LOANS

Government Loans

From 1847 up to 1905-06 a sum of about 21/2 lakhs had been advance under the Land Important Loans Act, but of this about 11/2 lakhs were given out in the famine 0f 1899-00 and Rs.4000 in the famine of 1896-97. Previous to this latter date the amount advanced are insignificant, while in the five years since1901 they have averaged about Rs.5000 annually. Improvements are mainly in the nature of the construction of embankments on sloping land, the sinking of wells and the building of tank in the rice tracts. During the 15 years ending 1904 a total of 216 sanads or certificates were issued for works of Improvement. Os these 98 were given for the construction of wells, 15 for tanks and 103 for embankments, and the total may be said to constitute a very good record for a period of 15 years. There total cost is stated to be Rs.92, 000, but this is probably an under estimate, including only actual outlay, while nothing is shown for supervision or for work done by the proprietors own servants. And there were no doubt other improvements for which certificates were not given such as a small work costing less than Rs.50 and maintenance and repairs. During the 30 years settlement, the sums expended on improvements for the first fifteen years, 1864 to 1880, came to Rs. 1.18 lakhs, thus showing the substantial advance during the later period of the settlement. Mr. Craddock remarks on this subject: It is commonly said that the shortening of the term of the settlement must operate to reduce the improvements. I do not share this view. I believe that stability of tenure is the essential feature, and, for the rest, the enterprise of the individual determining factor. I do not see any improvements in the villages. Held on perpetual muăfi, or in villages purchased free of revenue, which cannot be matched or surpassed in malguzari villages. Indeed the improvements in the former are singularly few. Ensure a man possession, protect him for arbitrary, distinguished from reasonable enhancement of his rent, and weather he improves his land or not will be determined solely by his personal characteristics and the custom of his neighborhood. Moreover by granting sands for improvements, and exempting them from assessment, we are removing the so-called obstacle to the expenditure of capital, which the opponents of short-term settlements so loudly urge.’

Advances under the Agriculturist’ Loans Act are also comparatively small in a normal seasons. A total of Rs.179 lakhs has been advanced between 1888 and 1905, the bulk of which was given out during the bad years between 1896 and 1902. During the last four years to 1906, the amount lent has only been about Rs.3000 annually. Practically the whole sum due for repayment under both kinds of loans has been recovered as it feels due and only insignificant amount have been remitted.

Rates Of Interest Private Loans

Sir Richard Jenkins has left on record the rest of interest prevailing in 1827. At that time the general rate for money lent on common security was 3 to 4 percent per month, and never less 2 percent on the best security or on the pledge of valuables equivalent to the sum advanced. The rate of interest has therefore fallen very greatly at the present time. It is now 12 percent. Per annum of landowners of good position and from 12 to 14 percent for tenants. On grain loans the rate is usually 25 percent for the spring crops and 25 to 50 percent for the autumn crops and for oilseeds. Loans for seed grain are called bij and those for food while the crops are in the ground porgă. As a general rule 2 percent is deducted from the principle sum for measuring fees, which is borrower, has to pay. Artisans and mechanics of the lower classes have usually to borrow on more unfavorable terms, because of the risk that they will abscond and are charged three or four percent a month. Small money charges are known as Khurdias, and either trade form themselves or are employed by bankers and get a percentage on their transactions. They give copper and cowries for rupees and take every advantage of inexperienced or unwary clients. Weavers and other handicraftsmen who need advances have commonly to apply to them and are charged exorbitant rates of interest. Business loans are made on hundis or notes-of-hand, usually payable at 61 days. The minimum rate for these is 6 percent. per annum. In Nagpur the bills are cashed by brokers who take at the rate of half an anna per rupees. Hundis or bills of exchange are issued on Calcutta and Bombay and the rate of discount varies from 5 annas to two rupees per hundred in the busy season, while in the rains they often fetch a premium. Five annas is the bullion rate for Bombay and when the discount rate exceeds this, it is cheaper to import cash. Very large sums of fifty thousand rupees or more will be brought by the train in the custody of two servants of a native firm, while sums of some thousand of rupee will be entrusted to a single servant.

