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·THE
SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION
OF TRAVANCORE
BY
V. Achyutha Menon, B. A., B. L.,
HIGH COURT VAKIL, TRIVANDRUM.
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·FIRST EDITION COPIES 1000 1937 ·PREFACE. The colitions all the worll over are growing more and more frightful every day. Rivalry between nations and nations and between the different sections within the same nation is growing into calamitous developments. In all countries, the large majorities of people are poor and suffer untold miseries. The basic reason for this tragic situation is economic. But do the remedies now employed or sought to be employed in the active West help to bring about a satisfactory solution? Are not the remedies, Capitalism and Fascism, Socialism and Communisin, based on violence? Is there any remedy except the one proached by Mahatına Gandhi that connully solve the problem? is there any remedy other than 2011-violence which can efectively cure the existing social and economic ills of the world? Non-violence implies and includes love, co-operation and truth. If individuals, societies and nations would imbibe this spirit, the world would not only cease to be what it now is, but would become attractive enough for all people to live in peace and plenty: As far as India is concerned, it is not possible for her people to endure their present conditions for long But, is India to be re-created by any of those Western methods which are based on violence ? Has not the teaching of India's Great Guide taken root in a cona genial soil? And will any remedy based on violence succeed? When a socialist revolution is attempted, will the forces of imperialism, capitalism Indian and foreign, Landlordism, communalism, conservatism and feudalis.no ·ii remain idle? Have not those reactionary forces resources enough to organise a sufficiently strong opposition to an attempted socialist revolution ? And if such a revolution become succesful, will it succeed in establishing enduring peace in the country? Can socialism or communism or any other system based on violence give us that freedom of thought and action which is so essential for real human life and human advancement ? India's inherited traditions, genius, temperament and constitution of rural life point out a non-violent method of socio-economic reconstruction. That method or that system is co-operation. If co-operation has not hitherto proved a success, the fault is in the system of organisation. We have not yet made any serious effort to make co-operation a success. We have not yet explored all its potentialities and possibilities. It is the duty of those who have faith in Gandhian Economics or in Co-operation to explore and find out if co-operation cannot serve as the general basis for India's economic regeneration. It may be supplemented by Nationalisation and Municipalisation of economic enterprises. Co-operation works successfully in Russia. Sydney and Beatrice Webb in their great book 'Soviet Communism: A New Civilisation' have testified to the successful working of the co-operative system in the U. S. S. R. They have confessed that their previous attack on co-operation was a mistake and that the failure of co-operation in Larope was due to the uncongenial environment of Capitalism. Indian Socialists who are wedded to nonviolence can join the Gandhian Economists and Co. operators and evolve a system of economic and social reconstruction for each Province and State in India and co-ordinate Provincial and State schemes into an ·111 All-India scheme. This book is an humble attempt to solve the problem for the Travancore State. I believe the scheme given in this book will indicate some lines of reconstruction for the other States and Provinces. Now that the Indian ministers have taken up the responsibility of social and economic reconstruction in the provinces, it is up to the ministry in each province to make an adequate plan of socio-economic reconstruction and carry it out, Any such plan must necessarily have a proper system for its basis and I venture to suggest that so far as India is concerned, Co-operation is the one system that would suit its conditions. If at any time a socialist revolution should become successful in India, the socialist party can annex a well-knit co-operative organisation into its socialistic scheme. In order to make sure the success of a new scheme of co-operation, the existing co-operative societies should either be scrapped or be made to undergo thorough transformation and merge to the new scheme. I must frankly confess that, in writing this book, I have borrowed, even without acknowledging, ideas and also phraseology from others in support of my line of thinking. I hope this book will lead to a comprehensive organisation and a thorough planning for the social and economic reconstruction of Travancore. I also hope that it will lead public men in other parts of India to explore the possibilities of Co-operation as an organisational basis on which to build up India's immediate socio-economic regeneration. Trivandrini, V. Achyutha Menon. July 21, 1937.

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·CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I Travancore 1 II Economic Condition 10 III 24 IV 30 Capitalism Socialisin vs Co-operation Co-operation Economic Planning V 235 . VI 41 . VII Duties of the State . 50 VIII 57 IX 60 X Duties of the People. Some Principles of the Scheme Structure of the Economic Scheme The Scheme Explained Village Organisation 69 NI 74 XII $4 . XIII Education 95 XIV Public Health and Nutrition 101 XV 107 Women, Labour and Harijans Scope Indicated. XVI 117

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·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION OF TRAVANCORE CHAPTER I, Introduction 6 The State of Travancore has become famous by that epoch-making measure of social amelioration known as 'The Travancore Temple Entry Proclamation'. It is now ruled by an young and enlightened prince whose one great ambition is to achieve the social, economic and cultural advancement of his people. While passing through Colonbo, in an interview to the Press, on the 29th April last, His Highness the Maharaja of Travancore said that he proposed to help to utilise the forest and mineral resources of Travancore to ihe maximum advantage of the people, but he added that he also wished to avoid mistakes male in the other highly industrialised countries. Further His Higliness said: “I want no slums in my big cities. I want no wrangling between employers and labour, and what has been described as exploitation of labour by the capitalists. These are some of the inistakes I want to avoid in Travancore. My idea is to set up a network of cottage industries linked with one another. We shalluse While Coal', and by tapping ourivers, provide the cheap ·2 CHAPTER 1 electrical energy we require so much for our cottage in. dustries." His Highness the Maharaja was invested with ruling powers in November 1931. During this short period, besides the Temple Entry Proclamation, other important measures of public usefulness have been brought into existence. A Land Mortgage Bank was started and an Agriculturists' Relief Regulation was passed, both of which give relief to Agriculturists in certain directions. A home for the destitute and the infirm has been opened. The Legislature was reconstituted on a bi-cameral basis with large elected majorities in both the Houses. Fran. chise has been considerably lowered. A Public Service Commissioner has been appointed to ensure that all classes and communities secure adequate representation in the State Service. The Pallivasal Hydro-Electric Scheme will soon begin to supply light and power in several parts of the State. A Rubber Factory was started by the State at Trivandrum; but it has been leased out to a newly organised firm of Managing Agents. A Porcelain Factory has been opened by the State near Quilon. The Government is purchasing the private shares in The Travancore Sugars and consolidating with it the State Distillery and Tincture Factory for starting sugar, distillery and chemical industries through a new company to be soon formed. Some financiers of Travancore are said to have already underwritten the necessary capital. A few capitalists are invited from outside to start new industries within the State. Such enterprises shoull register themselves under the Travancore Companies Regulation; they must become Travancore entities; facilities must be given by them for the investnent of Travancore capital in them; theymust employ among others Travancoreans also and a certain number of Travancoreans inust be admitted ·TIIE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 3 as apprentices; a legitimate share of the profits should also be given to the Travancore Government. In the case of the mineral leases too which are now in the hands of foreign companies, similar conditions should be fulfilled; the share to be given to the Travancore Government has been fixed as 10 per cent of the profits. A Central Banking and Financing Agency is to be 'started with Government help which will coordinate banking and treasury facilities of the State, stimulate agriculture, industry and commerce and help the Land Mortgage Bank to give long term credit. There are proposals for the more extensive development of traffic through land and water and also for taking up by stages the direct management by the State of transport services through all the main ways. An Advisory Board of Agriculturc has been constituted. The Economic Development Board is to be reconstituted and Rural Reconstruction will be one of its main functions. Important schemes of water supply and drainage have been sanctioned for some of the Municipal Towns. The Department of Public Health has been reconstituted with an extensive programme of health activities. The Travancore University will be brought into being in July 1938 in which adequate provision will be made, besides for cultural education, alsс for higher tech. nological studies. With the acceptance of the Dewanship of the State by Sachivottama Sir C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar things have begun to move fast in Travancore. SCOPE OF THIS BOOK The object of this small book is to place before the public some constructive suggestions for the social and economic advancement of the people of the State of Travancore. The principles underlying the suggestions are ·4. CHAPTER I also discussed. A short account of Travancore and its economic condition forms the background of the suggestions. After pointing out the unsuitability of either capitalism or socialism to be the basis of the economic improvement of the State, an attempt is made to show that co-operation is the one movement that would help Travancoie under existing conditions. The need for economic planning and the respective duties of the State and the people in making and carrying out such a plan are then dealt with. Certain principles that should form the foundation of the socio-economic scheme, the stru cture of the scheme and the clucidation of the scheme form the subject matter of the next threc chapters. Some aspects of rural reconstruction, education, public health and nutrition are then discussed. The position that women, labour and Harijan should nccu; y in society is then briefly described. In the last chapter the practical scope for productive organisations is indicated. Except dealing with certain aspects of the subjects discussed, no attempt has been made to deal exhaustively with any of them. The present system of co-operative organisation in India, whether in the Provinces or in the States, is incapable of advancing to to any adequate extent the economic and social improvement of the people. A new system of organisation is essential; and this booklèt places before the public a new organisational basis for the Socio-economic Reconstruction of Travancore. TRAVANCORE Travancore is an Indian State situated at the south-western extremity of the Indian Peninsula between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats. Its ·The SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION southern-most point is Cape Comorin. The total length from north to south is 174 miles and its width varies from 35 to 75 miles. It has an area of 7,625 square miles. Wales is almost of the same size and Belgium is about one and a half times and Holland nearly two and a half times as large as Travancore. Physical features divide the State into three natural divisions, the Lowland, the Midland and the Highland. The State is divided into four Administrative Divisions and thirty Taluks. The Pakuthi is the unit of administration and there are 433 Pakuthies in all the 30 Taluks together. The average area of a Pakuthi is 176 square miles. The Kara or Muri is a sub-division of the Pakuthi. The Kara was the unit of the old village organisation. The total of Karas in the State is 3,936 and the average area of a Kara is less than 2 square miles. The Kara corresponds to the village in British India, but differs from it in that the British Indian villages are compact units having the houses clustered together in streets, whereas the Kara in Travancore contains scattered houses situated in isolated compounds. The Government of the State is conducted in the name and under the control of H.H.The Maharaja. The Minister is designated Dewan who is assisted by the Secretariat. The administration is carried on through several departments constituted on modern lines. The proportion of the civil list of the Ruler is less than 4 P. C. of the total Revenue of the State. Travancore possesses a representative but not yet a responsible system of Government. Income: The ordinary revenue of the past year was Rs. 231.88 lakhs. Land Revenue formed only 15:6 % ·O CHAPTER I Excise 19.5 %, and Customs 18.2% of the gross revenue receipts of the State. Expenditure : Of the expenditure charged to revenue 22-5 per cent was spent on Education, 6:3 per cent on Medical, Public Health and Sanitation, and 14-4 per cent on Public works including Protective Irrigation. Communications : The total length of communications maintained last year was 5,261 miles consisting of 3,552 miles of main roads, 1,017 miles of village roads, 444 miles of traces and 248 miles of navigation canals. The total works out to 69 of a mile of communication for every square mile in the State or 1:32 miles per square mile of the inhabited This was exclusive of the backwaters and the navigable rivers. area. Village Panchayats: With a view to extend the sphere of local self-government to rural areas, the constitution of Village Panchayats, under the Village Panchayats Regulation VII of 1100, was sanctioned * at six places five years ago. Sanitation and lighting of roads and improvement of tanks and wells were the main items of work attended to by these Panchayats. The total expenditure last year amounted to Rs. 4,030. Forest: Out of the total area of Travancore of 7,625 square miles the State forests occupy 2,401 square miles. So far as ascertained, there exist in these forests 582 varieties of timber trees and 353 other plants, some of which are of great economic and commercial value. On an average about Rs. 12 lakhs worth of timber is worked down and minor products yielding forest revenue of ·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 7 Rs. 80,000 per annum are allowed to be removed from these forests. Among minor forest produce, bamboo and reeds, firewood and charcoal, cardamoms and ivory are the most important. This one third portion of the total area of the State reserved in the hands of the State yields to the State Treasury a net income of Rupees five to six lakhs only per annum, Last year the net revenue to the State was only Rs. 5:18 lakhs. According to the Conservator of Forests, maintenance of these forest areas is essential for rainfall, and their destruction would give rise to floods, avalanches, silting up of rivers etc. In a letter to the Census Commissioner quoted in the latter's report, the Conservator describing the forests says, “Much of these are giddy hill slopes of rugged rocks, while a great portion is only grass land where nothing else perhaps will thrive." * and adds “So far as my knowledge goes I do not think that there remains any appreciable extent fit to be thrown open for cultivation purpose." Probably, the vast area of grassland may nourish other plants or pasturage and cultivation of trees and plants may be carried on without destroying the forest. Mineral Resourccs: Though Travancore cannot be said to be rich in minerals, there are a few that occupy an important place in the mineral industry of the world. Monazite, Ilmenite and Zircon are found together in large deposits. Monazite is highly valued as the source of all thorium compounds of commerce and Travancore is now the only country from which it is obtained. As ilmenite is an iron titanium oxide and as this oxide is comming into importance as a better * The Italios are mine, ·8 CHAPTER I substitute for white-lead, zinc-white and barytes, it also has great commercial value. Zircon is coming into prominance in the refractory inanufacturing industry. The presenl practice is to export these minerals by European Firms. If the state could establish Factories and work them up, it will prove to be an important source of national income. In the year 1934 - 35, monazite worth Rs. 366, 120, Ilmenite worth Rs. 2,412, 673 and Zircon worth Rs. 24, 304 were exported. Mica, graphite, magnetite, garnet and clay are also available. There are indications of the presence of uranium, radium, tantalum and niobium in Travancore and these require thorough investigation. Investigation may disclose the presence of other valuable minerals too. Literacy. The following is quoted from the summary of the Census Report of 1931. “29 % of the total population aged five years and over are literate, the percentage of literacy among males being 41 and among females 17. In male literacy Travancore ranks third among the Provinces and States in India, the first place being held by Burma and the second by Cochin State, while in female literacy, Cochin stands first and next to it comes Travancore. The literates among males and females of five years and over have increased by 102 per cent.and 318 per cent. respectively during the last twenty years. ... 31 per 1000 males of five years and over and 7 per 1000 females of the same ages are able to read and write English. ... Excluding the forest regions which are practically uninhabited, the average area and population served by each primary school in 1930 were 1.7 square miles and 1704 respectively Under the conditions obtaining in Travancore all boys and girls of five to ten years of age may be treated as the ·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 9 population of school-going age that ought to be receiving primary education... 26% of the boys and 50% of the girls of school-going age do not appear to have been attending school in 1930. It is also seen that only about 31 per cent of the children of school-going age are likely to acquire literacy, the remaining 69.per cent. not attend. ing school at all, or leaving school before they become effectively literate." There has been steady increase in education since the Census of 1931. The total number of pupils under instruction during the last year was 698,424; of these 57°1 per cent. were reading in private schools and 42:9 per cent in departmental schools. The total number of pupils in colleges was 2780. Taking the recognised institutions alone there was at the end of last year one school for every 2:09 square miles and for 1,400 of the population of the State. The percentage of the total number of pupils to the total population was calculated as 13.7%; and of the male scholars to male population was 16'1 and that of female scholars to female population was 112 according to the Administration Report recently published. The calculation evidently does not take into consideration the increase in population since the last Census. Under the Education Department there are 17 technical schools for girls where instruction is given in lace-making, embroidery and weaving. Strength of these schools totalled 1155. There are instructional institutions under the Industrial, Agricultural, Fishery, Survey, Ayurveda and Military Schools. The total number of pupils under instruction in these institutions last year was 2008. The number of libraries and reading rooms that received grant-in-aid last year was 45. In accordance with the new policy of developing the Library Movement, 60 new libraries attached to the Departmental Primary Schools were also opened last year.

·CHAPTER II ECONOMIC CONDITION The Census Report of 1931 speaks thus of the old Village life,“ The people of the Kara lived like the mem. bers of a family, helping one another in times of neces. sity and co-operating together in conducting religious and social ceremonies, in thatching houses, and even in cultivating their lands. The artisans and labourers catered to the needs of all the families in the Kara and usually received the wages in kind at the time of harvest". The present social and economic conditions of the people can be gathered from the Census Report of 1931 which contains also the results of the survey of the economic conditions of the people conducted with the Census enquiries. The Report itself has been very carefully drawn up by the Census Commissioner, Rao Bahadur Rajyasevanirata N. Kunjan Pillai, M. A., B.Sc., Ph. D., who was for over twenty years the Director of Agricul. ture in the State and is now the Chief Secretary to the Government of Travancore. While giving a short account of the conditions of the people, I shall be citing a few instructive quotations from his Report. Many of the figures have been brought up to date. Agriculture : Of the total area of the State, nearly a third (2,401 square miles) forms the reserved forest. Of the rest an area of 174 square miles is occupied by backwaters. Travancore has four main seaports of its own and is a participant in the Cochin Harbour scheme, ·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 11 Portions of the reserved forest thrown out for cultivation are occupied by rubber, tea and cardamom. The cultivable area in the State is about 31 lakhs of acres, of which over 25 lakhs have already been occupied, but the area actually cropped is only 22 lakhs of acres. The evils of fragmentation are evident everywhere, and 95 per cent of the agricultural holdings in the State are uneconomic. Paddy is the staple food grain. Of the different crops, paddy cultivation occupies the largest area, viz., 6.9 lakhs of acres. Yet, a third of the total quantity of paddy and rice consumed in the State is imported from outside. The total value of their annual imports amounts to nearly 32 million Rupees. Next to paddy, cocoanut is the most extensively cultivated crop. 5:7 lakhs of acres or a fourth of the cultivated area is devoted to cocoanut production. It is the chief money crop of the average ryot, and commercially more important than paddy. The total value of the annual exports of cocoanuts and cocoanut products is estimated at over 4 crores of Rupees. Tapioca (cassava), the chief food of the poor and known as the potato of Travancore, is next in importance to cocanut in point of extent of cultivation. 4.5 lakhs of acres is occupied by tapioca. Yams, sweet potato and arrowroot are the other food crops grown. Sugarcane cultivation is coming into importance. Cardamom, pep. per and ginger are the important spices cultivated. They too are money crops. 3-5 per cent of the total cultivated area is occupied by pepper. Nearly two crores worth of tea are annually exported from the State. The area under rubber is more than half the total acreage under rubber in India. Travancore produces a variety of fruits, like mango, jack, banana and other plantains, pineapple, guava and papaya.

