Darkest India Part 11

THE DRUNKARD'S BRIGADE.

Hundreds of habitual drunkards have been soundly converted and reformed in connection with our ordinary spiritual work in India. Probably there are not less than 500 such enrolled in our ranks in this country, and turned into staunch and perpetual abstainers.

The terrible nature of the drinks and drugs consumed by the Natives, I have already had occasion to describe, as also the increasingly large number of those who are becoming enchained by the habit.

In connection with our present Social Reform, special efforts will be made to reach this cla.s.s. They will be personally dealt with, and placed as far as possible in circ.u.mstances that shall put them beyond the reach of their besetting temptation.

For some time past our Officers, more especially those in charge of the Prison Gate work, have visited liquor-shops and opium and ganja dens, speaking personally to the frequenters, and in some cases distributing among them suitable appeals and warnings in regard to the fatal consequences of the habit.

Untimately it is intended to establish homes for the most hopeless cla.s.s of inebriates, both for those habituated to liquor and for those who are the slaves of the still more fatal drugs, such as opium and bhang.

CHAPTER XI.

THE RESCUE HOMES FOR THE FALLEN.

Here again we have made a beginning. It is now a year since the opening of our Home in Colombo, and during that time 52 girls have been received into our Home. Of these

2 have been restored to their friends,

4 are with others--doing well,

23 have turned out unsatisfactory, and

23 are with us in the Home, almost without exception giving evidence of being truly reformed.

Heart-rending are the tales which have reached our ears as to the way in which many of them have been decoyed from their homes, and as to the miserable existence which they have since been dragging out.

Every Indian city teems with a too fast increasing number of similar unfortunates, for whom at present nothing has been attempted. We propose, therefore, very largely to extend our Homes at all the large centres of population.

Connected as will be this department with the network of other agencies that we have already established, and increased as will be our facilities for reaching this cla.s.s, we are confident that we shall be able to carry out this much-needed reform on a scale commensurate with the evil, besides warning the youths of our cities against the terrible contamination to which they are at present exposed. All the weight of our increasing influence will be thrown into the scale for cutting off both the supply and demand of this infamous traffic in human souls.

CHAPTER XII.

"THE COUNTRY COLONY"--"WASTEWARD HO!"

As has been already explained in the first part of this book, the congested state of the labor market in the agricultural districts is leading to an enormous and increasing immigration of the country population towards the towns, not as a matter of preference, or of choice, but of dire necessity. The object of the Country Colony, as applied to India, will be twofold:

1. It will seek to divert into more profitable channels the steadily increasing torrent of immigration from the villages to the towns.

2. It will re-direct and re-distribute the ma.s.ses of the Submerged Tenth who already exist in every large city.

Like his English representative, the Indian village b.u.mpkin has a natural aversion to town life. Peculiarities in his dialect, dress, and manners make him the laughing-stock of the clever c.o.c.kney townsman. His simplicity and ignorance of the world cause him to be easily victimised by the city sharper, for whom he is no match in the struggle of life. He sighs for his green fields, and longs to get away from the bustle that everywhere surrounds and bewilders him. He surrenders these preferences only, because starvation is staring him in the face, and he has better chances of working, begging, or stealing in the city than in his village.

And yet within a few miles of his birthplace there are frequently tracts of waste land amply sufficient to support him and thousands more. He could reduce it to cultivation if he had the chance. He would infinitely prefer eking out the scantiest existence in this manner to flinging himself into the turbulent whirlpool of town life. Strangely enough the "Sirkar" (Government), to whom these tracts belong, is equally anxious that the land in question should be cultivated. It would yield in the course of a few years as rich a revenue as the acres of exactly similar soil that have been brought under cultivation in the neighbourhood. But the difficulties in the way are well nigh insuperable:

1. The congested labor consists almost entirely of those castes which are looked upon as inferior. The very idea of their emanc.i.p.ation is distasteful to the higher castes, who enjoy in most parts of India an almost exclusive monopoly of the land. Hence any effort to obtain a grant of waste land is met with strong and often bitter opposition, and it is next door to impossible for any one in the position of the Submerged Tenth to fight the battle through.

