re involved. The old-type nobility has not advanced with
the times. It remains idle and prodigal, while the peasant proprietors,
burdened by the traditions of many centuries, are likewise improvident
and ignorant. On the other hand, the economic conditions of British
India are producing capitalists who seek employment for their wealth. A
conflict between them and the old landholders was predestined, and the
result was inevitable. Wealth goes to the cleverest, and the land must
pass into the hands of new masters, to the great indignation of the
agricultural classes, a portion of whom will be reduced to the position
of farm-labourers."[229]

The Hindu economist Mukerjee thus depicts the disintegration and decay
of the Indian village: "New economic ideas have now begun to influence
the minds of the villagers. Some are compelled to leave their
occupations on account of foreign competition, but more are leaving
their hereditary occupations of their own accord. The Brahmins go to the
cities to seek government posts or professional careers. The middle
classes also leave their villages and get scattered all over the country
to earn a living. The peasants also leave their ancestral acres and form
a class of landless agricultural labourers. The villages, drained of
their best blood, stagnate and decay. The movement from the village to
the city is in fact not only working a complete revolution in the
habits and ideals of our people, but its economic consequences are far
more serious than are ordinarily supposed. It has made our middle
classes helplessly subservient to employment and service, and has also
killed the independence of our peasant proprietors. It has jeopardized
our food-supply, and is fraught with the gravest peril not only to our
handicrafts but also to our national industry--agriculture."[230]

Happily there are signs that, in Indian agriculture at least, the
transition period is working itself out and that conditions may soon be
on the mend. Both the British Government and the native princes have
vied with one another in spreading Western agricultural ideas and
methods, and since the Indian peasant has proved much more receptive
than has the Indian artisan, a more intelligent type of farmer is
developing, better able to keep step with the times. A good instance is
the growth of rural co-operative credit societies. First introduced by
the British Government in 1904, there were in 1915 more than 17,000 such
associat