·12 CHAPTER II The average out-turn of paddy per acre is about 5,000 pounds in Spain, 3,000 pounds in Italy, 2,500 pounds in Japan, and only 1,250 pounds in Travancore. Economic depression and the competition of Ceylon, have very much reduced the price of cocoanut and cocoanut products. Coir matting industry--not to speak of commerce-is practically in the hands of Europeans. The tea and rubber crops are also mostly in the hands of Europeans. The Census Commissioner says in his Report, “The crops are mostly in the hands of European planters and consequently though the opening of rubber and tea estates has increased the proportion of cultivated land to the total or cultivable area in the highlands, it has not correspondingly increased the number of persons supported by land.” The cultivation of ginger and cardamom is in the hands of the well-to-do. Tapioca and its flour have yet to discover an outside market. Preservation and canning of fruit still remain to be learned by Travancoreans. Population: The population of Travancore according to the Census of 1931 is 5,095,973. Travancore has a mean density of 668 persons per square mile. If it is calculated on the land available for cultivation it rises to 1,072 per square mile and on the land actually culti. vated, it goes up to 1,482 per square mile. In India Cochin alone, and outside India only Java and Madura, England and Wales and Belgium have slightly higher densities than Travancore. The average number of persons per family is 3.46 and that per house is 5:48. There are 19 Municipal Towns in the State ; and 8 per cent of the population live in them and 92 per cent in rural parts. The actual ·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 13 increase in the population in the last decade is 24:8 per cent. The population more than doubled itself in the last 50 years. The Census Commissioner speaking of the rate of increase says, “If this rate continues the population will be double of what it is now in another three decades". After pointing out that After pointing out that "In an agricultural country like Travancore the extent of land cultivated per head of population and the outturn per acre are the main factors which determine the standard of living," and after comparing the figures with those of other countries, the Census Commissioner concludes by saying, "It is evident, therefore, that the population is outgrowing the means of subsistence." Commenting on the income of the people and their standard of living, he says, "... the per capita income in Travancore is esti. mated at Rs. 51. The prices of commodities have fallen by not less than 40 per cent. on acconut of the present economic depression and the income per head, if normal prices had been ruling, would have therefore stood at Rs. 85. The Travancore Banking Enquiry Committee has estimated the expenditure of a family of six living in comfort at Rs. 678 which is equal to Rs. 113 per head. The average income thus falls short of the amount re. quired for a man to live in comfort, and his standard of living is, therefore, necessarily low." And after discus. sing some figures he adds," when the population of a country grows more rapidly than the means of subsistence, food and other necessities of life fall short of the requirements of the people and those generally affected by this deficiency are the poorer classes." On the question of the possibility of intensive cultivation he says, “There are serious obstacles to the general adoption of scientific methods of cultivation in Travancore. The foremost of these ·14 CHAPTER 11 is the minute size to which holdings have been reduced by sub-division and fragmentation. From statistics collected in connection with the economic Census it is seen that about 10 per cent of the holdings in Travancore are below 50 cents, 38 per cent below one acre, 87 per cent. are below 5 acres, 95.5 per cent are below 10 acres, and only 4-5 per cent of the total holdings are of ten acres or more. The size of an economic holding varies according to the conditions obtaining in different countries. It should ordinarily be such as will provide the means of subsistence to a family according to the standard of living current in the country. If a family consists of five members, the holding should at least be 10 acres in extent in Travancore and if there are two workers in the family each worker will have 5 acres. (The Enquiry Committee appointed by the Reserve Bank of India has now come to the same conclusion). If 10 acres is considered to be an economic holding, more than 95 per cent of the holdings in Travancore are uneconomic. The introduction of scientific method of cultivation, however much the department of Agriculture may try, cannot make much headway under such conditions. The chronic indebtedness of the cultivator is another handicap to agriculture. The Travancore Banking Enquiry Commi. ttee has estimated the total indebtedness of the rural population at Rs. 25 crores. It is not less than 20 crores according to the figures collected in the economic census. When there is such a heavy load of debt hanging round the cultivator's neck, it is next to impossible for him to find the money to invest in improved implements and chemical manures. He is, therefore, obliged to carry on cultivation in his old primitive way and rest content with what he is able to get out of his land."

·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 15 Industry and Commerce: In regard to industry and commerce in the State he says, “In countries where agriculture fails to supply the requirements of the people, industry and commerce make up the deficiency ... In Travancore the development of industries has so far not been very appreciable, and consequently agriculture has had to absorb a large majority of the numbers that are being added to the population year after year ... The development of industry and commerce has been so small during the last decade that the number engaged in these occupations has increased only by 5:4 per cent. Industrialisation at a more rapid pace will alone enable the country to provide the means of subsistence to the growing population, which could not possibly be absorbed by agriculture, developing, as it does, rather slowly under many limitations and handicaps." Trade: The value of exports and imports last year was Rs. 8.16 crores and Rs. 7.43 crores respectively. Of the total external trade, 26'08 per cent. was carried on by sea, 44:16 by backwater, 13.69 by land and 16:07 by Railway. Of the external trade 85.79 per cent. was with British India, 661 per cent. with America and the rest with other countries. The per capita value of the exports was Rs. 16.01 and of imports Rs. 14.58, nearly the same as in British India. Joint Stock Companies: The number of Joint Stock Companies limited by shares at work at the close of last year was 390 of which 308 were public companies and 82 private ones, 245 were conducting banking business, 66 trade and manufacture, 38 tea and other planting operations and the remaining were engaged in diverse activities such as conducting motor transport, cotton, paper, rice and oil mills and sugar and salt manufacture. Though ·16 CHAPTER II the authorised capital of the 390 companies limited by shares at work at the close of the last year was Rs. 9-18 crores, the paid-up capital was only 1.88 crores. Foreign Companies: The number of foreign companies established outside Travancore and having places of business inside the State was 83; of these 34 were incorporated in England, 29 in British India and the rest in other places. 24 of these companies were engaged in tea and rubber planting, 21 in trading and manufacturing, 20 in Insurance, 7 in Banking, 5 in transit and transport, 3 in missionary work, 2 in mining and 1 in sugar manufacture. Factories and Mills: There are 18 coir factories for making coir mattings of which 16 are in Alleppey. Excepting a few belonging to Indians, the rest are owned and managed by Europeans. The total output of the various kinds of coir goods exported according to the latest figures was valued at Rs. 165 lakhs. There are 12 tile factories, chiefly at Quilon, employing 2179 hands. There are 11 oil mills in the State, most of them being at Alleppey; they employ 1642 hands. There are two match factories, one sugar factory, one paper mill and one cotton mill. There are factories for shelling cashunuts which empoly 14,000 hands. Co-operative Societies. At the end of the last offcial year (15th August 1936) there were 1766 Societies of which 1744 were working. Of these 1655 did purely credit business. The total number of individual members in all societies was 220,488, giving an average of 126 members per Society, the proportion of women to men members being 1:8. The Societies had a total working capital of 91.97 Lakhs and a reserve fund of over Rs. 10 Lakhs. The State Land Mortgage Bank was started 5 years ago as a Government concern to relieve agricultural indebtedness by the grant of long- ·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 17 term loans at low rates of interest. The Bank levies 63 per cent interest per annum, Occupation: Of the total population of the State, according to the Census Report 29 per cent. are earners, 18'2 per cent, are working dependents, and 52'8 per cent. are non-working dependents. Of the earners, 55.5 per cent. are employed in agriculture and other allied occupations; 1866 per cent. in industry; 97 per cent. in trade; 7 in unspecified occupations; 3.7 in professions and liberal arts; 1'3 in domestic service; and 1'1 in public administration. Of the total number of earners with subsidiary occupation, 54 per cent have agriculture as a subsidiary field of employment. Of the working dependents 75 per cent are engaged in domestic service. The popu. lation supported by agriculture which includes non-work. ing dependents is 54-3 per cent of the total population, Only 6-9 per cent of the aggregate population are engaged in industries. 93 per cent of the Industrial workers ir: engaged in cottage industries and only 7 per cent. in factory or other organised industries. The number of persons supported by industries is 15.1 per cent of the aggregate population. 36 per cent of the industrial workers are employed in coir yarn industry. The industries are those connected with textiles, food, dress, wood, metals, chemicals(matches, soaps, oils, etc.), building, etc. The operatives engaged in organised industries number 99,579; of these more than 71 per cent. are employed in the cultivation of special crops like tea and rubber. Coir yarn industry is the most important cottage industry in the State and more than 126,000 persons are employed in it either as full-time workers or part-time workers, i. e., 36 per cent. of the total industrial workers of the State are employed in this industry alone, Of the workers, more ·18 CHAPTER II than two-thirds are females. More than 94 per cent. are carrying on the industry in their own homes. Preparation of the cocoanut fibre and the spinning of coir yarn are carried on mainly as cottage industries. The coir yarn prices have slumped heavily in recent years. Women; In all occupations together, the number of female workers to 1,000 male workers is 883. But, if women who have been returned as working dependants under domestic service (681,716) are excluded, the number of female workers per 1000 males drops to 177. There are per 1,000 females between the ages of 10 and 55, 293 non-workers, 427 house-keepers and 280 workers in other occupations. About these house-keepers or working dependents under domestic service, the Census Report says, “ Such women are probably not counted as employed in Great Britain or the United States." Two-thirds of the workers employed in coir industry are women. 17,000 women are engaged in rice husking. 36 per cent of the operatives employed in organised industries are females. About 18 per cent of the females are employed in tea, rubber and cardamom plantaions. Cashewnut industy employed over 6,000. (In 1937, their number has risen to 12,000.) Children: Children number 31,377 in the population of 99,579 employed in organised industries. In other words, nearly one-third of the operatives are children. Plantations contain 28,348 and of these 26,936 are in tea gardens alone. Cashew-nut factories employed 705 children and coir factories 361. Children employed in organised industries in 1931 consisted of 12,100 females and 19,277 males. The number employed in cashewnut factories has since increased two and a half times, ·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION *19 Fisheries : Travancore which has a coast line of 200 miles and backwaters covering an area of 174 square miles affords great scope for the fishing industry. It employs 39,000 persons. Nearly two-thirds of the annual harvest is consumed locally and one-third is exported. The export yeilds an annual income of Rs. 40 lakhs. But the export trade is in the hands of a few rich wholesale merchants who take the lion's share and the poor workers get precious little. About 95 per cent of the people of Travancore are deemed to be fish-eaters. About this industry, the Census Commissioner, who was for long the Director of Agriculture and Fisheries says, “This is an industry which affords great possibilities of development. The introduction of improved methods of catching and curing fish and the exploitation of deep sea fisheries which had not yet been touched would increase the food supply and give employment to a larger proportion than is now engaged in this occupation." The Superintendent of Fisheries calls it the goldmine of Travancore. Unemployment: Out of a total population of. 50,95,973 in the State, 26,88,679 are non-working dependants. The number of entirely unemployed among persons of 15 years and above, excluding students, is 5,00,515. If to this figure is added the number of women (6,81,716) who are said to be engaged in house-keeping and who are treated as working dependants, the total will go up to 11,82,231. As these women are engaged in some work, they may be treated as semi-employed. The totally un. employed number 5,00,515 or 10 per cent. of the entire population. Of tnese, 1,79,580 are males and 3,20,935 are females. 7 per cent. of the males and 13 per cent of the females are totally unemployed. Of the males 79 thousa and are literate and 100 thousand are illiterate. Of the ·20 CHAPTER II females 73 thousand are literate and 248 thousand are illiterate. Thus it will be seen that the literate unemployed population of the age of 15 years and above is 152 thousand and the illiterate unemployed of the same age is 348 thousand. In other words, there are 44 literate per 100 illiterate unemployed in the population of 15 years and over. The Unemployment Enquiry Committee reported in 1928 that the number of passed and eligible candidates who seek appointment every year is about 3,500. Of these 1,360 are absorbed by the State, private institutions and firms; and 2,140 that pass out every year fail to obtain employment. After comparing figures the Census Commissioner has stated that unemployment of both males and females appears to be greater in Travancore than in other Indian States and Provinces except Bengal. Wealth: Land is by far the most important form of wealth in Travancore. About 79 per cen'. of the total wealth consists of land, 10 per cent of houses, 5 per cent. of movable properties and livestock and 6 per cent of investments. The average wealth per earner is Rs. 1,320 and that per head of the population is Rs. 379. The average extent of land owned per earner is 1'62 acres and per head of the population is 043 acre. On an average 20 per cent of the land transferred in a year passes from agriculturiets to non-agriculturists. The total volume of investments according to the economic Census is Rs. 1,068 lakhs, giving an average of Rs. 472 per investor or Rs. 79 per earner. Income : The average per acre of cultivated land has been calculated in 1931 as Rs. 50 excluding wages, and Rs. 43 excluding rents and wages. The average net income of a cultivator has been calculated as Rs. 113. In regard to income from other occupations, the average per ·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 21 worker has been calculated as Rs. 122 and the average per head of total earners as Rs. 86. In regard to interest received per annum by investors, it has been found that 60 per cent of the investors get below Rs. 50, while the proportion getting above Rs. 1000 is only 1.2 percent. It has already been stated that the per capita income in 1931 was found to be Rs. 51, and in normal times it has been calculated to be Rs. 85. Wages: The wages vary according to the sex and age of the workers. The average according to the Census Report for all persons and all occupations is about 6 as. per day of work. In rural areas as agricultural labour is paid 3 to 4 as. per day. In agricultural occupations the number of working days is very limited. The period of work varies from 5 hours to 8 hours a day. Artisans are paid higher wages than field labourers. They work from 7 hours to 8 hours a day. They get work for 250 to 300 days a year. The working period in most of the organised industries is 8 hours a day and about 300 days in the year. In some occupations the work lasts throughout the year and for 9 or even lo hours a day. In such works, boys get 4 as. and adults 6 as., 8 as. or 10 as. and in some cases even 12 as. Debt: While the Economic Census calculated the total of rural debt at Rs. 20 crores, the Travancore Banking Enquiry Committee estimated the total rural debt at about Rs. 25 crores. If calculated on the population of 1931 Census, their estimate per head would be Rs. 55 as against a debt of Rs. 40 estimated from the results of the economic census. The average debt per head in India as a whole is Rs. 37 and in the Madras Provice Rs. 36. The Census Commissioner remarks, "whatever be the average, ·22 CHAPTER İt << the fact to be remembered is that the total indebtedness in the State is not less than Rs. 20 crores, which in itself is a colossal figure." The Cattle: The percentage of cattle and buffaloes to population in Travancore is 20°7 to 61'1 in British India. The number of cattle in Travancore per one hundred acres is 44 as against 53 and buffaloes 4 as against 14 for British India. I shall now quote the Summary from the Census Report. More than 70 per cent. of the available grazing ground, being reserved forest, is practically out of the reach of the ordinary cattle, and the number of cattle in the State is thus too heavy a stock for the grazing that is available...74 per cent. of the cows and 75 per cent of the she-buffaloes returned were dry at the time of the Census, the proportion of dry to milking animals being about three to one. The normal proportion should be one dry to two milking cattle. About 73 per cent of the cows and 88 per cent of the she-buffaloes now existing in the State are of such poor milking quality that they do not deserve to be kept at all. The consumption of milk per head of population is hardly one-third of what it is in British India which in itself is much less than that in Western Countries. It is only 1'3 gallons per head per annum, though the position is slightly better in towns like Tri. vandrum. The number of cows per breeding bull is 132 in this State as against 84 in Madras. The proper ratio being one bull for 55 cows, Travancore should have 6,500 bulls as against 2,717 which she has. Not only is the number of bulls insufficient but their quality also is very inferior." NATIONAL INCOME. National Income represents the total production of commodities in the country. In 1931 it was as follows:

·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 23 Rs. in lakhs. Rs, in lakhs Paddy Tapioca Coconut Pepper Cardamom... Tea Rubber ... 16 ... 6 450 136 393 180 26 272 51 223 Forest Produce 15 Salt Minerals Fish ...123 Industrial ...350 Products Other crops Total Agricultural Produce : 1,731 lakhs of Rupees. Total production Rs. 2241 lakhs. This gave according to the Census Report a National income of Rs. 44 per head in 1931. Dealing with the causes for the outbreak of malaria and small-pox, the Travancore Administration Report for the last Malabar year says: “These outbreaks were due to the severe economic depression and the highly unfavourable meteorological conditions that continued to prevail in the country". Again, in dealing with the Malaria patients of South Travancore, the same Report says: “A large number of patients were poverty-stricken and of lowered vitality." (The italics are mine). The economic depression has been continuing for the last seven years. The portions quoted above from the last Administration Report give us a true description of the economic condition of the people in several of the rural areas in Travancore.

·CHAPTER III CAPITALISM There are distinguished statesmen in India who advocate a planned industrialisation of India on the lines of the capitalistic West. What they advocate is the production of maximum of wealth that India is capable of. They believe that the production of maximum of India's wealth is possible only through freedom of action, and public and state support of the capitalists. They believe that the motive of pecuniary profits in the proprietors or entrepreneurs or organisors of productive enterprises and in the financiers, speculators and merchants will alone bring forth the necessary energy and capacity to build up a wealthy India. But it may legitimately be asked, if India should have a planned economy, and the State and public should extend their protection and support to it, why should that economy be of the discredited capitalistic type ? Why not we build up a better and more satisfactory system? These economists also advocate mechanisation of agriculture and industries. Our idea of social justice or social efficiency cannot feel any satisfaction at the creation of riches for a certain number of individuals, while leaving the vast majority of the poor people. Mechanisation which would throw out of einployment vast numbers of workers is not suitable to a country like India with a high density of population and very limited scope of employment even under improved conditions. The average acrage available for cultivation to a man in India is only 61 cents. Moreover it is not possible for India to dump on other countries her surplus products which mechanisation would create, ·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 25 Is profit motive an indispensable incentive to the creation of an economically prosperous India ? The great national awakening, which has created a sense of service and sacrifice in a large section of intelligent people, makes it evident that suficient unselfish energy and intelligence will be forthcoming for the creation of India's economic regeneration. The capitalists will exploit labour, the weakest of all classes. He will leave the unemployed to take care of themselves. He will use up, if he car., all our present and future resources for accumulating wealth for himself. It is not his object to bring about the well being of the community and he can never achieve it. If the general improvement of the whole population, the raising of the standard of life of the middle anil poor classes including the backward communities, the raising of the level of civilisation of the whole community, and the supplying of social amenities for the entire nation to enable it to lead a fairly happy and healthy life be our aims, such aims can never be achieved by a system which admittedly contribute to the enrichment of only a very small minority. Further, the system would only perpetuate and accentuate the feud between capital and labour. These distinguished economists regret that India has not yet entered the machine age. They say thai mechanisation would double the output of work per person and reduce the number of persons employed in such callings by half. It is the throwing out of employment of one half of our employed aimed at by mechanisation 'we dread and we should avoid. Maximisation, without adequate market and without an equitable distribution of products, is no good. Those who assert that, under prevailing conditions in India, for the building up of some measure of ·26 CHAPTER III moderate industrial prosperity, capitalism is the best suited evidently have not explored the possibilities of the co-operative system and its suitability to Indian conditions. If only they take note of the all important facts that India's millions live in the villages and that the conditions pertaining to the village system are unsuited to the growth of big factories they will be obliged to try to discover some system different from that associated with capitalism, large scale machines and factories. And why should India enter the machine age? Can't India avoid its further development? If it is the disadvantage involved in competing with the machine made goods of others let us devise other means of protecting our industries. Why should India create or further develop a class of Captains of Industry whose aims are unsocial and selfish? As production increases with the help of machines the number of people employed in those industries diminish and, as a result, a large number of men are thrown out of employment. The history of the weaving industry in India is the most conspicuous example. Experience has proved that it is a mistake to suppose that joint stock basis was the only one on which business can be successfully organised. Free competition as it exists leads to the exploitation of the consumer and the labourer. Even free competition exists more in theory than in practice. Its advocates claim that it provides a struggle for existence in which the most competent and the fittest triumph. Yes, it is the best fitted for profit making that succeeds. He may be a capitalist or an entrepreneur who attracts other people's capital that trivmphs. But nobody would say that is the end we should aim at. It is the general welfare of the society and not the success ·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 27 of a few individuals we should aim at. This free compe- -tition was not the general characteristic of Indian society till recently. Societies exist and will exist without it. Present day society is a commercial society or an exchange society. Production is meant for exchange. Its aim is profit. Even consumption exists chiefly to minister to production. The operations of this economic system have led to the creation of two classes: those who live on income of labour and those who live on income obtained without labour. Those who sell their labour for money payment, viz., wages, without owning its produce or instruments of labour, get no share, except their wages, of the profits made through their labour. The capitalists believe they alone represent production. They disregard the interests of others, even of labour. The interests of society or the best interests of production are not identical with the interests of the profitseeking capitalist. By the creation of trusts or other combinations, they monopolise production, they enslave labour and dictate to the consumers. Capitalism of the Joint Stock Company type is as good or as bad as individual capitalism. In buying labour, company's interest is to pay as little wages and to get as much work .as possible. When company sells its goods, there is no consideration of public benefit, but only the attempt to get the highest price possible. Joint Stock Company type of capitalism is not above in human treatment of labour of men, women and children. When company tries to purchase labour as cheap as possible, labour tries to give it as dear as possible and reduce its quantity to an irreducible minimum. In this struggle labour is generally helpless. In company, there is no permanence of employment. When business is slack, labour is dis ·28 CHAPTER III charged and left to starve. Even the Manager is bound to work like a machine. There is scope neither for justice nor humanitarianism. A slave costs money for his purchase and the master would maintain him. Free labour can be discharged when company does not want it. Conditions of labour life: In India life of labour in factories is horrible. They live in overcrowded rooms and in insanitary surroundings; epidemics and contagious and other diseases often do havoc among them; they get no wholesome food; their lives are in some cases characterised by drunkenness, violence, brutality and all sorts of immorality. Why should we set up con. ciously and deliberately, or, even thoughtlessly, this monstrous condition and then spend enormous sums of municipal and other public funds for slum clearance, public health and other relief measures? Why not prevent any further development of this horrible system? And why not also try to absorb labour and its activities into a decentralised or noncentralised system of industrial expansion? Capitalism is based on the principle that man is a selfish animal and his actions are guided by selfish- Because a man is brainy or clever, lie is not to appropriate an unfair share of our wealth; he has to make a social use of his ability in order to increase the national wealth for a fair and equitable distribution and the hapiness and comfort of as many as possible. Should we deliberately supply him with the ladder of selfishness to ascend to social eminence ? Capitalism leads to increasing poverty, misery, and slavery of the masses and the growing wealth, luxury and influence of a small privileged group. Capitalism and social organisations em: bodying the views of capitalism try to make people docile ness.

