Economic Reconstruction

BY V. V. GIRI, BAR-AT-LAW

(Member, The Legislative Assembly)

India is pre-eminently an agricultural country. The latest census indicates that the population of India at present is about 350 millions. It has been found that 90% of the inhabitants live in villages and that 73% of the people depend for their sustenance on agriculture alone. Even the 10% that reside in the towns depend on what they secure from income from villages to make up for the deficits resulting from modern conditions, costly environments and, necessities of urban life.

It is therefore conceded on all hands that unless every village and hamlet is organised on scientific lines and its resources are exploited for the benefit of the nation, as a whole, there is no permanent salvation for this country. While therefore it is recognised by all sections of the people that political Swaraj is the birthright of the nation and that nothing–repression by way of ordinances, martial law or otherwise–can prevent the onward march of a nation to its legitimate goal, it is equally admitted that mere political Swaraj can mean little or nothing to the vast masses of humanity in India, unless it is followed by economic Swaraj, wherein the Government can guarantee every citizen the right to live by conceding the right to work. It was Deshbandhu Das that first clearly and in unequivocal terms stated what Swaraj meant in his famous Faridpur speech of 1923. He conceived Swaraj not merely in terms of classes but chiefly masses as well.

It is therefore right and just that with the growing consciousness of the people and the sacrifices they have made during the next ten years that followed, the foundations for real Swaraj were laid on the basis of the resolution passed at the Indian National Congress at Karachi. The most important of the Fundamental Rights may be mentioned here, being relevant to our purpose: –

‘This Congress is of opinion that to enable the masses to appreciate what "Swaraj," as conceived by the Congress, will mean to them, it is desirable to state the position of the Congress in a manner easily understood by them. In order to end the exploitation of the masses, political freedom must include real economic freedom of the starving millions. The Congress, therefore, declares that any constitution which may be agreed to on its behalf should provide, or enable the Swaraj Government to provide, for the following: –

‘Fundamental Rights according to the Congress include,

(1) freedom of association and combination;

(2) freedom of speech and of press;

(3) equal rights and obligations to all citizens without any bar on account of sex;

(4) no disability to attach to any citizen by reason of his or her religion, caste or creed, in regard to public employment or in exercise of any trade or calling;

(5) equal rights to all citizens in regard to public roads, wells, schools and other places of public resort, adult suffrage, free education;

(6) living wage for industrial workers, limited hours of labour, healthy conditions of work, protection against economic consequences of old age, sickness and unemployment;

(7) abolition of contract labour;

(8) provision for maternity benefits;

(9) right of Labour to form Unions to protect their interests and with suitable machinery for the settlement of disputes through arbitration;

(10) substantial reduction in agricultural rents or revenue paid by the peasantry;

(11) control over exchange and currency policy to help Indian industries and bring relief to the masses;

(12) control by the State of key industries and ownership of mineral resources;

(13) control of usury.’

It is clear from the preamble of the resolution that Congress places before it broad outlines of socialistic order of things to guide the future of the country. It now will be the turn of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru; the most trusted leader of the Congress as well as the new thought, to shape things in the proper perspective and lead the country to its legitimate goal.

He made his viewpoint quite clear in his contributions entitled ‘Whither India?’ His ideas on this subject are as follows: –

‘But whether Socialism or Communism is the right answer or some other one, one thing is certain–that the answer must be in terms of economics and not merely politics. For, India and the world are oppressed by economic problems and there is no escaping them. So long as the fullest economic freedom does not come, there can be no freedom; whatever the political structure may be, economic freedom must of course include political freedom; that is the reality today; all else is myth and delusion.’

While there are differences of view regarding the extent the resolution on Fundamental Rights could have gone, there is no gainsaying the fact that it has laid the foundations for the ‘Government of the people for the people, by the people.’ It now depends upon Congressmen, Socialists, Trade Unionists and reformers to work out the future of the country to secure for it a rightful place in the comity of nations.

In order to achieve this great purpose, mere academic discussions or mere speeches on platforms will not produce results. It can only be achieved by a persistent, consistent and continuoos organisation of the whole rural life of the country from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin in all its aspects. It does require a five or even a ten year plan of action to secure the results desired.

