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vol. title: Vol Four of The Theosophical Society of The Arya Samaj of Arya-wart vol. period: Sept 1878 – Sept 1879 pages in vol.: 350 |
< Mr. Bright of India (continued from page 8-313) >
have expressed their consent to pay 1—16 of the gross produce, and 1—6 of the net produce to Government. About 400 Ryots in the villages of Indapoor, Pimpri, Shegaum, Mandangaum, Radesirage, Rajawadi, Kolthan, Varkoote, Takrarwadi, Kate and Shetpal & of the Indapoor Talooka, have expressed their willingness to pay 1—16 of the gross produce. About 50 Ryots of Gosewan, Agati, Chadgaum, Warkoote, in the same Talooka consent to pay 1—16 of the gross, or 1—6 of the net produce. About 100 Ryots from the villages of Kargaum, Warwand, Koorelee, Wagone, and Supe have expressed their consent to pay 1—16 of the gross, or 1—6 of the net, produce. About 20 of the Sawkars and Ryots of the Tasgaum Talooka in the Satara Collectorate have expressed their willingness to pay 1—16 of the gross produce of the Jeerait land, and 1—20 of the Bagayet land. It may be gathered from these details that there is a sort of opinion on the part of both Ryots and the Sowkars that there would be no ground left for complaint if the Government demand were confined to the levy of 1—16 of the gross, and 1—6 of the net produce; which latter amount comes as nearly as possible to one half of the economic rent, or the letting value of the land. The opposition to both the schemes would therefore come entirely from the Government, and we do not see our way to ensure their acceptance by the authorities under the present circumstances.
Independently of this consideration, we should feel no hesitation in giving our preference to the latter of the two schemes which would fix 1—16 of the gross produce as the limit of the assessment. It is much the simpler of the two. It would involve no nice inquiries into the rent rolls of the country, it would commend itself to the people as a return to the old order of things, and it would secure the interests of Government in bad seasons much better by interposing between the Ryot and the Revenue official a capitalist middle-man who would be in a position to pay the Government dues without fail, if only his position were properly assured and guaranteed. Our only objection to the scheme is that it would be too wide a departure from the established order of things to be properly appreciated by the persons in responsible charge of government of the country. In all matters of reform it is essential to bear this consideration in view, namely, that the departure from the established order of things shall be minimised as far as may be possible. The present tax-gathering machinery is so completely developed in all its parts from the Revenue Commissioner and the Collector down to the village Patel and the Koolkarnee, so many vested interests have grown up in the long course of years that the substitution of an entirely novel machinery, such as that of the farmers of the 1-16th tithes, would introduce elements of trouble and disturbance which would of themselves be deemed by Government to be sufficient to withhold their sanction to any such experiment. Moreover the farmer of revenue will most certainly not be able to maintain himself in his new position without making encroachments upon the rights of the occupants of Government land. In fact, the scheme as proposed contemplates their eventual elevation to the status of Zamindars. The Bengal Zamindars are not in high favour with the Government of India, and several assessment has never yet been collected without recourse to oppressive measures, and frequent remissions, and suspensions. The saving effected by the abolition of the Settlement Department, which would have no work left for it, would be clear gain in these hard times, when Government is at its wits’ ends to find out sufficient scope for retrenchments. The existing arrangements for the collection of revenue will remain undisturbed, no nice calculations of economic rent will have to be made from year to year, nor will there be any necessity left for substituting grain in place of cash payments, no new class of farmers or middle-men will be artificially created to cause annoyance to the officials. These advantages will we hope commend the scheme to the favourable consideration of Government.