2. Of course, under the British Government these caste distinctions are not officially recognised. But as a matter of fact they still carry great weight. Anybody can, it is true, pet.i.tion the Government for a grant of this land, but to secure favourable consideration is almost impossible. During the last four or five years I have personally interested myself in several pet.i.tions, with a view to a.s.sisting the pet.i.tioners, whom I knew to be thoroughly deserving of success. And yet after going through a weary tissue of formalities, seldom lasting less than a year, I have not known of a single favourable answer, nor have these advances met with the least sort of encouragement. The Government officials to whom these vast estates are entrusted are mostly so preoccupied with other work that it is impossible for them to give to the subject the personal attention that it requires, and they are guided by the reports of interested and sometimes bribed subordinates. The very fact that they are ent.i.tled to draw exactly the same salary whether the public estate improves or not, removes the incentive that would otherwise exist, even if they were the absentee landlords of the property, while the constant liability to be transferred from one district to another aggravates the difficulty of the situation.

3. Again, there is a lack of the capital necessary for the initial expenses of the cultivator in sinking wells, building houses, supplying cattle and obtaining both seed and food till the harvest has been gathered in.

4. The lack of combination among the congested ma.s.s of labourers is another serious evil. They are as sheep without a shepherd. Individually they have no influence. Collectively they are capable of becoming a mighty power. What is needed at the present moment is a directing head and an enfolding organisation that shall gather them together, bind them in one harmonious whole, and with the help of a friendly Government lead them on to occupy and cultivate these waste lands, converting them into districts inhabited by a sober, thrifty and enterprising population.

Without such a combination the efforts that are made by private enterprise will continue to be carried out on such a petty scale as will utterly fail to cope with or remove the existing evil, and will merely serve to give relief in a few isolated cases. For instance I have in mind one district where to my personal knowledge the amount of congested labor cannot amount on the most moderate calculation to less than half a million people. There is in their immediate neighbourhood abundance of waste land capable of supporting them. The Government is anxious for that land to be occupied. The people are eager to obtain and capable of cultivating every piece of waste that can be placed at their disposal.

If, instead of leaving it to individual caprice and effort to carry on in the present haphazard and redtape fashion, we are able on the one hand to combine this ma.s.s of labor, and to obtain on the other hand from Government the particulars of the land they are desirous of having cultivated, and the most favorable terms on which it can be granted to us, we shall be in a position with, but a very moderate amount of capital at our command, to solve the double problem of the waste land and waste labor, and that within a very short period.

5. The religious influences which we should bring to bear on the colonists would be invaluable, especially in the early days of these colonies. The example of our Officers, their self-sacrificing devotion to the interests of the people, the knowledge that they would gain nothing by the success of the enterprise and that they were actuated solely by the highest motives, the facts that they were sharing the homes of the people, enduring the same hardships and eating the same food, all this would act as an inspiration to the colonists when the early days of trial and difficulty came upon them. No less an authority than Mr. John Morley, M.P., remarked when he first heard of General Booth's scheme, that he considered that its combination of religion with the other details of the plan of campaign was its most hopeful feature, and would be most likely to ensure its success. This seems to apply especially to that portion of the scheme now under consideration.

Indeed, were such an enterprise directed solely by an agency dest.i.tute of this powerful lever, we should antic.i.p.ate failure in nine cases out of ten, no matter how great the ability that directed and how abundant the capital that could be commanded. Individual rapacity and selfishness would spoil everything, and instead of a beautiful spirit of harmony and self-sacrifice, we should find a lucky few gaining the prizes and the ma.s.ses left no better, perhaps worse, off than before.

With these preliminary remarks I would introduce the Country Colony, as suggested by General Booth. It will consist of the following branches, to which no doubt others will be added as we advance:--

1. The Suburban Farm in the vicinity of large cities, including

(a) A dairy for the supply of milk, ghee, cream and b.u.t.ter.

(b) A market garden for fruit and vegetables.

2. The Industrial Village.

3. The Social Territory or Poor Man's Paradise.

4. The City of Refuge.

5. Miscellaneous:

(a) Gangs for public works, such as tanks, railways, roads, &c.

(b) Gangs for tea gardens.

(c) Land along the railways.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE SUBURBAN FARM.

The connecting link between the City Colony and the Country Colony will be the Suburban Farm. Situated conveniently near to the largest cities, it will serve many important purposes.