·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 29 servants and slavish wage-earners. Under the capitalistic system workers have long hours and starvation wages. Possession of capital affords to its possessor immense power over large classes of his fellow creatures and their lives. Capitalisin leads to labour unrest and class warfare, These are the signs of the evils of the capitalistic system. In this system, enormous amount of industrial energy is wasted in producing things nobody wants and in in. ducing by advertisement and canvassing people to believe they want them. The only reason for this is that capital should be profitably employed. In co-operation, the motive power to start industries is the need of the members of the societies. Capitalism imposes on the consumer the obligation of consuming what the capitalist produces and to pay for it the price he fixes. Capitalism aims that money shall earn money. What we find as the result of capitalism and mechanisation is men decay while wealth accumulates. Machines convert men also into machines, doing their work mechanically and without intelligence. Even the very monotony makes such work dull. A factory worker need not be intelligent. Such work degenerates man and by Jisuse he loses his intelligence and skill. There is little room for the play of skill or intelligence or the exercise of creative power when everything is done by machinery. Even the enjoyments like cinerna, talkies and wireless are supplied by machines and these very enjoyments tend to become mechanical and thus lose the vital element of recreation. Our commercial men provide us with standardised anzusements. Working for fun is recreative than spending time and money over them. To encourage and create capitalism and then say 'thus far and 10 further,' is quite useless and unsafe. more ·CHAPTER IV SOCIALISM VERSUS CO-OPERATION There is considerable diversity in the means advocated by Co-operation on the one hand and Socialism on the other. Socialism advocates revolution; and an attempt at revolution would lead to civil war, of which the issues are uncertain, Even supposing a political revolution is possible, the adaptation of the existing economic mecha. nism to the needs of a truly social life will take time. Co-operation will, without any political disturbance, make the advance in the direction aimed at by Socialism. Organising and controlling the means of production for the maximum creation of wealth possible and its equitable distribution for the advantage of all persons, that is, of those who conie into the movement, can be achieved by Co-operation. So far as the economic aspect goes, the Socialisi cannot say their object is radically differení. Private ownership of instruments of production, when controlled and organised for common benefit, cannot be treated as soinetling objectionable. It is the control for common benefit that really matters. The mentality of the Indian peasant whose attachment to his land is proverbial will more easily reconcile himself in it than to nationalisation. Reform can be successfully eilccie i wlun based on the traditions of the people and their labiis of thouglit and action. Socialists must be guided also by a sense of realism and not by idealism alone. In the evolutionary march to an equitable social structure, the co-operative movement avoids the stage of class war. Co-operation does not aim at the victory of one class over another ·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 31 class; it does not concern itself with class antagonism and class victories. What it really aims at is a reconciliation of all class interests and the establishment of social justice. Private property is allowed to the individual by co-operation. But the co-operative societies being collective in structure the use of pirivaie properly can only be an ailvụlage and noi a source of injury to society, or handicap to social progress. Even in the U. S. S. R., though to a limited exient, private property is encouraged. Collective property of a co-operative society is indivisible and inalienable. Collective wealth built up by reserves is really social wealth belonging to those who constitute the society. Cooperacion leads to the fusion of individual with collective interest. In the Co operative Commonwealth we recognise that the happiness of each springs from the happiness of all. 112 cxplaining Vatrzisn', Stulin stałc.?: " By Equality Marxison means, not equality in personal requirements and personal life, but the abolition of class, i. e., (a) the equal abolition of all toilers from exploitation, (h) the equal abolition of private property in the ineans of production, (c) the equal duty of all to work according to their ability, and the equal right of all tvilers to receive according to the amount of work they have done (Socialist Society); and (:1) the equal right to receive according to his requirements. And Marxism starts out with the assumption that the peoples' abilities and requirements are not, and cannot be, equal in quality or quantity, either in the period of socialism or in the period of communism."

·32 CHAPTER IV The Co-operative Scheme as enunciated in this book, though it does not advocate (b) above viz., the abolition of private property in the means of production, it stands for control of such means for the sake of common welfare. Even in the U. S. S. R., Co-operative Societies do function, in the economic fields of agriculture, industries and trade to a very great extent. Stalin encourages private property in such things as home-gardens, cow, poultry, pigs etc. It is control, not ownership, that is here regarded as all important. The scheme advocated in this book aims at the establisliment of a general condition of social welfare, greater equality of conditions with more individual dignity and freedom than at present and not quite that general condition of social equality which is fund:umental to both socialism and communism. Again, if in a Socialistic Society there is a rule that a part of the wealth produced in each factory or farm should be set apart to meet the national and cultural needs of the public and is spent on raising their living standard and the development of Socialistic Economy, in the movement of Co-operation also there is a general rule that part of its reserve fund should be utilised for purposes of social advancement. Adequate provision should be made by all Co-operative Societies to set apart 2 substantial portion of its reserve fund for general social advancement. It also ensures sufficient leisure to the producer. But, "Leisure is not rest. Rest, like sleep, is compulsory: Genuine leisure is freedom to do as we please, not to do nothing." Sydney and Beatrice Webb say in their new book, Soviet Communism: A new Civilisation, at pp: 719 & ·THE SÓCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 33 720 in Vof. II " From the standpoint of the development of character and intelligence, and from that of the production of free initiative, much has rightly been claimed for self employment, whether in the case of individual peasants or handicraftsmen, or in that group of workers in self-governing workshops, or co-operative agricultural associa. tions." (The Italics are mine.) They add: "The trouble is that when this self-employment, whether of individuals or groups, takes place within a capitalist environment, the self-employers are apt to become the victims either of the village usurer or the Gombeen man or of the neighbouring landlord, or of the capitalist entrepreneur in wholesale or retail trade, all of whom are always ready to assist their clients in bad times in such a way as to bring them permanently into subjection as 'sweated' workers. Painful experience has demonstrated how in. evitably the individual handicraftsman, as represented by the handloom weaver in the British village, or the maker of the cheap furniture or slop clothing in the slums of London and other cities, becomes enslaved by the wholesale and retail traders, or of the profit-making entrepreneurs specialising on 'giving out' work to be done at home. Even in agriculture, in these days of wholesale machanisation and the continuous application of science to the art of cultivation, necessitating large scale production with costly equipment, the use of expensive fertilisers and what not, peasant cultivation for sale, even in the more modern form of co-operative farming, fails to maintain itself in a competitive World Market." Then, after touching briefly on the difficulties of Cow operators, they say (P. 721) "for all these reasons the writers of this book have always rejected the ideal of self-employment, whether of individuals or groups of ·34 CHAPTER IV individuals. We failed to take into account the extent to which the manifest disadvantages of a system of selfemployment were connected with its existence in the midst of a capitalist civilisation. It is always unpleasant to admit that one has been wrong in a forecast of the future. But confronted with what is happening in the U.S. S. R., we are forced to such an admission." These Webbs admit that they have decried the cooperative system in a number of their publications. Now they own the defects are not inherent in the system itself, but only in the environment. So, in a congenial environment, it can be expected to work well. And from what they have said above about the development of character, intelligence and initiative, it may be regarded as a better system than even a socialist or communist system. It is fortunate India has not yet reached the Capitalistic Age. It may be mentioned, by the way, that "Co-operative movement has contained a very large number of socialits. Most of the leaders of the cooperative movement and those who have been responsible for moulding co-operative theory and principle have almost always held socialistic doctrines." In Belgium and France, socialism and co-operation have for long been in very close alliance. why ·CHAPTER V CO-OPERATION Co-operation and Social W'elfare : The economics of co-operation deals with the economics of general interest. It can effectively ensure the increase of wealth and increase of comfort of modern society. Under the present system of free competition everyone produces for sale. Co-operation is the system under which people produce jointly in order to share the product. The purpose is not always to create exchange values, but more often to create use-values. Is there not a general collective or social interest? The new economic system must increase production for use and not merely aim at better method of wealth distribution. Co-operation gives to each the income that corresponds to his effort. "The welfare of all and to each the remuneration of his effort." Co-operation makes it possible to evolve an equitable social order. Peace and fraternity within any given society and between nations and nations, it is claimed, the practice of co-operation can establish. It aims at creating an atmosphere in which man shall have mastered economic organisation and not be mastered by it. We must dismiss from our minds the idea thai society as it is built can stand only on a foundation of individual interest. Co-operation reveals to us the possibility of a social structure based on the satisfaction of our needs. Co-operation is a means to an end. The end that is sought is the improvement in the standard of living. Co-operative movement claims to have discovered a system of industry which is democratic. It is ·36 CHAPTER V as efficient and successful as the capitalistic system. In Britain, the movement is in numbers, spirit and ideals, predominantly working class. Co-operative Societies founded on proper rules have survived and prospered if external circumstances and internal organisation did not hinder them. Both during the period of the world war and during the period of subsequent economic depres. sion which still goes on, the competitive system has proved wanting, but the system of Co-operation has emerged triumphant. Potentialities: Though Co-operation is already a great success, its importance is not so much in its past success as in those elements in it which promise the possibility of new developments. As between Capitalism and Co-operation, there cannot be any doubt as to which offers an adequate and equitable systein of wealth distribution, What should we aim at ? A system in which the interests of the consumers are provided for on a basis advantageous to the whole body or one in which certain interests obtain more than their due share ? Co-operation has the quality of adaptability to different conditions of social and political circumstances. It has developed on parallel lines with capitalism where the latter is highly developed. It has developed and flourished in the atmosphere of Socialism and Facism. It can flourish in countries with rural domestic industries. It may develop among peasants as in Denmark or among Factory-workes as in Britain. It has stood the stress and strain of world-war and competition of organised capitalism. Advantages: It has for us certain advantages which other movements do not possess. It is consistent with our tradition; it assures non-violence as it does not ·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 37 bring us into clash with ownership and capitalism; it implies decentralisation; it ensures development of in. dividuality by its recognition of difference in tastes, talents and needs; and it has a moral basis. Different human beings have different capacities and diflerent needs. All must be enabled to enjoy an equitable share of the fruits of the labour of all. If we succeed in creating a genuine co-operative atmosphere it will soon make its moral effect, felt. By means of its elimination of avoidable expense and by its large dealings, enterprises, unprofitable when worked individually, become very profitable when worked collectively, through Co-operative Societies. Co-operation also makes it possible for us to take up several enterprises which otherwise a producer would not individually be able to take up. As co-operative societies guarantee the quality of their produce, the co-operators' market is assured. The producer is relieved from the worry and risk of marketing his products himself. He has all the advantages of collective bargaining and selling. Those who sell for him are men skilled in their business. Expert and scienti. fic advice is at the disposal of the humblest producer. He gets his household goods, seeds or raw materials and implements at the lowest rates compatible with good quality. He acquires a new outlook and his moral horizon enlarges itself. He feels he has a voice in the direction of the economic policy of the state, and so acquires an added value and healthy importance in his own eyes. In co-operative production, industry takes in some cases a collective form, while the ownership of instruments of production remains individual. Co-operation can within the sphere in which it works, eliminate waste, ·38 CHAPTER V leakage of energy, unco-ordinated effort and economic war. Co-operators are impelled, apart froin satisfaction of their individual needs, by the idea of service to the common cause, than by that of safeguarding particular interests. Co-operation has called forth disinterested service on account of its high ideal as a social move. ment. The movement would not have had the development it has, but for the devoted service of hundreds of faithful persons. The ultimate ideal of the movement of Co-operation is the pursuit of general happiness to achieve which, increase of wealth is indispensable. Ceaseless effort is needed for continual progress. But the well-being attained at any given time will be conditioned by what society is able to contribule under the existing circuinstances. By the system of 'one man one vote', co-operator has refused to give to the mere possessor of capital any right to control industrial organisation. Co-operators, by granting an interest of 5 or 6 per cent. to capital and refusing to pay more or any profit, take away the temptation of capital to misuse its power which aims at high prices and low wages. Co-operation keeps capital under control. It is stated "a co-operative society is a of human beings instead of a union of capital.” The relurns of the investment', accrue to the individual and not to the material investment. Co-operative society operates in the dircet interests of its inembers or stock holders rather than in the interests of the outside stock holders. It is quite possible to conceive of a partition of the whole industrial field between the State and the co-operative society. The state can rightly recognise co-operative industry as the industrial wing of a democratic society, union ·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 39 Foreign experience: The types of agricultural cooperation in Denmark, Germany and other Continental countries in Europe have proved successful. It has been successful in those countries among small farmers. In this state of small farmers too it can be rendered successful. The consumers' society and the association of small farmers can help each other admirably, the former providing the market for the produce of the latter. The Lincoln Co-operative Society in Britain has shown what can be done by opening in small agricultural villages stores which not only supply the needs of their members as consumers, but also serve as collecting depots for the produce of their members' farms and holdings. The produce on collection is sent to the central branches of the society in the town of Lincoln where it finds ready market. International: Before the War, the Wholesale Society of Germany used to export goods to the Danish Wholesale Society, while it imported tea from the English Co-operative Wholesale Society and cheese from the Swiss Wholesale Society. This shows it is possible for co-operation to function internationally and to aim at making eventually the Co-operative Community coextensive with the whole human community. National Wholesales, International Wholesale Societies, International Co-operative Alliance etc., can help international trade between Co-operators, It is being realised that international trade among Cooperators should soon be satisfactorily solved. The question of the supply of mortgage credit has already been taken up by the League of Nations. Possibilities of Develutiinerit in Irelia: It is possible for the Provinces and States in India to assist mutuu! co-operative marketing by organising Central Marketing ·40 CHAPTER V There is scope for better development of trade between Sates and States and between States and Provinces as there is practically no tariff or currency barriers to complicate the Exchange. Export and import duties now existing at the frontiers of certain States may soon disappear, if not entirely, at any rate substantially. Suitability to our conditions: In making our scheme we have to be guided by the trend of social evolution past and present. Looking back through the long vista of ages we tind our noble traditions enshrined in the two institutions, the Kara or Village and the Joint Family. The village system, though communal, was founded on mutual help and co-operation. To the joint family each member contributed according to his capacity and from it each member got according to his necessity. Our present needs demand new adjustments. The scheme should be capable of demonstrating its efficacy in the solution of the social problem. By the successful working of a wellplanned co-operative scheme it is possible to a large extent to transfer the control of the instruments of production and distribution to the collective body of co-operators from the hands of the capitalists. Transformation becomes easy into a new society when institutions appro. priate to it are already in existence in the old scciety. The Co-operative movement has been in existence in India for a long time and this enables us to create the new society based on co-operation without our experiencing such diffculiies as would confront us in creating some. thing entirely new and unfamiliar to us. It is easier to lake up the development of a system already living with in the frame work of our society.