We are quite aware that it may be objected to the proposal we have made, that it will work no immediate change in the position of the Ryot, and in his relations to the Sowcars. We regard this more as a recommendation than as a drawback. There can, however, be no doubt that the conversion of the cash rates of the old settlement into permanent land tax would effect a more desirable change in the course of time, and would remedy all existing evils in a smooth, natural, and imperceptible manner. These rates having been proved to be moderate by the experience of 30 years, will most certainly encourage private capitalists to invest their earnings in the land to an extent which, under the present arrangements, is found impossible. As all the old settlements are now rapidly approaching the completion of their 30 years’ term, there is not an estate in the country which can be said to be secure from the most arbitrary enhancement at the resettlement. The painful experience of the last 10 years in the revised Talookas has shaken general confidence in the pledges given by government that they will not tax improvements. The present race of capitalists have no inducements to invest their savings in the improvement of land. Their advances are all made for the Ryots’s personal and unproductive expenditure, and mostly at usurious rates of interest. The new legislation intended for the protection of the Ryots, has absolutely increased the risks of lending and with it the rates of interest, and rendered cooperation between the labouring and capitalist classes all but impossible. With the extension of the permanent settlement, a better confidence will be engendered, and the friction between the two classes will be much less than it is felt to be at present. Under the present arrangements the land tax is paid really by the Sowcar, but not on his own account. He pays it as an advance to the Ryot along with his other advances for seeds and subsistence; when the settlement is permanent, his position would be legalised, and insured against all risk. The thrifty Ryot will of course maintain his own place, and will extend his operations, and rise to a better position. The indifferent and lazy Ryot will make way for better people, who will take his place with great advantage to the general interest. The change will not be sudden, but a slow and organic growth, and the new order of things will develope the best energies of all classes without any shock to vested interests. Of course in course of time the provident and thrifty classes will succeed to the ownership of land, and a class of land-lords would spring up all over the country, whose interest it will be to make the most of the resources of the soil, and of the great public works constructed by Government. At present the enormous expenditure of Government of Railways and Irrigation works is all but thrown away on account of the all-pervading poverty of the so-called peasant proprietors. The political and social advantages of such a change would be even more important than the economical ones. The monied classes, having at present no interest in the land, cannot occupy the position, nor enjoy the status, nor discharge the functions of land-lords. The absence of such a class retards progress in all directions. The Presidency of Bengal enjoys this advantage over the rest of India, and this circumstance alone accounts for its prosperous and progressive condition. The change, we have proposed, will secure the same, if not better, benefits to the other Presidencies of India.
Decay of Spiritual Life
Look where we will around us, in every direction the sources of pure spiritual life appear to be either altogether stagnant, or else trickling feebly in shrunken and turbid streams. In religion, in politics, in the arts, in philosophy, in poetry, even—wherever the grandest issues of Humanity are at stake, man’s spiritual attitude towards them is one either of hopeless fatigue and disgust, or fierce anarchical impatience. And this is the more deplorable, because it is accompanied by a feverish materialistic activity. Yes, this age of ours is materialist; and perhaps the saddest and dreariest thing in the ever-increasing materialism of the age, is the ghastly squeaking and gibbering of helpless lamentation made over it by the theologists who croak about their old dry wells wherein no spiritual life is left. Meanwhile, society appears to be everywhere busily organizing animalism.
How Art is Enjoyed and Realized
It would be a serious misfortune for the world if the work achieved on behalf of the world by such men as Dante, Raphael, and Michael Angelo, had been achieved exclusively for poets, painters, architects, or sculptors, and were inappreciable by the rest of mankind. What we ask, and get, from every great artist, is not initiation into the technical mysteries of his art, but insight into the far more interesting mystery of our own souls. The ultimate value of his work is determined, not by the method, but by the result of it; and, since we can only weigh this result by the sum of the sensations which the contemplation of it excites in us, it is virtually ourselves that we are analysing when we attempt to analyse the genius of an artist. Fortunately no man need exhibit a diploma of professorship in architecture before presuming to record the profound impression made on him by the aspect of a Gothic cathedral, nor is it necessary to be a member of a dramatic college in order to claim the privilege of discussing Shakespeare.
Genius of every kind has that diamond quality which baffles the intrusion of all acuteness inferior to its own; and it is only to touches of kindred temper that it gradually reveals those facets which strike the notice of the crowd, and enable us, who could not otherwise have guessed the worth of it, to appreciate the inherent brilliancy of its rare and precious substance.—Lord R. Lytton.
Coleridge says (in his 25th Aphorism of his “Aids to Reflection”), “He who begins by loving Christianity better than truth, will proceed by loving his own sect or church better than Christianity, and end in loving himself better than all.”
Mankind, without a struggle, submit their reason to be swathed by all the absurd bandages of custom.—(Miss Edgeworth.)
As long as education consists chiefly of the mere inculcation of traditional opinions, many of which, from the mere fact that the human intellect has not yet reached perfection, must necessarily be false; so long as even those who are best taught, are rather taught to know the thoughts of others than to think, it is not always clear that the poet of acquired ideas has the advantage over him whose feeling has been his sole teacher.—J. S. Mill.
Life is an ordinary, at which those who wish to be helped, must help themselves.—(Punch.)
“I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, finding sometimes a brighter pebble or a smoother shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”—Newton.
Bacon has truly said of Mathematics, “If the wit be too dull, they sharpen it; if too wandering, they fix it; if too inherent, they abstract it. So that as tennis is a game of no use in itself, but of great use in respect it maketh a quick eye, and a body ready to put itself in all postures; so in the Mathematics, that use which is collateral and intervenient, is no less worthy than that which is principal and intended.”
Editor's notes