SMALL HOLDINGS IN INDIA AND THEIR REMEDIES 479
industrialization must precede consolidation. It should never be forgotten that unless we have constructed an effective barrier against the future subdivision and fragmentation of a consolidated holding it is idle to lay out plans for consolidation. Such a barrier can only be found in industrialization ; for it alone can reduce the extreme pressure which, as we have shown, causes subdivision of land. Thus, if small and scattered holdings are the ills from which our agriculture is suffering to cure it of them is undeniably to industrialize.
But just where does India stand as an industrial country ? :
England and Germany U. S. A. France India Wales
Rural Urban Rural Urban Rural Urban Rural Urban Rural Urban
1790 .. .. .. .. 87.5 .. .. . . . . . .
1840 .. .. .. .. 77.5 .. 75.6 24.4 . . . .
1851 49.92 50.08 .. .. .. .. .. . . . . . .
1871 38.20 61.80 .. 36 47.6 .. .. . . . . . .
1881 32.1 67.9 .. 41 44.3 29.5 .. . . . . . .
1891 27.95 72.05 .. 47 39.2 36 1 .. . . 64.4 . .
1901 23.00 77.00 .. 54 35.7 40.5 .. . . 67.5 . .
1911 19.9 78.1 .. .. 33.3 46.3 57.9 42.1 71.5 . .
(The figures for the various countries do not correspond with the years. The range of variation is 3 years),
Sir Robert Giffen after a survey of the economic tendencies of various countries concludes that;
“The wants of men increasing with their resources the proportion of people engaged in agiculture and mining and analogous pursuits, in every country is destined to decline, and that of people engaged in miscellaneous industry—in other words in manufactures using the latter phrase in a wide sense to increase.” [28]
Figures for India, however, run counter to this dictum illustrating a universal tendency observed by an expert. While other countries like the U.S.A. starting as agricultural are progressively becoming industrial, India has been gradually undergoing the woeful process of de-urbanization and swelling the volume of her rural population beyond all needs. The earlier we stem this ominous tide, the better. For notwithstanding what interested persons might say [29] no truer and more wholesome words of caution were ever uttered regarding our national economy than those by Sir Henry Cotton when he said “ There is danger of too much agriculture in India. ”
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“Essays in Finance” 2nd Series, p. 240.
Prof. Jevons in his paper on the “Capitalistic Development of Agriculture” read before the Indian Industrial Conference, held at Bombay in December 1915 argues against industrialisation. It can however be maintained against Prof. Jevons that it is industrialisation only that can make capitalistic agriculture possible. As a needful corrective to his paper cf. Sir Robert Giffen’s Essay IV in his Essays in Finance, 1st Series.