The Punjab Peasant In Prosperity And Debt

Abstract

THIS is primarily a study of agricultural debt in the Punjab. But it is also something more, for debt, when as wide-spread as it is in this country, touches the whole of economic life, and to understand the causes of the one we must know something of the conditions of the other. This explains the method and scope of the book, which, in examining the main problem of the Punjab peasantry, seeks to give some idea of the peasant himself in all his varying conditions of heat and cold, drought and flood, river and waste, abundance and want. If I have been over-bold, I would shelter myself behind the words of Malthus, that That,When a man faithfully relates any facts which have come within the scope of his own observation,however confined it may have been,he undoubtedly adds to the sum of general knowledge and confers a benefit on society. This is indeed the only claim that I can make, that I have endeavoured faithfully to relate the facts which have come to my knowledge, and have set them down with no more comment than seemed necessary to their understanding. If further justification is needed, it is that, though the indebtedness of the Indian cultivator is a fertile theme for politician and journalist, 'the sum of general knowledge' on the subject is small: how small will be seen from the opening pages of the first chapter