·CHAPTER VI ECONOMIC PLANNING Social Dynamics: Society is in perpetual transformation and in modern society, due to internal forces and world forces, the pace of transformation has become rapid. Forces are working around us leading to a social revolution which demands a readjustment of the bases of society. The old ideas upon which society was based undergo change and should undergo change. But we cannot also shut our eyes to the fact that the change is to a large extent governed by historical laws. The solution we propose while realising in full the forces of the new social dynamics should not altogether ignore the influence of our social statics. Our traditions, our environmental conditios, our habits of thought and action will make their influence felt in the shaping of our new changes. A better social order necess cessarily implies economic progress. As human beings are capable of reacting on their environments by intelligent planning and conscious effort; they can effect by such planning and effort the transformation to a better social order. In order to build up a better social life, we should raise the level of the people as a whole economically, culturally, morally and spiritually. And if our scheme of such general improve. ment should prove a success, it should have direct bearing on the realities of our life. It should be our duty to make the people realise that the improvement of the whole community ensures the improvement of the individual and that individual Belf-intereat should harmonise with the welfare of the ·42 CHAPTER VÍ whole community. We should think in terms of the masses and not a section of the people. We must get rid of our habit of thinking in terms of religious or social groups. Present Barren Propaganda: There are many now in India who preach Socialism, Communism or Fascism; some preach Capitalism; others preach Communalism; still others preach self-help in the abstract. It is useless to preach this or that "ism" and excite hopes in popular minds which those who preach them cannot expect to fulfil. Nor is it any use merely advising people that they should all work, engage in cultivation, industry or trade and then leave them to themselves. If those who preach are sincere and serious in what they say, it is their duty to organise well-planned constructive schemes which can ensure practical results. Mahatma Gandhi preaches, but he organises better than he preaches. His ideas would never have taken practical effect, but for his organising work that goes with his propaganda. When people are asked to set up business, they cannot set up business. They cannot do it without capital; and nobody would lend them money. Even when they succeed in getting money and start business, for want of proper training and capacity of mangement, their business soon end in loss; or they get no remunerative markets. In any scheme of reconstruction, there should be proper provision made to meet all these conditions. Bconomic Basis of Reform: In all social relations economic factors play the most important part. Particularly under the present inequitable system of distribution of wealth the economic aspect of life which goes to the root of the problem of living itself is the dominant factor. Even spiritual advancement demands material ·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 43 well-being as its basis. Economic security alone can free human society from its material bondage, and enable it to devote itself more and more to other and really more important aspects of social and spiritual life. A sound economic system implies the raising of the standard of life of the whole population of the State. Standard of life of the whole population of the State can be raised only by inproving the purchasing power of the people. Raising of the standard of life of the working and backward classes is necessitated not merely on moral and humanitarian grounds, but even on general economic grounds. Their economic capacity should be so raised as to stand the strain of a modern competitive life and to maintain the standard of life which has come commonly to be regarded as fairly decent. Present day standard of life has become different and more expensive than what used to be in days gone by. A new consciousness of social standard and of social values are rapidly growing in the minds of the people of this State as the result of their education and the removal of social disabili. ties. Purchasing power is dependent on income, i. e., on wages, salaries, rents, interests, profits, dividends, not to mention state pensions. Wages, salaries, etc., are distributed in proportion to the quantity and quality of goods produced and services rendered and the rapid and remunerative disposal of the goods so produced. So the raising of the standard of life really depends on the proper organisation of our productive and distributive activities. Plan and Organisation: For the proper organisation of our productive and distributive activities we want a plan and an organisation to carry out that plan. What we find, as a result of the absence of planned activity, is ·*44 CHAPTER VI that an enormous amount of human energy and intelligence which, if properly trained and employed, can produce enough wealth for a happy and prosperous life, is being wasted and unutilised. Inspite of our vast resources, abundant rains, fertile soil, variegated flora, intelligent, industrious and literate people, if we should starve and suffer, the reason should be the want of well-planned activity. What we should aim at is the maximum utilisation of the human energy and intelligence available in the service of the whole society. Plan and its Work: Our scheme is to be judged by its relative value. Our object is the deliberate and purposeful reorganisation of our social life. So our scheme should embody an intelligent plan of production and distribution not for the benefit of a few but for increasing the consumption and thereby the prosperity of the whole society. Those who come into the working of our plan must be sure of employment and improved purchasing power. It is only the determined concentration of the energies of the State and its people on the working out of the plan that can lead to its success. The plan should be such as would by its proper working automatically create new and better environmental conditions. When a proper plan is successfully worked, the people are assured of certainty of employment and better remuneration, and they acquire a sense of new dignity and self-respect. Should private ownership be abolished: Capitalisam in Travancore has not yet well developed and so far as it is indigenous is not in a position to stand by itself and resist its amalgamation into the common scheme. If money, or land should to a certain extępt still remain in ·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION the hands of a few who possess more than their due share, the percentage of such lucky people is negligible. There is no need of any expropriation. Their land, their money, and their other investiments can to a large extent be brought into our scheme. It is not our purpose to elimi. nate the individual capitalist producer. If a certain percentage of the income of a small section of our people is derived from rent or interest, it is not worth while to fight it and end it. They can and should be brought into our scheme and, by proper control and direction, such resources can be made to subserve the common end. It is control not ownership that leads to the success of the scheme. There are some economic enterprises which are public service activities. They should be nationalised, With regard to them independent ownership should yield to a national or state-owned scheme, as in the case of transport. They should be either absorbed into the national scheme or eliminated. In either case, fair compensation should be awarded to the owners. Independent enterprises will remain and flourish outside our scheme to a large extent and we would do well to leave them alone to take care of themselves as they can. General welfare and our central schemes will not be obstructed by them, but may be advanced by their continued and active existence. If steady constructive economic improvement and social peace be our aims, let us not think of expropriation or revolution. There is no meaning in attacking this evolutionary process, as if it is lifeless or inadequate. Central Control: If production should continue to adjust itself to demand, the control of the whole production should be in the hands of one ultimate authority. The controlling agency should represent the interest of ·46 CHAPTER VI both producers and consumers. There should be no partia. lity shown to one set of producers to the detriment of the consumers. So the entire control must be in the hands of the central authority which will direct the economic life of the whole nation. It should have power to limit that sort of competition which would make in. ternal production unremunerative, which will not leave to the producers within the State their legitimate net profit. When we introduce a planned economy in our State, it must necessarily be a protected economy. The remuneration of the producers must be protected. But care should be taken that affording of such protection to producers does not lead to the throwing of any unreasonable burden on the consumers. There are rich landlords owning extensive paddy lands who want to raise the price of paddy and rice by protective methods. But the large class of poor people and even a very large section of the middle class people will suffer, if the price of their staple food is enhanced. Generally speaking, if our productive activities should prove remunerative we have to follow the example of those countries that have adopted adequate and appropriate measures for the securing of their home markets for their own products. Our planned economy should have in view the most effective employment of every factor of production available to us. In the case of some articles it may be more economical to import them, though there are facilities for producing them inside the State. Importation of such articles should be within limits and under the control of a competent central agency. And, if production of some of those articles is necessary to give employment to large sections of the people, we should not neglect such activities and depend on importation, Though it ·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 4* may be cheaper to import Japanese or other foreign cloth, we must afford protection to our handloom industry which gives employment to a large number of our people. Decentralisation: As mechanisation and consequent mass production throw out of employment a large number of people, decentralisation of production and organisation of cottege industries should be the chief means of industrialisation. Such decentralised production will keep all such production within bounds. There will be no competition between men and machinery. In the case of individual production, when organised on a co-operative basis, each individual producer will secure all necessary help from the Society of which he is a member. As for marketing, all the advantages of collective bargaining and sale will be available to the producer through the cooperative marketing society. All the money that is proposed to be spent on machinery, buildings, etc., may be better utilised for giving credit to the members of the co-operative societies in the shape of the means of production. There are certain industries which can be carried on only in centralised factories. Such factories should, as far as possible, be owned an managed by cooperative societies which will enable equitable distribution of profits and do away with the system of master and servant. It will work better as the men working in them will feel that they are masters themselves. The labour market in India is over-stocked. When man power is cheap and available in abundance, why should we go in for machinery which leaves man-power without work? So long as we have such a large number of workmen available for any kind of labour, if some factorise ·48 CHAPTER VI are set up, their Managers will offer a low wage and tell the workmen that, if they cannot work on the wages offere 1, there are many others who will. Establislıment of a few more factories does not solve our problem of unemployment even partially; and to the extent to which it solves it, the manner of solving it can by no means be satisfactory, Intelligent, extensive and thorough planning on a co-operative basis alone can help our cause. The idea of giving work to the people of Travancore, both educated and uneducate i, with the help of the capitalists from outside the State, cannot solve the problem. It is even deterimental. New creation of fur: her vestel interests will only make a satisfactory solution of the problem more difficult. They will create opposition to such a solution. Factories and Machines woull even lead to over-prodution and inadequate market. Machines must have their place as aids to labour and not become masters of industry. Machines lead to unemployment. An electric washing company established in Trivandrum will throw out of employment at least 500 washermen and washerwomen now employed in the Town and its neighbourhood. Setting up of Rice Mills in Trivandrum will render the paddy husking women of the city and its suburbs who number more than 7,000 and necessarily their families helpless. One Rice Mill will throw out of employment 200 women. At present cottage industry system will work satisfactorily if orga. nised on a co-operative basis. Transport: Generally speaking transport services should be nationalised. The State can supply a system of transport which will be surer, cheaper and more comfortable than what a private monopolist can supply. Tiar.sport on unimportant lines of communication and ·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 49 that within Municipal areas may be entrusted to public bodies like co-operative societies. Carriages, waggons, trucks, vans, boats etc., should, so far as possible, be made in the State and proper training should be given to the people of the State in the matter of making such carriages, etc., and also managing and working them. With the unlimited facilities for developing hydro-electric power in the State, the enormous drain of money for petrol or other oil can be saved to the State. The decision of the Government to move in this matter has come none too soon. The Travancore Government proposals on this behalf are good, but they should go further. Educated Unemployment: When our plan is put into active operation, a large number of guides and supervisors agents and salesmen, accountants, clerks, typists, technical experts, managers and secretaries in the various departments, sections, branches aod societies would be required. Our educated men and women can legitimately expect to fill up those places. Organisation: The organisation for economic deve. lopment should be vot of the Parlimentary type but of the Muncipal type, i, e., with committees. Each com. mittee of the central organisation should be entrusted with that branch of activity which it has special competency to discharge. So it is but proper that the Economic De. velopment Board should work through its committees. It is possible to imagine the extension of the co-operative movemont to the entire population. It is also possible to imagine that the new recorstruction would confer powers on the community which would erable it to control many of the most important activities which go to the making of a modern community. Whatever be the possibilities of the ideal, we should be guiled by a realisation of the limitations imposed by environments.

·50 CHAPTER VII The need of an economic plan may be gathered from the following words of His Highness the Maharaja of Travancore. In reply to the address presented by the people of Travancore on 25th June 1936, His Highness has said, "......In the conditions that obtain here, the relief of economic distress and unemployment, and the regeneration of the backward and depressed communities are to no small extent dependent on the adoption of upto-date methods of agriculture and marketing enterprise, of a carefully devised scheme of industrialisation suited to our environment and aptitude, and the active stimulation of our external trade which, I am glad to observe, has been showing signs of recovery." CHAPTER VII DUTIES OF THE STATE The potentialities of this State are enormous. It is the duty of the State and its people to transform them into actualities. There is abundant supply of fine raw materials. The climatic conditions and the rains have made the country one of the most fertile enabling the growth of several varieties of industrially useful plants, crops and trees. There is no dearth of capital, and even cheap capital, within the State. If the State would take the responsiblity, enough capital would become available. Under the existing conditions and as now constituted and worked Co-operation cannot evoke any satisfactory financial response. The whole system shoald be reorganised with State control. The people are ready for a programme of real development, if only the State ·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 51 would take the lead, and organise its people. As in the case of the great social reform introduced by the Temple Entry Proclamation, the people would enthusiastically respond. The State has a duty to feel that all the subjects of the state, children, adults, old and infirm persons, are entitled to food, clothes, shelter, education, health and some kind of entertainment. The State should provide guarantee against poverty and unemployment to those who are prepared to work. People both educated and uneducated are anxious for work. There is a loud clamour for employment. Even hunger marches are attempted to be organised to rouse up people to demand work and wages. In spite of the eager desire and demand for employment a very large class of people are unable to secure the barest means of subsistence. People are obliged to lead a life of idleness and starvation. People ask whether the State has not a duty to devise and work schemes for a proper solution of this all important pro. blem of unemployment. State Leadership: It is the duty of the State to rouse up the people to a sense of their possibilities and potentialities, to properly organise them and give them the necessary lead. In the matter of economic reorganisation State Leadership succeeds in several parts of Europe, in Turkey, in Japan and in the United States of America. The prosperity of agriculture in Denmark and in the U.S.A., is due to the costant care of the Governments concerned. Only under active leadership of the State can the great problem be effectively tackled. The duty of a State does not cease with the maintenance of peace and order. It is not enough if it should command or compel; but it should organise and creat, and administer common affairs for the economic and social welfare of the people. Private ·52 CHAPTER VII enterprise and voluntary co-operation do not afford us a satisfactory solution of our economic difficulties. But State leadership should not be a means of handing over the people to the tender mercies of the capitalists, financiers and entrepreneurs. Capitalists, whether they belong to Travancore or outside, desire only to exploit the people and the natural resources of the State. Some of them may be benevolent capitalists, but they are, all the same, capitalists with a will and a desire to exploit our people and our resources. Even in the co-operative field, a number of exploiters with the capitalistic mentality spoil the movement Proper control and a better scheme, totally different from that of the present, can improve the situation. The State should undertake rhe responsibility of leadership and organise, guide and help the movement. The co-operative programme is based on the principle of self-help. The financial help of the State need be given only at the early stage; and that, in the main, only as loan. The scheme is not to be financed so to say, by the State: The present agricultural and industrial loans only help speculation of individuals with the tax-payers' money. The State has a duty to preserve social stability, peace and welfare. When private enterprise is incompetent or mischievous or causes disorder in society by speculation and manipulation, the State has a duty to intervene and carry out an equitable distribution of the means of livelihood. If it is possible for the State to delegate this work, at least a large part of this work, to the co-operative movement, the latter will be able to do it properly and efficiently. But for a proper discharge of such functions, the cooperative movement should be helped and supported by the state to function as a public institution, it must be ·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUOTION 53 an autonomous service generally free from political interference. Public Utility Services: Management of public utility services on a co-operative basis is to-day practical politics, especially in those economic enterprises, which the State has undertaken or will undertake, viz., Banking, Electrification, Transport, Water-supply, etc. These may become gradually autonomous in their management and independent of the mere organs of Government, which remains inseparable from the State as State. Necessary Legislation: An Economic Development Regulation should be passed by which the Governinent should assume general powers to regulate economic development. Details may be worked out by means of rules passed under the Regulation. Agricultural Produce Marketing Rules, Dairy Produce Marketing Rules, etc., may regulate conditions under wich license for export may be granted. In some cases it may become necessary to regulate internal trade also by means of the licensing system. It is possible to make compulsory the forination of agricultural societies in certain regions by all those engaged in cultivation of certain crops either as owners or as tenants. The State should make laws for exercising such power. It may be necessary in places like Kuttanad in middle Travncore in respect of Punja Cultivation. There, each extensive area within one boundary of walllike bunds protecting it from the surrounding waters, has to be cultivated as one block, though it consists of plots belonging to several owners. Debts due to societies. may, by law made to that effect, be collected as landtax by the Government Revenue Officers and handed over to Societies under certain circumstances. Law may give priority to certain debts due to co-operative societies ·54 CHAPTER VII e.g., debts incurred in improving land over debts due to individuals. Concessions: When the present State Transport Scheme becomes an accomplished fact, the Co-operative Societies should be granted concession to carry on their articles at half their usual cost. In regard to other Transport Agencies licensed by the State, it can secure similar concessions to Co-operative Societies. By negotiation and agreement with the Railway and Coastal Shipping authorities, the State can secure for them freight con. cessions. Government should encourage the new economic organisation by ordering all supplies to the Devaswams, Hospitals and other Departments from the Cooperative Socities, Export Duties: The State which has been imposing large export duties on products of agricultural industries in the State do nothing to help marketing and very little to aid production. It should revise its policy and render help to the producers by reduction, suspension or abolition of such duties, at least as needs arise. In any event, the policy of the Government should be to ensure remunerative prices to the producers for their exportable gurpluses. Societies should get certain privileges and advantages from the State. State Capitalism: In Mysore, the State has organised and is managing some important industries. But to call it State Socialism is a misnomer. There is nothing of socialism about it. It is only State Capitalism. In such State Capitalism, there is no voice for tabour or consumer. There is no pretence of an equitable distribution of profits among the producers. The State invests the Capital; the State as the capitalist manages its industrial ·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 55 concerns; and its management is of the bureaucratic type. Debts: The State has also a duty to devise adequate means to enable the people to get rid of accumulated debts which always work as a drag on their progress, Debts should as far as possible be scaled down and in the course of a reasonable period be redeemed. Capacity to discharge debts, even partially, depends on improvement in income of the debtor. Also usury, profiteering, bribery, monopolist tendencies and all anti-social activities should be prevented by providing necessary penalties. Electrification: An extensive national electrification scheme, though may not immediately contribute to the development of industry, as the resources of the people are extremely limited, will become practical and useful when our scheme of economic improvement becomes well-established and successful. Electric power may be used for common purposes such as streetlighting or houselighting or electric trams, buses and railways, Individual handicraftsmen, except the wealthy few who can purchase costly machines, may not be able to utilise it for purpose of industry, though capitalists or the State may be able to start factory industries with such power. At this stage of our development, considering the economic condition of the average Travancorean, what we have to aim at is the utilisation of man power. Opposition: In the case of Nationalisation of Tran- -sport, the State should not be deterred from doing its duty by the peopl as a whole, by the cry that would be raised by vested interests that State should not compete with private enterprises. The sense of duty of the State ·56 CHAPTER VII to its entire population should induce it not to heed such false alarm. Even the adoption by the State of the duty of guidance and control of economic advancement, through a comprehensive scheme of co-operation, might meet with opposition from vested interests. Opposition might be raised also by those accustomed to the routineway of thinking. The State should embark on or aid schemes of industrialisation, if the interests of its people require it. The incompetance of the State to carry on industrial and commercial enterprises is an unfounded myth. If the State is able to discharge properly its more onerous duties, there is no reason why it should not be able to conduct satisfactorily its economic concerns. Only the State has to trust the business to competent management and not allow bureaucratic red-tapism or favouritism to mis-manage its economic concerns. Leadership of the State will cease to be looked upon as objectionable by advanced politicians as the State becoine more and more democratic in its constitution; and if such leadership is not used for the encouragement of capitalism. It is quite possible to have the system based on a truly democratic plan. But under the conditions prevailing in this State, a purely democratic organisation will not work. It has been rightly said “Politics must now give away to economics, or, at any rate, politics should concern chiefly with economics." The linking up of the economic forces of the land with the State machinery by means of the economic Development Board would do much to facilitate the evolution we aim at.

·CHAPTER VIII DUTIES OF THE PEOPLE No Communalism: There are people who sincerely advocate the formation of communal organisations, either sectarian or religious, for our economic improvement. But, communal organisations only lead us to fight and defeat each other. Let us not combine secular matters with religious. The people of the State belong to different religions; and separate organisations lead only to communal strife. It is the community or the corporate spirit in the largest sense of the word that we should develop. People should realise that success of any large scheme of socio-economic advancement depends on refusing to recognise any claim based on class, creed, community or party. It is planned for the benefit of all and should be worked by all. The really backward alone require special help and encouragement. The interests of a particular community are not higher than the interests of any other community or of the nation. When once work is successfully started in the right spirit we shall be able to discover the hidden capacities of our people. It is possible then to bring out the higher and finer emotions in man. When we create an atmosphere of mutual service and self-help, we shall find the environment playing its part in advancing our cause. The change will soon be felt. Minorities: Where Minorities desire to maintain their separate culture, they should be afforded facilities to do so. It is the general level of civilisation we should aim to improve and in that both minorities and majorities should have their legitimate places. It should be ·58 CHAPTER VIII the constant care and duty of majorities not to afford cause to the minorities to feel want of confidence in the more numerous sections. Real Communal Amity: Complete social intercourse, a programme of active social, economic and political work, in which the people are engaged from day to day with the outlook for the improvement of all, can bring about communal amity. Where one particular section is suffering from disabilities, the other sections should look upon the removal of such disabilities as a common duty. "Right or wrong, the rights and privileges of my community" is an attitude which creates a hostile reaction in other communities. Religion: Religion, when it is not narrow and exclusive, is capable of doing much good. Ordinarily it is a moral guide to man. On its spiritual side it gives a meaning to life which leads men to heights inconceivable to those incapable of spiritual realisation. When different religions are examined, it will be found that there is much that is common in them and there is no necessity to quarrel over religions. If the fundamental principles of religions which teach either the unity of all life or at least the brotherhood of man are sincerely sought to be realised, all quarrels over different religions should cease. But in Travancore, great care has to be taken not to introduce religion into common matters affecting persons belonging to different creeds. Pretensions of the Middle Class: Our middle class people who have gone down in economic position must learn to realise that it is no use pretending to be better than they really are. It only leads to the keeping up of ·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 59 A more expensive appearances than they can afford. Under the economic pressure which has been going on for many years the middle classes are reduced to the condition of the poor. Only the former have neither the inclination on account of vanity, nor the opportunity to do manual labour and maintain themselves thereby. In accounting for the existence of a larger proportion of agricultural labourers in Travancore than in other parts of India, the Travancore Census Commissioner has pointed out that the Travancore cultivator is as a rule, a gentleman farmer, who does not like to soil his hands by handling a plough and wants the Harijans to do all the manual work in the filed for him. In spite of the economic decay of the old land-owning classes, they still retain their sense of vanity and are unable to feel the dignity of manual labour. The only chance of making a fairly decent existence lay in a combination of all middle class and poor people to put an end to the present system of "do nothing" and develop the planned co-operative side of civilisation. Duties of the Educated: The salvation of our people lie in our young men realising their duty of actively organising society on a co-operative conception. Have not those, who realise that the present economic system does not work satisfactorily for the whole community, a duty to associate together and organise it on a satisfactory basis? The enlightened section of the public should realise that their ardent co-operation is indispensable, as it is a very task to educate and organise the people. Have not the educated a duty to serve the present generation in a constructive way? It is for the youth to develop something in the way of power and create a proper outlet to that power. Youth onerous ·60 CHAPTER IX must findout ways and means whereby they might them-- selves create opportunities of constructive service. Let them apply their knowledge to develop their creative capacity, but not for self-advancement alone or selfaggrandisement. There should always be a section of active young men and women who should be conducting à continuous educational campaign on behalf of the scheme they want to work out. CHAPTER IX SOME PRINCIPLES OF THE SCHEME DISCUSSED The hypotheses of a new economic system should be based on the integral realisation of our aims. The two problems for solution are the rationalisation of production and the rationalisation of marketing. A minimum standard of living should be satisfied as a result of the working of the scheme in the case of the entire population. Hitherto, the co-operative organization, co-operative credit and co-operative help have not reached the poor ryot or the poor industrialist. Nothing has yet been done to help him to organise either for production or for marketing. We have hitherto neglected to organise the productive and marketing sides of the movement. Co-operation in Travancore should succeed with State leadership, centralised planning, centralised control, centralised credit and centralised marketing. But, co-operation in itself implies sufficient decentralisation of production, a more or less fairly equitable system of distribution and a democratic system of management..

