ADMINISTRATION

By the act of parliament which transferred the government of India from

the company to the crown, the administration in England is exercised by

the sovereign through a secretary of state, who inherits all the powers

formerly belonging to the Court of Directors and the Board of Control,

and who, as a member of the cabinet, is responsible to parliament. In

administrative details he is assisted by the Council of India, an

advisory body, with special control over finance. This council consists

of not more than fifteen and not fewer than ten members, appointed by

the secretary of state for a term of seven years, of whom at least nine

must have served or resided in India for ten years. A Hindu and a

Mahommedan were for the first time appointed to the council in 1907.

The Supreme Government.

At the head of the government in India is the governor-general, styled

also viceroy, as representative of the sovereign. He is appointed by the

crown, and his tenure of office is five years. The supreme authority,

civil and military, including control over all the local governments, is

vested in the governor-general in council, commonly known as "the

Government of India," which has its seat at Calcutta during the cold

season from November to April, and migrates to Simla in the Punjab hills

for the rest of the year. The executive council of the governor-general is

composed of six ordinary members, likewise appointed by the crown for a

term of five years, of whom three must have served for ten years in India

and one must be a barrister, together with the commander-in-chief as an

extraordinary member. A Hindu barrister was first appointed a member of

council in 1909. The several departments of administration--Foreign, Home,

Finance, Legislative, Army, Revenue and Agriculture (with Public Works),

Commerce and Industry, Education (added in 1910)--are distributed among

the council after the fashion of a European cabinet, the foreign portfolio

being reserved by the viceroy; but all orders and resolutions are issued

in the name of the governor-general in council and must be signed by a

secretary.

The Legislative Council.

For legislative purposes the executive council is enlarged into a

legislative council by the addition of other members, _ex officio_,

nominated and elected. In accordance with regulations made under the

Indian Councils Act 1909, these additional members number 61, making 68 in

all with the viceroy, so arranged as to give an official majority of

three. The only _ex-officio_ additional member is the lieutenant-governor

of the province in which the legislative council may happen to meet;

nominated members number 35, of whom not more than 28 may be officials;

while 25 are elected, directly or indirectly, with special representation

for Mahommedans and landholders. Apart from legislation, the members of

the council enjoy the right to interpellate the government on all matters

of public interest, including the putting of supplementary questions; the

right to move and discuss general resolutions, which, if carried, have

effect only as recommendations; and the right to discuss and criticize in

detail the budget, or annual financial statement.

The local or provincial governments are fifteen in all, with varying

degrees of responsibility. First stand the two presidencies of Madras

(officially Fort St George) and Bombay, each of which is administered by

a governor and council appointed by the crown. The governor is usually

sent from England; the members of council may number four, of whom two

must have served in India for ten years. Next follow the five

lieutenant-governorships of Bengal, the United Provinces of Agra and

Oudh, the Punjab, Burma, and Eastern Bengal and Assam, for each of which

a council may be appointed, beginning with Bengal. Last come the chief

commissionerships, of which the Central Provinces (with Berar) rank

scarcely below the lieutenant-governorships, while the rest--the

North-West Frontier Province, British Baluchistan, Ajmer-Merwara, Coorg

and the Andamans--are minor charges, generally associated with political

supervision over native states or frontier tribes. The two presidencies

and also the five lieutenant-governorships each possesses a legislative

council, modelled on that of the governor-general, but so that in every

case there shall be a majority of non-official members, varying from 13

to 3.

Districts.

Within the separate provinces the administrative unit is the district,

of which there are 249 in India. In every province except Madras there

are divisions, consisting of three or more districts under a

commissioner. The title of the district officer varies according to

whether the province is "regulation" or "non-regulation." This is an old

distinction, which now tends to become obsolete; but broadly speaking a

larger measure of discretion is allowed in the non-regulation provinces,

and the district officer may be a military officer, while in the

regulation provinces he must be a member of the Indian civil service. In

a regulation province the district officer is styled a collector, while

in a non-regulation province he is called a deputy-commissioner. The

chief non-regulation provinces are the Punjab, Central Provinces and

Burma; but non-regulation districts are also to be found in Bengal,

Eastern Bengal and Assam, the United Provinces and Sind.

The districts are partitioned out into lesser tracts, which are strictly

units of administration, though subordinate ones. The system of

partitioning, and also the nomenclature, vary in the different

provinces; but generally it may be said that the subdivision or _tahsil_

is the ultimate unit of administration. The double name indicates the

twofold principle of separation: the subdivision is properly the charge

of an assistant magistrate or executive officer, the _tahsil_ is the

charge of a deputy-collector or fiscal officer; and these two offices

may or may not be in the same hands. Broadly speaking, the subdivision

is characteristic of Bengal, where revenue duties are in the background,

and the _tahsil_ of Madras, where the land settlement requires attention

year by year. There is no administrative unit below the subdivision or

_tahsil_. The _thana_, or police division, only exists for police

purposes. The _pargana_, or fiscal division, under native rule, has now

but an historical interest. The village still remains as the

agricultural unit, and preserves its independence for revenue purposes

in most parts of the country. The township is peculiar to Burma.

The Judicial Service.

Bengal (including Eastern Bengal and Assam), Madras, Bombay and the old

North-Western Provinces each has a high court, established by charter

under an act of parliament, with judges appointed by the crown. Of the

other provinces the Punjab and Lower Burma have chief courts, and Oudh,

the Central Provinces, Upper Burma, Sind and the North-West Frontier

Province have judicial commissioners, all established by local

legislation. From the high courts, chief courts and judicial

commissioners an appeal lies to the judicial committee of the privy

council in England. Below these courts come district and sessions

judges, who perform the ordinary judicial work of the country, civil and

criminal. Their jurisdictions coincide for the most part with the

magisterial and fiscal boundaries. But, except in Madras, where the

districts are large, a single civil and sessions judge sometimes

exercises jurisdiction over more than one district. In the

non-regulation territory judicial and executive functions are to a large

extent combined in the same hands.

The law administered in the Indian courts is described in the article

INDIAN LAW.

Indian Services.

The chief of the Indian services is technically known as the Indian

civil service. It is limited to about a thousand members, who are chosen

by open competition in England between the ages of twenty-one and

twenty-four. Nearly all the higher appointments, administrative and

judicial, are appropriated by statute to this service, with the

exception of a few held by military officers on civil duty in the

non-regulation provinces. Other services mainly or entirely recruited in

England are the education department, police, engineering, public works,

telegraph and forest services. In addition to the British officials

employed in these services, there is a host of natives of India holding

superior or subordinate appointments in the government service.

According to a calculation made in 1904, out of 1370 appointments with a

salary of £800 a year and upwards, 1263 were held by Europeans, 15 by

Eurasians and 92 by natives of India. But below that line natives of

India greatly preponderate; of 26,908 appointments ranging between £800

and £60 a year, only 5205 were held by Europeans, 5420 by Eurasians and

16,283 by natives.

These figures show that less than 6500 Englishmen are employed to rule

over the 300 millions of India. On the other hand, natives manage the

greater part of the administration of the revenue and land affairs and

magisterial work. The subordinate courts throughout India are almost

entirely manned by native judges, who sit also on the bench in each of

the High Courts. Similarly in the other services. There are four

engineering colleges in India, which furnish to natives access to the

higher grades of the public works department; and the provincial

education services are recruited solely in India.

The Army.

Though the total strength of the army in India has undergone little

change, important reforms of organization have been effected in recent

years which have greatly improved its efficiency. In 1895, after long

discussion, the old presidency system was abolished and the whole army

was placed under one commander-in-chief, though it was not till 1904

that the native regiments of cavalry and infantry were re-numbered

consecutively, and the Hyderabad contingent and a few local battalions

were incorporated with the rest of the army. About the same time (1903)

the designation of British officers serving with native troops was

changed from "Indian Staff Corps" to "Indian Army." The entire force,

British and native, is now subdivided into a Northern and a Southern

Army, with Burma as an independent command attached to the latter. Each

of these armies is organized in divisions, nine in number, based on the

principles that the troops in peace should be trained in units of

command similar to those in which they would take the field, and that

much larger powers should be entrusted to the divisional commanders. At

the same time large sums of money have been expended on strategic works

along the north-west frontier, supply and transport has been

reorganized, rifle, gun and ammunition factories have been established,

and a Staff College at Quetta.

In 1907-1908 the actual strength of the army in India numbered 227,714

officers and men, of whom 73,947 were British troops; and the total

military expenditure amounted to £17,625,000, of which £2,996,000 was

for non-effective charges. In addition, the reserve of the native army

numbered 34,846 men, the volunteers 34,962, the frontier militia

(including the Khyber Rifles) about 6000, the levies (chiefly in

Baluchistan) about 6000, and the military police (chiefly in Burma)

about 22,000. These figures do not include the Imperial Service troops,

consisting of cavalry, infantry and transport corps, about 18,000 in

all, which are paid and officered by the native states furnishing them,

though supervised by British inspectors. The military forces otherwise

maintained by the several native states are estimated to number about

100,000 men, of varying degrees of efficiency.

Police.

The police, it is admitted, still form an unsatisfactory part of the

administration, though important reforms have recently been introduced.

The present system, which is modelled somewhat on that of the Irish

constabulary, dates from shortly after the Mutiny, and is regulated for

the greater part of the country by an act passed in 1861. It provides a

regular force in each district, under a superintendent who is almost

always a European, subordinate for general purposes to the district

magistrate. For the preservation of order this force is by no means

inefficient, but it fails as a detective agency and also in the

prosecution of crime, being distrusted by the people generally. As the

result of a Commission appointed in 1902, a considerable addition has

been made to the expenditure on police, which is being devoted to

increasing the pay of all the lower grades and to augmenting the number

of investigating officers. In 1901 the total strength of the civil

police force was about 145,000 men, maintained at a total cost of about

£2,200,000. In addition, the village watchmen or _chaukidars_, a

primitive institution paid from local sources but to some extent

incorporated in the general system, aggregated about 700,000; while a

special force of military police, numbering about 20,000 under officers

seconded from the army, is maintained along the frontier, more

especially in Burma.

Gaols.

The administration of gaols in India can be described more favourably.

As a rule, there is one gaol in each district, under the management of

the civil surgeon. Discipline is well maintained, though separate

confinement is practically unknown; and various industries (especially

carpet-weaving) are profitably pursued wherever possible. So much

attention has been directed to diet and sanitation that the death-rate

compares well with that of the general working population: in 1907 it

was as low as 18 per 1000. Convicts with more than six years to serve

are transported to the Andaman Islands, where the penal settlement is

organized on an elaborate system, permitting ultimately self-support on

a ticket of leave and even marriage. In 1907 the daily average gaol

population in India was 87,306, while the convicts in the Andamans

numbered 14,235.

Municipalities.

Local self-government, municipal and rural, in the form in which it

now prevails in India, is essentially a product of British rule.