Bankers And Money Leaders

Nagpur has a branch of the Bank of Bengal. The leading native firms are Raja Seth Gokul Das of Jubbulpore and Diwan Bahadur Seth Kasturchand of Kamptee. The former has large estate in a varies part of the province, but the latter dose not acquire landed property and confines his business usually to cashing bills and making advance to merchants. His firms dose the work of the treasury for government in several Districts. The principle bankers of the agricultural classes are the firm of Gopalrao Buti and the late Vinayak Jageshwar Buti, who are Charak Brahmans; Gangadhat Madho Chitnavis, a Prabhu; Ganpatrao Ghatate and Dhundiraj Atmaram, Marăthă Brăhmăns, the letter being of Parseoni, Motilal Agyărăm; Sam Rao Deshmukh of Mohpa and Narayan Shridhar Naik of Umrer. Hiralăl Johari, an Oswăl baniă, is a large Jeweller; Jamnă Dăs Potdăr, Agrawăl Baniă, is the broker of the Empress Mills; and Gulăb Sao lăd Baniă is the large cloth merchant in Nagpur.

Castes Of Proprietors

When proprietary rights were awarded to the farmers and patels of village at the settlement of 1863, the body of recipients was of a somewhat heterogeneous constitution. Priests and officials and court favorites had been granted village as rewards for petty services or obsequiousness, as the case might be. Dependants or the relations of the ruling family, legitimate or illegitimate, husbands of Bhonsla princesses, members of the Maratha nobility and others of less note had similarly acquired possession. Since the 30 years’ settlement the constitution of the proprietary body has altered to a surprisingly small degree. The returns now show 2280 villages as against 2203 at last settlement and 2166 at the 30 years’ settlement. Brahmans now own 741 villages or nearly a third of the total number, Kunbis 437, Marathas 259, Muhammadans 130, Banias 112, Rajputs 103 and Parbhus, Gosains, Kirars, Kalars and Telis between 50 to 70 each. Of the villages owned by Marathas, 143 belong to the Bhonsla family and their relatives; of those held by Muhammadans 20 are included in the Sansthanik estate of the Deogarh Raj-Gond Rajas who have embraced Islam; while of the 67 villages belonging to Parbhus Mr. Gangadhar Rao Chitnavis has 50. Since the 30 years settlement Brahmans have increased their property by 21 villages, Banias by 33, Telis by 24, Kalars by 33, Parbhus by 21 and Kirars by 17. The Marathas have lost 24 villages, the Rajputs 27, and the Muhammadans 9, while Kunbis have exactly one more village now than then. The money lending classes, who may be taken to include Banias, Kalars and Parbhus, have thus gained a small proportion of villages, but nothing very substantial. The results appear to indicate that the proprietary classes are in a stronger position in Nagpur than in most other Districts. A total of nearly 500 villages including shares are shown to have changed hands between 1894 and 1906, but the transfers must in many cases have been made to members of the agriculture castes. The land revenue assessed on this property was Rs. 1.73 lakhs or 16 percent of that of the District, and the consideration for the property amounted to ten times the land revenue. During the last four years the consideration for landed property sold privately has been equivalent to a multiple of 20 times the land revenue, while for that sold by order of the court it has varied between 16 and 41 times. According to this criterion the prices now realized are much better than in the years just before Mr. Craddock’s settlement, and the small enhancement of revenue then imposed has had no effect whatever in depreciating the value of land.

Character Of The Proprietors

Mr. Craddock describes the proprietary class as follows: The landlords are an exceedingly heterogeneous body, both in class and means. Some of them are wealthy moneylenders, while among the co-sharers of a large proprietary body may be found men who watch their own crops. Outside the purely agricultural castes there are few proprietary who reside on their own estates unless these happen to include one of the large market villages. In Nagpur and Umrer tahsils the malguzars are generally Brahmans and Kunbis and they are well to do or rich. The majority of the Brahmans belong to the indifferent type. They seldom or never visit their villages and spend nothing in them, but at the same time they do not eject tenants or enhance rents. The Kunbis look rather to the farming profits to be derived from a careful working of their demesne lands than to surplus of the rental. Being resident in their villages they display more sympathy with their tenantry than the absentee landlords, and are more subject to the influences of public opinion and less inclined to break away from the traditions of the past. The Marwari proprietors are not model landlords, though by no means so bad as many of their species. The large Marwari trader, who engages in commerce and banking, is a highly respectable and dignified member of society. But the smaller man of humble origin, who came from his native deserts with a brass pot and loin-cloth and has made his way be petty trade and money lending, is a veritable Shylock. But great or small they are absolutely unfitted by their natural instincts to be landlords, being unable to take a broad view of the duties of the position of to realize that rack-renting will not pay back in the long run. The Telis are an important caste who, in this District, are popularly counted among agriculturists. As cultivators they rank below Kunbis, but their business capacity and ability to make money in miscellaneous ways stand them in good stead, and as a body they surpass the Kunbis in prosperity. The Kalars have taken extensively to cultivation and money lending. They show their Bania origin clearly and are without exception the most grasping of moneylenders and the hardest of landlords. They are found as cultivators chiefly in the jungly tracts where they went to supply liquor to the Gonds, and they are now settled on the lands lost by the latter through the same love of liquor. Speaking generally, the malguzars are an extremely well-to-do body of persons with a high standard of comfort. The difficulties in which some of them are involved are generally due to present or past extravagance, except in a few cases of petty shareholders where the proprietary body is numerous, and of men who are solely dependent for their support on small and remote properties.

