Our India

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS AMEN HOUSE, LONDON, B. G. 4 EDINBURGH GLASGOW NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE CAPETOWN BOMBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS HUMPHREY MUJPORD PUBLISHER TO THE 1 UNIVERSITY First published, October 1940 PRINTED IN TIMES NEW ROMAN TYPE BY P. KNIGHT AT THE BAPTIST MISSION PRESS, CALCUTTA BOUND BY HARTBON A CO., CALCUTTA PAPER MANUFACTURED IN CALCUTTA AT TTTAGHUR PAPER MILLS FROM BAMBOOS GROWN IN OUSSA BINDING CLOTH HANDWOVEN FROM COTTON GROWN IN JAIPUR AND HANDPRINTED AT THE NEW SWA8T1K DYEING WORKS, BOMBAY PREFACE A little knowledge, it is said, is a dangerous thing. Statistics of Indian life are so scanty and scrappy that reliance on them is bound to endanger ones conclusions. A little book of this nature does not, fortunately, have to pretend to scientific accuracy. Nor can it be burdened with footnotfes giving references to works from which facts and figures were derived. That makes it all the more necessary, however, to acknowledge the authors indebtedness to various sources from wiich he has drawn much of his material. Such a list can hardly be complete, but among the works which he would like to mention are Jathar and Bens Indian Economics Arnold Happy India Sonis Indian Industry and its Gyan Chands Indias Teeming Millions V. KrIU V. Jftafos Indias National Income Wadias Geology of India Ram Manohar Lohias India in Figures, 6 H. G. Wells Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind, Otto Neuraths Modern Man in the Making, 7 and the Statistical Year Book of the League oj Nations. 2 The verses on pages 54, 62 and 67 have been quoted from Shamrao and Eiwins Songs of the Forest, 2 Ilins Moscow Has a Plan and Mrs E. M. Milfords translation of Jasimuddins The Field of the Embroidered Quilt Iam indebted to many friends for suggestions, particularly to Professor M. L. Dantwala of the New Commerce College, Ahmedabad, Mr J. C. Kumarappa, Secretary of the All-India Village Industries Association, Dr Nazir Ahmed, Director of 1 Oxford University Press. Allen Unwin. Longmans Green. 4 Macmillan. U. P. Provincial Congress Committee, Lucknow. 6 Heinemann. 7 Seeker Warburg. Cape. the Indian Cotton Technological Institute, Professor F. R. Bharucha of the Royal Institute of Science, Bombay, Mr S. S. Zubair of the Tata Hydro-Electric Power Company, Ltd., and Mr P. B. Karanjia of the Bombay Suburban Electric Supply Company, Ltd. To Mrs Sarojini Naidu, I owe a special debt for her encouragement and interest Thanks are also due to the Secretary of the National Planning Committee for permission to peruse reports and drafts of various sub-committees. M. M. Bombay, September 1940 CONTENTS I ONE IN FIVE .. .. .. 1 H CAN YOU EAT THE SUN .. .. J III A PUZZLE .. .. 26 X IV A HOUSE OF CARDS .. .., V THE SALT OF THE EARTH .. 45 VI SOME IPS AND BUTS .. .. 7 VII NOT ENOUGH LAND I .. .. 82 VIII WOOL ON A TREE .. .. 97 DC OUR BURIED TREASURES .. .. 110 X POWER .. .. .. .. 126 XI MEN OF STEEL .. .. .. 140 HINDOSTAN HAMARA .. .. 151 ONE IN FIVE . A, One man in every five is an Indian. The ottter four are lets say an American, a European, a Negro and a Chinese. Here they are being counted. Doesnt that make you feel very important It is rather a staggering thought, isnt it, that we Indians are no less than a fifth of the human race and that, next to China, our country has the biggest population in the world And doesnt it make us feel keen to take our proper share in the ordering and settling of the worldsaffairs Besides, what a huge country ours is Extend ing 2,000 miles east to west and 2,000 miles north to south and with an area of some 2 million square miles, it is as big as the whole of the continent of l Europe excluding Russia, as you can see from the map opposite. The size of an ordinary district in India is 4,000 square miles, and some of our districts are as big as entire States in Europe...