The Economy of Permanence: A Quest for a Social Order Based on Non-violence (स्थायी अर्थतन्त्र)

Economy of Permanence
Expansion of such an economic organisation will naturally lead to "saving of
labour¹¹ or, in other words, creation of unemployment. Hence, in our county,
where capital is scarce and labour is plentiful, the methods followed in Great
Britain and the U.S.A. will naturally be out of place.
Man himself is a machine of a fine type with this difference that, unlike a
mechanical contrivance, he has to be kept alive by feeding whether he works or
not. Hence, even if we produce materials for consumption by mechanical aids
the people will have to be fed. Therefore, the efficient utilization of the
factors available will indicate extensive use of man-power as the normal
method of production in our country. If we fail to adopt this mode we shall be
guilty of throwing away the great labour wealth of our country. Such a course
can never lead us to prosperity.
The well-being of a nation does not consist merely in the output of material
production. This production is important only in so far as it enables the people
to meet their wants. In the first instance, therefore we must proceed to
organize the people to produce goods to satisfy their own needs, in regard to
food materials to afford them an adequate diet, clothing to protect them
against the weather and proper shelter; then we should arrange for their
physical, mental and moral welfare by making available medical aid, education
and other social amenities. Before these elementary, needs are fully met. It
would be folly to aim at producing goods for the export market. Money in itself
satisfies nothing except the miser's pleasure of counting it. Money is not an end
in itself. If our organization is such as to put much money in the hands of the
people and yet let them starve for lack of food materials, it would stand
condemned. Hence, our first care is to see that the people are satisfactorily
fed, clothed and housed, and only after these necessities have been adequately
provided for can they be allowed to indulge in other production. To direct
economic activity into this course is the first duty of any government worth the
name.
Apart from the mere satisfaction of the physical needs of the people we should
aim at inculcating the spirit of self-help, mutual aid, and a consciousness of
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social solidarity. When we achieve this and we shall have travelled a long way
on the road to Swaraj through self-sufficiency.
Here again we have to bear in mind that our plan concerns not merely a few
people but every citizen in this country. The plan that we propose, if it is to be
a satisfactory plan, must touch every living person in India. A broad-based plan
like that, in a poverty-stricken country as ours, where finance is not available,
cannot be based on the presumption that capital is available. Hence, any plan
based on the availability of capital is out of court in India, and any plan that
leaves out the primary need of supplying food is also out of court, and any plan
that omits to take note of the factor of Indian labour wealth cannot be a proper
plan for India. The Western plans are material centred. That is to say, they
want to exploit all resources. To what end? That they were not sure of. Tables
and chairs do not satisfy our primary needs.
If it is to be a plan for India, the plan must centre round the farmer first and
then grow out of it for the whole country. It may be that ultimately we may not
bt as rich as England or America but we will have sufficient food. England was
on the brink of starvation five years ago.
Therefore, self-sufficiency in food and clothing should be one of the prime
features in any plan for India. If every village cannot be self-sufficient in food
and clothing, it is no use having Swaraj. We want to assure to everybody
enough food and clothing. And unless we do that, it is no plan for our country.
The Tata-Birla Plan and others of its ilk require thousands, and thousands of
crores of rupees to get them going. For this plan we do not require much money
because we are not working on a thing which we have not got. We are only
rechannelling the people's activity, we are only showing them the right way, we
are only regulating their natural activities, and thereby we control the
activities of millions of people into desirable lines.
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II. AGRICULTURE
Our first care must be food and clothing. To this end we must concentrate on
Agriculture and Village Industries. Agriculture production should be regulated
and controlled keeping in mind two main considerations :

1. The locality must try to produce all its own food requirements and raw
   materials for primary necessities of life.
