102 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
“upon a review of the financial condition of the Empire and the increasing demands made upon its resources..... deemed it expedient to make provision for a permanent addition of a million sterling at the least to the existing revenue.” [1]
Why the efforts of these successive Finance Ministers were not crowned with success is to be explained chiefly by the fact that the administrative and public needs of the country had grown beyond measure. After the Mutiny
“thousands of Englishmen, not only soldiers, but Englishmen of almost every class, poured into India. Ten thousand things were demanded which India had not got, but which it was felt must be provided. The country (had to be) covered with railways and telegraphs, roads and bridges. Canals (had to be) made to preserve the people from starvation. Barracks (had to be) built for a great European army, and every sort of sanitary arrangement which would benefit the troops (had to be) carried out. This was not only true in regard to matters of Imperial concern. Demands for improvements similar to those which fell upon the Central Government cropped up in every town and in every district controlled by the Local Government. The demands for improved administration also made themselves effective. The police was in a shameful condition throughout India..... and the inadequacy of the pay given to native judges and other subordinate officers employed in the posts of importance in the courts was declared by Lord Lawrence when he was Viceroy to be a public scandal. Among more than four thousand of these officers in the Bengal Presidency, the highest paid of all, and these were very few, received £180 a year. The great majority received from £12 to £24 a year sums less than those earned in many parts of India by common bricklayers and carpenters. All these had to be put on a completely new footing.” [2]
While the needs for expenditure were thus growing, economy in expenditure became difficult of achievement. Comparatively easy at first, each successive measure of economy became directly, as well as relatively, more arduous than its predecessor. The growing
1 Circular letter to the Local Governments dated February 21, 1866.
2 The above is taken with some alterations of a purely literary character from the “Observations on some Questions of Indian Finance,” by Sir John Strachey. House of Commons Return 326 of 1874.