·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 61 Agriculture : India is a land of agriculture. Indians love their land and look upon it as their principal means of livelihood. And any scheme of Rural Reconstruction or general economic improvement should provide for the improvement of agriculture. The three-fold approach to the Rural Problem is rightly said to be Better Farming, Better Business and Better living. To this may be added also the organisation of cottage industries. A satisfactory solution of the Rural Problem is possible only when agriculture and industry are treated as business. Organisation of the producers for industrial development at home and for trade expansion at home and should be the fundamental principle of our policy. It is possible, necessary and safe to have in agriculture a diversified system of crops. There is every possibility for a programme of cultivation which mingles many crops. We must, in producing things whether agricultural or industrial, have an eye on the market. We have not the advantage of Britain or Japan or Italy in this matter. Let us avoid the money lender and also the trader, the middle man. Co-operative help should be given mostly in the shape of services and materials. Giving of money as money should be avoided except in absolutely necessary cases. When loan of money is given it inust be assured the money is used for the purpose for which it is given. Let us avoid the mistake already committed. The movement so far has made the people more and more debtors. It was not a source of unmixed good. Travancore being an agricultural country, subordination of agriculture to other interests will be a very serious mistake. The well-being and prosperity of the State depend mainly on the improvement of agriculture and an extensive organisation of cottage industries; these latter depend ·62 CHAPTER IX on (a) scientific agriculture through State guidance and (b) organisation both for production and marketing under State control and with State help. We also require reconstruction of social life in the country-side to make it as attractive as life in the towns. Want of co-ordination between the co-operative and other departments of the State prevents the fromulation of a definite scheme or policy of economic advancement. Lack of interest and lack of knowledge on the part of the officers of the Agricultural and Industrial Departments in the co-operative principle, method and spirit are a great handicap to organised reconstructive work in their own fields of activities. The Officers of the Co-operative Department know nothing of agriculture, industry or marketing and so are unable to inspire the formation of productive and marketing societies. There are individualists who oppose rationalisation and all the economies claimed for co-operative production and co-operative marketing. They are opposed to all froms of State interference and control. But they always seek State help for their individual advancement. They fail to see that even individualistic industry, if conducted on co-operative lines, can achieve greater success. The rich and capitalistic farmer may be able to deal on satisfactory terms with other interests. But the largest majority of agriculturists in the State are small farmers or tenants. They are always at a disadvantage in dealing with highly organised interests. They are ignorant of outside market conditions and lead a handto-mouth existence. The artisan and the small indus trialist are also in the same position. In order to succes fully deal and compete with the existing commercial ·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 63 system, they must be well organised. They want their combined resources and to some extent also the resources and support of the State. Organise buying for collective needs things made within the State, not only to save merchants' costs and minimise costs of transport but also as a means of advancing the interests of the producer and the consumer. Communal Economy and Exchange Economy: In Travancore Exchange Economy is as important as Communal Economy. While many things are produced for use within the State itself, there are important national -crops like cocoanut, pepper, rubber, tea and cardamom which are produced for export. But, generally speaking, agriculture and industry should go together, particularly in rural areas. It is easy for communal economy to pass into co-operative economy. And even regarding exchange economy relating to national crops like cocoanut, pepper and similar things and products of cocoanut industries, the average owner being poor and unresourceful, co-operation is the best form to serve his interests. Co-operative Marketing: Co-operative marketing is the organised sale of co-operators' products on a nonprofit basis in the interests of the producers. Its utility consists in the ability to secure the advantages of joint sale. It is a sane and sound application of business methods. While co-operative production aims at better crop at lesser expense, co-operative marketing aims at better market and more money to the producer. The Popular cry of “Shortening the road to the market", by eliminating the middlemen, cannot be a complete suc- -cess; but an unnecessarily large number of purchases and sales, speculation and hazard can be avoided and ·64 CHAPTER IX names with them the profits of middlemen traders. Great savings result also from increased specilisation in marketing, viz., control over transportation, advertising, use of trade and merchandising. There should be a suitable organisation and efficient management. A centralised association for external marketing will be more practicable and successful in this State. But, for internal marketing, decentralisation to an extent may be recognised. The producers as members in their capacity of consumers, if not as producers, should have a controlling voice in the management of the Sales Agency. The Board of Directors who choose the Sales Agency is selected by the members. The greatest advance in co-operation has been associated with the marketing of agricultural products. Holland has made a notable success in distributing fruits and vegetables at home and abroad; Denmark in dairy and poultry products; United States of America has one of the most efficient system of marketing all farm products; and the farmers in these countries are important personages. A huge central marketing organisation functions practically in every one of these countries. The failure of producers' and consumers' co-operative organisation in India is mainly due to their functioning as individual units. The only connecting link betwech them is the Registrar. There are no centralised or federated bodies working for All-India, or for Provincial or State Groups. In marketing, “Thc dilemma of low prices may be overcome by attacking either of its two horns, supply or demand.” Control supply or expand demand. The marketing society can instruct producers when and to what extent supply should be restricted. For expanding demand, it may exploit the old market ·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 65 better and also discover new ones. It can also improve the standard of production, by inducing the producers to make better things. Professor H, E. Ordman gives the following as the leading possibilities of the Cooperative marketing. 1. Standardising and improving production; 2. Standardising and improving grade and pack; 3. Stabilising production; 4. Contṣolling flow to market; 5. Improving distribution as between markets; 6. Advertising and the development of new markets; 7. Collective bargaining; 8. Financing marketing operations; 9. Making marketing more eficient; and 10. Maintaining favourable public relations. Help of Specialists: Specialists can render in valuable service in popularising up-to-date ideas on methods of cultivation, marketing, selection of seed and stock and in establishing research agencies and demonstration centres. Denmark, Finland, Ireland, France, Germany, Russia and those other countries which have made the greatest advancement in agricultural co-operation have enjoyed the co-operation of experts, chiefly University Professors, who in inany cases devote a large part of their time to this field. This academic aid is duplicated in nearly every American State. Management and Membership: There should be a certain minimum of democracy iu the management of co-operative societies, but they should be placed under the general control of the State and of the representatives of the whole movement. Insisting on suppliers of goods for sale to co-operative societies being members of such societies will bring ·66 CHAPTER IX in large sections of people engaged in the productive business. The untrained volunteer-officers should go from all societies or they should be trained. The staff including the Secretaries must be paid men. Interests reconciled: Our Scheme must be able to reconcile two interests, the interests of the producer and the interests of the consumer. It is the interest of the consumers, viz., the entire public, to be able to buy at cost price without paying a profit to anybody. This should not be inconsistent with the interests of the producers who have to get a remunerative price for their products. When we make any industry the property of the workers, we are only replacing the joint stock shareholders and their managers by working shareholders who will not be less profit-seeking than the capitalist owners. We have to see Producers' Co-operative Societies do not become the dictators of the price of their products, if they should be distributed in the home-market. Co-operation and Social Insurance: Co-operation as such has nothing to do with social insurance. But in the moral and social sphere, co-operation has been interesting itself in various forms of social insurance. One of the evils of the present day society is the insecurity of its members. In a well-ordered State, every person should be insured against old age, unemployment and sickness, and mothers should be protected in childbirth. Social insurance of various kinds is intended as guarantee against social risks. Co-operative societies in some cases have established provident fun is, maternity grants, un. employment pay, and even pensions for employees or for members. The efforts of co-operative societies should ·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 67 be supplemented by a large scheme of insurance conducted on co-operative lines; and associated with it there should also be social insurance. The scheme of social insurance should exist side by side with a general scheme of life, live-stock and other forms of co-operative in. surance, We should also aim at providing each family, parti. cularly the poor, with a home garden for vegetables, poultry, piggery or cows and beehives so that the worker by his spare time labour and the labours of the members of his family may attend to their maintenance. Social Advancement: A part of the profits of all Cooperative societies should be utilised for educational and other common purposes. There should be a rule in every society that not less than 10 per cent of the profits should be set apart for the creation of a fund for common social advancement. In his message to the All-Travancore Co-operative Conference held at Paroor in February last, Sachivottama Sir C. P. Ramaswamy Aiyer, the Dewan of Travancore, has said: “There is a tendency not confined to Travancore to regard the Co-operative movement as an agency for the obtaining of easy loans and not development of agriculture and cottage industry. The improvement of marketing by co-operative methods of grading and sale has not yet become a feature of the, movement......... I attach special importance to co-operation as a means of avoiding fragmentation by reason of the operation of the family and social laws, and I trust that agricultural and cocoanut farming on a co-operative basis will be taken up as an essential part of co-operative enterprise, ·CHAPTER XX No better method can be devised for enabling Travancore to compete with other producers on an equal footing. My message may not be very optimistic in tone, but surely it is better to be alive to our difficulties and the obstacles in our path rather than be too facile in our hopes. It is because I regard co-operation as the best possible means of contributing to our agricultural and industrial progress that I am tempted to utter these words At the same time I feel it my duty to make an appeal to all the people in Travancore to realise the gravity and the importance of the problem and put their shoulders to the wheel and to work in complete concord and mutual trust, without which this movement and its several developments cannot evolve as they have triumphantly evolved elsewhere in places like Belgium, Holland and Denmark, where it has been proved that co-operation can be a most powerful instrument for the building up of a national prosperity even where natural resourccs are not abundant." In order to carry out the suggestions made in this message, an appropriate and adequate scheme is necessary. In the next chapter is given such a scheme. The Italics are mine, ·CHAPTER X STRUCTURE OF THE ECONOMIC SCHEME . Constitution: The Co-operative Economic Development Scheme shall consist of five branches working under the direction and control of The Economic Development Board in which shall be vested the whole responsibility for the economic development of the State. It shall be associated with Rural Reconstruction and other social activities. The five branches shall be (1) Agriculture, (2) Industries, (3) Fisheries, (4) Distribution and Marketing and (5) Banking and Insurance. Agriculture: Agriculture shall include besides Agriculture proper Afforestation, Animal-Husbandry, Poultry- Farming and Bee-Keeping. Industries: Industries shall include Industries proper, occupational and other enterprises that do not fall under any of the above sections. For the purpose of this scheme Building Co-operative Societies, Engineering Societies, Printing and Publishing Societies, Transport societies and similar societies shall be regarded as Industrial Societies. Fisheries: All societies connected with fisheries including pisciculture and fishery industries shall be treated as Fisheries Societies. Marketing Marketing Societies will include consumers' societies within the State and societies engaged in marketing Travancore articles both inside and outside the State, whether in india or in foreign countries. Banking & Insurance: There shall be but one Co. operative Bank in the State, known as 'The Travancore ·70 CHAPTER X Co-operative Bank'. This Bank may open as many branches as are necessary for financing the entire Cooperative movement in the State. It shall have an Insur-, ance Branch to deal with all matters connected with Insurance. Banking shall include, besides Co-operative Banking known as such, other banking activities for the benefit of the co-operators Insurance shall include Life Insurance, Live-Stock Insurance, Social Insurance, and other forms of Insurance useful and necessary for the benefit of the Co-operators. Primary Agricultural and Industrial Societies engaged in agriculture and cottage industries functioning within the jurisdiction of a Village Panchayat will be regarded as forming part of the Rural Reconstruction Scheme, and, though not constitutionally controlled, will be guided by the advice of the Village Panchayat or its Economic Committee. The Agricultural Society, whether rural or special, will engage itself in direct collective agricultural work and at the same time render all necessary help to the independent cultivators to carry on their occupation. Similarly, the Industrial Society will conduct its own workshop to give work to those not able to conduct any industry in their houses, while helping its other members to carry on similar or other industries in their homes. Besides these, there shall be started a number of other societies engaged in various occupations. Fisheries Societies shall be started in such places on the sea coast and elsewhere, where there are facilities for the working of such societies. Marketing: Every taluk shall have one Distributive Society. And there shall be one Travancore Whole Sale Society the members of which shall be these Taluk ·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 71 Disstributive Societies. A Taluk Distributive Society shall have as many branches in the taluk as necessary. It may have both general stores and specialised stores. The Truyancore Wholesale Society may also have representatives of the Central Council of Agriculture, of the Central Council of Fisheries and of the Central Council of Industries in the Managing Board of the Wholesale Society in order to safeguard the interests of the producers. Taluk Unions: The representatives of the Primary Agricultural Societies of a taluk shall constitute the Taluk Agricultural Union. Similarly the representatives of the Primary Industrial Societies of a taluk shall constitute the Taluk Industrial Union. The Agricultural Inspector and the Inspector of Industries, if any, may be Ex-Officio members of the respective Councils. In the same manner the representatives of the Primary Fisheries Societies sliall oonstitute the Taluk Fisheries Union and the Inspector of Fisheries may be a member thereof. The Taluk Co-operative Council: The Members of the above-mentioned Taluk Unions and the Members of the Managing Board of the Taluk Distributing Society shall constitute the Taluk Co-operative Council. District Councils: Each of the Taluk Agricultural Union shall elect a representative to the District Agricultural Council. It shall consist of such representatives and experts and Forest and Revenue Officials noininated by the Government. In the same manner the District Industrial Counil and the District Fisheries Council shall also be constituted. The District Co-operative Council: The Members of the District Councils of Agriculture, Industries and ·72 CHAPTER X Fisheries shall constitute the District Co-operative Council. It shall also have as members representatives of the Distributive Societies in the District, the chief Revenue Officer of the District and others nominated by the Government. The Central Councils : Each District Agricultural Council shall elect a representative to the Central Agricultural Council. The latter shall consist of these elected members and experts and other officials nominated by the Government. In the same manner the Central Industrial Council and the Central Fisheries Council shall also be constituted. THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT BOARD Members: I. Elected Representatives of the Central, Agricultural Council, of the Central Industrial Council, of the Central Fisheries Council, of the Travancore Cooperative Bank, of the Travancore Wholesale Society and of the Taluk Distributive Societies. II. Heads of the Development Departments. III. Such other experts or officers the Government may nominate. There shall be a full time Secretary in charge of all office work. The Board shall ordinarily work through Sub-Committees for each of the Section. The functions of the Board shall be : (a) Determination of the General Policy and Administration of all matters connected with the Economic Development of the State ; (b) Preparation of a General Plan of Economic Development; (c) Preparation of a plan of economic Survey and publication of occasional or regional or other reports relating to such ·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 73 survey; (d) Co-ordination of various activities connected with the Economic Development of the State; (e) Final arbitration of disputes between Societies, Unions or Councils or other bodies functioning under the Board; (f) Prepiration and consolidation of statistics relating to matters affecting Economic De. velopment. Productive societies may adopt activities relating to banking and marketing so far as are necessary for their proper and adequate functioning. Similarly marketing societies may also adopt activities relating to production and banking. These societies are so called with reference only to their main functions. Exhibitions and Conferences may be held by all Societies, Unions and Councils within their regional jurisdictions, independently or in collaboration with similar institutions. The Co-operative Institute: The Economic Development Board may run a Co-operative Institute whose functions shall be special propaganda and conducting a special training centre for Co-operators or the Staff of the Co-operative Department. Rural Societies: Those productive societies within the juridisction of Village Panchayats conducted with the help and guidance of the Panchayats may be termed Rural Societies. They shall form part of the Rural Reconstruction Scheme which itself is an important part of this Socio-Economic Plan. Special Societies: A large number of societies specialising in one or two enterprises will be of considerable help to rural and other minor societies. A Cooperative cattle-breeding or poultry-farming society will ·74 CHAPTER XI be able to supply cattle or poultry to a number of small societies. These will exist outside the structure of Village Panchayats. CHAPTER XI THE SCHEME EXPLAINED The main objects aimed at are the creation of a central body, the Economic Development Board, and a General Consolidated Plan of economic development. The chief functions of the Economic Develoyment Board are the making of the plan and the carrying out of the plan through its appropriate branches. The Central Agricultural Council will be the branch in charge of the preparation of the agricultural plan and the practical enforcement of it. The plan prepared by the council will be finally passed with such modifications as may be deemed necessary by the Board. It is this plan that the council has to work through its subordinate bodies. Such a plan can lay out only the general indications cf agricultural improvement. Based on that general plan, each primary agricultural society will prepare its own separate plan suited to local conditions. This plan, when approved by the Central Council, will be carried out by the primary society concerned. When a plan is prepared under the instructions and with the final approval of a central expert and representative body the primary society is assured of having an adequate plan for substantial work. It will avoid conflict with the regional interests of other societies. The general plan and each separate plan ·THE SÓCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 75 should be for a definite period; and should provide stages for annual progress. Organising co-operative societies as shall form part of the Rural Reconstruction Scheme within the jurisdiction of a Village Panchayat shall be attended to by the Panchayat or its economic committee. The duty of forming special societies shall pertain to the officers of the Co-operative Department assisted by the officers of the Agricultural or Industrial Department as the case may be. Agricultural and Industrial Societies organised by and functioning within the jurisdiction of a Panchayat shall also be under the control and guidance of the respective central councils and not of the Panchayat. The entire policy of agricultural advancement should be under the control of one central agency. The Inspectors of the Agricultural Department will be the expert advisors. They will be visiting the centre of each society and giving it advice and guidance. Marketing will ordinarily be through the Taluk Distributive Society or its local branch. If any primary society, rural or special, desire to make its own arrangements for marketing its produce, there should be no restriction on its freedom of action. But selling to speculators or middle. men whose object is to undersell the "Taluk Distributive Societies in any part of the State should be prohibited. 2. The Agricultural Society as every other produce tive and marketing Society, so far as it needs financial help, will get it from the Travancore Co.operative Bank through the latter's regional branch. 3. Agricultural Co-operative Societies, besides rena dering help to individual cultivators by the supply of selecled seeds, manure, implements, bullocks etc., may directly take up cultivation of paddy and other similar crops, on a scientific method. Cocoanut cultivators will ·76 CHAPTER X1 find suci societies very helpful. Cultivation of fruit trees like Mangoe, and Brea:l-fruit, Fruits plants like Banana and Pine-apple, Hill crops like Tea and Rubber and a variety of other forms of cultivation may also be taken up directly by the Agricultural Societies. Absentee landlords and landlords wlio have no money to properly cultivate their lands will be but too willing to give their lands on lease to an agricultural co-operative society. In the case of paddy and other seasonal crops cultivated directly by the society, the society may first take its share and hand over the balance 10 the owner or the tenant concerned. Even members of joint families may get their shares divided by the society in the proportion of their rights agreed upon. 4. The Co-operative system of cultivation will introduce scientific methods of agriculture in the local area. It will reduce the cost of cultivation. It will be a remedy to the disa dvantages due to the fragmentation of holdings rapidly going on in the State with the disruptiou of joint families, 5. The Animal Huslandry Section of the Agricul. tural Society will render help regarding Cattle-breeding, Goat-farming, Poultry-farming and Bee-hiving. Supply of Milk-cows on a hire-purchase system, supply of cheap fodder, care of dry cows, provision of Seed-bulls, supply of facilities for Dairy-farming &c. will be attended to by it. 0. Tlie Society will encounce the members to make their families self-serving and self-suficient in the matter of fool supply. Beciles the cultivation of paddy and tapioca, fruits ruil vegrables, milk, gliee, eggs, ani honey will be made by cach family for its own consumption as far as possibles ·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 77 7. The primary society will sent up quarterly or biennial report of progress to the Central Council and if t'ne Council find the progress not satisfactory, it will issue instructions to the District Agricultural Council to render active help to the primary society. The Central Council will issue only general instructions. The real supervisory authority over the primary societies will be the District Agricultural Council. It is the function of the District Council to render help and advice and to make the primary society work. Regional decentralisation and delegation of powers to the District Councils are necessary for constant and close supervision. 8. The Taluk Agricultural Union is useful for the purpose of consultation and mutual help. 9. The Taluk organisations will become necessary and useful only when a large number of societies come into existence. 10. The Taluk Co-operative Council and the District Co-operative Council will be able to coordinate the activities of the diferent branches of the movement in their respective areas. The help the different branches will be able to render one another will be considerable. 11. Industries should also be organised through rural and special societies. Cottage industries should be organised consistently with the availability of raw materials and other facilities. Supply of tools and small machines, raw materials, expert advice etc. can be attended to by the societies. Besides helping self-employment in their hones, Co-operative Workshops should also be established in rural and other areas to give employment to those who are not in a position to have home industries of their own. This will serve to give ·78 CHAPTER Xİ work to those who want primary employment or parttime employment. It should be possible also to organise special industries either as cottage industries or factory industries to supplement and support rural industries. Organisation, guidance, supervision and control will be similar to that of the Agricultural Section; the Central Industrial Council will be responsible for industrial progress. 12. In the same manner Fisheries Societies will be organised under the direction of the Central Fisheries Council. It is possible to form Societies of present Workers, Societies for Deep Sea Fishing, and also Societies for Refrigeration and Cold-Storage, Canning, Salting, Pickling, Smoking, Dessicating, Manufacturing Fish Oils, Fish Meals and Fertilizers. 13. Marketing within the area of a Taluk should be carried on by the Taluk Distributive Society. In order that the Distributive Societies might be strong and influential the entire Taluk area should be served only by one distributive society possessing multiple and specialised branches. Unless general marketing is in the hands of a consumers' organisation for a whole Taluk, the interests of all consumers may not be cheaply and adequately served. The society must be possessed of economic resources and must be capable of extending its services in all fields of supply throughout the area. It must have centralised management. Managers and Salesmen should be employed by the Board of Mangement only on furnishing sufficient security; and goods should be delivered to them at fixed prices so that the extent of their responsibility be definite. In stocking things for sale, preference should be given to things made within the State and every earnest attempt should ·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 79 be made to market such articles. Production and distri. bution in a Taluk should work harmoniously. All articles that are in demand in the localities should be stocked in the respective branches. Quality and and measurement should be guaranteed. Locally made articles should bear the stamp of the Taluk Society. Things exported should bear the stamp of the Wholesale Marketing Society. It is done in America and other countries. Ancient India used to do it. The stamp must be a guarantee of quality. All articles necessary for agricultural and industrial improvement should also be supplied by these societies either directly or through the primary producers' societies concerned. Existence of a Taluk Society should not prevent the producers of any locality from conducting their own stores for the sale of their products. But they should not sell anything other than their own products. There should be no competition between co-operators. Cutthroat competition by importers of foreign articles which would have the effect of ruining local industries should be checked by the introduction of the system of licenses. For example, locally woven cloth when sold at reasonable prices either by the Taluk Distributive Society or by the Co-operative Society of Weavers should not be allowed to be driven out of the market by the Japanese cloth selling at a cheaper rate. The interests of the consumers should also be safeguarded by not giving to the local producers or their agents any monopoly within any specified region. So long as there is a reasonable guarantee that the consumers will get the locally made article at a reasonable price the producers deserve support from the State and the public. In some cases, in the interests of our industries, the monopoly right of purchasing and selling certain articles which compete with such industries should be given to the Co-operative ·80 CHAPTER XI Distributive Societies. The Taluk Distributive Society may give an agency to run a branch to any Co-operative Society within a given area. 14. It should be open to the Taluk Distributive Society to help or organise production in its area. In organising production, there should be no occasion for competition with any producers' society. By giving yarn and purchasing cloth of specified standards, it is possible for Taluk Societies to encourage and help weaving. They can do the same thing in respect of several articles. A Taluk Distributive Society will grow into a strong body and it should take up organising production for the consumption of its members. Consumer's Wholesale Society of England own Tea Estates in Assam and in South India. The Taluk Society and its branches may give paddy to women for pounding and the pounded rice be sold. The branches may serve as collecting depols and articles so collected may be sent to other branches or other Distributive Societies. The purchases are to be made from members only. There is no reason why a person who wants to sell his articles to the society should not become a member and purchase things his family wants from the society. 15. The Travancore Wholesale Society should be constituted by the Taluk Societies. All articles that should be imported from outside for retail sale by the Taluk Societies and their branches sliould be purchased by this Society. All export of Travancore articles should also be done by this Society. It must have specially trained and competent men on its staff and as its agents outside the State. In the inatter of collecting things produced in the State, the Taluk Societies can act as their agents ordinațily. The wholesale Society may havę ·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 81 specialised branches for the export of cocoanut, coir pro. ducts, pepper, fish and, if necessary, tea, rubber and other things. It is the chief means of exporting the surplus products of the State and of coordinating the functions of the Taluk Distributive Societies. It must be loyally supported by the Distributive Societies, the public and the State. 16. The Financing Agency: The Financing agency should be the Travancore Co-operative Bank with branches throvghout the State. It must be a centralised institution separate from the Industrial and Commercial organisations. Independent Taluk and Urban Banks cannot serve the purpose we have in view. We want unity of organisation and concentration of management for our financing agency. The Economic systein that we should develop is an indivisible whole, and financing is a section of the system. If that section does not work efficiently, speedily and in complete harmony with the other branches, the whole system will stagnate or be at stand-still. A Centralised Bank will have greater stabi. lity and resources and can function under the control and direction of the Economic Development Board. The Bank should function as a department of the Board. The industrial and commercial activities of the movement depend on the credit made available to them, and so, the financial section should also be under the same control. 17. The State should invest a large part of its surplus funds, Sinking Funds, Savings Bank Deposits, Insurance Funds, Devaswam Funds and other similar funds in this Bank. If, instead of the present pensions system, the State would start a Provident Fund or if certain Government Departments start it, such funds ·82 CHAPTER XI should also be invested in this Bank. There is already a State Provident Fund instituted for the purpose of providing facilities for Government servants to invest a portion of their pay every month to accumulate at compound interest and thus form an asset at the time of their retirement. At the end of the last year the balance of deposits under Savings Bank business was Rs. 189:57 lakhs; the State Provident Fund stood at Rs. 5,05,823; the funds of the State Life Insurance scheine amounted to Rs. 1,18,274. The Government should make a lump sum grant at the start and give annual grants. Government may loan money to the Bank at a low rate of interest and also without interest. If necessary, the Government should raise loans at a low rate of interest and give to the Bank as loans. The Bank should be entitled to receive deposits. The Bank may issue bonds with guarantee. It may carry interest at a low rate. The Bank should have an Insurance Branch and the funds may be utilised for financing the productive and marketing branches. As one of the main aims of the Co-operative movement is the abolition of unearned incomes, the profits of the Bank should accumulate to more and more stimulate industrial and commercial activities. Loans and bonds may carry interest, but there should be no distribution of dividends. 18. Every Co-operative Society should be a member of the Bank and there should be no individuals as members. 19. The primary function of the Bank shall be the financing of the productive and commercial societies. If it is possible, without prejudice to this primary function, at a later stage of the movement the Bank may take up certain functions of ordinary banking in order to function as the banking agents of the Co-operators.