2. It must aim to supply raw materials suitable for village industries rather than
   for factories : for example, instead of growing thick rind sugarcane of long
   staple cotton, as demanded by the factories, soft rind sugarcane as can be
   crushed by the village 'kolhus' for gur making and short staple cotton as
   required for hand spinning should be grown. The surplus land can be utilized to
   supplement crops needed by surrounding districts. Land utilized for sugarcane
   for the factory, tobacco, jute and other money crops should be reduced to the
   minimum, and, if need be, even eliminated altogether. In order to make the
   farmers adopt this policy, utilization of land should be regulated by issuing
   licenses by the government authorising the farmer to grow certain crops only
   according to the plans for the province and heavy dues and extra land revenue
   should be levied on land used to raise money crops. This will restrain the
   farmer's incentive to go in for money crops in preference to food crops. On the
   whole, prices of agricultural products should be made to compare favourable
   with those of industrial products by suitable control.
   Commercial crops such as tobacco, jute, sugarcane etc. are doubly wasteful.
   They reduce the food production for man as well as for animals which would
   otherwise have got their fodder from food crops.
   Primary products like cereals and milk should not be allowed to be used for
   commercial purposes for obtaining starch and casien. The supply of gur which
   may fall, due to the decline in the cultivation of factory varieties of sugarcane,
   can be made good by the production of gur from palm trees now tapped for
   toddy or from those which are found or can be grown in waste lands in
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sufficient numbers as to fully meet our demand in this respect and the best of
land, which is under sugarcane today, can be utilized for the production of
cereals, fruits and vegetables that the country needs so badly.
The first thing is to start with a balanced diet. In India we have people living on
cereals only, and cereals do not provide all that is necessary for the body in a
compact form. If we can arrange our cultivation, so that every village cultivates
what is necessary for a balanced diet, w can easily secure a balanced diet. In
that way we can work out the acreage that is necessary for a particular type of
food.
It is ordinarily presumed that an acre of land provides more calories through
the production of grains than through any other food. But, apart from the
question of calories, the grains are very poor suppliers of protective food
factors. Therefore if we aim at getting these factors from cereals only huge
quantities of grains will be required. On the other hand, if the grains are
substituted and supplemented by foods like fruits and vegetables, milk and its
products, gur, nuts and oilseeds, etc., the protective food factors required to
make up a balanced diet may be obtained through lesser quantities of these
types of food than through grains alone. Even the supply of calories per acre is
greater in the case of gur and of the root vegetables like potato than in the
case of cereal grains. Thus, a balanced diet may be a double blessing and may
offer the solution to our problem. It reduces the per capita requirement of land
and at the same time, it supplies the body with all its requirements in their
correct proportions so as to keep it fit and healthy. It is calculated that the per
capita land available in India at present for food cultivation comes to about 0.7
acres. This very land which is found to be too inadequate to meet our
requirements in food according to the present distribution of cultivation
becomes sufficient in the re-ordered system of agriculture. In this manner the
land of the locality should be so distributed for the purpose of growing crops as
to provide its population with all the needed materials for a balanced diet,
clothing and all primary necessities. This aspect of the question when
thoroughly investigated and a definite plan chalked out should be enforced by
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licensing farmers to grow only certain crops on their lands. The table on the
next page shows land distribution for balanced cultivation for a population of
one lakh. This table provides far a balanced vegetarian diet yielding 2,860
calories per day for the average person and allows for the growing of cotton for
25 yards of cloth per annum per head. For non-vagetarian diet 6 ozs. of milk
may be substituted by 4 ozs. of meat or fish and one egg.
Rough calculations based on all-India statistics, which of course will differ from
place to place, have been given. If we allow 16 ozs. of cereals per individual, it
means that 65.2 per cent of our land will have to be under cereals. Similarly, if
we provide 2 ozs. of pulses per head, it means 8 per cent of our land will have
to be under that cultivation.
This table is worked out on a basis of a lakh of people. If a village or contiguous
area can grow these things in this proportion, then the people will have their
primary wants satisfied. Hence, we must aim at growing these things. The land
is a social asset, and it has got to be utilized exactly as it is needed for the
community. If a man says, "I have got so many acres of land, I am going to grow
tobacco," he has no right to grow tobacco simply because it may bring him
more money. In a society there are many j things which we cannot do as we
individually would wish. You • cannot, for instance, drive on the right side of
the road. The ownership in land is yours no doubt, but you have got to have the
use of your land marshalled in such a way that it benefits everybody.