Condition Of Tenants

The principle caste of tenants are Kunbis, Brahmans, Telis and Mahars. The Kunbis predominate but Mahars are numerous and Mahar tenants are seldom very well off. The Brahmans are often non-resident and generally well-to-do. They either sublet their field or manage them through hired servants. Telis are always strong cultivators and it is to this class that the most substantial tenants frequently belong. The bulk of the cultivators, however, do not rice about the average native standard of capacity, and they are rather a spiritless set and not helpful. That there is a very large amount of chronic debt among the cultivating classes is certainly true, and that there are not many cultivators who are quite free from all debt is also true, but a very considerable proportion of those who are indebted have simply borrowed on the security of their crops and will pay off and borrow again on that security. It is believed, however, the cultivator, that the cultivators are beginning to realize the tax, which the payment of heavy interest for grain loans imposes on their industry, and that an increasing proportion of them try to preserve their own supply of seed-grain. This tendency is accentuated by the fact that they seldom get fair treatments at the hands of the moneylenders, and they are now getting intelligent enough to realize this fact. An inquiry conducted into the circumstances of tenants at the time of attestation for settlement showed that the quarter of the whole number were free from debt and in prosperous circumstances, and 60 percent owned a certain amount but were not heavily involved and had not mortgaged their holdings. There are the large class who borrow regularly for the expenses of seed-grain and cultivation and make payment at harvest. Only 15 percent of the total number were deeply involved or without cattle and in condition of living from hand to mouth. The results of a similar inquiry given in the next paragraph shows that the position of the tenantry was distinctly better in 1907 than at Mr. Craddock’s settlement.

Material Condition Of The People

The following condition of the people has been furnished by Mr. F. Dewar:

‘Since the famine of 1897 the Nagpur District has enjoyed an era of increasing prosperity, due chiefly to the development of the cotton industry, but also in the part of the opening of the manganese mines. The recurring epidemics of plague have at time check progress, and the wave of prosperity has not carried all classes of the people equally far forward, but it may be safely stated that never before in history has the average material condition of the people and town and country been so high as it now is.

