of a foreigner. Jute had been grown for centuries and had been made into coarse cloth for bags throughout Bengal. It was the common material for the garments of the poorest of the people when the demand for clothing became more widespread. It is still used by some of the aboriginal tribes. The increase of the corn trade of the world brought a great demand for rough gunnybags. And for a time the Bengal peasant found himself sure of a market for home-woven jute. At this period the manufacture in India was entirely a home industry. All the processes through which the jute plant passed, from its sowing in the ground to its final appearance as a bag ready for export, were carried out in the districts in which it was grown. These districts cover a narrow area, and therefore changes in the methods of spinning and weaving jute affect a comparatively small number of the population. Though the introduction of suitable machinery for jute weaving in Dundee made the home-weaving of it no longer profitable for the Bengali peasant, the fact that he could at once take part in growing jute for export made the upheaval less serious than it would otherwise have been.

The conditions of the growing, spinning, and weaving of cotton touch the interests of the whole country. Everyone wears cotton in some form or other. The sari,' the turban, the dhoti of the masses of the people are of cotton. The symbolic shirt of the Parsee woman must be of cotton, however rich the silk of her sari and skirt may be. The history, too, of the jute industry is short when it is compared with that of cotton. The muslins of India, the finest of which have been described as woven winds," were known in Rome in the days of her power. In spite of the upheavals of Muslim invasion and the depression of enterprise which accompanied the decay of the Moghul Empire, these and other exquisite fabrics were freely made in many centres until the

A long piece of cloth, which, draped in widely differing ways, is the principal garment of the Hindu woman.

A shorter piece of cloth worn round the thighs of the Hindu man. See p. 48.

beginning of the nineteenth century. Much of the earliest trade of the East India Company was in costly Eastern cloths, curios, and spices. Its policy was the common, policy of the time. It was that of the man of enterprise and initiative who takes for granted that his methods are the obvious ones, and who thinks little of the retiring yet beautiful possibilities that he may be crushing in his stride. In order to have large supplies from which to select, the control of entire markets was secured, and artisans were forbidden to sell any of their work till the Company's officers had made their choice. Great injury was done to Indian industries and craftsmanship. The injustices were probably neither more intentional nor more heartless than those done by sections of the home community to other sections, but coming as they did in the intercourse between peoples of different races, they bear international consequences. Initiative was discouraged and the natural internal trade of the country hampered.

With the culmination of the industrial system in Britain this policy was reversed. Instead of the endeavour to gather the best that India's craftsmen could offer for European markets, came a sudden effort to close the British market by prohibitive tariffs against manufactured textiles, an enhanced demand for raw material, and a determined effort to return that raw material to India either in the form of yarn or of cloth.

It is little wonder that intense bitterness is felt in India to-day on economic grounds. When those who look at cotton from the point of view of Lancashire demand protection from the competition of manufacturers supported by cheap labour, they forget the greatness of the debt that British industries owe to those of the country whose interests have been sacrificed. They forget, too, in spite of many reminders, that the stronger stamina of the Englishman makes it possible for him to do on an average as much work in two hours as an Indian can in six, and that machinery costs about twice as much there as here. These facts are no justification of inadequate wages, which must be dealt with from an international

point of view, but they do affect the propaganda that seeks to use tariffs to force British goods on India.

Reference has already been made to the fact that it is often questioned whether it would not have been better to keep modern industrialism out of India. It is an interesting theoretical question, but it is one that exists in theory alone. In the present world-outlook no great nation can be isolated and left to pursue a policy entirely different from that of its neighbours, still less can it be forced to withdraw itself from the general life of the world. The fact that in the west the social possibilities of the great discovery of mechanical forces have been misunderstood and lamentably misdirected, does not prevent the latter from opening a world-wide opportunity. There is still the possibility that India may be prevented from blundering in her application of the new power to so great an extent as the West has done.

In the east, modern industry is as yet isolated from the general life of the people, and could be modified more easily than it could in lands where it has been in operation for more than a century. At the same time, it must be acknowledged that the reasons that make it impossible for a progressing eastern country to remain unaffected by modern industrialism, make it extremely difficult for her to follow a line of her own, if she does take part in its activities.

While allowance is made for that fact, it may be suggested that a study of countries entirely in the current of industrialism, governed in commerce and manufacture by its demands and sanctions, and of countries that are slowly opening their territories to its operations, does not supply a complete account of the forces that have to be taken into consideration, nor of the public on which they may be expected to take effect. In all parts of the world to-day there are those who are asking why the enlargement of human powers that came with the inventions of Arkwright and his fellows have not led to the enfranchisement of mankind, and who hope and believe that means will yet be devised whereby such a liberation may come. A foreshadowing of the fulfilment of their hope may be

seen in the widespread influence of the Labour Conference held in Washington in 1919.

The deliberations that preceded the calling of the Conference, and the results that have sprung from its discussions and from the conventions adopted by its members show, at least, that men are ready to recognize and acknowledge, with new earnestness, the evils that have been bound up with western civilization, and are asking how these evils can be eliminated. The realization that an adequate answer to this question is of vital and urgent importance, not to individual nations only, but to the whole human race, is being forced on the public conscience in many lands. The question before India is not whether she will wander off on an isolated path, but whether she will take advantage of the opportunity that is open to her and throw herself into line with progressive thought and action.

The fact that her modern developments are still pliable, gives to those who seek that she should lead in the counsels of the nations this clear line of advance. They may demand from industrialism that it create no new evils, and that it be ready to receive and to act upon information concerning the effect it is producing on the moral and social standards of those whom it employs.

CHAPTER V

THE GROWING AND GINNING OF COTTON

IN the heart of India, on a certain Government map, there is an area coloured solid red. It is the only one. The district is that around Amraoti in the Central Provinces, and the reason for its unique colouring is that there alone the growing of cotton occupies more than fifty per cent. of the land under cultivation. From this patch on the map large areas of lesser degrees of redness stretch, till the sprinkled dots on a white ground, that denote areas in which only one per cent. of the cultivated ground is occupied by cotton, give place to islands and strips of pure white. From Kashmir in the north to Tinnevelly in the south the only large areas that grow no cotton are in south Orissa, in Bengal and in the north-west of Rajputana.

The largest proportionate quantity of cotton is grown round Amraoti, but special interest centres on other districts where important experiments are being carried on with a view to improve the quality of Indian cotton. Its value depends on the colour, the silkiness, and the length and strength of its fibres. The chief defect of Indian cotton is the shortness of the fibre. In the past there seem to have been strains of long-stapled cotton grown in districts from which they have now entirely died out. In modern times, until quite recently, Indian cottons have varied from less than half an inch to about three-quarters of an inch in staple. The story of the efforts made during the years since 1840 to increase the length has told of repeated disappointments, but there are large areas in the south of the Bombay Presidency in See Cotton Maps of India, Nos. 1 and 2.