The work of organisation of every village must be taken up, and that immediately. For this purpose, we must find at least one good worker for every ten villages in India, the centre of a group of ten villages being made the head-quarters of the person. It must be distinctly understood that the workers must go there with the object of not being temporary residents for a few days in a month or the year, but they should proceed there with the idea of permanently settling themselves and be one with the villager in thought, word and deed.

As to the functions of such persons, they should be in a position to assure the people under their charge that they will render all possible and necessary help in educating the children of the village by starting night or day schools on the pials of the village; they should read journals and periodicals to the villagers and explain to them the political and other conditions prevailing in the country and elsewhere; they should further look to their grievances, regarding water supply and other necessaries essential for the purposes of good yield from their lands. They should render every help to the villagers by not allowing them to get into the grip of money-lenders, through Co-operative Societies, Land Mortgage Banks, etc. They should further teach the villagers the essentials of sanitation, etc. They should settle disputes between villagers in terse and landlords and tenants.

In these days of great unemployment, it may not be difficult to find seventy thousand young men, sufficiently educated, to take up this great task if the country or the Congress can assure the workers of food and raiment. Their chief aim should be the organisation of peasants with these constructive ideas behind it. It is essential that the country’s efforts must be in the direction of pooling up resources by bringing young men together in every District in India and immediately drafting them to the villages by dividing all the villages in the District into small areas. The leaders of the Congress must go about to the group centres and tellthe villagers that these workers will render every possible help in the reconstruction of the village according to the programme laid down. If the villagers are convinced about the bona fides of the workers, they will not find it difficult to feed and clothe and house one or two young men and their families in every group of villages.

The above programme, if adopted, will accomplish the ordinary propaganda in the village. But these young men should be guided by economists, practical socialists and sympathetic industrialists, who should place before the country a planned economy. There should be Economic Councils set up by the Congress in every District who should be in charge of each District and there must also be Provincial and Central Economic Councils.

The main object of these Economic Councils should be not only to place before the country a definite planned economy, but get it worked in a methodical manner. The planning otherwise becomes a meaningless effort if it is not related to some definite and pre-determined end.

The duty of these Councils should be,

1. collection of statistics of unemployed and under-employed in the country;

2. to introduce improved methods of agriculture and extension of irrigation;

3. to increase production of various manufactured articles and agricultural commodities;

4. to increase the purchasing power of the people and consequently the standard of living;

5. improving rural housing and sanitation;

6. stimulating agricultural marketing and encouraging cooperation;

7. to make India self-contained

It is a matter for congratulation that Mahatma Gandhi started, his Village Industries Association with the idea of solving the question of subsidiary income to agriculturists and peasants who have occupation only for six or eight months in the year.

His organisation resulted in the Government granting a crore of rupees for rural uplift, though half-heartedly and without a plan. It is only a greater agitation, propaganda and force of public opinion that can compel an unwilling Government to take up actually and sincerely this rural reconstruction by spending not merely one crore of rupees but at least 100 crores every year for the next five years. It should entrust the whole of this programme to the Central Economic Council fully representative of the people, by giving every help from the Government Departments conerned.

One way of solving the unemployment problem in the country is by exploiting all uncultivated but culturable land that is availabe. The exact statistics relating to such land are given below for the proper understanding of the question: –

	Cultivated			Uncultivated
Provinces	Net area Actually sown	Current fallows	Culturable waste other than fallow	Not available for cultivation	Forests
	Acres	Acres	Acres	Acres	Acres
Ajmer-Merwara	357,930	151,613	303,642	861,134	96,782
Assam	5,752,043	1,811,270	19,527,781	4,571,030	3,822,676
Bengal	23,567,900	5,300,710	5,915,644	9,152,760	4,629,540
Bihar and Orissa	24,768,100	6,214,766	6,999,999	8,017,146	7,172,964
Bombay	32,239,045	10,737,504	7,108,016	19,695,944	9,096,554
Burma.	17,470,599	4,245,204	59,896,313	52,036,821	22,200,591
Central Provinces & Berar	25,257,361	3,536,041	14,077,297	4,941,846	16,247,692
Coorg	137,793	171,547	11,690	334,045	357,185
Delhi	218,950	7,124	63,093	80,737	...
North Western Frontier Province	2,275,121	509,044	2,764,037	2,668,346	360,281
Madras	33,495,798	10,701,487	13,164,111	20,463,298	13,333,775
Punjab	27,549,514	3,221,166	14,716,694	12,721,012	1,979,286
United Provinces	35,745,770	2,468,775	10,573,860	9,913,500	9,268,577
Total	228,835,924	49,076,251	155,122,177	145,457,654	88,565,903

 Note.–Statistics for Manpur Pargana have been omitted as it now forms part of Indore State.