Therefore, it is suggested that a man must take out licenses for cultivating
certain products. The man who has been licensed to cultivate linseed cannot
grow tobacco even if it paid him ten times as mush.
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DISTRIBUTION OF CULTIVATION PER LAKH OF POPULATION
| | | | | Per lakh of population | | | |

Economy of Permanence
Thus, having before us the ingredients of a balanced diet, we proceed to secure
these through the proper laying out of the cultivable land to produce the
required materials to feed the population. Then only, where there happens to
be a surplus after the full needs of the local population have been satisfied,
should any efforts at sending such products outside be countenanced. The
marketing department would be a traitor to the land if it helped or aided in the
export of materials which are in deficit even to meet the needs of the people.
Similarly steps should be taken to procure all materials needed to put the
people gainfully to work.
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III. EXCHANGE
Multi-purpose Co-operative Societies:
Co-operative Societies are ideally suited organizations not only for developing
village industries, but also for promoting group effort by the villagers. A multi-
purpose village society can make itself very effective in a variety of ways such
us :

1. Stocking of raw materials for industries and food grains needed by the
   village people.
2. Marketing of surplus village products and distributing the requirements of
   the people.
3. Supplying and distributing seeds, improved implements and tools, manures,
   such as bonemeal, flesh and fish manure, seeds etc.
4. Maintaining a common studbull for the area.
5. Standing between the government and the people in the matter of
   collection and payment of taxes, etc.
   Much of the wastage caused to food grains in transport and handling and the
   expenses of bringing food grains to a central place and redistributing them
   again to the village can be eliminated through the agency of a co-operative
   society which can be a very reliable medium both from the government as well
   as from the public point of view.
   The farmer retains the necessary amount of wheat for his family requirements
   and the surplus he deposits in the Co-operative Society and in return he gets
   the things he requires on the strength of credit he has thus created with the
   society. Government revenue could also be paid in kind in the same way and
   not necessarily in cash. Today revenue collections in cash from villagers cause a
   great hardship. If stock of grain are held by cooperatives societies in villages,
   the remuneration also of local officials can be conveniently paid partly in kind.
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Money economy does not report true values. The values are changed as money
passes from one individual to another. There is a great difference in value
between the rupee in the hands of a poor man and a rupee in the hands of a
rich man. Such transfers either increase the national wealth or impoverish the
nation. Superficially a rupee appears to be a rupee, but in practice it is not so.
A rupee in the hands of a poor man may mean 4 or 5 day's food provisions,
whereas in the hands of a millionaire it may represent the value of a cigar.
Thus, when a rupee passes from the hands of a poor man into the hands of a
millionaire it loses its value considerably; conversely, money when it goes from
the rich to the poor enhances in value. Hence we have got to see that in our
economy we prevent money going into the hands where it will lose its value and
this is what the multi-purpose co-operative society should attempt to do. It will
collect the produce from the villager and will pay the government revenue in
wheat or other commodities. It will pay government officials on government
account in articles of food which will provide a balanced diet and when all this
is carried out, ultimately, there will be only a very small adjustment to be
made between government and the multi-purpose societies and that also can
be done by transfer of surplus between different regions. If that can be
managed we shall neutralise, though not eliminate, the evils of money economy
and retain the true value as dictated by commodity value as distinct from
money value.
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IV. CO-OPERATIVE FUNCTIONS
The Function of a Bank: The function of any bank is to lubricate the wheels of
commerce and industry and keep them moving smooth with the least friction.
In addition to this a cooperative institution has to bring about active co-
operation between the various factors in the whole economic organization.
The Western banks, based on money economy, count their progress by the
amount of deposits etc. they have received and profit made. We cannot do
that. We have to appraise the work of a bank in its relation to the well-being of
the people. It has to perform various functions in the economic activity of the
people and serve their needs even if it meant a loss financially. We cannot
ascertain the part a bank has played by any calculation based on rupees, annas
and pies.