Village communities and trade gilds in towns existed previously, but

these were only rudimentary forms of self-government. The beginnings

of municipal government occurred in the Presidency towns. Apart from

these the act of 1850 respecting improvements in towns initiated

consultative committees. In 1870 Lord Mayo delegated to local

committees the control over these improvement funds. But the system at

present in force is based upon legislation by Lord Ripon in 1882,

providing for the establishment of municipal committees and local

boards, whose members should be chosen by election with a

preponderance of non-official members. The large towns of Calcutta,

Bombay and Madras have municipalities of this character, and there are

large numbers of municipal committees and local boards all over the

country. There are also Port Trusts in the great maritime cities of

Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, Karachi and Rangoon.

Land Settlement.

As the land furnishes the main source of Indian revenue, so the

assessment of the land tax is the main work of Indian administration. No

technical term is more familiar to Anglo-Indians, and none more strange

to the English public, than that of land settlement. No subject has

given rise to more voluminous controversy. It will be enough in this

place to explain the general principles upon which the system is based,

and to indicate the chief differences of application in the several

provinces. That the state should appropriate to itself a direct share in

the produce of the soil is a fundamental maxim of Indian finance that

has been recognized throughout the East from time immemorial. The germs

of rival systems can be traced in the old military and other service

tenures of Assam, and in the poll tax of Burma, &c. The exclusive

development of the land system is due to two conditions,--a

comparatively high state of agriculture and an organized plan of

administration,--both of which are supplied by the primitive village

community. During the lapse of untold generations, despite domestic

anarchy and foreign conquest, the Hindu village has in many parts

preserved its simple customs, written in the imperishable tablets of

traditions. The land was not held by private owners but by occupiers

under the petty corporation; the revenue was not due from individuals,

but from the community represented by its head-man. The aggregate

harvest of the village fields was thrown into a common fund, and before

the general distribution the head-man was bound to set aside the share

of the state. No other system of taxation could be theoretically more

just, or in practice less obnoxious to the people. Such is an outline of

the land system as it may be found at the present day throughout large

portions of India both under British and native rule; and such we may

fancy it to have been universally before the Mahommedan conquest. The

Mussulmans brought with them the avarice of conquerors, and a stringent

system of revenue collection. Under the Mogul empire, as organized by

Akbar the Great, the share of the state was fixed at one-third of the

gross produce of the soil; and a regular army of tax-collectors was

permitted to intervene between the cultivator and the supreme

government. The entire vocabulary of the present land system is borrowed

from the Mogul administration. The zamindar himself is a creation of the

Mahommedans, unknown to the early Hindu system. He was originally a mere

tax-collector, or farmer of the land revenue, who agreed to furnish a

lump sum from the tract of country assigned to him. If the Hindu village

system may be praised for its justice, the Mogul farming system had at

least the merit of efficiency. Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb extracted a

larger land revenue than the British do. When the government was first

undertaken by the East India Company, no attempt was made to understand

the social system upon which the land revenue was based. The zamindar

was conspicuous and useful; the village community and the cultivating

ryot did not force themselves into notice. The zamindar seemed a solvent

person, capable of keeping a contract; and his official position as

tax-collector was confused with the proprietary rights of an English

landlord. The superior stability of the village system was overlooked,

and in the old provinces of Bengal and Madras the village organization

has gradually been suffered to fall into decay. The consistent aim of

the British authorities has been to establish private property in the

soil, so far as is consistent with the punctual payment of the revenue.

The annual government demand, like the succession duty in England, is

universally the first liability on the land; when that is satisfied, the

registered landholder has powers of sale or mortgage scarcely more

restricted than those of a tenant in fee-simple. At the same time the

possible hardships, as regards the cultivator, of this absolute right of

property vested in the owner have been anticipated by the recognition of

occupancy rights or fixity of tenure, under certain conditions. Legal

rights are everywhere taking the place of unwritten customs. Land, which

was before merely a source of livelihood to the cultivator and of

revenue to the state, has now become the subject of commercial

speculation. The fixing of the revenue demand has conferred upon the

owner a credit which he never before possessed, by allowing him a

certain share of the unearned increment. This credit he may use

improvidently, but none the less has the land system of India been

raised from a lower to a higher stage of civilization.

The means by which the land revenue is assessed is known as

settlement, and the assessor is styled a settlement officer. In Bengal

the assessment has been accomplished once and for all, but throughout

the greater part of the rest of India the process is continually going

on. The details vary in the different provinces; but, broadly

speaking, a settlement may be described as the ascertainment of the

agricultural capacity of the land. Prior to the settlement is the work

of survey, which first determines the area of every village and

frequently of every field also. Then comes the settlement officer,

whose duty it is to estimate the character of the soil, the kind of

crop, the opportunities for irrigation, the means of communication and

their probable development in the future, and all other circumstances

which tend to affect the value of the produce. With these facts before

him, he proceeds to assess the government demand upon the land

according to certain general principles, which may vary in the several

provinces. The final result is a settlement report, which records, as

in a Domesday Book, the entire mass of agricultural statistics

concerning the district.

Lower Bengal and a few adjoining districts of the United Provinces and

of Madras have a permanent settlement, i.e. the land revenue has been

fixed in perpetuity. When the Company obtained the _diwání_ or financial

administration of Bengal in 1765, the theory of a settlement, as

described above, was unknown. The existing Mahommedan system was adopted

in its entirety. Engagements, sometimes yearly, sometimes for a term of

years, were entered into with the zamindars to pay a lump sum for the

area over which they exercised control. If the offer of the zamindar was

not deemed satisfactory, another contractor was substituted in his

place. But no steps were taken, and perhaps no steps were possible, to

ascertain in detail the amount which the country could afford to pay.

For more than twenty years these temporary engagements continued, and

received the sanction of Warren Hastings, the first titular

governor-general of India. Hastings' great rival, Francis, was among

those who urged the superior advantages of a permanent assessment. At

last, in 1789, a more accurate investigation into the agricultural

resources of Bengal was commenced, and the settlement based upon this

investigation was declared perpetual by Lord Cornwallis in 1793. The

zamindars of that time were raised to the status of landlords, with

rights of transfer and inheritance, subject always to the payment in

perpetuity of a rent-charge. In default of due payment, their lands were

liable to be sold to the highest bidder. The aggregate assessment was

fixed at _sikká_ Rs. 26,800,989, equivalent to Co.'s Rs. 28,587,722, or

say 2¾ millions sterling. While the claim of Government against the

zamindars was thus fixed for ever, it was intended that the rights of

the zamindars over their own tenants should be equally restricted. But

no detailed record of tenant-right was inserted in the settlement

papers, and, as a matter of fact, the cultivators lost rather than

gained in security of tenure. The same English prejudice which made a

landlord of the zamindar could recognize nothing but a tenant-at-will in

the ryot. By two stringent regulations of 1799 and 1812 the tenant was

practically put at the mercy of a rack-renting landlord. If he failed to

pay his rent, however excessive, his property was rendered liable to

distraint and his person to imprisonment. At the same time the operation

of the revenue sale law had introduced a new race of zamindars, who were

bound to their tenants by no traditions of hereditary sympathy, but

whose sole object was to make a profit out of their newly purchased

property. The rack-rented peasantry found no protection in the law

courts until 1859, when an act was passed which restricted the

landlord's powers of enhancement in certain specified cases. Later the

Bengal Tenancy Act of 1885, since amended by an act of 1898, created

various classes of privileged tenants, including one class known as

"settled ryots," in which the qualifying condition is holding land, not

necessarily the same land, for twelve years continuously in one village.

Outside the privileged classes of tenants the act gives valuable

protection to tenants-at-will. The progress in the acquisition of

occupancy rights by tenants may be judged from the fact that, whereas in

1877 it was stated of the Champaran district that the cultivator had

hardly acquired any permanent interest in the soil, the settlement

officer in 1900 reported that 87% of the occupied area was in the

possession of tenants with occupancy rights or holding at fixed rates.

It is believed that the ryots will eventually be able to secure, and to

hold against all comers, the strong legal position which the Bengal

Tenancy Act has given them.

The permanent settlement was confined to the three provinces of Bengal,

Behar and Orissa, according to their boundaries at that time. Orissa

proper, which was conquered from the Mahrattas in 1803, is subject to a

temporary settlement, which expired in 1897 and a re-settlement was made

in 1900. The enhancement in the revenue amounted to 52% of the previous

demand; but in estates in which the increase was specially large it was

decided to introduce the new rates gradually.

The Ryotwari system.

The prevailing system throughout the Madras presidency is the ryotwari,

which takes the cultivator or peasant proprietor as its rent-paying

unit, somewhat as the Bengal system takes the zamindar. This system

cannot be called indigenous to the country, any more than the zamindari

of Bengal. If any system deserves that name, it is that of village

assessment, which still lingers in the memories of the people in the

south. When the British declared themselves heir to the nawab of the

Carnatic at the opening of the 19th century, they had no adequate

experience of revenue management. The authorities in England favoured

the zamindari system already at work in Bengal, which appeared at least

calculated to secure punctual payment. The Madras Government was

accordingly instructed to enter into permanent engagements with

zamindars, and, where no zamindars could be found, to create

substitutes out of enterprising contractors. The attempt resulted in

failure in every case, except where the zamindars happened to be the

representatives of ancient lines of powerful chiefs. Several of such

chiefs exist in the extreme south and in the north of the presidency.

Their estates have been guaranteed to them on payment of a _peshkash_ or

permanent tribute, and are saved by the custom of primogeniture from the

usual fate of subdivision. Throughout the rest of Madras there are no

zamindars either in name or fact. The influence of Sir Thomas Munro

afterwards led to the adoption of the ryotwari system, which will always

be associated with his name. According to this system, an assessment is

made with the cultivating proprietor upon the land taken up for

cultivation year by year. Neither zamindar nor village officer

intervenes between the cultivator and the state, which takes directly

upon its own shoulders all a landlord's responsibility. The early

ryotwari settlements in Madras were based upon insufficient experience.

They were preceded by no survey, but adopted the crude estimates of

native officials. Since 1858 a department of revenue survey has been

organized, and the old assessments have been everywhere revised.

Nothing can be more complete in theory and more difficult of

exposition than a Madras ryotwari settlement. First, the entire area

of the district, whether cultivated or uncultivated, and of each field

within the district is accurately measured. The next step is to

calculate the estimated produce of each field, having regard to every

kind of both natural and artificial advantage. Lastly, a rate is fixed

upon every field, which may be regarded as roughly equal to one-third

of the gross and one-half of the net produce. The elaborate nature of

these inquiries and calculations may be inferred from the fact that as

many as thirty-five different rates are sometimes struck for a single

district, ranging from 6d. to £1, 4s. per acre. The rates thus

ascertained are fixed for a term of thirty years; but during that

period the aggregate rent-roll of a district is liable to be affected

by several considerations. New land may be taken up for cultivation,

or old land may be abandoned; and occasional remissions are permitted

under no less than eighteen specified heads. Such matters are

discussed and decided by the collector at the _jamabandi_ or court

held every year for definitely ascertaining the amount of revenue to

be paid by each ryot for the current season. This annual inquiry has

sometimes been mistaken by careless passers-by for an annual

reassessment of each ryot's holding. It is not, however, a change in

the rates for the land which he already holds, but an inquiry into and

record of the changes in his former holding or of any new land which

he may wish to take up.

