SMALL HOLDINGS IN INDIA AND THEIR REMEDIES 457
Another investigation conducted by Dr. H. S. Mann and his colleagues indicates more specifically the fact of small holdings in the village of Pimpala Saudagar near Poona. The size of holdings in that village is indicated by the table below [4] :
| Col1 | Over 20 acres | 10 to 20 acres | 5 to 10 acres | 3 to 5 acres | 2 to 3 acres | 1 to 2 acres | 30 to 40 gunthas | 20 to 30 gunthas | 15 to 20 gunthas | 10 to 15 gunthas | 5 to 10 gunthas | Below 5 gunthas |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of plots of each size. | 1 | 7 | 21 | 25 | 67 | 164 | 75 | 116 | 71 | 57 | 59 | 25 |
(40 Gunthas = 1 acre)
In this table the model holding is between 1 and 2 acres. A mode is a statistical average indicating the point of largest frequency in an array of instances.
From these tables it can be easily seen that the average size of holdings varies from 25.9 acres in the Bombay Presidency to an acre or two in Pimpala Saudagar.
This diminutive size of holdings is said to be greatly harmful to Indian Agriculture. The evils of small holdings no doubt, are many. But it would have been no slight mitigation of them if the small holdings were compact holdings. Unfortunately they are not. A holding of a farmer though compact for purposes of revenue is for purposes of tillage composed of various small strips of land scattered all over the village and interspersed by those belonging to others. How the fields are scattered can only be shown graphically by a map. Herein we shall have to remain content, since we cannot give a map, with knowing how many separate plots are contained in a holding. The number of separate plots in each holding will show how greatly fragmented it is. We have no figures at all for the whole of India bearing on this aspect of the question. But the Hon’ble Mr. G. F. Keatinge in his note [5] submitted to Government in 1916 has collected figures of typical
Land and Labour in a Deccan Village 1927, p. 48.
The author is thankful to him for a copy of this valuable note.