·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 83 With the development of the Insurance branch, it will, in course of time, become possible to give to Co-operators who have joined the Insurance Scheme short or even long term loans for purposes other than productive, viz., for house-building, to discharge debts etc. Except as stated here the Bank should not lend money to individuals. Lending money to individuals for productive purposes should be done by the primary productive societies. 20. Primary Productive Societies, Rural and Special, and the Taluk Distributive Societies may perform some banking functions for the benefit of their members. They may be authorised to receive deposits which will be a source of relief to the Bank. 21. Co-operative insurance of all descriptions may be conducted by the Bank. A scheme of Social Insurance should also be started by the Co-operative Bank. The Co-operative Insurance Scheme should be such as to reach all classes of people, especially the poor. This Insurance Scheme should enable the insured to get loans for proper purposes-certified as proper by his society, viz., constructing a building, planting his land, marriage of a son or daughter with provision-on sufficient security. 22. The Co-operative Bank may conduct chitties, as it is a popular form of insurance among the people of the State. The State which has started an Insurance Scheme should develop it so as to embrace all forms of insurance activites. Elforts should be made to render it popular. Its development will to some extent stem the tiow of liquid money from within the State. The Com cperative Societies can function as agents in regard to the State Insurance Scheme.

·84 CHAPTER XII 23. Regarding existing Co-operative Societies, provision should be made to enable them to change their constitutions and to fall into line with the new scheme and become part thereof. Some may merge into the Co-operative Bank, others into the Taluk Distributive Societies, while others may become Agricultural or Industrial Societies. The rights and liabilities of the credit societies will be assigned in favour of the Travancore Co-operative Bank. They should be afforded ample facilities and time to do so. For sometime to come, a number of the existing societies may continue to function as at present. Vested interests have grown up and it will be a waste of time to come into conflict with them. They should be handled with delicacy and care. CHAPTER XII VILLAGE ORGANISATION Any scheme of Rural Reconstruction involves the process of effecting a change in the Standard of life and Outlook on life among the Rural population. It should create above all an active desire for economic independence. Our earnest effort should be to create a 'New Rural Civilisation'. RURAL RECONSTRUCTION 1. The word 'Rural' has an inseperable agricultural idea connected with it, and legitimately used, it applius to an agricultural region or population. This does not necessarily mean that the people of any rural area are ·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 85 purposes of all engaged in agriculture. A rural area, for of rural reconstruction, should be a well-defined and wellrecognised extent of agricultural area with a population group readily capaple of co-operating in community life. The words community and communal are here used to indicate the entire population of a defined area, irrespective of caste, creed or class. 2. Efficient conduct of the business affairs and the organisation of community life of a rural area depend upon the maintenance of a rural centre from which should radiate all activities carried on for the advance. ment of the particular area. Creation of a village centre where business activities, social activities and administrative activities are concentrated should be an essential foundation of rural reconstruction. It must be the life centre of that area. In physical phenomena, we find that every living unit has its life centre. So a social organism too should have its life centre, if it should be a living organism. By the rural centre is not meant a mere place or building, but the spirit, the fountain-head of all community life, the corporate personality formed by the village leaders. It must be something like the electric power-house. The enlightened vision and creative enthusiasm of this central group should be communicated to the entire community, 3. The community functions of a rural area may be divided into three groups: (1) Governmental, (2) Social and (3) Economic. In order that Government might function locally, the rural community should be organised as a Governmental unit. Administrative and Social service activities of the State may be delegated, so far as may be, to the elected representatives of the community so that such functions might be caried on ·86 CHAPTER XII in accordance with the views, sentiments and demands of the entire community. The important social functions of the village may be said to be (1) General and Technical Education, including Adult Education, (2) Village Planning and Beautification, (3) Public Health and Sanitation, (4) Aesthetic and Recreational Activities and (5) Home-inaking. The economic activities may be divided under six heads: (1) Scientific Agriculture, Fisheries and Animal Husbandry, (2) Cottage and Common Workshop Industries, (3) Distribution of Supplies, (4) Marketing of Surplus Products, (5) Supply of Credit and (6) Transport Facilities. 4. Fortunately for Travancore there is already a piece of comprehensive legislation which has only to be brought into effect to start work for ruraladvancement. The Travancore Village Panchayat Regulation (VII of 100) was intended to foster and develop all-round village life. In introducing the Bill, the official member in charge of it said, “The object of the Government is to start Self- Government from the very bottom, viz., from the village itself, in other words, to make the village a vital part in the system of Government.... It will certainly make the villagers self-reliant and influential and imbued with a high sense of responsibility." The Governmental and social functions can readily be carried on by the Village Panchayats. Though there is provision in the Regulation enabling the Village Panchayat to look after the improvement of agriculture and the promotion and encouragement of cottage industries, the economic functions can successfully be carried out only through cooperative societies. Self-supporting co-operative societies enjoying temporary financial help through its banking agencies and expert advice and guidance of the State ·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 87 will be able to 'bring about the economic regeneration of the rural areas. Isolated individual efforts can achieve nothing on behalf of the masses. A feling of community interest and organisation of collective activities can alone give us real improvement. 5. The Village Organisation has a very important part to play in any system of Socio-economic Reconstruction in India. The Village Panchayats Regulation of Travancore mentioned above passed 12 years ago is a liberal and compreliensive scheme which has not been brought into force except in respect of one or two nominal functions in six or seven villages. There is provision in the Regulation to empower the Panchayat to discharge all duties pertaining to the improvement of the village. They comprise among others construction and maintenance of village communications, supply of water for drinking and bathing, primary education, minor irrigation, improvement of agriculture, encouragement of cottage industries, enforcement of sanitation and the relief of the poor and the sick, exercising Civil Jurisdiction in certain Small Cause Suits and Crimlnal Jurisdiction regarding certain minor offences. There is also provision to entrust the Panchayat with other measures of public utility calculated to promote the safety, health comfort or convenience of the villagers and the transfer to the Panchayat the management of any institution or work within the village. After dealing generally and specifically with such duties and functions, there is still a further provision giving power to the Government to add to the functions of the Panchayat. 6. The Village Panchayats should work through committees. I suggest that the Village Panchayat should ·CHAPTER XII elect not less than five separate Committees to look after its duties, Viz., (I) The committee of General Management, (2) The Health Committee, (3) The Education and Propaganda Committee, (4) The Judicial Committee and (5) The Economic Improvement Committee. 7. Functions of the various Committees: (a) The Committee of General administration should look after finance, collection of taxes, rates and fines, preparation of the Panchayat budget, accounting, statistics. housing of schools, dispensaries and other common institutions, construction and maintenance of communication drainage and irrigation, maintenance of the sick and helpless and other items not specifically entrusled to other committees. (b) The Health Cominittee should attend to the working of the dispensaries, hospitals and sanitary institutions including vaccination, veterinary treatment and innoculation against contagious diseases, welfare work for women and children, medical inspection of school children, sanitary inspection of the rural area, village lighting, conducting health propaganda and imparting instruction as to cheap and nutritious food. (c) The Education and Propaganda Committee should manage the primary, technical and other schools, reading rooms and libraries and attend to the supply of food, clothing and books to poor children. It must provide for physical culture and the teaching of music, drama and other aesthetic subjects and provide demonstration etc. This committee should also conduct Rural Uplift propaganda through lectures, pamphlets, posters, songs, dramas, magic-lantern, radio, cinema, talkies etc. (d) The Judicial committee will exercise the civil and criminal jurisdiction granted to the Panchayat. (e) The Economic ·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 89 Improvement Committee: The economic improvement of the village area should be achieved through the cooperative societies described in a previous chapter. But such societies should be organised and helped by this economic improvement committee. This committee should function as a sort of connecting link between the agricultural, industrial, marketing and other societies in the village. The committee should only help and advise and not control the co-operative societies. The committee may complain to the District or Centre Councils if the rural societies do not adequately help the villagers. It should be responsible for the economic survey of the village which should include suggestions for improvement, maintenance of lists of the employed and the unenployed, of the skilled and unskilled labour, finding employment for the unemployed either inside or outside the village and the supply of information regarding such matters. 8. Though the Regulation does not contemplate the meeting of the villagers except for electing the Panchayat, the villagers may constitute themselves into an assembly, meet often and discuss questions relating to the progress of the village. A RURAL TRAINING CENTRE One of the most important items that should engage our attention is the establishment of a Rural Training Centre. In that centre, we have to provide for the teaching of the following subjects, viz., Rural Economics including Rural Survey and Statistics; Co-operation including Co-operative Marketing ; Account-keeping, Correspondence and Office-work; a practical course of Elementary Agriculture including Irrigation; a course of ·90 CHAPTER XII Industrial Training in various kinds of cottage industries for which there is scope in the State; Elementary lessons in Veterinary Science, Cattle-breeding, Dairy Farming, Poultry-Farming; Public Health, Hygiene and Sanitation both rural and domestic; First aid, Child Welfare, Domestic Science; Propaganda work including entertainments; Conducting Reading Rooms and Li. braries; Physical Culture, Scouting; and Civics. Syllabus for each subject has to be carefully drawn up. Domestic Science and Child Welfare are the special subjects for women. Every pupil for training should learn at least a few itens of cottage industries. But the training centre should provide for the teaching of a large number of them. For the cultivation of paddy, sugarcane and other crops connected with agricultural eduction in the training centre, it is quite possible to take land on improvement leases. There should be a Vernacular School where the education given is one that would suit rural conditions and would contribute to the development of village life on proper lines. Besides the regular course of training indicated above, provision may be made for special courses in some of the subjects for the benefit of agriculturists, cooperators and others; and such courses may extend only to short periods as the nature of the teaching demands. Those trained at the centre may besides being appointed as Village Guides, may be appointed in Vernacular Schools, Co-operative Department, Co-operative Banks and Societies, Agricultural or Induistrial Departments. Let the provision we make be comprehensive and adequate so that it might form a strong and reliable foundation on which we could rear up our Rural Reconstruction Edifice.

·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 91 VILLAGE PLANNING AND BEAUTIFICATION In order to lead real lives, we have to consider values other than that of money. They give us enjoyment, delight and happiness which money alone cannot give. There is need for the cultivation of new ideals and values of beauty. We have lost a good deal of our artistic tastes and love of beauty. We have to recover them, but their reappearance should be appropriate to our new conditions. We want planning in rural areas no less than in towns and cities. In rural areas too, we want open spaces, trees, and avenues, broad roads free from dust, gardens and parks, bathing ghats and undirtied rivers and streams. We want the premises of schools, temples, churches and mosques and even market places kept neat and attractive. Schools and religious institutions should insist upon personal and communal cleanliness and provide facilities for their maintenance. Every village, every pathway and every house should be kept clear. Children should be taught to be tidy. Every house should learn the art of making cheap soap. The villagers should beautify the village centre wliere they often meet. As in the case of cities where slums and dirty places are converted into attractive gardens, so should the unclean spots of rural parts be changed into common gardens. Rural areas also are entitled to public utilities, such as good water, light and drainage. The village leaders or social workers may arrange for periodic clean-up campaigns and community-beautifying campaigns. In many villages a tree-planting and gardening campaign may also be organised. White-washing and repairing houses, cleaning and painting furniture etc.

·92 CHAPTER XII may be done with greater zeal and better knowledge than of old before Onam or Christmas. The school children, if enlisted, will work with enthusiasm in cleanup and community-beautifying campaigns. HOME-MAKING Home-making is treated here as a community social function, though it has much to do with economic liſe. Homes are the primary social units of which the large unit of the rural community is made up. Our economic improvement should contribute sufficient means to maintain a fairly satisfactory standard. In a rural community it is the family rather than the individual that forms the unit for all activities. The women of Kerala were noted for home-making, though many tarwads or houses consisted of numerous members or a number of families. One of the attractions of a place is in the comforts and conveniences found in the houses there. If an educated youth should remain in the village and contribute for its aplift, he must find both social and domestic life attractive in that area. A good deal of drudgery and wastage can be avoided by women, if they improve their kitchens. and methods of cooking. Preparations of certain kinds of food, pickles, vattals etc., kitchen-gardening, poultryfarining and cow-keeping will help proper house-keeping. A knowledge of elementary laundary, making and mending clothes, especially children's cloths, will also benefit them. There are still many old women who store up for the year necessary articles in their due seasons and seldom depend on shops for their purchases. Community-beautification is also intimately connected with home-beautification. Women with general education can form associations of women and inculcate practical ideals relating to home-making.

·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 93 AESTHETIC AND RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES For the development of the finer emotions of man his aesthetic sense should be developed. The Rural life organised in any area should afford facilities for the enjoyment and development of the artistic side of the people of that locality. Music, dancing, drama, ottam. thallals, kadhakalies, talkies and cinemas can be easily organised in any rural part of Travancore. There are several forms of old dancing still prevalent not only for women, bąt also for men. They may be improved and made more attractive. These may be taught in schools and children will like them immensely. Festivals in temples are always accompanied by the exhibition of all forms of art. The sculptural works in temples, whether in granite, bronze or wood and ornamental paintings have in olden days encouraged and appealed to the artistic sense of man. Wood-carving was so well developed and so common that many old houses and articles of furniture therein such as wooden cots, boxes etc., still reveal the artistic side of ancient Kerala culture. There is much scope for the development of art in house-building, furniture-making, house-decoration etc. Development of the artistic side of life will make rural life really attractive and delightful. With the object of fostering the artistic taste of his people H. H. the Maharaja has recently opened a State Art Gallery, known as Sri Chithralaya, in the Capital of the State, which contains a good collection of many rare and beautiful specimens of Indian Art. With the advancement in vernacular education, literary art in Malayalam is developing extensively. Physical culture and community recreation had developed to a high degree of perfection in ancient ·94 CHAPTER XII Kerala. Gymnasiums, known as Kalarees, were common throughout the land. The old system of physical culture which gives more lasting health and strength than the present system should be revived. Besides giving health and physical strength, it used to give grace of body and bodily movements and mental courage. Temple festivals and communal festivals like Onam always afforded the occasion for recreational competitions and exhibitions of physical prowess and disciplined training, All work and no play will make a rural community a dull place to live in. Rural recreation should develop harmoniously with other rural activities. After a hard day's serious work, recreation will contribute to the joy of life. Recreation should be arranged through schools, clubs and other associations not only for children but also for men and women. It is the rapidly ageing person who is in greater need of being "re-created" than the growing child. Group games bring people together. People who play well together will also work well together. A good deal of what has been said here about rural life would apply also to urban life. The economic advancement has already been dealt with in the general scheme. Education and public health will be dealt with in the next two chapters.