There has been a strong trend of the people to the towns and about one-fourth of the population now lives in Nagpur city, Kamptee, Umrer, Ramtek and five other towns. In most of these places municipal taxation is now twice a heavy as it was ten or fifteen years ago, yet it is still very light and is now here felt as an appreciable burden of any class. In Nagpur the water-rate has risen from Rs.12, 000 in 1891-92 to Rs.42, 000 in 1904-95, and the octroi tax on grain, sugar, and drugs from Rs.80, 000 to Rs.1, 49,000. Public revenue from municipal land and buildings has also greatly improved and the general increase of income has permitted increased expenditure. The resulting improvements in conservancy and drainage, in a street-construction and street lighting, in water-supply, and in the machinery for the collection of taxation, a most important department of local administration in India, have enormously increased the comfort of life in towns. The result has been steady flow of population from the country and from other parts of India. The richer class of bankers, landlords, traders, industrialist, and professional men have benefited very greatly by the general prosperity. Even plague has been to these classes rather a healthy stimulant than a disaster, since it has induced them to abandon their cramped and crowded city houses and to build airy and well-lighted suburban villas furnished comfortably in European style. Tradesman of the middle class are moving in the same direction. The city municipality has provided large suburban area, which is being taken up by private lessees for comfortable cottages. In two at least of the smaller towns the traders have size their opportunity very quickly and are building extensively. The artisan class its reaps full share of the general prosperity. These also, with doubled incomes, have doubled their comfort in housing, furniture, and clothing. It is generally agreed that, next to good sanitation, the improvement most conducive to general comfort and morality, in fact most civilizing, is improvement in house lighting. Ten years ago not one town house in twenty was more than very dimly lit, if lit at all, but the kerosene lamp was now common in the houses of all except the poorest class. Other articles besides those of ordinary furniture which one most frequently observes are clock and watches, sewing machines and bicycles. The land-loom weaver is less fortunate than other artisans, but he was hitherto been able to maintain successfully his struggle against machinery and he gets very good prices for his cloth. He is much handicapped in time of plague because he is not readily evacuate the dwelling which is also his workshop. The laboring class in general is in demand everywhere, for the cotton mills and factories, for road, railway and tank construction, for the manganese mines, and for agriculture. The ordinary wage for both men and woman has more than doubled with a few years, and though the prices of necessaries have risen also, the balance is in favor of wages. Weather the material condition of this class has greatly improved is however a more difficult question to decide. That it has more spare money available is clear, but it is a clear also that much of this is misspent of excessive stimulants, on cheap cigarettes, or sweet colored drinks and on worthless trinkets. The laboring family which formerly lived in a country village, and earn only Rs.7 and Rs.8 per mensem, had at least a comfortable village house and small garden. It now earn from Rs.15 to Rs.20 per mensem but lives two often in a wretched hut in one of the overcrowded quarters of the city. It is true that the former days it suffered the privations of occasional famine. From these it is now fairly secure, but it is exposed to the still greater peril of plague. The crying need of the laboring class in the city and in the larger towns is for better housing. For this the labor is quite able to pay, but hitherto private house-builders have not come forward to supply the demand, possibly because plague epidemics render evacuation so frequently necessary. But an important experiment has been undertaken by the management of the Empress Mills with the object of housing its operatives. Should this succeed is possible that the city municipality is may push the project further. Meanwhile the laborer, though badly houses and much exposed to plague continues to concentrate in the industrial centers and to work and live there with a great apparent cheerfulness.

Three-fourth of the people of the District lives in the village and depends chiefly on agriculture. These have been affected closely by the great change in cropping which had occurred within ten years owning to the increased profits of cotton growing. That crop has greatly extended at the expense of wheat and of all other crops except the juar millet. The change has benefited all classes of the agriculture community. The non resident landlord, it is true, seldom makes a large profit from his home farm and his rent are so much limited by Revenue low that they necessarily stagnate, but the value of his land has greatly increased. The resident landlord and the better class of the tenants farmers have made small fortunes and almost all the smaller cultivators have improved their position. The following statistics about tenants are derived from a special enquiry instituted in the early part of 1907. The A class tenants from 8 percent of the farmers. They have no debts and each owns usually 20 cattle and one or two carts worth about Rs.800, with 50 acres worth about Rs.3400. they have also unknown stores of silver. The B class men number 19 percent and each has debt of Rs.50 but possesses 14 cattle and a cart worth Rs.500 and 36 acres worth Rs.1350. A proportion of 56 percent of the cultivators come into the C class, each of whom of an average calculation, has a debt of Rs.100 but owns 5 cattle and a cart worth Rs.110 and 18 acres worth Rs.470. only 17 percent are distinctly poor men who have a debt of about Rs.35 and 20 acres of poor land Rs.440.The average net income of all classes from agriculture alone is Rs.25 to Rs.30 per mensem, and even the poorest men are at present solvent. Many cultivators add to their incomes by the carting of cotton, timber, and manganese, but it is to be regretted that the improvement of the District roads has hitherto being slow. The only inconveniences generally felt by the farmers are the lack of labor and the difficulty of feeding stock now that the area under straw-growing crops has diminished. The general condition of village life has improved. House-lighting is not so good as it is in towns, but it is much better than it was a few years ago. Very many new wells have been dug and though much remains to be done in sanitation the cleanliness and comfort of all but the largest and most crowed village have improved plague dose not affect the village so acutely as the townsman because the farmer found little hardship in living out in his fields during the open season, and it may be noted that the richer men are beginning to abandon the crowed village sites and to build comfortable houses in the open among their fruit gardens. The tone of village life is very cheerful, especially in the western part of the District, the markets and festival are largely attended at all seasons, and bullock-racing, the chief sport of the locality, has never been more popular’.