Darkest India | Page 3

that there would be much difficulty in proving that this
submerged mass constitutes at least one-tenth of the entire population.
No effort has hitherto been made to gauge their numbers, so that it is
impossible to speak with accuracy, and the best that we can do is, to
form the nearest feasible estimate from the various facts which lie to
hand and which are universally admitted.
Let any one who is tempted to doubt the literal truth of what I say, or to
think that the picture is overdrawn, but place himself at our disposal for
a few days, or weeks, and we will undertake to show him, and that in
districts which are as the very Paradise of India, thousands of cases of
chronic destitution (especially at certain seasons in the year) such as
ought to be sufficient to melt even a heart of stone!


CHAPTER II.
WHO ARE NOT THE SUBMERGED TENTH?
Before passing on to consider of whom the destitute classes actually
consist, it will be well in a country like India to make a few preliminary
remarks regarding the numbers and position of their more fortunate
countrymen who have employment of some sort, and are therefore
excluded from the category.
The entire population of British India, including Ceylon, Burmah, and

the Native States amounts according to the Census of 1881 to about
two hundred and sixty-four millions.
These I would divide into five classes--
1st--The wealth and aristocracy of the country consisting of those who
enjoy a monthly income of one hundred rupees and upwards per family.
According to the most sanguine estimate we can hardly suppose that
these would number more than forty millions of the population.
2nd.--The well-to-do middle classes, earning twenty rupees and
upwards, numbering say seventy millions.
3rd.--The fairly well off laboring classes, whose wages are from five
rupees and upwards, numbering say at the most one hundred millions.
4th--The poverty stricken laboring classes, earning less than five rupees
a month for the support of their families. These cannot at the lowest
estimate be less than twenty-five millions.
5th.--The destitute and unemployed poor, who earn nothing at all, and
who are dependent for their livelihood on the charity of others. These
can hardly be less than twenty-five millions, or a little less than
one-tenth of the entire population.
The two hundred and ten millions who are supposed to be earning
regularly from five rupees and upwards per family, we may dismiss
forthwith from consideration. For the time being they are beyond the
reach of want, and they are not therefore the objects of our solicitude.
At some future date it may be possible to consider schemes for their
amelioration.
Indirectly, no doubt, they will benefit immensely by any plans that will
relieve them of the dead weight of twenty-five million paupers,
hanging round their necks and crippling their resources. But for the
present we may say in regard to them, happy is the man who can
reckon upon a regular income of five rupees a month for the support of
himself and his family, albeit he may have two or three relations

dependent on him, and a capricious money lender ever on his track,
ready to extort a lion's share of his scanty earnings. And thrice happy is
the man who can boast an income of ten, fifteen, or twenty rupees a
month, though the poorest and least skilled laborers in England would
reckon themselves badly paid on as much per week.
We turn from these to the workless tenth and to the other tenth who eke
out a scanty hand-to-mouth existence on the borders of that great and
terrible wilderness. But before enumerating and classifying them, there
is one other important question which calls for our consideration.


CHAPTER III.
THE MINIMUM STANDARD OF EXISTENCE.
What may reasonably be said to be the minimum scale of existence,
below which no Indian should be suffered to descend? Fix it as low as
you like, and you will unfortunately find that there are literally millions
who do not come up to your standard.
Pick out your coarsest, cheapest grains, and weigh them to the last
fraction of an ounce. Rigidly exclude from the poor man's bill of fare
any of the relishes which he so much esteems, and the cost of which is
so insignificant as to be hardly worth mentioning, and yet you will find
legions of gaunt, hungry men, women and children, who would
greedily accept your offered regimen to-morrow, if you could only
discover the wherewithal for obtaining the same, and who would gladly
_pay for it with the hardest and most disagreeable description of
labour._
Take for instance the prison diet, where the food is given by weight,
and where it is purposely of the coarsest description consistent