In the early days of British rule no system whatever prevailed

throughout the Bombay presidency; and even at the present time there are

tracts where something of the old confusion survives. The modern "survey

tenure," as it is called, dates from 1838, when it was first introduced

into one of the _tálukas_ of Poona district, and it has since been

gradually extended over the greater part of the presidency. As its name

implies, the settlement is preceded by survey. Each field is measured,

and an assessment placed upon it according to the quality of the soil

without any attempt to fix the actual average produce. This assessment

holds good, without any possibility of modification, for a term of

thirty years. The Famine Commission of 1901 suggested the following

measures with a view to improving the position of the Bombay ryot: (1) A

tenancy law to protect expropriated ryots, (2) a bankruptcy law, (3) the

limitation of the right of transfer, in the interests of ryots who are

still in possession of their land.

The other Provinces.

In the other provinces variations of the zamindari and ryotwari systems

are found. In the United Provinces and the Punjab the ascertainment of

the actual rents paid is the necessary preliminary to the land revenue

demand. In the Central Provinces, where the landlords (_malguzars_)

derive their title from the revenue settlements made under British rule,

the rents are actually fixed by the settlement officer for varying

periods. In addition nearly every province has its own laws regulating

the subject of tenancy; the tenancy laws of the United Provinces and of

the Central Provinces were revised and amended during the decade

1891-1901.

The principles of the land revenue settlement and administration were

reviewed by the government of India in a resolution presented to

parliament in 1902, in which its policy is summarised as follows:--

Land Tenures and Settlements.

"In the review of their land revenue policy which has now been brought

to a close, the Government of India claim to have established the

following propositions, which, for convenience' sake, it may be

desirable to summarize before concluding this Resolution:--

(1) That a Permanent Settlement, whether in Bengal or elsewhere, is no

protection against the incidence and consequences of famine.

(2) That in areas where the State receives its land revenue from

landlords, progressive moderation is the key-note of the policy of

Government, and that the standard of 50% of the assets is one which is

almost uniformly observed in practice, and is more often departed from

on the side of deficiency than of excess.

(3) That in the same areas the State has not objected, and does not

hesitate, to interfere by legislation to protect the interests of the

tenants against oppression at the hands of the landlord.

(4) That in areas where the State takes the land revenue from the

cultivators, the proposal to fix the assessment at one-fifth of the

gross produce would result in the imposition of a greatly increased

burden upon the people.

(5) That the policy of long term settlements is gradually being

extended, the exceptions being justified by conditions of local

development.

(6) That a simplification and cheapening of the proceedings connected

with new settlements and an avoidance of the harassing invasion of an

army of subordinate officials, are a part of the deliberate policy of

Government.

(7) That the principle of exempting or allowing for improvements is

one of general acceptance, but may be capable of further extension.

(8) That assessments have ceased to be made upon prospective assets.

(9) That local taxation as a whole, though susceptible of some

redistribution, is neither immoderate nor burdensome.

(10) That over-assessment is not, as alleged, a general or widespread

source of poverty and indebtedness in India, and that it cannot fairly

be regarded as a contributory cause of famine.

The Government of India have further laid down liberal principles for

future guidance and will be prepared, where the necessity is

established, to make further advance in respect of:--

(11) The progressive and graduated imposition of large enhancements.

(12) Greater elasticity in the revenue collection, facilitating its

adjustment to the variations of the seasons, and the circumstances of

the people.

(13) A more general resort to reduction of assessments in cases of

local deterioration, where such reduction cannot be claimed under the

terms of settlement."

In 1900-1901 the total land revenue realized from territory under

British administration in India amounted to £17,325,000, the rate per

cultivated acre varying from 3s. 1d. in Madras to 10d. in the Central

Provinces. The general conclusion of the Famine Commission of 1901 was

that "except in Bombay, where it is full, the incidence of land revenue

is low to moderate in ordinary years, and it should in no way _per se_

be the cause of indebtedness."

Salt Administration.

Prior to the successive reductions of the salt duty in 1903, 1905 and

1907, next to land, salt contributed the largest share to the Indian

revenue; and, where salt is locally manufactured, its supervision

becomes an important part of administrative duty. Up to within quite

recent times the tax levied upon salt varied extremely in different

parts of the country, and a strong preventive staff was required to be

stationed along a continuous barrier hedge, which almost cut the

peninsula into two fiscal sections. The reform of Sir J. Strachey in

1878, by which the higher rates were reduced and the lower rates raised,

with a view to their ultimate equalization over the whole country,

effectually abolished this old engine of oppression. Communication is

now free; and it has been found that prices are absolutely lowered by

thus bringing the consumer nearer to his market, even though the rate of

taxation be increased. Broadly speaking the salt consumed in India is

derived from four sources: (1) importation by sea, chiefly from England

and the Red Sea and Aden; (2) solar evaporation in shallow tanks along

the seaboard; (3) the salt lakes in Rajputana; (4) quarrying in the salt

hills of the northern Punjab. The salt lakes in Rajputana have been

leased by the government of India from the rulers of the native states

in which they lie, and the huge salt deposits of the Salt Range mines

are worked under government control, as also are the brine works on the

Runn of Cutch. At the Kohat mines, and in the salt evaporation works on

the sea-coast, with the exception of a few of the Madras factories, the

government does not come between the manufacturer and the merchant,

except in so far as is necessary in order to levy the duty from the salt

as it issues from the factory. The salt administration is in the hands

of (1) the Northern India Salt Department, which is directly under the

government of India, and controls the salt resources of Rajputana and

the Punjab, and (2) the salt revenue authorities of Madras and Bombay.

The consumption of salt per head in India varies from 7 lb. in Rajputana

to 16.02 lb. in Madras. The salt duty, which stood in 1888 at Rs. 2½ per

maund, was reduced in 1903 to Rs. 2, in 1905 to Rs. 1½ and in 1907 to R.

1 per maund, the rate being uniform all over India. In 1907-1908 the

gross yield of the salt duty was £3,339,000, of which more than

one-fourth was derived from imported salt.

Opium.

The heading _Opium_ in the finance accounts represents the duty on the

export of the drug. The duty on local consumption, which is included

under excise, yielded £981,000 in 1907-1908. The opium revenue proper is

derived from two sources: (1) a monopoly of production in the valley of

the Ganges, and (2) a transit duty levied on opium grown in the native

states of western India, known as Malwa opium. Throughout British

territory the growth of the poppy is almost universally prohibited,

except in a certain tract of Bengal and the United Provinces, where it

is grown with the help of advances from government and under strict

supervision. The opium, known as "provision opium," is manufactured in

government factories at Patna and Ghazipur, and sold by auction at

Calcutta for export to China. The net opium revenue represents the

difference between the sum realized at these sales and the cost of

production. Malwa opium is exported from Bombay, the duty having

previously been levied on its passage into British territory. In

1907-1908 the net opium revenue from both sources amounted to

£3,576,000. The Chinese government having issued an edict that the

growth and consumption of opium in China should be entirely suppressed

within ten years, the government of India accordingly agreed in 1908

that the export of opium from India should be reduced year by year, so

that the opium revenue would henceforth rapidly decline and might be

expected to cease altogether. In 1908 an international commission that

met at Shanghai passed resolutions inviting all the states there

represented to take measures for the gradual suppression of the

manufacture, sale and distribution of opium, except for medicinal

purposes.

_Excise._--Excise, like salt, is not only a department of revenue

collection, but also to a great extent a branch of the executive. In

other words, excise duties in India are not a mere tax upon the

consumer, levied for convenience through the manufacturer and retail

dealer, but a species of government monopoly. The only excisable

articles are intoxicants and drugs; and the avowed object of the state

is to check consumption not less than to raise revenue. The limit of

taxation and restriction is the point at which too great encouragement

is given to smuggling. Details vary in the different provinces, but

the general plan of administration is the same. The right to

manufacture and the right to retail are both monopolies of government

permitted to private individuals only upon terms. Distillation of

country spirits is allowed according to two systems--either to the

highest bidder under strict supervision, or only upon certain spots

set apart for the purpose. The latter is known as the _sadr_ or

central distillery system. The right of sale is also usually farmed

out to the highest bidder, subject to regulations fixing the minimum

quantity of liquor that may be sold at one time. The brewing of beer

from rice and other grains, which is universal among the hill tribes

and other aboriginal races, is practically untaxed and unrestrained.

The European breweries at several hill stations pay the same tax as

imported beer. Apart from spirits, excise duties are levied upon the

sale of a number of intoxicating or stimulant drugs, of which the most

important are opium, bhang, ganja and charas. Opium is issued for

local consumption in India from the government manufactories at

Ghazipur and Patna in the Behar and Benares Agencies, and sold through

private retailers at a monopoly price. Bhang, ganja and charas are

three different narcotic drugs prepared from the hemp plant (_Cannabis

sativa_, var. _indica_). Scientifically speaking, bhang consists of

the dried leaves and small stalks, with a few fruits; ganja of the

flowering and fruiting heads of the female plant; while charas is the

resin itself, collected in various ways as it naturally exudes. The

plant grows wild in many parts of India; but the cultivation of it for

ganja is practically confined to a limited area in the Rajshahi

district of eastern Bengal, and charas is mainly imported from Central

Asia. The use of bhang in moderation is comparatively harmless; ganja

and charas when taken in excess are undoubtedly injurious, leading to

crime and sometimes to insanity. In accordance with the

recommendations of the Hemp Drugs Commission, the government of India

passed an act in 1896 providing that, in regard to ganja and charas,

cultivation of the plants should be restricted as much as possible,

and that a direct quantitative duty should be levied on the drugs on

issue from the warehouse in the province of consumption; while as

regards bhang, cultivation of the hemp for its production should be

prohibited or taxed, and collection of the drug from wild plants

permitted only under licence, a moderate quantitative duty being

levied in addition to vend fees. No duty whatever is now levied upon

tobacco in any part of India. The plant is universally grown by the

cultivators for their own smoking, and, like everything else, was

subject to taxation under native rule; but the impossibility of

accurate excise supervision has caused the British government to

abandon the impost. In 1907-1908 the total gross revenue from excise

amounted to £6,214,000, of which more than two-thirds was derived from

spirits and toddy.

Since 1894 a uniform customs duty of 5% _ad valorem_ has been levied

generally on imported goods, certain classes being placed on the free

list, of which the most important are food-grains, machinery, railway

material, coal, and cotton twist and yarn (exempted in 1896). Most

classes of iron and steel are admitted at the lower rate of 1%. Cotton

goods are taxed at 3½%, whether imported or woven in Indian mills.

Special duties are imposed on liquors, arms and ammunition and

petroleum, while imported salt pays the same duty as salt manufactured

locally. From 1899 to 1904 a countervailing duty was imposed on

bounty-fed beet sugar. There is also a customs duty at the rate of

about 3d. per 82 lb. on exported rice. In 1907-1908 the total customs

revenue amounted to £4,910,000, of which £664,000 was derived from the

export duty on rice and £223,730 from the excise on cotton

manufactures.

