aspect of the question that
Government must look for the amelioration of the masses and not to a
pseudo-co-operative edifice, however imposing, which is built in
ignorance of co-operative principles." With this standard before us, we
will not measure the success of the movement by the number of
co-operative societies formed, but by the moral condition of the
co-operators. The registrars will, in that event, ensure the moral
growth of existing societies before multiplying them. And the Government
will make their promotion conditional, not upon the number of societies
they have registered, but the moral success of the existing
institutions. This will mean tracing the course of every pie lent to the
members. Those responsible for the proper conduct of co-operative
societies will see to it that the money advanced does not find its way
into the toddy-seller's bill or into the pockets of the keepers of
gambling dens. I would excuse the rapacity of the Mahajan if it has
succeeded in keeping the gambling die or toddy from the ryot's home.

A word perhaps about the Mahajan will not be out of place. Co-operation
is not a new device. The ryots co-operate to drum out monkeys or birds
that destroy their crops. They co-operate to use a common thrashing
floor. I have found them co-operate to protect their cattle to the
extent of their devoting the best land for the grazing of their cattle.
And they have been found co-operating against a particular rapacious
Mahajan. Doubts have been expressed as to the success of co-operation
because of the tightness of the Mahajan's hold on the ryots. I do not
share the fears. The mightiest Mahajan must, if he represent an evil
force, bend before co-operation, conceived as an essentially moral
movement. But my limited experience of the Mahajan of Champaran has made
me revise the accepted opinion about his 'blighting influence.' I have
found him to be not always relentless, not always exacting of the last
pie. He sometimes serves his clients in many ways and even comes to
their rescue in the hour of their distress. My observation is so limited
that I dare not draw any conclusions from it, but I respectfully enquire
whether it is not possible to make a serious effort to draw out the good
in the Mahajan and help him or induce him to throw out the evil in him.
May he not be induced to join the army of co-operation, or has
experience proved that he is past praying for?

I note that the movement takes not