-room and library and plenty of wireless-sets ; and a weekly picture-paper is widely read. The women are literate, and are trained both at school and at their women's institute in the running of a home and the bringing-up of children. Every home has a savings-bank account ; ornaments are worn only on special occasions and then in strict moderation ; social ceremonies are not the occasion for the incurring of a life-long debt, and litigation has disappeared. Life has become too full, too healthy and too interesting for these wasteful forms of " escape " to be needed. All the boys and girls, of course, go to school. There are Boy Scouts and Girl Guides and Young Farmers' Clubs, and periodical shows, exhibitions, tournaments, competitions and entertainments to prevent the rustic mind from getting into a groove. There is a resident nurse and a trained midwife ; and a woman doctor, as well as a male doctor, visits the village at regular intervals.
But the moment we analyse this picture into departmental jobs we see why the present plans are defective. The standard of living is the standard of the home, and the home is in charge of the house- wife. And yet she appears only, as it were, by accident in the present plans. Before a new India can be built the housewife must be trained in home-making and in the care of children. This does not mean a school here and a health-centre there. It means a network of domestic training-schools, supplemented by touring teams of instruc- tresses who will reach to the furthest hamlet. It means a women's co-operative department to establish women's institutes and every other kind of co-operative activity in every village. In means a women's welfare-service starting from village workers, say one for every thousand houses, up to a provincial directress ; and of course girls' education with compulsory domestic training at every stage. Not only must girls be brought level with boys, but education must become more practical and include the fullest training in citizenship. The women must have as good medical aid as the men, and maternity and child-welfare services as well.
The plan must be brought to every home in the land, and that means a publicity campaign of a magnitude hitherto undreamt of, the exploiting of every device, eastern and western, from the touring cinema to village drama, from the radio to the strolling minstrel, from picture papers to ploughing-matches. Returning soldiers must be encouraged to become pioneers of the new era. Village leaders and local officials must be prepared to welcome and use them. When the soldier returns he must find that the old folk are being taught the same gospel as he has been learning in the army. " Uplift " must be discussed among the men under their pipal tree and among the women round the well. A nation-wide team of ex-Service personnel of all grades must be trained and organised, from the village level to provincial headquarters, to help rally their comrades. The " village guide " scheme, highly commended by the
Royal Commission on Agriculture, might be the model for this organisation, and the co-operative system must be expanded to the maximum to bind everyone, ex-Service and others, together.
Large-scale planning is fortunately well-developed. It is the natural counterpart of the attack on the standard of living, just as the municipal water, electric light and sewerage systems, the brick-kiln and the foundry are counterparts of the blue-print of the new housing-estate. But large-scale planning' must take time before it can begin to benefit the common man. Without something to fill the gap, there will be disappointment. Savings will be frittered away ; the ex-servicemen will lose then' keenness, their discipline and comradeship, and the large-scale plans when they come along will be ineffective. The " uplift " plans just described, however, can be laid on today. Training-courses need not be long, and this short-term publicity will hold everyone together while the big plans are maturing. It will prepare the village and the people for the big plans, make full use of the returning soldier, teach government and people to work together and inspire confidence in the people that the Government knows its job. It is now for the new ministries and the new Central Government to paint the picture of India we all want to see.
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