Since 1886 an assessed tax has been levied on all sources of income

except that derived from land. The rate is a little more than 2½% on

all incomes exceeding £133 a year, and a little more than 2% on

incomes exceeding £66, the minimum income liable to assessment having

been raised in 1903 from £33. The total number of persons assessed is

only about 260,000. In 1907-1908 the gross receipts from income tax

amounted to £1,504,000.

Other sources of revenue are stamps, levied on judicial proceedings

and commercial documents; registration of mortgages and other

instruments; and provincial rates, chiefly in Bengal and the United

Provinces for public works or rural police. The rates levied at a

certain percentage of the land revenue for local purposes are now

excluded from the finance accounts. In 1907-1908 the gross receipts

amounted to: from stamps, £4,259,000, of which more than two-thirds

was derived from the sale of court fee stamps; from registration,

£415,000; and from provincial rates, £526,000.

_Commerce and Industries._

India may almost be said to be a country of a single industry, that

industry being agriculture. According to the census of 1901 two-thirds

of the total population were employed in occupations connected with the

land, while not one-tenth of that proportion were supported by any other

single industry. The prosperity of agriculture therefore is of

overwhelming importance to the people of India, and all other industries

are only subsidiary to this main occupation. This excessive dependence

upon a single industry, which is in its turn dependent upon the accident

of the seasons, upon a favourable or unfavourable monsoon, has been held

to be one of the main causes of the frequent famines which ravage India.

_Agriculture._--The cultivation of the soil is the occupation of the

Indian people in a sense which is difficult to realize in England, and

which cannot be adequately expressed by figures. As the land tax forms

the mainstay of the imperial revenue, so the ryot or cultivator

constitutes the unit of the social system. The organized village

community contains many other members besides the cultivators; but

they all exist for his benefit, and all alike are directly maintained

from the produce of the village fields. Even in considerable towns,

the traders and handicraftsmen almost always possess plots of land of

their own, on which they raise sufficient grain to supply their

families with food. The operations of rural life are familiar to every

class. They are enveloped in a cloud of religious sanctions, and serve

to mark out by their recurring periods the annual round of common

life.

But though agriculture thus forms the staple industry of the country,

its practice is pursued in different provinces with infinite variety

of detail. Everywhere the same perpetual assiduity is found, but the

inherited experience of generations has taught the cultivators to

adapt their simple methods to differing circumstances. For irrigation,

native patience and ingenuity have devised means which compare not

unfavourably with the colossal projects of government. Manure is

copiously applied to the more valuable crops whenever manure is

available, its use being limited by poverty and not by ignorance. The

rotation of crops is not adopted as a principle of cultivation; but in

practice it is well known that a succession of exhausting crops cannot

be taken in consecutive seasons from the same field, and the advantage

of fallows is widely recognized. The periodicity of the seasons

usually allows two, and sometimes three, harvests in the year, but not

necessarily, nor indeed usually, from the same fields. For

inexhaustible fertility, and for retentiveness of moisture in a dry

year, no soil in the world can surpass the "black cotton-soil" of the

Deccan. In the broad river basins the inundations deposit annually a

fresh top-dressing of silt, thus superseding the necessity of manures.

_Wheat._--Within recent years wheat has become one of the most

important crops in India, more especially for export. The canal

colonies of the Punjab have turned northern India into one of the

great grain-fields of the British empire; and in 1904 India took the

first place in supplying wheat to the United Kingdom, sending nearly

25½ million cwts. out of a total of 97¾ millions. In 1905, however, it

fell back again into the third place, being passed by Russia and

Argentina. Wheat is grown chiefly in the Punjab, the United Provinces,

and the Central Provinces. In 1905-1906 there were 23 million acres

under wheat in the whole of India, of which 8½ million were in the

Punjab alone.

_Rice._--The name of rice has from time immemorial been so closely

associated with Indian agriculture that it is difficult to realize how

comparatively small an area is planted with this crop. With the

exception of the deltas of the great rivers and the long strip of land

fringing the western coast, rice may be called an occasional crop

throughout the remainder of the peninsula. But where it is grown it is

grown to the exclusion of all other crops. The rice crop is most

important in Burma, Bengal and Madras, and there is an average of 20

million acres under rice in the other provinces of British India. In

Bengal the area varies from 36 to 40 million acres according to the

season. In Burma, where the large waste area is being gradually

brought under cultivation, there has been an almost uninterrupted

increase in the area of the rice crop, and the rice export is one of

the main industries of the province. In ordinary years most of this

rice goes either to Europe or to the Farther East; but in famine

seasons a large part is diverted to peninsular India, and Burma is the

most important of the outside sources from which the deficient crops

are supplemented. In 1905-1906 the export of rice from India was

valued at 12½ millions sterling.

_Millets._--Taking India as a whole, the staple food grain is neither

rice nor wheat, but millets, which are probably the most prolific

grain in the world, and the best adapted to the vicissitudes of a

tropical climate. Excluding the special rice-growing tracts, different

kinds of millet are grown more extensively than any other crop from

Madras in the south at least as far as Rajputana in the north. The

_sorghum_ or great millet, generally known as _jowar_ or _cholum_, is

the staple grain crop of southern India. The spiked millet, known as

_bajra_ or _cumbu_, which yields a poorer food, is grown on dry sandy

soil in the Deccan and the Punjab. A third sort of millet, _ragi_ or

_marua_, is cultivated chiefly in Madras and Bengal. There are also

other kinds, which are included as a rule under the general head of

"other food grains." Millet crops are grown for the most part on

unirrigated land. In the Bombay Deccan districts they cover generally

upwards of 60% of the grain area, or an even larger proportion in

years of drought. In Gujarat about half the grain area is under

millets or maize in ordinary years. The grain is consumed almost

entirely in India, though a small amount is exported.

_Pulses._--Among pulses gram covers in ordinary years more than 10

millions of acres, chiefly in the United Provinces, the Punjab and

Bengal. Gram is largely eaten by the poorer classes, but it is also

used as horse-food. Other pulses, lentils, &c., are extensively grown,

but the area under these crops is liable to great contraction in years

of drought, as it consists for the most part of unirrigated lands.

_Oil-seeds._--Oil-seeds also form an important crop in all parts of

the country, being perhaps more universally grown than any other, as

oil is necessary, according to native custom, for application to the

person, for food, and for burning in lamps. In recent years the

cultivation of oil-seeds has received an extraordinary stimulus owing

to the demand for export to Europe, especially to France; but as they

can be grown after rice, &c., as a second crop, this increase has

hardly at all tended to diminish the production of food grains. The

four chief varieties grown are mustard or rape seed, linseed, _til_ or

gingelly (sesamum), and castor-oil. Bengal and the United Provinces

are at present the chief sources of supply for the foreign demand, but

gingelly is largely exported from Madras, and, to a smaller extent,

from Burma. These seeds are for the most part pressed in India either

in bullock presses or in oil-mills. The refuse or cake is of great

value to agriculturists, as it forms a food for cattle, and in the

case of sesamum it is eaten by the people. But a very large quantity

of the seeds is exported. The total value of oils and oil-seeds

exported in 1905-1906 was over 7½ millions sterling.

_Vegetables._--Vegetables are everywhere cultivated in garden plots

for household use, and also on a larger scale in the neighbourhood of

great towns. Among favourite native vegetables, the following may be

mentioned:--the egg-plant, called _brinjal_ or _baigan_ (_Solanum

Melongena_), potatoes, cabbages, cauliflower, radishes, onions,

garlic, turnips, yams, and a great variety of cucurbitaceous plants,

including _Cucumis sativus_, _Cucurbita maxima_, _Lagenaria vulgaris_,

_Trichosanthes dioica_, and _Benincasa cerifera_. Of these, potatoes,

cabbages, and turnips are of comparatively recent introduction. Almost

all English vegetables can be raised by a careful gardener. Potatoes

thrive best on the higher elevations, such as the Khasi hills, the

Nilgiris, the Mysore uplands, the Shan States, and the slopes of the

Himalayas; but they are also grown even in lowland districts.

_Fruits._--Among cultivated fruits are the following:--Mango

(_Mangifera indica_), plantain (_Musa paradisiaca_), pine-apple

(_Ananassa sativa_), pomegranate (_Punica Granatum_), guava (_Psidium

pomiferum_ and _P. pyriferum_), tamarind (_Tamarindus indica_), jack

(_Artocarpus integrifolia_), custard-apple (_Anona squamosa_), papaw

(_Carica Papaya_), shaddock (_Citrus decumana_), and several varieties

of fig, melon, orange, lime and citron. According to the verdict of

Europeans, no native fruits can compare with those of England. But the

mangoes of Bombay, of Multan, and of Malda in Bengal, and the oranges

of Nagpur and the Khasi hills, enjoy a high reputation; while the

guavas of Madras are made into an excellent preserve.

_Spices._--Among spices, for the preparation of curry and other hot

dishes, turmeric and chillies hold the first place, being very

generally cultivated. Next in importance come ginger, coriander,

aniseed, black cummin, and fenugreek. Pepper proper is confined to the

Malabar coast, from Kanara to Travancore. Cardamoms are a valuable

crop in the same locality, and also in the Nepalese Himalayas. _Pan_

or betel-leaf is grown by a special caste in most parts of the

country. Its cultivation requires constant care, but is highly

remunerative. The betel-nut or areca palm is chiefly grown in certain

favoured localities, such as the deltaic districts of Bengal and the

highlands of southern India.

_Palms._--Besides betel-nut (_Areca Catechu_), the palms of India

include the coco-nut (_Cocos nucifera_), the bastard date (_Phoenix

sylvestris_), the palmyra (_Borassus flabellifer_), and the true date

(_Phoenix dactylifera_). The coco-nut, which loves a sandy soil and a

moist climate, is found in greatest perfection along the strip of

coast-line that fringes the west of the peninsula, where it ranks next

to rice as the staple product. The bastard date, grown chiefly in the

country round Calcutta and in the north-east of the Madras presidency,

supplies both the jaggery sugar of commerce and intoxicating liquors

for local consumption. Spirit is also distilled from the palmyra,

especially in the neighbourhood of Bombay and in the south-east of

Madras. The true date is almost confined to Sind.

_Sugar._--Sugar is manufactured both from the sugar-cane and from the

bastard date-palm, but the total production is inadequate to the local

demand. The best cane is grown in the United Provinces, on irrigated

land. It is an expensive crop, requiring much attention, and not

yielding a return within the year; but the profits are proportionately

large. The normal area under sugar-cane in India is generally about 3

million acres, chiefly in the United Provinces, Bengal, and the

Punjab. A large share of the produce is consumed in the form of _gur_

or unrefined sugar, and the market for this preparation is independent

of foreign competition. The total import of sugar in 1905-1906 was

valued at £5,182,000, chiefly from Java and Mauritius.

_Indigo._--Owing to the manufacture of synthetic indigo by German

chemists the export trade in indigo, which was formerly the most

important business carried on by European capital in India, has been

almost entirely ruined. In the early years of the 19th century there

were colonies of English planters in many districts of Bengal, and it

was calculated that the planters of North Behar alone had a turnover

of a million sterling. The industry suffered depression owing to the

indigo riots of 1860 and the emancipation of the peasantry by the Land

Act of 1859; but in the closing decade of the century it received a

much more disastrous blow from the invention of the German chemists.