Western banking system has been, like the needle of the Hypodermic syringe,
used by the financial exploiters to draw out the life blood of the producers, The
last famine of 1943 in which about 3 millions lost their lives in Bengal alone, is
largely attributable to such misuse of banking powers vested in the Reserve
Bank which enjoys; along with the Imperial Bank, the advantage of being the
custodian of public funds, but their work is a tragedy to the people of the land.
This is because of the misuse of money.
Money, when used as an instrument of exchange or as a means of storage of
purchasing power, functions satisfactorily.
The tokens used as money are generally imperishable as compared with
commodities and hence the money-holder is at an advantage as he has the
bargaining power. A plantain-seller has to dispose of his goods before they get
spoilt but the money-holder suffers from no such disadvantage. He can hold on
to his money for any length of time. Therefore, in this inequality there is a
factor which may be used by the money-holder to exploit the commodity-
holder. Banks as a rule are holders of money. How they use their advantageous
position will determine the part they play in commerce and industry. Where a
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bank uses its power for strengthening its own position as an institution, and if
the position of its customers deteriorates as a consequence, such a bank cannot
be said to fulfill its purpose in the economic organization. This is as regards
money as a medium of exchange.
Money as Storage of Purchasing Power:
Again, as regards its comparative imperishability, the right use of this quality in
money is to afford storage of purchasing power to the people. A farmer
cultivates his fields and disposes of his produce after harvest. He realises a
certain amount in money. This money has to last him till the next harvest. That
is, he should be able to exchange it for other commodities of like value over a
period of twelve months. If in this period the purchasing power is altered, the
position of the farmer also fluctuates in the same way. Therefore, an
unalterable storage of purchasing power is a prime necessity in an agricultural
country like ours. In this function, multi-purpose co-operative societies can
help by restricting the spread of money economy, thus limiting the chances of
fluctuation and speculation and by rendering reasonable banking services based
on the security of commodities as will prevent the farmer having to dispose of
his whole stock at a time.
Co-operation: This brings us to the second function of co-operation. Co-
operation implies the elimination of competition and working in a kind of
partnership resulting in advantages to all. Its basic requirement is an identity of
interest of parties to the enterprise. There can be no exploitation in co-
operation. Therefore there can be no co-operation with an exploiter at one end
and his victim at the other end. Foreigners come to sell their goods to us. That
is their only interest in us. It is for that, they hold others in political bondage.
If co-operative societies help hand- loom weavers to obtain American yarn they
are linking up in- compatibles and therefore are not functioning in the true
spirit of co-operation. Their legitimate sphere would be to bring local village
spinners and weavers into a living touch with one another. They have to bring
about co-operation all along the line-raw material produced with artisan and
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then with the consumer. The co-operative societies should be the link binding
all parties together-like a silver wire that holds the pearls together.
A co-operative bank can protect the unsophisticated villagers from being duped
by the government minions. Such institutions can collect the produce, store it,
pay on behalf of their constituents, dues, taxes, revenue, etc., sell the goods
at proper market rates, right through the year, without dumping the whole
stock at a time on the market and thus causing extreme fluctuations in the
price of commodities. They can function like the watertight compartments of
the ocean liner and be the shock absorber in the economic organization:
The test of the proper functioning of co-operative institutions can be seen not
in their financial balance sheets but in the bazars around. If these shops are
stocked with mill produced goods or foreign imported articles it signifies that
there has been no cooperative effort to bring the various factors of production
to supply all our needs. If the co-operative institutions function properly it will
promote self-sufficiency in all our primary needs such as food, clothing, and
shelter. When this happens there will be nothing to attract the cupidity of the
foreign manufacturer. Hence there will be no international jealousies leading
to global wars. Thus the development of co-operative institutions on right lines
can lead to national independence and through that to international peace.
Manure: Much of the waste of the village, including sweepings, bones, human
excreta, etc., that endanger the sanitation of the village at present, could be
utilized by making compost manure. This is very easily done and it is as good a
manure as cow dung. Bones and oil cakes, which are usually exported out of the
country, should not be allowed to leave the villages. The bones should be
crushed locally with the help of the chunam chakkis, after being charred a
little in the chunam bhattis and the manure distributed amongst the farmers.
