"THE COUNTRY COLONY"--"WASTEWARD HO!"
As has been already explained in the first part of this book, the
congested state of the labor market in the agricultural districts is
leading to an enormous and increasing immigration of the country
population towards the towns, not as a matter of preference, or of
choice, but of dire necessity. The object of the Country Colony, as
applied to India, will be twofold:
1. It will seek to divert into more profitable channels the steadily
increasing torrent of immigration from the villages to the towns.
2. It will re-direct and re-distribute the masses of the Submerged Tenth
who already exist in every large city.
Like his English representative, the Indian village bumpkin has a
natural aversion to town life. Peculiarities in his dialect, dress, and
manners make him the laughing-stock of the clever Cockney townsman. His
simplicity and ignorance of the world cause him to be easily victimised
by the city sharper, for whom he is no match in the struggle of life. He
sighs for his green fields, and longs to get away from the bustle that
everywhere surrounds and bewilders him. He surrenders these preferences
only, because starvation is staring him in the face, and he has better
chances of working, begging, or stealing in the city than in his
village.
And yet within a few miles of his birthplace there are frequently tracts
of waste land amply sufficient to support him and thousands more. He
could reduce it to cultivation if he had the chance. He would infinitely
prefer eking out the scantiest existence in this manner to flinging
himself into the turbulent whirlpool of town life. Strangely enough the
"Sirkar" (Government), to whom these tracts belong, is equally anxious
that the land in question should be cultivated. It would yield in the
course of a few years as rich a revenue as the acres of exactly similar
soil that have been brought under cultivation in the neighbourhood. But
the difficulties in the way are well nigh insuperable:
1. The congested labor consists almost entirely of those castes which
are looked upon as inferior. The very idea of their emancipation is
distasteful to the higher castes, who enjoy in most parts of India an
almost exclusive monopoly of the land. Hence any effort to obtain a
grant of waste land is met with strong and often bitter opposition, and
it is next door to impossible for any one in the position of the
Submerged Tenth to fight the battle through.
2. Of course, under the British Government these caste distinctions are
not officially recognised. But as a matter of fact they still carry
great weight. Anybody can, it is true, petition the Government for a
grant of this land, but to secure favourable consideration is almost
impossible. During the last four or five years I have personally
interested myself in several petitions, with a view to assisting the
petitioners, whom I knew to be thoroughly deserving of success. And yet
after going through a weary tissue of formalities, seldom lasting less
than a year, I have not known of a single favourable answer, nor have
these advances met with the least sort of encouragement. The Government
officials to whom these vast estates are entrusted are mostly so
preoccupied with other work that it is impossible for them to give to
the subject the personal attention that it requires, and they are guided
by the reports of interested and sometimes bribed subordinates. The very
fact that they are entitled to draw exactly the same salary whether the
public estate improves or not, removes the incentive that would
otherwise exist, even if they were the absentee landlords of the
property, while the constant liability to be transferred from one
district to another aggravates the difficulty of the situation.
3. Again, there is a lack of the capital necessary for the initial
expenses of the cultivator in sinking wells, building houses, supplying
cattle and obtaining both seed and food till the harvest has been
gathered in.
4. The lack of combination among the congested mass of labourers is
another serious evil. They are as sheep without a shepherd. Individually
they have no influence. Collectively they are capable of becoming a
mighty power. What is needed at the present moment is a directing head
and an enfolding organisation that shall gather them together, bind them
in one harmonious whole, and with the help of a friendly Government lead
them on to occupy and cultivate these waste lands, converting them into
districts inhabited by a sober, thrifty and enterprising population.
Without such a combination the efforts that are made by private
enterprise will continue to be carried out on such a petty scale as will
utterly fail to cope with or remove the existing evil, and will merely
serve to give relief in a few isolated cases. For instance I have in
mind one district where to my personal knowledge the amount of congested
labor cannot amount on the most moderate calculation to less than half a
million people. There is in their immediate neighbourhood abundance of
waste land capable of supporting them. The Government is anxious for
that land to be occupied. The people are eager to obtain and capable of
cultivating every piece of waste that can be placed at their disposal.
If, instead of leaving it to individual caprice and effort to carry on
in the present haphazard and redtape fashion, we are able on the one
hand to combine this mass of labor, and to obtain on the other hand from
Government the particulars of the land they are desirous of having
cultivated, and the most favorable terms on which it can be granted to
us, we shall be in a position with, but a very moderate amount of
capital at our command, to solve the double problem of the waste land
and waste labor, and that within a very short period.
5. The religious influences which we should bring to bear on the
colonists would be invaluable, especially in the early days of these
colonies. The example of our Officers, their self-sacrificing devotion
to the interests of the people, the knowledge that they would gain
nothing by the success of the enterprise and that they were actuated
solely by the highest motives, the facts that they were sharing the
homes of the people, enduring the same hardships and eating the same
food, all this would act as an inspiration to the colonists when the
early days of trial and difficulty came upon them. No less an authority
than Mr. John Morley, M.P., remarked when he first heard of General
Booth's scheme, that he considered that its combination of religion with
the other details of the plan of campaign was its most hopeful feature,
and would be most likely to ensure its success. This seems to apply
especially to that portion of the scheme now under consideration.
Indeed, were such an enterprise directed solely by an agency destitute
of this powerful lever, we should anticipate failure in nine cases out
of ten, no matter how great the ability that directed and how abundant
the capital that could be commanded. Individual rapacity and selfishness
would spoil everything, and instead of a beautiful spirit of harmony and
self-sacrifice, we should find a lucky few gaining the prizes and the
masses left no better, perhaps worse, off than before.
With these preliminary remarks I would introduce the Country Colony, as
suggested by General Booth. It will consist of the following branches,
to which no doubt others will be added as we advance:--
1. The Suburban Farm in the vicinity of large cities, including
(a) A dairy for the supply of milk, ghee, cream and butter.
(b) A market garden for fruit and vegetables.
2. The Industrial Village.
3. The Social Territory or Poor Man's Paradise.
4. The City of Refuge.
5. Miscellaneous:
(a) Gangs for public works, such as tanks, railways, roads, &c.
(b) Gangs for tea gardens.
(c) Land along the railways.