Area, cultivated and uncultivated, in 1931-32 in each Province

			Net Area
Provinces	Area According to survey	Deduct Indian States	According to survey	According to village Papers
	Acres	Acres	Acres	Acres
Ajmer-Merwara	1,770,921	….	1,770,921	1,770,921
Assam	43,375,360	7,890,560	35,484,800	35,484,800
Bengal	52,044,314	3,477,760	48,566,554	48,566,554
Bihar and Orissa	71,507,695	18,334,720	53,172,975	53,172,975
Bombay	97,446,023	18,568,960	78,877,063	78,877,063
Burma	155,849,528	.…	155,849,528	155,849,528
Central Provinces & Berar	85,190,400	21,207,680	63,982,720	64,060,037
Coorg	1,012,260	....	1,012,260	1,012,260
Delhi	369,904	.…	369,904	369,904
Madras	91,073,424	....	91,073,424	91,158,469
North-West Frontier Province	8,578,296	140,800	8,437,496	8,576,829
Punjab	65,257,965	3,286,700	61,971,265	60,187,672
United Provinces	72,648,741	4,348,232	68,300,509	67,970,517
Total	746,124,831	77,255,412	668,869,419	667,057,529

It is Government alone that must take direct possession of these lands and establish State Farms throughout the country and attach subsidiary industries to them. They must not only be made permanent, but remunerative, so that the State will be profited in the long run.

If, with 155,121,997 acres or nearly 2,29,000 square miles being available for the purpose as shown by statistics, and with such resources in the hands of the State, the un- employment problem could not be solved by Government, it could only be attributed to the fact that the interests of the Government are not identical with the interests of this country.

Russia by its five and ten year plans, President Roosevelt through N.R.A., Lloyd George by his New Deal, Mussolini and Hitler by their drive against unemployment, have been tackling the question of economic regeneration of their countries with sincerity and honesty of purpose that is bound to produce substantial results. An instance of what is done in America under the N. R. A. may be cited as being on all fours with the suggestions made here. The subsistence homestead movement of N. R. A. is attempting to solve the unemployment problem by a series of demonstrative projects. One phase of the programme is to assist in the re-distribution of surplus population, groups left stranded by the shut-down or permanent closing of the industries in which they earned their livelihood, and population dependent on part-time work. A second phase includes the transfer of farmers marooned in eroded and worn-out land to good land. To do this, this agency is forming new communities of garden houses which will afford a source of food supply as well as shelter.

In setting up these demonstration projects ‘problem areas’ are selected on the basis of local needs, suitability and value for demonstration purposes, and presence of various factors essential for the success of the plan.

Usually these homesteads will be established and administered in the groups accommodating 25 to 100 families. The individual homestead will ordinarily consist of from 1 to 5 acres, depending upon soil size of family, character of agricultural operations contemplated, and opportunity for wage employment. In rural reconstruction projects, the size of the individual homestead will naturally be larger and agricultural operations somewhat more extensive in scope.

All the products of the homestead farms will be for use only and none will be sold. There will thus be no increase in commercial farm products and no competition with local farmers producing for the market. For instance, the Un-employment Assistant Board which began its career on a national authority in Great Britain will have under its care 750,000 unemployed and their dependents numbering 4 million persons and will administer 55 millions a year. It will have on its staff 6,000 officials.

‘Where there is a will, there is a way,’ is a trite maxim. It is hoped that there will be an all-India agitation and propaganda for the purpose of accomplishing, with a five or ten year plan, the economic regeneration of this country as is done in other countries. Political and economic Swaraj will give real purchasing power to the masses of our country.