Manure making in villages may be given out on subsidised contracts. This will
ensure the cleanliness of the village while raising the status of the sweepers
engaged in making compost and manure to the level of traders.
Oil mills, which take away oil seeds from the villagers and give only oil in
return, sending the cake abroad, are depriving the land of the valuable form of

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fertilizer. This must be stopped altogether. This is one of the fundamental
reasons why oil seeds should not be allowed to go out of the villages but should
be crushed in the local country ghanis. This will retain both the oil and the
cake in the village and enrich men, cattle and the land.
In the name of increasing the fertility of the soil, great attempts are being
made to introduce chemical fertilizers. The experience gained through the use
of such chemical fertilizers throughout the world is clear enough to warn us of
their inroads. They do not add to the fertility of the soil but act as stimulants
or drugs so that the land yields up its fertility resulting in immediate bumper
crops, but in the end bring about a corresponding exhaustion of the land. They
also destroy a host of earth-worms so essential to maintain the fertility of the
soil. In the long run, such artificial fertilizers prove to be most injurious to the
land. Behind the specious pleading for the chemical fertilizers lies the anxiety
of the fertilizer factory owners to push the sale of their products irrespective of
the harm or injury they do to agriculture.
Seeds : Selected and improved varieties of seeds are essential if agriculture is
to flourish. What is wanted in this regard is the machinery for effective
distribution of seeds in the form of co-operative societies which should run
seed farms under able research workers.
Grain storage : Enormous loss of grain occurs through bad storage alone. Such
loss is estimated on a conservative basis to be about 3.5 million tons, an
amount equal to the declared deficit of grains in India during 1946. The
qualitative loss caused by insects, rodents, dampness etc., all caused by bad
storage arrangements resulting in all kinds of diseases, is equally great.
If storage arrangements are made locally all the waste through bad storage,
loss by insects etc., and conveyance charges will be eliminated.
The storage problem is both an urgent and a permanent one and should be
tackled in all earnestness and seriousness. In any case, holding stocks in ill-
protected godowns, as at present, should be stopped.
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Big towns and cities, where proportionately larger stocks of grain are to be
held, can build pucca cement godowns. These can be built either by the
Municipality or by private people to be rented out for grain storage, or better
still, by Co-operative Societies.. These godowns should be licensed and
subjected to periodical inspection, like the boilers, as at present.
If the stocks are held in the villages where they are produced and all their
movements to town and back to villages are eliminated, the chances of their
getting damaged are, of course, reduced.
Individual holders of stock also should be educated in the methods for the
preservation of grain.
Conservation of Raw Materials in the Villages : The greatest handicap from
which village industries suffer is the utter resourcelessness of the artisan. Being
unorganised he is unable to stand against the competition from his resourceful
and organised rivals, the mills. With all the resources at their command, the
mills practically monopolise the raw materials and corner the market even for
the finished products, leaving the isolated artisans utterly helpless. The
financial policy of the banks, discriminative railway freight rates and the
capitalistic marketing organization, all favour the working of large-scale
production to the exclusion of the artisans. The artisans are left with hardly
any raw materials in the villages. This process needs to be reversed. All raw
materials produced in the villages should be conserved and consumed in their
place of production and only the surplus that remains after satisfying local
needs should be allowed to be sent out. Production should be directed towards
raw materials needed by village industries rather than towards those required
by factories.
Supply of Tools and Implements: Tools and implements of village industries
are not generally of uniform efficiency throughout the land and often even in
one province. Research should be directed towards devising suitable
instruments.
Multi-purpose Co-operative Societies should arrange for the regular supply of
equipment and spare parts to village artisans.
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District Demonstration Centre: Demonstration centres of Co-operative
Societies should be located in rural areas. Their function should be as follows:

1. To manufacture and supply implements and tools to village artisans and to
   introduce improved implements in place of old type ones.