In 1895-1896 the area under indigo was 1,570,000 acres, and the value

of the exports £3,569,700, while in 1905-1906 the area had sunk to

383,000 acres, and the value of the exports to £390,879. The only hope

of rescuing the industry from total disappearance lies in the fact

that the natural indigo gives a faster dye than the manufactured

product, while an effort has also been made to introduce the

Java-Natal seed into India, which gives a much heavier yield, and so

may be better able to compete in price with synthetic indigo.

_Tea._--The cultivation of tea in India began within the memory of men

still living, and now has replaced indigo as the chief article for

European capital, more particularly in Assam. Unlike coffee-planting

the enterprise owes its origin to the initiation of government, and

has never attracted the attention of the natives. Early travellers

reported that the tea-plant was indigenous to the southern valleys of

the Himalayas; but they were mistaken in the identity of the shrub,

which was the _Osyris nepalensis_. The real tea (_Thea viridis_), a

plant akin to the camellia, grows wild in Assam, being commonly found

throughout the hilly tract between the valleys of the Brahmaputra and

the Barak. There it sometimes attains the dimensions of a large tree;

and from that, as well as from other indications, it has been

plausibly inferred that Assam is the original home of the plant,

which was thence introduced at a prehistoric date into China. The

real progress of tea-planting in Assam dates from about 1851, and was

greatly assisted by the promulgation of the Waste-land Rules of 1854.

By 1859 there were already fifty-one gardens in existence, owned by

private individuals; and the enterprise had extended from its original

headquarters in Lakhimpur and Sibsagar as far down the Brahmaputra as

Kamrup. In 1856 the tea-plant was discovered wild in the district of

Cachar in the Barak valley, and European capital was at once directed

to that quarter. At about the same time tea-planting was introduced

into the neighbourhood of the sanatorium of Darjeeling, among the

Sikkim Himalayas. The success of these undertakings engendered a wild

spirit of speculation in tea companies both in India and at home,

which reached its climax in 1865. The industry recovered but slowly

from the effects of this disastrous crisis, and did not again reach a

stable position until 1869. Since that date it has rapidly but

steadily progressed, and has been ever opening new fields of

enterprise. At the head of the Bay of Bengal in Chittagong district,

side by side with coffee on the Nilgiri hills, on the forest-clad

slopes of Kumaon and Kangra, amid the low-lying jungle of the Bhutan

Dwars, and even in Arakan, the energetic pioneers of tea-planting have

established their industry. Different degrees of success may have

rewarded them, but in no case have they abandoned the struggle. The

area under tea, of which nine-tenths lies in the new province of

Eastern Bengal and Assam, expanded by 85% during the sixteen years

from 1885 to 1901, while the production increased by 167%. This great

rise in the supply, unaccompanied by an equal expansion of the market

for Indian tea, involved the industry in great difficulties, to meet

which it became necessary to restrict the area under tea as far as

possible, and to reduce the quantity of leaf taken from the plant,

thus at the same time improving the quality of the tea. The area under

tea in 1885 was 283,925 acres and the yield 71,525,977 lb., while in

1905 the area had increased to 527,290 acres and the yield to

222,360,132 lb., while the export alone was 214,223,728 lb. As much as

92% of the export goes to the United Kingdom, where China tea has been

gradually ousted by tea from India and Ceylon. The other chief

countries that afford a market for Indian tea are Canada, Russia,

Australia, Turkey in Asia, Persia, and the United States. India's

consumption of tea is computed to average 8¼ million pounds, of which

5½ millions are Indian and the remainder Chinese. There should

therefore be considerable room for expansion in the home market. In

1905 there were 134 tea-planting companies registered in India, about

80% of the capital being held by shareholders in London.

_Coffee._--The cultivation of coffee is confined to southern India,

though attempts have been made to introduce the plant both into Lower

Burma and into the Eastern Bengal district of Chittagong. The coffee

tract may be roughly defined as a section of the landward slope of the

Western Ghats, extending from Kanara in the north to Travancore in the

extreme south. That tract includes almost the whole of Coorg, the

districts of Kadur and Hassan in Mysore, the Nilgiri hills, and the

Wynaad. The cultivation has also extended to the Shevaroy hills in

Salem district and to the Palni hills in Madura.

Unlike tea, coffee was not introduced into India by European

enterprise; and even to the present day its cultivation is largely

followed by the natives. The Malabar coast has always enjoyed a direct

commerce with Arabia, and at an early date gave many converts to

Islam. One of these converts, Baba Budan by name, is said to have gone

on a pilgrimage to Mecca and to have brought back with him the coffee

berry, which he planted on the hill range in Mysore still called after

him. According to local tradition this happened more than two

centuries ago. The shrubs thus sown lived on, but the cultivation did

not spread until the beginning of the 19th century. The state of

Mysore and the Baba Budan range also witnessed the first opening of a

coffee-garden by an English planter about 1840. The success of this

experiment led to the extension of coffee cultivation into the

neighbouring tract of Manjarabad, also in Mysore, and into the Wynaad

subdivision of the Madras district of Malabar. From 1840 to 1860 the

enterprise made slow progress; but since the latter date it has spread

with great rapidity along the whole line of the Western Ghats,

clearing away the primeval forest, and opening a new era of prosperity

to the labouring classes. The export of coffee in 1905 was 360,000

cwt., being the highest for sixteen years. The over-supply of cheap

Brazilian coffee in the consuming markets caused a heavy fall in

prices at the beginning of the decade, the average price in London in

1901 being 47s. per cwt. compared with 101s. in 1894. The United

Kingdom and France are the chief consumers. An agreement with France

at the beginning of the decade secured to Indian produce imported into

that country the benefits of the minimum tariff, thus protecting the

coffee industry from taxation in French ports on a scale which would

have seriously hampered the trade. There is practically no local

market for coffee in India.

_Cinchona._--The cultivation of cinchona was introduced into India in

the year 1860 under the auspices of government, owing to the efforts

of Sir Clements Markham, and a stock of plants was prepared and

distributed to planters in the Nilgiris and in Coorg. At the same time

governmental plantations were established in the Nilgiri hills and at

Darjeeling, and these have been continued up to the present time. A

considerable amount of the bark from private plantations is bought by

the government and treated at the government factories. The sulphate

of quinine and the cinchona febrifuge thus produced are issued for the

most part to medical officers in the various provinces, to gaols, and

to the authorities of native states; but a large and increasing amount

is disposed of in the form of 5-grain packets, costing a farthing

each, through the medium of the post-offices. This system brings the

drug easily within the reach of the people.

_Cattle._--Throughout the whole of India, except in Sind and the

western districts of the Punjab, horned cattle are the only beasts

used for ploughing. The well-known humped species of cattle

predominates everywhere, being divided into many varieties. Owing

partly to unfavourable conditions of climate and soil, partly to the

insufficiency of grazing ground, and partly to the want of selection

in breeding, the general condition of the cattle is miserably poor. As

cultivation advances, the area of waste land available for grazing

steadily diminishes, and the prospects of the poor beasts are becoming

worse rather than better. Their only hope lies in the introduction of

fodder crops as a regular stage in the agricultural course. There are,

however, some fine breeds in existence. In Mysore the _amrit mahal_, a

breed said to have been introduced by Hyder Ali for military purposes,

is still kept up by the state. In the Madras districts of Nellore and

Kurnool the indigenous breed has been greatly improved under the

stimulus of cattle shows and prizes founded by British officials. In

the Central Provinces there is a peculiar breed of trotting bullocks

which is in great demand for wheeled carriages. The large and handsome

oxen of Gujarat in Bombay and of Hariana in the Punjab are excellently

adapted for drawing heavy loads in a sandy soil. The fodder famines

that accompanied the great famines of 1897 and 1900 proved little

short of disastrous to the cattle in the affected provinces. In

Gujarat and the arid plains of the south-east Punjab the renowned

herds almost disappeared. In the affected districts of the Punjab the

loss of cattle averaged from 17 to 45% of the whole. In Rajputana more

than half of its thirteen or fourteen millions of stock is said to

have perished in 1900 alone. In one state the loss amounted to 90%,

and in four others to 70%. In Gujarat half of its 1½ million cattle

perished in spite of the utmost efforts to obtain fodder. The worst

cattle are to be found always in the deltaic tracts, but there their

place is to a large extent taken by buffaloes. These last are more

hardy than ordinary cattle; their character is maintained by crossing

the cows with wild bulls, and their milk yields the best _ghi_ or

clarified butter. Along the valley of the Indus, and in the sandy

desert which stretches into Rajputana, camels supersede cattle for

agricultural operations. The breed of horses has generally

deteriorated since the demand for military purposes has declined with

the establishment of British supremacy. In Bengal Proper, and also in

Madras, it may be broadly said that horses are not bred. But horses

are still required for the Indian army, the native cavalry, and the

police; and in order to maintain the supply of remounts a civil

veterinary department was founded in 1892, transferred in 1903 to the

army remount department. Horse-breeding is carried on chiefly in the

Punjab, the United Provinces, and Baluchistan, and government keep a

number of stallions in the various provinces. Formerly Norfolk

trotters held the first place in point of number, but their place has

been taken in recent years by English thoroughbreds, Arabs, and

especially Australians. For the supply of ordnance, baggage, and

transport mules a large number of donkey stallions have been imported

by the government annually from various European and other sources.

But the supply of suitable animals is not good, and their cost is

large; so the breeding of donkey stallions has been undertaken at the

Hissar farm in the Punjab.

_Forests._--The forests of India, both as a source of natural wealth

and as a department of the administration, are beginning to receive

their proper share of attention. Up to the middle of the 19th century

the destruction of forests by timber-cutters, by charcoal-burners, and

above all by shifting cultivation, was allowed to go on everywhere

unchecked. The extension of cultivation was considered as the chief

care of government, and no regard was paid to the improvident waste

going on on all sides. But as the pressure of population on the soil

became more dense, and the construction of railways increased the

demand for fuel, the question of forest conservation forced itself

into notice. It was recognized that the inheritance of future

generations was being recklessly sacrificed to satisfy the immoderate

desire for profit. And at the same time the importance of forests as

affecting the general meteorology of a country was being learned from

bitter experience in Europe. On many grounds, therefore, it became

necessary to preserve what remained of the forests in India, and to

repair the mischief of previous neglect even at considerable expense.

