SMALL HOLDINGS IN INDIA AND THEIR REMEDIES 465
should be between 29 and 30 acres. [11] But why should the mode be at this point and not at 100 or say 200 ? We might imagine Prof. Jevons to reply that his model point is placed at that particular acreage because it would produce enough for a farmer to sustain a higher standard of living. Raising the general standard of living in India is the one string on which Prof. Jevons harps even to weariness throughout his pamphlet. [12] The error underlying this doctrine we shall consider later on. It is enough to say that he does not give any sound economic reason for his model farm.
The case with the Baroda Committee is much worse, Prof. Jevons at least sticks to one definition of an ideal economic holding; but the Report of the Baroda Committee suffers from a plurality of definitions. While comenting on the size of an average holding in the state as is summarized in the above table, it should be noted that the Committee, though it desired consolidation, was perfectly satisfied with the existing size of the holding as is clear, from the following:
“If the average holding of a Khatedar was a .compact field of those figures, the situation would be an ideal one and would not leave much to be desired.” [13]
But absent-minded as it were, the Committee, without any searching analysis of the question it was appointed to investigate and report upon, lays down that:
“An ideal economic holding would consist of 30 to 50 bighas of fair land in one block with at least one good irrigation well and a house situated in the holding.” [14]
If the size of existing holdings is an ideal size why should they be enlarged ? To this, the Committee gives no answer. But this is not all. The Committee does not even adhere to the quantitative limit it has already set down to its ideal economic holding. When it comes to discuss the project of re-arrangement of the scattered fields of the village on the principle of “Economic unit” it presents a third ideal of an economic holding. To realize this ideal it says :
“Each of these new plots must be of such a size, as having regard to the local conditions of soil, tillage, etc., to form an Economic field, i.e., a parcel of land necessary to keep fully engaged and support one family.” [15]
Thus with perfect equanimiy (1) the Baroda Committee holds, not too fast, to three notions of an ideal economic holding. No wonder then that the Report of the Committee is a model of confused reasoning though it is a valuable repository of facts bearing on the subject.
Opt. Cit. chart on p. 38.
Opt. Cit. Introduction.
Ibid., p. 4.
R.B.C., p. 31.
Ibid., p. 53.