2. To train carpenters and other artisans and to teach them the latest methods
   introduced into the various industries,
3. To collect tools and exhibits of local art and display them in a museum.
4. To carry on industrial and health surveys in the district.
5. To work in co-ordination with other co-operative societies and the
   Hindustani Talimi School for the general uplift of the villages.
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V. VILLAGE INDUSTRIES
The Multi-purpose Co-operative Societies can supply raw materials, stock the
finished goods and help in distributing all village industries products especially
those connected with food- processing, textiles and other primary needs. They
should be ever watchful of the interest of the villagers. In particular the follow-
ing recommendations may be attended to :

1. Rice mills should be disbanded and the engines could be used for irrigation
   purposes as has been already suggested.
2. Hullers used for polishing rice should be banned.
3. People should be informed about the better nutritive value of whole
   unpolished rice and about the method of cooking it, along with practical
   demonstrations. Polishing of rice should be prohibited or its degree of
   polishing should be very strictly controlled, or par-boiling of paddy should be
   encouraged.
4. Where paddy husking is carried on an industrial scale, for business purpose,
   in the case of predominantly paddy growing areas, expensive equipment
   such as paddy separators, winnowers, etc. should be supplied on hire to a
   group of artisans through the Co-operative Society.
5. In view of the fact that the use of unpolished rice is to be advocated and
   popularised, the movement of paddy from one place to another will become
   necessary. In order that the freight on the extra weight of paddy may not
   enhance the cost of rice, the freight charges on paddy should be suitably
   adjusted.
6. In areas where the implements for dehusking paddy and polishing rice are
   the same, and both the processes are combined into one of pounding paddy,
   resulting in polished rice, dehusking implements, i. e., chakkis either of
   wood, stone or mud, should be introduced to restrict polishing. Such
   implements might be supplied, as also the equipments for other industries,
   through the District Demonstration Centres. The polishing of rice might be
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discouraged by imposing a tax on implements that polish rice and the degree
of polishing obtained with these should be subject to supervision and
control.
Paddy and other grains and seeds required by the village should be stocked in
the village itself and only the surplus could be sent out and that only through
the Co-operatives Society.
2. Flour Grinding

1. Good quality stones for hand chakkis and equipment for the bullock and
   water driven chakkis should be made available through the Demonstration
   Centres.
2. The production and use of fine white flour, maida, should be banned.
3. Flour mills grind large quantities of grain and hold their stocks of flour for
   long periods. This causes such flour to deteriorate. Therefore, such mills
   should be discouraged.
4. Bullock-driven flour chakkis should be introduced where the necessary
   facilities exist.
5. Wherever water power is available from running water of a river or a canal,
   water driven flour chakkis can be set up.
6. Such chakkis might be owned co-operatively by the villagers as in the
   Punjab.
   3. Oil-Pressing
   The main difficulties in resuscitating the village Ghani are the following:
   The villages are practically denuded of the oil-seeds at the harvest time. To set
   this right only surplus oil-seeds should be allowed 10 go out of the village.
   At some places the local Ghanis are so inefficient and small that it is veil nigh
   impossible to make them a practical proposition. Even in a single province -
   here are numerous types of ghanis. A detailed survey of the working of all such
   ghanis should be carried out. The working and advantages of improved ghanis
   should be demonstrated.
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There is at present a great dearth of ghani carpenters even of the old type.
Oilmen find it very hard to get their timely service. Their difficulty of getting
equipment and spare parts is equally great. Training should be given to oilmen
and carpenters in the technique of the improved ghanis at centres which will
also provide the necessary equipment and spare parts.
Tahsil Co-operative Societies of oilmen or the Multipurpose Village Societies
will be the best medium for stocking oilseeds, controlling the prices of seeds,
oil and cake eliminating adulteration etc.
4. Gur Making
Gur making from palms is being done on a commercial scale in Bengal and
Madras where the industry has been well established.
Preservation and Pla ting of more palms ; Felling of palm trees should be
prohibited, government owned waste land, unsuited for agricultural purposes,
should be utilized for raising palms so as to be sufficient to replace cane gur
and sugar by palm gur in due course. Also cultivation of palms on similar private
lands and field bunds should be subsidised. Adequate supply of seedlings should
be arranged and proper methods of cultivation should be taught.