In 1844 and 1847 the subject was actively taken up by the governments

of Bombay and Madras. In 1864 Dr Brandis was appointed

inspector-general of forests to the government of India, and in the

following year an act of the legislature was passed (No. VII. of

1865). The regular training of candidates for the Forest Department in

the schools of France and Germany dates from 1867. In the interval

that has since elapsed, sound principles of forest administration have

been gradually extended. Indiscriminate timber-cutting has been

prohibited, the burning of the jungle by the hill tribes has been

confined within bounds, large areas have been surveyed and demarcated,

plantations have been laid out, and, generally, forest conservation

has become a reality. Systematic conservancy of the Indian forests

received a great impetus from the passing of the Forest Law in 1878,

which gave to the government powers of dealing with private rights in

the forests of which the chief proprietary right is vested in the

state. The Famine Commission of 1878 urged the importance of forest

conservancy as a safeguard to agriculture, pointing out that a supply

of wood for fuel was necessary if cattle manure was to be used to any

extent for the fields, and also that forest growth served to retain

the moisture in the subsoil. They also advised the protection and

extension of communal rights of pasture, and the planting of the

higher slopes with forest, with a view to the possible increase of the

water-supply. These recommendations embody the principle upon which

the management of the state forests is based. In 1894 the government

divided forests into four classes: forests the preservation of which

is essential on climatic or physical grounds, forests which supply

valuable timber for commercial purposes, minor forests, and pasture

lands. In the first class the special purpose of the forests, such as

the protection of the plains from devastation by torrents, must come

before any smaller interests. The second class includes tracts of

teak, _sal_ or _deodar_ timber and the like, where private or village

rights of user are few. In these forests every reasonable facility is

afforded to the people concerned for the full and easy satisfaction of

their needs, which are generally for small timber for building or

fuel, fodder and grazing for their cattle, and edible products for

themselves; and considerations of forest income are subordinated to

those purposes. Restrictions necessary for the proper conservancy of

the forests are, however, imposed, and the system of shifting

cultivation, which denudes a large area of forest growth in order to

place a small area under crops, is held to cost more to the community

than it is worth, and is only permitted, under due regulation, where

forest tribes depend on it for their sustenance. In the third place,

there are minor forests, which produce inferior or smaller timber.

These are managed mainly in the interests of the surrounding

population, and supply grazing or fuel to them at moderate rates,

higher charges being levied on consumers who are not inhabitants of

the locality. The fourth class includes pastures and grazing grounds.

In these even more than in the third class the interests of the local

community stand first. The state forests, which are under the control

of the forest department, amounted in 1901-1902 to about 217,500 sq.

m., or more than one-fifth of the total area of British India, varying

from 61% in Burma to 4% in the United Provinces.

_Timbers._--A large part of the reserved forests, where the control of

the forest department is most complete, consists of valuable timber,

in which the first place is held by teak, found at its best in Burma,

especially in the upper division, and on the south-west coast of

India, in Kanara and Malabar. It is also the most prevalent and

valuable product of the forests at the foot of the Ghats in Bombay,

and along the Satpura and Vindhya ranges, as far as the middle of the

Central Provinces. Here it meets the _sal_, which however is more

especially found in the sub-Himalayan tracts of the United Provinces

and Eastern Bengal and Assam. In the Himalayas themselves the _deodar_

and other conifers form the bulk of the timber, while in the lower

ranges, such as the Khasi hills in Assam, and those of Burma, various

pines are prominent. In the north-east of Assam and in the north of

Upper Burma the _Ficus elastica_, a species of india-rubber tree, is

found. The sandal-wood flourishes all along the southern portion of

the Ghats, especially about Mysore and Coorg; and in the same regions,

as well as in Upper India, the blackwood occurs. A valuable tree,

known as the padouk, is at present restricted almost entirely to the

Andaman Islands, with a scattering in Lower Burma. There are many

other timber trees that are in general demand in different parts of

India, but the above are the best known outside that country. There is

also the universal bamboo, and in the north-western tracts the equally

useful rattan. The annual timber yield of the Indian forests is about

fifty millions of cubic feet, excluding what is used for local

purposes. About half of this quantity comes from the forests of Burma,

where large amounts of teak and other woods are annually extracted,

chiefly through the agency of private firms. It is, however, only the

more valuable of the woods, such as teak, sandal-wood, ebony and the

like, which find a market abroad. The total value of the export trade

in forest produce averages between 1½ and 2 millions annually.

_Manufactures._

Manufacturing industries are being slowly developed in India, though

their growth has not yet materially affected the pressure on the land.

Next to agriculture, weaving is the most important industry in the

country, the cotton-mills of Bombay and the jute mills of Bengal having

increased greatly of recent years. On the other hand, the old indigenous

industries of India decayed greatly during the latter part of the 19th

century. The colonies of hand-workers in silk, cotton, carpets, brass

and silver ware, wood and ivory, and other skilled craftsmen, which

formerly existed in various parts of India, have fallen off both in the

extent of their output and in the artistic excellence of their work. An

attempt has been made to remedy the evil by means of schools of art, but

with little result.

_Cotton._--Cotton is the staple article of clothing in Eastern

countries, and Indian cotton and other piece goods used to find a

ready market in Europe before the English cotton manufacturer had

arisen. When European adventurers found the way to India, cotton and

silk always formed part of the rich cargoes that they brought home,

and the early settlers were always careful to fix their abode amid a

weaving population, at Surat, Calicut, Masulipatam or Hugli. But now

the larger part of the cotton goods used in India is manufactured in

mills in that country or in England, and the handloom weavers' output

is confined to the coarsest kinds of cloth, or to certain special

kinds of goods, such as the turbans and "saris" of Bombay, or the

muslins of Arni, Cuddapah, and Madura in Madras, and of Dacca in

Bengal. The extent to which village industries still survive is shown

by the fact that according to the census of 1901 there were 5,800,000

hand-loom weavers in India against only 350,000 workers in cotton

mills.

The present importance of the cotton crop dates only from the crisis

in Lancashire caused by the American War. Prior to 1860 the exports of

raw cotton from India used to average less than 3 millions sterling a

year, mostly to China; but after that date they rose by leaps, until

in 1866 they reached the enormous total of 37 millions. Then came the

crash, caused by the restoration of peace in the United States, and

the exports fell, until they now average little more than 8 millions a

year. The fact is that Indian cotton has a short staple, and cannot

compete with the best American cotton for spinning the finer qualities

of yarn. But while the cotton famine was at its height, the

cultivators were intelligent enough to make the most of their

opportunity. The area under cotton increased enormously, and the

growers managed to retain in their own hands a fair share of the

profit. The principal cotton-growing tracts are the plains of Gujarat

and Kathiawar, whence Indian cotton has received in the Liverpool

market the historic name of "Surat"; the highlands of the Deccan, and

the valleys of the Central Provinces and Berar. The total area under

cotton in 1905-1906 was 20½ million acres, and the export was

7,396,000 cwt.

It was estimated in 1905 that the world's output of cotton was

19,000,000 bales, of which 13¾ millions were produced in the United

States, 3 millions in India, and nearly 1¼ millions in Egypt, Japan

and China being India's best customers for the raw article. At the

same time the total number of spindles employed in working up the

world's raw cotton was 116 millions, of which 48 millions were in the

United Kingdom, 24 millions in the United States, and a little over 5

millions in India. There were 203 cotton mills in India, employing a

daily average of 196,369 persons. The Bombay Presidency possessed 70%

of the mills and much the same percentage of spindles and looms. The

industry dates from 1851, when the first mill was started. But though

India has special advantages in home-grown cotton and cheap labour,

the labour is so inefficient as to make competition with Europe

difficult. It is calculated that an Indian power-loom weaver working

72 hours a week can turn out 70 lb. of cloth, while a European working

54 hours can turn out 468 lb., and that one Lancashire weaver can do

the work of six Indian power-loom weavers and nine hand-loom weavers.

While these figures hold good, India cannot be a serious competitor

with Europe in the cotton industry.

_Jute._--Next to cotton, jute is the most important and prosperous of

Indian manufactures. With the advance of commerce it is more and more

required for its best-known use, as sacking for produce. Australia and

Argentina need it for wool and wheat, Chili and Brazil for nitrates

and coffee, Asiatic countries for rice, and the world as a whole for

its increased output of produce. The supply has not kept pace with the

demand, and the consequence was a steady appreciation in price from

1901 onwards. The cultivation of jute is confined, to a comparatively

restricted area, more than three-fourths of the total acreage being in

eastern Bengal and Assam, while nearly the whole of the remaining

fourth is in Bengal. In 1907, however, experiments were made towards

growing it in other parts of India. In Behar it has begun to replace

indigo, and some success was achieved in Orissa, Assam and Madras; but

jute is a very exhausting crop, and requires to be planted in lands

fertilized with silt or else with manure. About half the total crop is

exported, and the remainder used in the jute mills centred round

Calcutta, which supply cloth and bags for the grain export trade. The

number of jute mills in 1904 was 38, employing 124,000 hands, and

since then the number has tended constantly upwards. The export of

jute in 1905-1906 was 14,480,000 cwt. with a value of £12,350,000.

_Silk._--The silk industry in India has experienced many vicissitudes.

Under the East India Company large quantities of mulberry silk were

produced chiefly in Bengal, and exported to Europe; and Malda,

Murshidabad, and other places in that province have long been famous

for their silk manufactures. Other kinds of silk are native to certain

parts of India, such as those produced by the "castor oil" and the

_muga_ silkworms of Assam; but the chief of the wild silks is the

tussore silk, which is found in the jungles nearly throughout India.

Large quantities of comparatively coarse silk are made from silk so

produced. In Assam silk is still the national dress, and forms the

common costume of the women, but the men are relinquishing it as an

article of daily wear in favour of cotton. Amongst the Burmese,

however, silk still holds its own. Owing to disease among the

silk-worms the industry has declined of recent years; and in 1886 an

inquiry was held, which resulted in putting the silk-rearing industry

of Bengal on a better basis. The most hopeful ground, however, for

the industry is Kashmir, where Sir Thomas Wardle reported that the

silk was of as high a quality as from any part of the world. The most

important seat of the silk-weaving industry is Bengal, but there are

few parts of India where some silk fabrics are not woven. The silk

weavers of India possess the very highest skill in their craft, and

with competent and energetic management and increased capital the

industry could be revived and extended.

_Other Manufactures._--The demand of the Indian population for woollen

fabrics is very small in comparison with that for cotton, and although

the manufacture of blankets is carried on in many parts of India, the

chief part of the indigenous woollen industry was originally concerned

with shawls. Kashmir shawls were at one time famous, but the industry

is practically extinct. The chief seat of the woollen industry now is

the Punjab, where a considerable number of weavers, thrown out of work

by the decline of the shawl industry, have taken to carpet-making. The

chief centre of this industry is Amritsar. The output of the woollen

mills is chiefly used for the army and the police. In addition to

these and the cotton and jute mills there are indigo factories, rice

mills, timber mills, coffee works, oil mills, iron and brass

foundries, tile factories, printing presses, lac factories, silk

mills, and paper mills. There is a large trade in wood-carving, the

material being generally Indian ebony in northern India, sandal-wood

in southern India, and teak in Burma and elsewhere.

From an artistic point of view the metal manufactures are one of the

most important products of India.

_Brass and Copper Work._--The village brazier, like the village smith,

manufactures the necessary vessels for domestic use. Chief among these

vessels is the _lota_, or globular bowl, universally used in

ceremonial ablutions. The form of the _lota_, and even the style of

ornamentation, has been handed down unaltered from the earliest times.