·CHAPTER XIII EDUCATION Education should aim at the development of the individual personality of the student. It should also aim at the equipment of the pupil for some special work in the community. The present system of education is unrelated to actual life. It has little connection with the activities of life. Stuffing a student's mind with knowledge of out-of-date subject matter which is of little use to him is the old traditional method which should soon be discarded. As people want to do things so that they may live and thrive in the modern world, adoption or continuation of the medieval system is unsuited to such conditions and unprofitable to the student and the conmunity at large. The State should not be content with creating scholarship or culture in a few or merely promoting general literacy. It must also aim at the practical effect of contributing to the material comfort of the community. An important result to be aimed at by education itself must be the increase of the wealth of the community on which is based its general welfare; though economic reform is not an end in itself, it is an indispensable means of attaining the social end. We should awaken more and more the mind of the pupil, develop his capacity to think accurately and examine all information critically. In teaching, the student must be made to feel that his work is for his spon. taneous expression. It should also teach him to use his liesure properly, Aesthetic culture is indispensable for true enjoyment and mental and emotional awakening:

·96 CHAPTER XIII Philosophy too is needed for a proper mental and emotional equipoise and as an antidote to dogmatic science. Education should include the development of the capacity to organise and live successfully under modern conditions. Education should also teach him how to maintain his full bodily health and activity. We should also teach him the principles of co-operation and such other social subjects so that, when he comes out as a citizen, he may bring with him in his contact with life a responsive mental attitude and instructional equipment which would help the work of progressive reconstruction of society. There are now in India many short-sighted men who regard higher education either as a luxury or an extravagance. They advocate the imposition of greater and prohibitive restrictions on higher education. They appear to be incapable of realising that, apart from its great cultural value which itself is not a matter of mean importance, higher education raises our standard of knowledge and equips or should equip us as a nation with the capacity of organisation to successfully withstand the growing competition of the highly organised modern nations. We must begin our elementry education on the kindergarten basis. We must introduce manual training even in the elementary classes. Life and education of children should become inter-related. Children should early imbibe a sense of the value and dignity of manual labour. Realistic education with a practical bias will help the development of the latent faculties and intelli. gence of the pupils. Practical education should continue throughout the school and college career. It will make students fractical-minded and develop their capacity ·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 97 for initiative and enterprise which are now so necessary for the successful life of individuals and the progress of the nation. Let us reorganize our educational system to meet also the requirements of our new plan of socioeconomic advancement, Technical Education: Apart from elementary schools and colleges, other educational institutions should be of three types: (1) Secondary schools with provision for technical and vocational training; in this type of schools cultural and scientific e lucation will occupy the primary place, while technical training will possess a secondary place. (2) Vernacular Middle Schools where cultural education will occupy but a secondary place, while technical education will take the primary and all-important place. (3) Technical and Technological Institutes. When a boy or girl withdraws or is eliminated from the first two, lie must get adonission in the Technical Institute. In some of the Technical Schools and workshops with training classes attached to them, students may be admitted without reference to their school education or literacy at all. There should be special short courses to those who are not regular students. In regard to techni. cal institutions and in regard to vocational teaching in secondary and middle schools there should be different groupings of technical studies as suited to different localities so that there might be variety and no unneces. sary overlapping or waste. Let us built up from bilou, We must devise a means of popularising practical education. Those who are le aral eligible for public se, vice by a successful course of secundary or mijlleschoud study should have one year's training in i technical institituie in order that they might be entiiled to get their eligibility certificates. If in some of the Western ·98 CHAPTER xit Countries Military training is compulsory, India's present eondition demands that her youth, at least a large majority of her youth, should have compulsory practical training in one or two technical subjects. Secondary education should be imparted through the Vernacular, English or Hindi being the Second Language. Technical Subjects: The following are some of the sujects which my be taught in the technical classes: agriculture, horticulture, bɔtany, gardening, forestry, making of fertilizers; tobacco cultivation and tobacco curing; animal husbandry, poultry-farming, apiculture; fishcuring; canning, bottling, salting, pickling, smoking and dessicating fish; refrigeration and cold storage of fish; manufacture of fish meal and fish fertilizers; fruit canning and making various kinds of food from fruits; making of confectionary and other kinds of food from flour and powders of arrowroot etc., purifying oils, making scented oils, perfumes and powders; manufacture of matches, soaps and candles; rayon industry; plantain fibre industry; making articles of canes, bamboos, reeds; making of mats, bags, hats etc. of screw pine and palmyra palm fibres and grass; coir matting and dyeing of coir yarn; weaving of gunny bags, other kinds of bags, canvas etc., with aloe fibre and other fibres; making of other articles like brushes; collection and sorting of minerals; carpentry, cabinet-making, manufacture of pencils, penholders, rulers, foot-rules; making "and repairing of tools, implements and small machinery; manufacture of toys, sandals, packing cases; manufacture of carts, motor-bus-bodies, etc., boat-building; painting, varnishing; enamelling, vulcanising; making of buttons, bangles, fountain-jens, nibs, plates, soap-boxes etc., making of different kinds of tiles and bricks, different ·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 99 kinds of pottery and stoneware and glazing them; carving on ivory, wood and horns; manufacture of varnishes, polishes, dyes; other chemical industies; spinning, weaving, dyeing, printing, warping, calendaring, etc, of cotton, silk, and wool; architecture, town planning; electric, civil, motor, railway, mechanical, irrigation, water-supply and drainage engineering; surveying, drawing; painting, music; printing, bookbinding, journalism; nutrition, public health, nursing; tanning and leather industry; cooking, home-keeping; sewing, tailoring, lacemaking, embroidery; shorthand, type-writing, book-keeping; banking; commercial correspondence, commercial geography, industrial geography; co-operative trade and marketing; other forms of co-operation; conducting economic and industrial surveys; transport problems. Research: We must aim at a high standard of efficiency, but not through costly machines. Technical education should be directed to the acquisition of ability to conserve and utilize all our natural and human resources. There should be facilities for research work in the Institute of Technology proposed to be soon started. There are several minor items of research and experiment which may be usefully tried at the important technical institutes. Research inust be directed to practical ends. There is very great scope for research with many things we get in this State. University: Travancore Government have resolved to start a University suited to the special needs and problems in education of the people of the State. It will be different from the existing type of Indian Universities. It will be a centre of scientific, technological, technical and intellectual study and research. Colleges of Technology, Engineering and Forestry will soon be brought into existence, ·100 CHAPTER XIII Travancore is educationally an advanced State. A large nu:nber of educated Travancoreans have found employ:nent outside the State. With the establishment of the Travancore University, the nunber of educated Travancoreans will be on the increase. Apart from the great service the university may render to the cause of higher education and economic advancement in the State, there is yet the question of when and to what extent a University belonging to an Indian State will receive adequate recongition outside its boundaries. In this connection it may be stated that one may look forward with optimism for the d:ly when education will be imparted in all the Indian Universities through the one coinmon language of Hindi-Hindustani with a common script partakings of the nature of shorthand script adopted for its utility, without historical or com. munal sentiment playing any part in the devising of such a script. The script sirould have a scientific and utilitarian basis. It should save time and energy and be adapted to the quick and natural motion of the hand. Adult Educution: People are gradually coming to realise that education is never finished and that to grow old is to lose the capacity to learn new things. If new things are to be learned and if the capacity to learn new things is to be utilized, opportunities and facilities to learn new things shoull be provided. The duty of making necessary provision therefor rests with the community and its educated section. In the case of adult education, it is not the teaching of the three R's that should be attended to. Whether the three R's are taught or not the main subjects of study for adult education should be current history, politics, art, literature, rural civics, etc. The grown-ups will find the study of these subjects ·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 101 interesting and their stu:ly will make them feel interesting in the life and activities that surround them. A course of lectures with demonstration or film show on dietetics and nutrition, kitchen gardening, keeping of cows, poultry-farming and similar other subjects suitable for the immediate improvement of the people in the rural areas will be of great use in building up a new social life. Both night and day schools, reading rooms and libraries shoull be starte:l in all villages for imparting education not only to adults, but also to the young who were obliged to leave school early in life. Women should have adequate facilities for self-improvement in all schemes of educational advancement. No CHAPTER XIV PUBLIC HEALTH & NUTRITION Public health: The safe-guar ling of public health is a community function. The responsibility for the health of a person is not always entirely his own business. Rural areas should pay attention to public cleanliness and health as much as the municipalities. The maintenance of proper sanitation and public health is a governmental duty. The Public Health Department of Travancore has a programme of work which consists of registration of vital statistics, control of communicable diseases, vaccination, plague control measures; malaria and filariasis ·102 CHAPTER XIV surveys and investigations as also mosquito and filariasis control, investigations in the Public Health Laboratory and manage.nent of Health Units. Health Unit Scheme is to be extended to five Taluks. The scheme aims at correct registration of births, deaths and communicable diseases; prompt control of communicable diseases by disinfection, vaccination, inoculation or isolation; improvement of drinking water supplies; construction of bore-hole latrines; prevention of acts of nuisance injurious to health; maternity and child welfare work; public health nursing; rural sanitation; medical inspection and treatment of school children; systematic health propaganda and the enlistment of active public sympathy and support for these activities. The proposal to form Health Committees in each village is calculated to make propaganda popular. Rural Sanitation is now attended to by the Conservancy Staf in important rural tracts. But this work can properly be done in all rural areas only with the functioning of the Village Panchayats assisted by the Public Health Department. Besides the teaching of personal and domestic cleanliness, people do stand in need of enlightenment on community cleanliness. Premises of Public Offices, streets, thoroughfares surrounding temples, public tanks and their premises, bathing ghats etc. should be made to be kept neat and people should be taught not to pollute such places. A satisfactory solution of the question of public health requires attention also on three very important subjects, viz., nutrition, supply of good drinking water and improvement of the economic condition of the people. The Administration Report for the last year says that in connection with water-supply in rural areas ·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 103 8 new wells were sunk, and 105 public wells were repaired and maintained by the Department of Public Health. Considering the vast areas in several parts of the State where good drinking water is not available, the problem requires a far inore extensive and thorough solution. NUTRITION Energy is supplied to the human body through certain kinds of foolitu fs. Certain other kinds play an important part in the physiological funciions of the body. A sufficiency of these should be present in their diet, if human beings should live and live well. The diet should possess adequate energy value to the individual in relation to his work, his proper growth, and prevention of certain diseases. Diet which will give health should have in it calcium, phosphate and iron contents. Quantitative food requirements are usually estimated in terms of heat units ---Calories. A high calorie intake is needed by growing children, pregnant and nursing women, athletic young men and those who perform heavy manual work. Laziness often indicates deficient nutrition. Physical condition can be improved by food, especially by what is known as protective food. Dr. Arkroyd, Director of Nutrition Research Laboratories, Conoor, in Health Bulletin No. 23, thus summarises dietetic principles: “Human beings, and particularly children cannot thrive at their best on a diet composed largely of cereals such as rice, millet, etc., and insufficiently suplemented by other foods. To make good the deficiencies of such a diet, they must consume fair quantities of foods like green vegetables, eggs, fruits, etc. These are sometimes known as the "protective" foods, since they are rich in proteins, vitamins and ·104 CHAPTER XIV mineral salts and protect the body againt the ills which result when the diet is largely based on less nutritious foods, such as milled rice. Cod Liver oil, which is very rich in vitamins A&D, may for present purposes be classed as a most valuable 'protective' food. In general, diets in India are defective, because they do not contain ‘protective' foods in sufficient abundance. Our aim, in public health and nutrition work in general and planning 'well-balanced diets, must be to increase the intake of 'protective' foods. The classes in the community which are particularly likely to sufer if their diet is defective are infants and growing children, and expectant and nursing mothers". About giving milk to children he says, "Careful experiments have shown that the giving of 8 ozs. of milk daily to children fed on an average ill-balanced Indian diet results in an acceleration of growth and a great improvement in health and wellbeing. Such an addition is not very costly". It is possible to induce people to take inore pulses, green leafy vegetables, vegetable oil and fruits. Pure ghee or butter, though preferable to vegetable fat, is very much dearer. There are two kinds of fish oil, sardine oil and sharkliver oil, which are as good as codliver oil in calorific value but can be obtained very cheap in Travancore. Cereals are poor in Travancore in vitamin contents and rice is the poorest of all cereals in this respect. "The outer layers of the grain are richer in protein than the inner starchy kernel, and when wheat and rice are highly milled, there is some loss of protein as well as of other valuable food factors, such as vitamins. and mineral salts." Indians can easily avoid using milled wheat and rice, aud by doing so, they can give employment in handpounding to a still larger number of women.

·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 105 These women should be instructed not to remove much of the bran from the grains. Kitchen garden, poultry, and the keeping, of cow, buffalo or pig can help our people considerably in solving the nutrition problem. Our medical men should become experts in dietetics and our teachers and students should be properly instructed in the subject. The Public Health Department should do extensive and active propaganda for the use of nutritious food. The educational institutions may specially be used for such propaganda. The Public Health Department should advise, among other things, that only parboiled and hand pounded rice from which bran has not been removed should be consumed and not milled rice. Russia has organised the Scientific Institute of Public Nutrition with about 400 specialists as members to solve the problem of the quality of the food. This new health movement concerns itself with food as contributing to the maintenance of health. The Institute has the following branches of dietetics: Childrens food, Vitamins, Technology, Cookery, Sanitation and Hygiene, Physiology and Bio-Chemistry and Dietetic treatment of diseases. Experiments are carried on to determine the appropriate kinds of food to different kinds of workers. Food "norms” have already been discovered for fifteen diferent kinds of labourers. It is a well-known fact that children receive the best attention in Soviet Russia. A child is treated differently from an adult as the former has to spend a good deal of energy in growing. Its food is regulated to compensate for the extra energy in growing thus expended. The Institute takes special responsibility in supplying food to the children. Every child gets one meal a day at school.

·I 06 CHAPTER XIV He gets as much milk as he wants. Pour children get the meal gratis while others pay according to the means of their parents. During season they also get fresh fruit everyday. The Department of dietetic healing is a special feature of the Institute. Moscow has a dietetic clinic with 125 beds for sufferers from stomach, kidney, 'heart and liver complaints, rheumatism, diabetes and other diseases. The patients' regimen consists of eating five small minutely worked out meals a day. Medicine is not usually given, but only when it is absolutely needed. The Medical and Public Health Departments should take interest in the question of peoples' diet and it will contribute to the improvement of public health more thoroughly and radically than many of the methods now adopted. The Department of Public Health in Travancore should have a Nutrition Branch and their health propaganda should include public education on nutrition. The Department should exercise some kind of guidance and control through local agencies over all public eating-houses and the sale of eatables and drink in public. This has to be done in the interest of public health.

·CHAPTER XV WOMEN, LABOUR AND HARIJANS Women: There are people who hold the view that it is not proper for women to work like man and that their business is only to get married and look after domestic duties. The conditions of modern world are such that women also should work either in the house or outside and earn a livelihood for herself or help in the maintenance of the household. Women are as much entitled to an economic exis- .tence as men. Labour is the source of all economic values. Those women, who have enjoyed the freedom of economic independence, dislike a life of idleness and dependence which the higher classes so assiduously foster and encourage in their women. It is only when the position of women is based on economic freedom, there can be real political, social and moral advancement to women as a class. There is already a nation-wide revolt among educated women against the injustice of assigning to her sex an inferior position in life. There are many reformers who wish to make the subordinate position of women as attractive as possible. But they are not able to perceive that complete equality of the sexes should be the very foundation of society. Law should establish complete equality of rights for men and women; and society should put this equality into practice. Where women are economicaly dependent on their husbands, they are in some cases treated very much like -slaves. Economic independence will improve the attitude of man towards woman. Law of marriage and divorce in certain systems should grant greater freedom ·108 CHAPTER XV to both man and woman. Marriage outside one's community should be allowed by law. Husband and wife separated in fact should be allowed freedom of divorce. In Travancore, so far as large sections of the Malayalees are concerned, women possess equal rights with men in joint family properties and inheritance. They freely compete with men in State service and in the learned professions. They have also great freedom in marriage and divorce. But still there are large sections of the people whose women do not enjoy any of the above rights and privileges. Women should have perfect freedom to cultivate their powers as they will. Development of the intellectual powers of women is as important as, nay, even more important than, the development of their physical health and beauty. It is the intellect that governs and not physical strength. Development of true character depends on true mental development. Education should be organised to suit the life women are destined to lead in society. But there should be no restriction to the kind of knowledge women should seek. A false social system has been fostering the idea that the function of woman is to please man. That system enjoins that her attainments should be such as to contribute to the pleasure of man, that she is to make a ceaseless effort to improve and retain her youth, health and beauty and that she is to develop a fondness for dress and ornaments. Woman should develop her artistic taste, improve her health and beauty and maintain a youthful outlook on life not to please man, but as virtues for their own values. Society has also a duty to maintain women who are unemployed and unprovided for.

·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 109 There is one function which nature has made exclusively feminine on which depends the very existence of human society. Italy, Germany and France are encouraging child-bearing for political and military reasons. Travancore not only cannot afford to encourage it, but may do propaganda work for its restriction. Still the fact remains that the function is an all-important one. Russia appears to have taken a correct view of this great function inasmuch as it treats childbearing as the performance of a public duty. Though it should be a voluntary, function on the part of woman and nobody, not even the husband, should have the right to impose it on her, still it has to be viewed as the discharge of a great public duty and protected by society as such. Child-bearing and child-care entail very great sacrifice on the part of women. Therefore, women should be entitled to medical care during pregnancy, admissson for confinement to a maternity hospital, three months leave of absence on ordinary salary or wages, medical supervision during confinement and even financial aid to those who are in need of it. There should be some agency to look after women in confinement and children who are not properly taken care of. The same humanitarian agency that looks after or should look after the old, the infirm and the disabled may be entrusted with the duty of looking after the helpless women and children. In a rural area, the Village Panchayat should shoulder the responsibility. 1 Inspite of the comparatively inferior position woman occupies in India, her influence for good or evil is as great as in other countries. Unless woman rise to her legitimate place as the comrade of man, equipped mentally, physically, morally and economically, she will operate as ·110 CHAPTER XV a drag on India's progress. She must be the chief person, to look after and manage the house, to beautify it, to bring up clean, healthy and bright children, attend to and encourage their education. It is for her to attend to the kitchen garden, the cow and the poultry, the preparation of nutritious and tasty food and the maintenance of the health of the household. The expression of the aesthetic taste of the family depends very much upon her. Maintenance of home, sweet home, depends on her. As the person in charge of domestic consumption, she can encourage the use of articles made within the State and within India; and by the practice of thrift prevent the incurring of debt. She must give up her fancy for ornaments and costly dress and wasteful celebration of ceremonies. She must be able to prevent evil habits being formed by the men and children of her family. She must get herself enlightened enough to discharge all these onerous duties. H. H. Maharani Setu Parvati Bayi, the mother of H. H.The Maharaja of Travancora, said, addressing a women's meeting at Madras, “Many outworn ideas regarding the adequacy of women in different fields of public service and the differentiation between man and woman as to guardianship, the holding of property and inheritance, have yielded place to new ideals by reason of open and triumphant demonstration of our fitness for responsibility." And as remarked by Her Highness the maintenance of one standard for men and a different standard for women in any direction of life or work should no longer exist in society. Labour: It is a sad fact that generally speaking labour is dissatisfied with its position in industry. Labour has no voice in the determination of conditions of employment as it has no part in the control of industry.