Co-operative Societies: Co-operative Societies should take Jp the production
and market the produce. They should also supply, where needed, equipment
such as pans and centrifugal machines on hire.
5. Bee-Keeping
Bee-Keeping is doubly useful. It enables better fertilization of the crops giving
the farmers a better yield, and at the same lime provides honey, a nutritious
article of diet.
The demonstration centres can keep a few colonies of honey bees and the work
can be extended in other villages where bee pasturage is available. A
preliminary survey of the area by an expert in bee-keeping will be necessary for
this purpose. Once the centre is able to domesticate the bees, it can provide
facilities for agriculturists to receive training and to obtain the necessary
equipments at moderate rates.
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6. Cotton and Wool
In areas where cotton can be grown adequate lands must be assigned for
growing at least 127 lbs. of lint per head of the population and its spinning and
weaving should be organised on the lines indicated by the programme of work
followed by the All-India Spinners' Association.
Similarly, in sheep rearing areas production of woolen goods should be
encouraged by aids to sheep-breeding, grading of wool, etc.
7. Leather Tanning
Export of raw hides and skins from India are amongst the largest in the world. If
we can convert all this raw material into leather ourselves we shall be
providing occupation to millions of Harijans. Time being the essence of tanning,
much finance is needed. Hence the work must be done co-operatively.
Societies should purchase the hides, etc., and pay piece-work wages on warious
processes and market the goods either as finished leather or as manufactured
articles.

1. Leather is being tanned in all provinces, but all are not of equally good
   quality. Calcutta 'Chrome¹ and Madras 'Gavi', which are considered to be of
   standard quality, are not attempted elsewhere. Other varieties are far
   inferior to these two. The reasons for this should be found out and the same
   standard of tanning should be introduced everywhere.
2. Export of raw hides and skins should discouraged by Government levying a
   very heavy duty on their export.
3. A cart for carrying the carcasses should be supplied by Co-operative
   Societies at nominal cost to a group of chamars. At present, for want of
   such conveyance, the carcasses are dragged on the ground. It is estimated
   that this process reduces the value of the leather by about 50 per cent.
4. The circumstance under which the industry is now carried on are very
   unhygienic and demands a complete reorganization. This can be brought
   about if proper arrangements are made at a site a little away from the
   village dwelling places, for buiding sheds, pits, drainage, supply of water,
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Economy of Permanence
etc. and if the processes, which are unhygienic, be carried out by simple
machinery. If this involves a transformation of the scattered chamar
families into a central tannery for a tahsil or district, the change may be for
the better. Such tanneries may be owned and managed by Co-operative
Societies only of the chamars.
5. At present, there are a few selected places where leather manufactured
goods are produced on a very big scale and distributed over the whole
country. This system must be discouraged and local manufacture of
practically all the leather goods, such as foot-wear, money purses, suitcases
etc. should be encouraged, either the local manufacture may be subsidised
or the imports taxed.
Subsidies should be given to individual contractors or Cooperative Societies
for the preparation of manure from blood, flesh and bones from the
carcasses.. The subsidy should be in proportion to the output of manure.
6. Glue, guts, brushes, and other byeproducts can also be prepared by these
societies. The horn industry can be profitably introduced among chamar
families. It should be encouraged by subsidy for some time and by the
purchase of the finished products by the government for its use. The
necessary equipment should, of course, be supplied on hire.
8. Soap-Making
A survey of deposits of sajji matti should be carried out. And wherever such
deposits of sajji matti are found, soap makers should be allowed to collect
them without any tax or royalty being demanded of them. Incidentally, it may
be observed that the removal of this deposit improves the quality of the land.
Caustic lye prepared from Sajji matti and non-edible oils should be utilized for
soap manufacture in villages.
9. Lighting
The non-edible oils as neem, karanji, candle nut, pardi, mahua, rayan, etc.,
which are very little used at present, should be utilized also for lighting
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