Benares enjoys the first reputation for work in brass and copper. In

the south, Madura and Tanjore have a similar fame; and in the west,

Ahmedabad, Poona and Nasik. At Bombay itself large quantities of

imported copper are wrought up by native braziers. The temple bells of

India are well known for the depth and purity of their note. In many

localities the braziers have a special repute either for a peculiar

alloy or for a particular process of ornamentation. Silver is

sometimes mixed with the brass, and in rarer cases gold. The brass or

rather bell-metal ware of Murshidabad, known as _khagrai_, has more

than a local reputation, owing to the large admixture of silver in it.

Pottery.

Pottery is made in almost every village, from the small vessels

required in cooking to the large jars used for storing grain and

occasionally as floats to ferry persons across a swollen stream. But,

though the industry is universal, it has hardly anywhere risen to the

dignity of a fine art. Sind is the only province of India where the

potter's craft is pursued with any regard to artistic considerations;

and there the industry is said to have been introduced by the

Mahommedans. Sind pottery is of two kinds, encaustic tiles and vessels

for domestic use. In both cases the colours are the same,--turquoise

blue, copper green, dark purple or golden brown, under an exquisitely

transparent glaze. The usual ornament is a conventional flower

pattern, pricked in from paper and dusted along the pricking. The

tiles, which are evidently of the same origin as those of Persia and

Turkey, are chiefly to be found in the ruined mosques and tombs of the

old Mussulman dynasties; but the industry still survives at the little

towns of Saidpur and Bubri. Artistic pottery is made at Hyderabad,

Karachi, Tatta and Hala, and also at Multan and Lahore in the Punjab.

The Madura pottery deserves mention from the elegance of its form and

the richness of its colour. The United Provinces have, among other

specialties, an elegant black ware with designs in white metal worked

into its surface.

_Mineral Resources._

Putting aside salt, which has been already treated, the chief mining

resources of India at the present day are the coal mines, the gold

mines, the petroleum oil-fields, the ruby mines, manganese deposits,

mica mines in Bengal, and the tin ores and jade of Burma. Other minerals

which exist but have not yet been developed in paying quantities are

copper ore, alum, gypsum and plumbago.

_Coal._--Coal has been known to exist in India since 1774. The first

mine at Raniganj dates from 1820, and has been regularly worked up to

the present time. Coal of varying quality exists under a very

extensive area in India, being found in almost every province and

native state with the exception of Bombay and Mysore. In respect,

however, of both the number and size of its mines Bengal comes easily

first, with seven-eighths of the total output, the largest mines being

those of Raniganj, Jherria, and Giridih, while the Singareni mine in

Hyderabad comes next. Many of the Bengal mines, however, are very

small. There are some important mines in Assam and the Central

Provinces. The importance of the Indian coal production lies in the

hope that it holds out for the development of Indian industries,

especially in connexion with the nascent iron and steel industry. Coal

and iron are found in conjunction in the Central Provinces, and the

Tata Company has recently been formed to work them on a large scale.

The railways already use Indian coal almost exclusively, and Indian

coal is being taken yearly in greater quantities by ships trading to

Eastern ports. The total output in 1905-1906 was 8,417,739 tons; while

there were 47 companies engaged in coal-mining, of which 46 were in

Bengal.

_Gold._--The production of gold in India is practically confined to

the Kolar gold fields in Mysore. An uncertain but unimportant amount

is annually procured by sand-washing in various tracts of northern

India and Burma; and there have been many attempts, including the

great boom of 1880, to work mines in the Wynaad district of the Madras

Presidency. There are also mines in the Hyderabad state from which a

small amount of gold is produced. But the output of gold in Mysore

represents 99% of the annual Indian yield. Modern mining at Kolar

dates from 1881, but there are extensive old workings showing that

much gold had been extracted under native rule. The mines are worked

under leases from the Mysore government, which secure to the state a

royalty of 5% of the gold produced. Up to the end of 1903 the total

output of the Kolar mines reached the value of £19,000,000.

_Iron._--In purity of ore, and in antiquity of working, the iron

deposits of India probably rank first in the world. They are to be

found in every part of the country, from the northern mountains of

Assam and Kumaun to the extreme south of the Madras Presidency.

Wherever there are hills, iron is found and worked to a greater or

less extent. The indigenous methods of smelting the ore, which are

everywhere the same, and have been handed down unchanged through

countless generations, yield a metal of the finest quality in a form

well suited to native wants. But they require an extravagant supply of

charcoal; and even with the cheapness of native labour the product

cannot compete in price with imported iron from England. European

enterprise, attracted by the richness of the ore and the low rate of

wages, has repeatedly tried to establish iron-works on a large scale;

but hitherto every one of these attempts has ended in failure with the

exception of the iron-works at Barrakur in Bengal, first started in

1865, which after many years of struggle seem to have turned the

corner of success. The principal sources of iron-stone at present are

the Madras ores, chiefly at Salem, the Chanda ores in the Central

Provinces, and the ores obtained at and near Raniganj in Bengal.

_Petroleum._--The great oilfields of the Indian empire are in Burma,

which supplies 98% of the total output. Of the remainder nearly all

comes from Assam. In both provinces the growth of the yield has been

very great, the total output in 1901 being six times as large as in

1892; but even so it has failed to keep pace with the demand. A

regular service of steamers carries oil in bulk from Rangoon to

Calcutta, and now Burmese oil competes with the Russian product, which

had already driven the dearer American oil from the market (see

BURMA).

_Other Ores._--Manganese ore is found in very large quantities on a

tract on the Madras coast about midway between Calcutta and Madras.

Most of the ore goes to Great Britain. There are also valuable

deposits of manganese in the Central Provinces and, it is believed, in

Burma. The export of manganese, which had been only about ten years in

existence in 1905-1906, amounted then to 316,694 tons, with a value of

£250,000. Mica has long been obtained in Bengal, chiefly in the

Hazaribagh district, and there is a ruby-coloured variety which is

held in great estimation. In Madras also a mica industry has recently

grown up. Tin is found in the Tavoy and Mergui districts of Lower

Burma, and has for many years been worked in an unprogressive manner

chiefly by Chinese labour. In 1900 tin of good quality was found in

the Southern Shan States. Copper ore is found in many tracts

throughout India, plumbago in Madras, and corundum in southern India.

_Precious Stones._--Despite its legendary wealth, which is really due

to the accumulations of ages, India cannot be said to be naturally

rich in precious stones. Under the Mahommedan rule diamonds were a

distinct source of state revenue; and Akbar is said to have received a

royalty of £80,000 a year from the mines of Panna. But at the present

day the search for them, if carried on anywhere in British territory,

is an insignificant occupation. The name of Golconda has passed into

literature; but that city, once the Mussulman capital of the Deccan,

was rather the home of diamond-cutters than the source of supply. It

is believed that the far-famed diamonds of Golconda actually came from

the sandstone formation which extends across the south-east borders of

the nizam's dominions into the Madras districts of Ganjam and

Godavari. A few poor stones are still found in that region. Sambalpur,

on the upper channel of the Mahanadi river in the Central Provinces,

is another spot once famous for diamonds. So late as 1818 a stone is

said to have been found there weighing 84 grains and valued at £500.

The river-valleys of Chota Nagpur are also known to have yielded a

tribute of diamonds to their Mahommedan conquerors. At the present day

the only place where the search for diamonds is pursued as a regular

industry is the native state of Panna in Bundelkhand. The stones are

found by digging down through several strata of gravelly soil and

washing the earth. Even there, however, the pursuit is understood to

be unremunerative, and has failed to attract European capital. At the

present day the only important industries are the rubies and jade of

Burma. The former are worked by the Ruby Mines Company or by licensed

native miners under the company. The value of the rubies found has

increased rapidly, and the company, which was for some time worked

unprofitably under the lease granted in 1896, has now, with the aid of

favourable treatment from the government, become more prosperous.

Pearls are found off the southern coast of Madras and also in the

Mergui archipelago.

_Trade._

The trade of India with foreign countries is conducted partly by sea and

partly across the land frontiers; but the frontier trade, though capable

of much extension, is only a small fraction of the whole. The sea-borne

trade is carried on chiefly through the four great ports of Calcutta,

Bombay, Karachi, and Rangoon, of which Calcutta serves the fertile

valley of the Ganges and Brahmaputra, Bombay serves the cotton-trade of

western India, Karachi exports the wheat crop of the Punjab, and Rangoon

the rice crop of Burma. Madras, which has been supplied with an

artificial harbour, serves southern India, and Chittagong is rising into

prominence as the point of departure for the tea and jute of eastern

Bengal and Assam. The land trade is carried on with Persia, Afghanistan,

Nepal, Tibet and western China. The new caravan route to Persia from

Quetta by way of the Nushki railway offers facilities to traders, of

which increasing advantage has been taken, but the trade is still small.

Afghanistan under Abdur Rahman imposed prohibitive imposts upon trade,

and the present amir followed his father's policy, but his visit to

India in 1907 may result in improved relations. The trade with the

tribes lying north of the Malakand Pass has improved considerably since

the frontier war of 1897-98, but they are a poor community. Nepal takes

the largest share of the frontier trade. The trade with Tibet has

slightly improved since the treaty of Lhasa of 1904, but it still

amounts to only £90,000 annually. The trade with western China is about

half a million annually, and shows signs of development.

Exports.

A review of Indian trade by the director-general of the statistical

department in India is annually presented to parliament, and therefore

it is only necessary here to mention the main channels that it has

taken of recent years. The chief exports are raw cotton, cotton goods

and yarn, rice, wheat, oil-seeds, raw jute and jute-manufactures,

hides and skins, tea, opium and lac. In 1905-1906 there was great

activity in both the cotton and jute industries. In Bombay new cotton

mills were erected, and old ones extended, high-speed machinery was

widely introduced, and 12,000 new looms were set up. Similarly the

jute trade far surpassed all records. The crop was a record one, but

the demand far exceeded the supply, the cultivators reaped profits of

eight millions more than the previous year, and 2000 new looms were

set up in Calcutta. The tea outlook was good, and the coffee industry

was recovering from the effects of plant disease and Brazilian

competition. But both the indigo and opium trades are declining

industries, which mean a serious loss to the Indian exchequer. Indigo

fell to about one-tenth of its value in the previous decade; and an

agreement was come to with China in 1907, by which the area under

opium is to be gradually reduced. The total exports for 1905-1906 were

valued at £112,000,000.

Imports.

The chief articles of import are cotton goods, cotton yarn, metals,

sugar, mineral oils, machinery and mill-work, woollen manufactures,

provisions, hardware and cutlery, silk, liquors, apparel, railway

material and chemicals. Cotton manufactures and yarns are imported

almost exclusively from the United Kingdom, and amount to about 40% of

the total trade. Metals, including hardware and cutlery, railway

material, &c., supply about a fifth. The only other important article

of import is sugar, which came to about 5 millions in 1905-1906. The

balance of trade is always against India, because she is a debtor

country, and has to pay interest on borrowed capital, and the "home

charges" for the upkeep of the civil and military services and of the

secretary of state's establishment in London. The total imports for

1905-1906 were valued at 82½ millions sterling, including 14 millions

of gold and silver, which are continually hoarded by the people of

India.

Trading classes.