·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 111 Where the interests of labour conflict with those of employers, capitalists or consumers, there is no provision to give due consideration to the interests of labour. Labour is not allowed to have any share in the control of industry. A satisfactory solution of the problem, even in a society where a large part of industry is built upon a co-operative basis, can be founded only on the recognition of two principles. One is the recognition ot the right of labour to participate in the control of industry it is engaged in. The other is the need for providing a proper agency for equitably adjusting the interests of different classes, particularly of employer and labour where they clash. In the matter of control and management, representatives of employees should have a voice at least in an advisory capacity. But care should be taken that the interests of the public or the interests of the consumers are not prejudiced by the selfishness of labour or organised labour. Some form of collective organisation of labour of the particular factory, workshop, farm or society should be brought into existence to give expression to the views of the group. They should also form larger organisations, viz., trade unions, to safeguard their common interests. For the emancipation of labour, the principle of collective responsibllity may be tried within reasonable limits. It is sure to succeed in many cases, though not in all. In order that collective responsibility should succeed, the committee of management appointed by the employees should be composed of competent representatives. As labour improves in education and discipline, it will become more and more capable of undertaking collective responsibility. Liberty and responsibility will contribute to the improvement of labour. .

·112 CHAPTER XV In Travancore, generally speaking, workers are literat es. The producer should, in all cases, be treated with the respect due to the dignity of labour and the great part he plays in society. If workers could be made to feel that the the particular industry is the common property of the capitalists, employers and the workers and that it is conducted in their joint interests and the interests of the public, their attitude of dissatisfaction and hostility will disappear. Trade Unions of workers should be organised and law should compel the employers to recognise such Unions. When the employer and the representatives of labour in a particular industry cannot agree as to the conditions of labour, the questions in dispute should be referred to the District Conciliation Board where both labour and employers are equally represented. Such boards should have a permanent existence. Strikes can be prevented by referring to the Board all disputes which the employer and labour in a factory cannot settle among themselves. A Conciliation Board for the whole State may also be appointed to which an appeal may lie in matters of great importance. This Board may study conditions of labour and make suggestions periodically for the improvements to be effected in the conditions of the various classes of labour in different localities and districts. This Central Conciliation Board can suggest necessary legislation to protect labour and safeguard industry. Harijans: We must realise there is no inherent inferiority in race or community. Education and culture, economic prosperity and healthy social environment will improve all races and communities. The more backward a community is, the greater should be the care bestowed on their improvement. Communities socially advanced.

·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 113 should not grudge the special concessions, educational economic or social, granted to the members of the backward communities. Even an elementary knowledge of history will show that the advanced communities are responsible for the backwardness of certain unfortunate coinmunities; and the former should recognise that it is their duty to make up for their neglect or the agelong positive injury done to their unfortunate brothers and sisters. Fortunately for Travancore, the Temple Entry Proclamation has, at least in the eye of the law, established complete social equality between the communities. It will steadily pave the way for the brotherhood of creeds and the unity of communities. Caste Hindus and non- Hindus have yet to give practical effect to the spirit underlying the Proclamation in the larger social life including their domestic life. Concession granted by the Government to the Harijan students should be made available to them without undergoing difficulties and also from the very begin. ning of each school year. In the existing collegiate hostels, free accomodation should be granted to them. Free hostels, as the one now conducted by the Harijan Sevak Sangh, should be opened at a few more centres. Among Harijans both men and women are workers. In a large number of cases, the families are maintained more by the earnings made by women than those made by men as the latter spend a part of their wages in drink. Practical training in certain forms of scientific agricul. ture and in a few industries should be given free to both men and women. Agricultural labour, particularly in the cultivation of paddy, depend on them. Weaving of ·114 CHAPTER XV different kinds of mats also is largely in their hands. Coir-making and extraction of coir-fibre can be made popular among Harijan women. Pottery, smithy, carpentry, masonry, sawing, and similar other industries also can easily be introduced among them with some training and encouragement. By continued propaganda, they should be induced to give up the use of intoxicant liquour. Propaganda for sanitation and hygiene, for the use of wholesome and nutritious food and for habits of cleanliness, personal and domestic, should be carried on among them. Medical and maternity help should be made to reach these poor people. Supply of water for drinking and bathing and of burialgrounds are matters that should specially be attended to. Their recreational and artistic needs too cannot be ignored. So far as these needs can be supplied in a common community life, without any segregation, they should be so given. But in localities where their needs require special organisational attention, it should be given through the Protector of the Backward Classes or through reliable organisations working for Harijan uplift. Besides the manual labour they now get, the new cooperative societies to be started also will give them work. Self-employment either in agriculture or industry should also be encouraged among them by enlisting them as members of productive co-operative societies. In order that they might be induced to become members of these societies and also of the marketing societies they may be given special concessions in the matter of payment of subscriptions. 50 per cent of their subscriptions may be given on their behalf by the Government or societies working for their advancement. They should also be made to contribute for their general ·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 115 improvement and their merger into the larger community by the working of the new socio-economic scheme. Supply of land and houses for their residence is a matter that should be separately tackled. Concessional registry of land to them, though a beneficial scheme which the Government were trying to work out for the last twenty years, has not substantially benefited them. In densely populated places, where alone they can get work, it is not possible to find unregistered land. Registry.of land away from places where work is available is of no use to them. A very large part of the lands so registered are now in the occupation of well-to-do classes. For residential use land should be taken on long lease by co-operative societies formed for the purpose at places within or in the vicinity of towns or places where work is available. A part of the land should be set apart for common garden, common privies, common well and a common hall which may be used as a lecture hall, a reading room, etc. House sites, with a place for a flower garden in front and a place for a kitchen garden, a poultry, a cowshed or a pigshed at the back for each house, may be laid out. Bamboos and timber may be got free from the State Forests. The co-operative society should with the help of the labour of those for whose benefit the colony is to be established construct cheap houses. The members of the society should take the house and its premises from the Society and make their periodical contributions. If land is available for free registration within the radius of a few miles the society may get it registered on its behalf and engage a few families for its proper cultivation. To secure help for the upkeep of the poultry, the cow or the pigs, the beehive and the kitchen garden, the colonists should depend ·116 CHAPTER XV on the agricultural societies. Such concessions and or-- ganisations may be extended to all classes of landless labour so that they may not be at the mercy of landlords as at present. HILL TRIBES. Travancore has large classes of primitive tribesresiding chiefly within the Reserved Forests. The total population at the last Census was 128,838. Though those residing within the Reserved Forests are under the protection of the Conservator of Forests, they require better organisation and protection. They have left the salubrious heights of the hills and are now largely living in the malarial regions on the borders of the forest. Agriculture, industry, village organisation and other amenities of social life are not unknown to them. Harijan uplift or elevation of the backward communities should include the improvement of the economic and social conditions of these hill tribes also. THE OLD, THE INFIRM AND THE DESTITUTE Traditional habit of giving alms is still the means of support for a large class of people who are unable to maintain themselves. Large classes of able bodied beg. gars from within and outside the State also are being maintained in idleness by this habit of the people. There are but very few orphanages in the State. Η. Η. the Maharaja has endowed from his private purse a home for destitutes at the very commencement of his reign. The people are slow to copy the noble example of their generous Sovereign. Religious institutions, humanitarian societies and co-operative societies may maintain similar but cheap institutions. The Government may give them grants-in-aid. Societies and religious ·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 117 institutions which are unable to maintain such societies may give monthly donations to such humanitarian associations as are able and willing to maintain poor people who are unable to work for their livelihood. Such light work as they can do may be provided in the poor homes. Able bodied including the nomadic groups that often visit the State should be prevented by law from being a burden to the other people. CHAPTER XVI SCOPE INDICATED What is attempted in this chapter is to point out in a general and limited manner the scope for organising productive societies. A thorough regional survey will disclose great potentialities and possibilities. Agriculture: Co-operative agricultural societies can be formed everywhere. Through these societies better seeds, seedlings and plants and more suitable and better yielding varieties can be introduced; more land can be brought under cultivation; land nominally cultivated can be better cultivated; better attention can be given to manuring, bunding and irrigation; better yield can be obtained from all plants and trees; even our cocoanut trees can be made to give us double the present yield; in short, scientific agriculture can be made universal in the State. Selected areas in the High Ranges and in the Reserved Forests can be utilised for horticultural and ·118 CHAPTER XVI other planting enterprises. Useful and separate blocks may be set apart from the forest reserve and made available for cultivation in an approved form. Members of co-operative agricultural colonies who settle down in such areas should supplement their income, at any rate in the earlier stages, by cottage or workshop industries, cattle and poultry farming. Land may be leased out to societies for the growing of timber, fuel etc. Uncultivated lands of private owners may also be taken on lease for similar purposes by co-operative societies. tensive grassy plains of the reserved forest can be cultivated with the indigenous varieties of fodder grass and and plants and also Soya Beans, Napier grass, Guinea grass and Sudan grass. These may be cultivated by cooperative societies during the rainy seasons and kept in underground silos for subsequent use. Societies can be permitted to collect and sell any amount of green manure from the reserves. In farm yard gardens it is possible to cultivate, if helped by a society, several kinds of vegetables, plants, and vines yielding edible roots, fruits and green leaves. In the case of those who have no such gardens it is possible to have land taken on lease for a few families in common. It is possible to encourage a more extensive cultivation of banana, cashewnut, superior varieties of mango trees and plants. Cattle-Breeding: Farms for breeding high quality cows and bulls may be opened by societies in a few places close to or within the forest regions where pasturage is available and the climate is dry. Calves and heifers may be got down from Sindh, Hissar and Nellore and bred in those farms and sold to those who want them. It is possible and necessary to start a large number of spcieties for the maintenance of dry cows; a few seed ·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 119 bulls should be maintained in such centres. In all places only selected and certified bulls alone should be allowed to cover cows and the low variety now used for mating should be castrated. Dairy farms may be opened by societies in the neighbourhood of towns and densely populated areas. Such societies may supply cows on a hire-purchase system, may sell grass, hay, oil cakes and other kinds of cattle food to the members who own cows or buffaloes; and inay market their milk and butter. Such farms may maintain a few cows and bulls in common and have necessary machinery for making dairy products. Farming of buffaloes, goats, pigs and poultry may also be encouraged by starting a number of specialised farms. People should be encouraged to use their farm products as food for members of their families and market only the surplus. Agriculture can be made popular. The people should also be taught the food-value of honey. Fisheries: Societies concerned with fishing and other fisheries industries may be started in villages on the sea coast and in those by the side of the backwaters. A few societies may be formed for deep sea fishing. A large number of societies may be formed of those engaged in coastal and inland fishing. They may secure better boats and more durable nets; and have experts to advise them. Societies may also be formed connected with fisheries industries, such as pickling, smoking, salting, canning, cold storage and refrigeration of fish, manufacture and refinement of fish oil, making of fish meal and manufacture of glue, isinglass, iodine etc. Industries: Societies for copra-making, oil pressing, coir-making, and manufacture of coir-mattings may be formed in all centres of cocoanut cultivation. In the ·120 CHAPTER XVI interior parts of the State where water facilities are absent for the soaking of coconut husk it is burnt as fuel. This waste of valuable raw material can be prevented by societies carting the husk to other places or by teaching the people of the interior parts to make coir by retting unsoaked husk. Mr. S. R. K. Menon, M. A. of Paroor in North Travancore has discovered a method of making all grades of paper from raw husk of the cocoanut. It is an industry with great possibilities. Societies of persons engaged in oil-pressing through country ghanies from oil-seeds like maravotti, punnai, gingelly etc, may be started in several places. Societies for making lemon grass oil may be started at Kallar and other valleys of Nedumangad Taluk, at Chunakkara Nooranad, and Thamarakulam in Mavelikkara Taluk and in several places in Thodupuzha, Kunnathunad, Thiruvalla, Kottayam and Paroor Taluks. Only the method of purifying the oil should be taught. Cashew oil extracted from shells, if advertised, will be of commercial value. Societies for drying, slicing, powdering and spicing of arecanut may be formed in the taluks of Nedumangad Chirayinkizh, Thiruvella, Karunagapally, Pathanapurom, Paroor, Neyyattinkara and Kalkulam. Societies for the preparation of flour from tapioca, arrowroot, yams, banana and other plants may be started in many places. Biscuits, tonic foods, foods of children and invalids may be made by some of these societies. Fruit canning can be taken up by some. Jams, jellies, fruit salads, dried pulp etc. may be made of pine apple, mangoes, papaya, and other fruits. Societies for the collection, shelling and blanching of cashewnuts and. packing them in tins under vacuum or carbon dioxide.

·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 121 can be started in many places; for example, in Vilavankode, Neyyattinkara, Nedumangad, Chirayinkizh, Quilon, Karu nagapally, and Shertalai Taluks. Societies associated with sugar-cane cultivation and the preparation of jaggery, molasses and sugar from sugar cane may be established in Nanjinad in South Travancore, and in some of the taluks in North and Central Travancore. Societies for the making of jaggery and tonic drinks from cocoanut may be organised in many places.** Societies for making good jaggery from palmyra may be formed in Shencotta and in South Travancore. Societies for making scented oils, soaps and candles from cocoanut oil may be started at Trivandrum, Kottayam, Mavelikkara, Thiruvalla, Alleppy and Shertalai. One or two societies for making mattresses may be orga nised in Mavelikkara Taluk where kapok cotton for stuffi ng pillows and mattresses is abundantly produced. The seeds yield valuable oil for soaps and other commercial products. A large number of societies may be formed for the preparation and sale of compost, farm yard, chemical and other nianures- Societies for the making of different kinds of mats, bags, baskets, hats etc. from screw pine and grass may be formed in the Taluks of Karunagapally, Karthikapally, Ambalapuzha, Vaikom, Shertalai, Thiruvalla and Mavelikkara. Gunny bags and other kinds of bags, canvas, twine, ropes, belting etc. may be made of Kyvan fibre in the eastern parts of Trivandrum and neighbouring Taluks and also in Shenkotta Taluk. Cables, cordages, brushes, hats etc. may be made of Palmyra fibres in all the southern taluksand of Kitul fibre from Sagu Palm of Meenachil and Vilavancode Taluks. Baskets, fans and match ·122 CHAPTER XVI boxes may be made of Palmyra leaves. Mats, baskets; tables and chairs may be made of bamboo, areta and Feeds in the taluks of North Travancore and the eastera taluks of Central Travancore. Various kinds of Rattan articles may be made in the same taluks and also in the Taluks of Trivandrum and Chirayinkizh. The Travancre forests produce varieties of fibre and their industrial utilisation can be easily discovered. Paper may be manufactured in a few places in North Travancore and eastern parts of Central Travancore from bamboo, reeds and soft wood available in those regions. Cotton spinning and the making of fishermen's nets, mosquito curtains, Badmintion and Tennis nets may be organised in the cotton growing Taluks of Shenkotlah, Agasteeswaram and Thovala. There are over 500 women engaged in cotton spinning in South Travancore working under the All India Spinners' Association. Handloom weavers societies may be organised at Vadasseri and Kottar in Agasteeswaram Talak, Neyyoor, Eraniel and Palliadi in Kalkulam Taluk, Malayinkizh, Neyyattinkara and Balaramapuram in Neyyattinkara Taluk, Unnavilakadai, Nattalam and Palliyar in Vilavancode Taluk, Kulathoor in Trivandrum Taluk, Kadakkavoor, Vakkom, Kaikara and Attingal in Chirayinkizh Taluk, Chavara, Karunagappally and Thevalakkara in Karunagapally Taluk, Vallikunnam, Kannamangalam, Thazhakara and Chennithalai in Mavelikkara Taluk, Thalavadi in Ambalapuzha Taluk, Shertalai, Aroor and Thoravoor in Shertalai Taluk and Pallikal and Mannadi in Kunnathoor Taluk. Gold and Silver lace and silk are made in Vadasseri and Kottar near Nagercoil. When Rayon industry is started near Alwaye as a cottage industry those engaged in it may be organised on a co-operative basis. Plantain fibre is wasted in all places, but ·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 123 can people can be taught to make cloths out of its A large number of co-operative societies be organised of those engaged in and to be induced to engage in industries associated with various kinds of fibres. Embrodiery and lace-making are conducted by Christian women under the auspices of the L. M. S. and other Christian Missionary Societies and also by those taught in the Government institutes. There is scope for organising co-operative societies of embroidery and lace makers in the towns of Trivandrum, Alleppey, Quilon, Kottayam and Nagercoil and Mulagumoodu, Colachel and Neyyoor villages in Kalculam Taluk, Pazhukkal in Vilavancode Taluk, Parassalai in Neyyattinkarai Taluk, Agasteewaram, Cape Comorin, Parakka and Theroor in Agasteewaram Taluk. Societies for the making of various kinds of dyes from suppan wood and indigo and other plants may be organised in Kunnathunad, Agasteewaram and Mavelikkara Taluks.' Societies may also make varnishes from black-dammer and whitedammer to be had from the forests and from pine resin obtainable in the Mavelikkara and other Taluks; also the same societies can make scents and perfumes. More than 33 varieties of soft wood are obtainable in Travancore and societies for the making of pencils, penholders, woodentoys etc. may be organised at Trivandrum and Vaikom and in Arumanalloor and other villages in Agasteeswarain Taluk and also in some places in Kunnathunad and Mavelikarai Taluks, Graphite also is available in some of these places. Societies for carving of wood, horns and ivory may be organised notably at Trivandrum and Mavelikkarai. We can have societies for making buttons and bangles from shank shells in Cape Comorin and other costal places in Agasteeswaram Taluk, ·124 CHAPTER XVI buttons, safety-pins, combs, etc. from ivory nuts available in Kunnathunad Taluk. Societies for conducting tanneries and leather-works may be organised at Alwaye, Trivandrum, Nagercoil, Quilon, Changanassery and Chengannoor as hides and skins and tanning materials are available in these places. Co-operative societies for the manfacture of salt and also for the making of valuable chemicals and manures obtainable from the waste liquor of the salt-pans after the extraction of salt may organised in Kalkulam and Agasteeswaram Taluks. Societies which could organise both factory or cottage industries or both for the making of different kinds of tiles, potteries, drainage and irrigation pipes, blanco, clay toys, jars, etc. may be organised in places where clay is available; some of the places are shores of the Ashtamudi Lake; Thazhakkara, Thamarakulam, and Pandalam in Mavelikkara Taluk; Neyoor, Colachel and other places in Kalkulam Taluk; Thrikakara, Parakadavu, and Varapuzha in North Travancore and also in different places in the Taluks of Chirayinkizh, Thiruvella, Nedumangad, Kottayam, Thodupuzha and Moovattupuzha. Societies for printing and publishing, book-binding and note-book making may be organised in all important educational centres. Societies of persons engaged in making cutlery and othar iron articles may be organised in the Taluks of Vilavancode Neyyattinkara, Chirayinkizh, Mavelikkara and Quilon. Culinary articles of iron are made at Shencotta. Agricultural tools, carts, etc. may be made in places where wood is cheap. Buat building societies may be formed at Vaikom, Ambalapuzha, Quilon, Alwaye, Perumpavoor, Coengannoor and Kottayam. Societies of those engaged in cabinet-making may be brought into existence in ·THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION 125 the towns of Trivandrum, Kottayam, Mavelikkara, and in the Taluks of Kunnathur, Pathanamthitta, Paroor, Kalkulam and Vilavancode. Societies of Beedi makers may be organised at Alleppey, Changanasseri, Quilon, Trivandrum, Nagercoil, Thiruvancode and other places. Societies of those engaged in making articles of brass, bronze and copper may be organised in the towns of Trivandrum, Quilon, Changanasseri, Mavelikkarai, Kottar and Edappalli and in Karunagappally and Minagapally in Karunagapally Taluk, Mannar in Thiruvella Taluk, Vada. yar in Vaikom Taluk and Arakulam in Moovattupuzha Taluk. Societies of gold and silver smiths may be organised in all the important towns. Societies of those engaged in body-building for motor cars and buses and of those engaged in repairing motor cars and buses may be organised in important centres of motor traffic. Societies that can take up business connected with electric wares and fittings and water-supply and sanitary fittings may be organised in Nagercoil, Trivandrum, Quilon, Alleppey, Kottayam, Alwaye and other places. Societies of contractors to make buildings, bridges, roads etc. may be formed in all towns. Societies of those employed in sewing and tailoring can be had in all well populated centres.

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