Broadly speaking, the greater part of the internal trade remains in

the hands of the natives. Europeans control the shipping business and

have a share in the collection of some of the more valuable staples of

exports, such as cotton, jute, oil-seeds and wheat. But the work of

distribution and the adaptation of the supply to the demand of the

consumer naturally fall to those who are best acquainted with native

wants. The Vaisya, or trading caste of Manu, has no longer any

separate existence; but its place is occupied by several well-marked

classes. On the western coast the Parsees, by the boldness and extent

of their operations, tread close upon the heels of the most prosperous

English houses. In the interior of the Bombay presidency, business is

mainly divided between two classes, the Bunniahs of Gujarat and the

Marwaris from Rajputana. Each of these profess a peculiar form of

religion, the former being Vishnuvites of the Vallabhacharí sect, the

latter Jains. In the Deccan their place is taken by Lingayats from the

south, who again follow their own form of Hinduism, which is an

heretical species of Siva worship. Throughout Mysore, and in the north

of Madras, Lingayats are still found, but along the eastern sea-board

the predominating classes of traders are those named Chetties and

Komatis. In Bengal many of the upper castes of Sudras have devoted

themselves to general trade; but there again the Jain Marwaris from

Rajputana occupy the front rank. Their headquarters are in Murshidabad

district, and their agents are to be found throughout the valley of

the Brahmaputra, as far up as the unexplored frontier of China.

Local trade.

Local trade is conducted either at the permanent bazaars of great

towns, at weekly markets held in certain villages, at annual

gatherings primarily held for religious purposes, or by means of

travelling brokers and agents. The cultivator himself, who is the

chief producer and also the chief customer, knows little of the great

towns, and expects the dealer to come to his own door. Each village

has at least one resident trader, who usually combines in his own

person the functions of money-lender, grain dealer and cloth seller.

The simple system of rural economy is entirely based upon the dealings

of this man, whom it is the fashion sometimes to decry as a usurer,

but who is really the one thrifty person among an improvident

population. Abolish the money-lender, and the general body of

cultivators would have nothing to depend upon but the harvest of a

single year. The money-lender deals chiefly in grain and in specie. In

those districts where the staples of export are largely grown, the

cultivators commonly sell their crops to travelling brokers, who

re-sell to larger dealers, and so on until the commodities reach the

hands of the agents of the great shipping houses. The wholesale trade

thus rests ultimately with a comparatively small number of persons,

who have agencies, or rather corresponding firms, at the great central

marts. Buying and selling in their aspects most characteristic of

India are to be seen, not at these great towns, nor even at the weekly

markets, but at the fairs which are held periodically at certain spots

in most districts. Religion is always the original pretext of these

gatherings or _melás_, at some of which nothing is done beyond bathing

in the river, or performing various superstitious ceremonies. But in

the majority of cases religion has become a mere excuse for secular

business. Crowds of petty traders attend, bringing all those

miscellaneous articles that can be packed into a pedlar's wallet; and

the neighbouring villagers look forward to the occasion to satisfy

alike their curiosity and their household wants.

Finance.

The control of the revenues of India is vested by act of parliament in

the secretary of state for India in council. Subject to his control

the government of India enjoys a certain discretionary power, but no

new expenditure may be incurred without his sanction. There is a

special member for finance in the governor-general's council, and all

important matters are brought before the council. The central

government keeps in its own hands certain revenues, such as salt, the

post-office, telegraphs, railways, army and Indian Marine, in addition

to the districts of Coorg, Ajmere and the North-West Frontier

province. The other provinces raise and administer their own revenues,

subject to the central control; they are allowed a certain proportion

of the revenue to meet their own administrative charges, and so have

an interest in economical expenditure. The apportionment of the

revenues is settled afresh every five years. In 1893 the Indian mints

were closed to the free coinage of silver, and in 1899 the British

sovereign was made legal tender at the rate of 1s. 4d. per rupee; so

that since that year the finances of India have been practically upon

a gold basis. The principal heads of revenue are land, opium, salt,

stamps, excise, customs, assessed taxes, forests, registration and

tributes from native states; and the chief heads of expenditure are

charges of collection, interest, post-office, telegraph and mint,

civil departments, famine relief and insurance, railways, irrigation,

other public works and army. The point most frequently criticized in

the finances of India is the "home charges" which amount on an average

to about 18½ millions a year. Of this total about 9½ millions are for

interest on railways and other public works, 5 millions for pensions

and furlough pay for civil and military officers, 2½ millions for

stores and 1½ millions miscellaneous. These charges constitute the

home expenditure on revenue account, but there are also other

remittances from India on capital account which bring up the total

disbursements in England to an annual average of about 21¼ millions.

_Public Works._

Public works in India fall under three categories--railways, irrigation,

and roads and buildings. The railways are managed in various ways, the

other two classes of works are carried out through the agency of

separate departments in Madras and Bombay, and of officers of the

government of India public works department, either under local or

central control, in other provinces.

Railways.

Railways in India serve different purposes--the ordinary purpose of

trade and passenger communication, and also the special purposes pf the

safeguarding the internal and external peace of the country, and of

protecting special districts against famine by facilitating the movement

of grain. For this reason the interest on capital expended on all the

lines cannot be judged by a purely commercial standard. They are

administered in three separate ways--as guaranteed, state or assisted

lines. In the early days of railway enterprise the agency of private

companies guaranteed by the state was exclusively employed, and nearly

all the great trunk lines were made under this system, but the leases of

the last three of these lines, the Great Indian Peninsula, the Bombay

Baroda and Central India, and the Madras companies, fell in respectively

in 1900, 1905 and 1907. In 1870 a new policy of railway development by

the direct agency of the state was inaugurated; and in 1880 the system

of encouraging private enterprise by state assistance was again resorted

to. Both agencies are now employed side by side. The administration of

railways was formerly under a secretary in the public works department;

but since 1905 it has been placed in charge of a railway board,

consisting of a president and two members, which is connected with,

though not subordinate to, the department of commerce and industry. In

1908 the total length of railways open in India was 30,578, m., which

carried 330 million passengers and 64 million tons of goods, and yielded

a net profit exceeding 4%.

Irrigation.

Facilities for irrigation (q.v.) vary widely, and irrigation works

differ both in extent and in character. The main distinction arises from

the fact that the rivers of northern India are fed by the Himalayan

snows, and, therefore, afford a supply of water which surpasses in

constancy and volume any of the rivers of the south. In Bombay and

Madras almost all the irrigation systems, except in the deltas of the

chief rivers, are dependent on reservoirs or "tanks," which collect the

rainfall of the adjacent hills. In Sind and the Punjab there are many

canals which act merely as distributaries of the overflow of the great

rivers at the time of inundation; but where the utility of the canals

has been increased by permanent head-works the supply of water is

perennial and practically inexhaustible, thus contrasting favourably

with the less certain protection given by tanks. The Irrigation

Commission of 1901 advised an expenditure of 30 millions sterling,

spread over a term of twenty years, and irrigating 6½ million acres in

addition to the 47 millions already irrigated at that time; but it was

estimated that that programme would practically exhaust the irrigable

land in India, and that some of the later works would be merely

protective against the danger of famine, and would not be financially

productive.

Buildings and roads.

In addition to the provision and maintenance of roads and the

construction of public buildings, the department of public works also

provides all works of a public nature, such as water-supply,

sanitation, embankments, lighthouses, ferries and bridges, which

require technical skill. Road-making is an ordinary form of relief

work in times of famine. In the famine of 1896-1897, for instance, 579

m. of new roads were made in the Central Provinces alone, and 819 m.

were repaired. One of the finest roads in the world is the Grand Trunk

Road which stretches across India from Calcutta to Peshawar, and which

is metalled most of the way with _kankar_, a hard limestone outgrowth.

The great buildings of ancient India are described under the names of

the different cities which contain them.

Post Office.

The post-office of India is under the control of a director-general,

in subordination to the department of commerce and industry; and this

officer has under him a postmaster-general or deputy

postmaster-general in each province. In 1906 the district post,

originally provided for local convenience and maintained by a local

cess, was amalgamated with the imperial post. The mileage over which

mails are carried by railway has been constantly increasing with the

development of the railway system, but a far larger number are still

carried by runners and boats. The total number of letters, &c.,

carried by the post exceeds 800 millions, and the service yields a

small profit to the state. In connexion with the post-office there are

inland money order and savings-bank businesses; and in addition the

value-payable system, by which the post-office undertakes to recover

from the addressee the value of an article sent by post and to remit

the amount to the sender, has found great popularity.

Excluding the Indo European telegraph wire, the whole telegraph

system of India forms an imperial charge, administered through a

director-general. The total length of line is about 69,000 m., and the

net profits of the service approximately pay for new expenditure on

capital account.

Telegraphs.

Telegraphic communication with Europe is maintained by the cable of

the Eastern Telegraph Company via Aden, and by the Indo-European

system, of which the eastern portion from Teheran and Fao to Karachi

belongs to the government of India. The administration of the

Indo-European department is in London under the direct control of the

secretary of state. The system comprises two sections. The first,

called the Persian Gulf section, runs from Karachi to Bushire, from

Jask to Muscat, and from Bushire to Fao, where a connexion is made

with the Ottoman government line. It includes also the Makran coast

lines, running from Jask to Guadur, and thence to Karachi. The second

section, known as the Persian section, consists of land lines running

from Bushire to Teheran. These land lines, as well as the Makran coast

lines, are worked under a treaty with the Persian government. A

connexion for extending the system through Persia was signed in 1901,

the route to be followed being from Kashan near Teheran to the

Baluchistan frontier via Yezd and Kerman.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--_Imperial Gazetteer of India_ (new edition, 1907-1909);

_Census of India_ (1901); _Statistical Atlas of India_ (1895); G. A.

Grierson, _Linguistic Survey of India_ (1903); Sir Thomas Holdich,

_India_ ("Regions of the World" series) (1902); Sir John Strachey,

_India_ (1903); W. Crooke, _Natives of Northern India_ (1907); W. S.

Lilly, _India and its Problems_ (1902); Sidney Low, _A Vision of

India_ (1906); R. D. Oldham, _Geology of India_ (1893); W. T.

Blanford, _Geology of India_ (1880), and _Fauna of British India_

(1888); R. Lydekker, _Great and Small Game of India_ (1900); Sir J. D.

Hooker, _Flora of British India_ (1875); J. S. Gamble, _Manual of

Indian Timbers_ (1902); _Indian Land Revenue Policy_ (Calcutta, 1902);

B. H. Baden-Powell, _The Indian Village Community_ (1896); Abdullah

Yusuf Ali, _Life and Labour of the People of India_ (1907); Theodore

Morison, _Industrial Organization of an Indian Province_ (1906);

Professor Wyndham Dunstan, _Coal Resources of India_ (Society of Arts,

1902); Sir George Watt, _Dictionary of Economic Products of India_

(1908); Sir George Birdwood, _Industrial Arts of India_ (1880); R. H.

Mahon, _Iron and Steel in India_ (1899); _Lord Curzon in India_

(1906); _India Office List_; _The Statesman's Year-Book_; and the

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