TIlE IXDIAX SO TF.

TY OF AGRI ULTURAL ECOX0:\[

. nt'HAL UFE ' SEllIES

RURAL BARODA
(A MO~OGRAPH DRAWN UP fW TilE GOVERNMENT OF DAROnA)

Pl • •. . , /ll '

THE I DIAN OCIETY OF AGRICULTURAL ECO OMICS

HO . IB .\ Y
 THE INDIAN SOCIETY OF AGRI ULTURAL ECONOMI
, RURAL LIFE' ERIES

RURAL BARODA
(A Mono~raph drawn up by the Government of Baroda)

With an I ntroduction
BY
MANILAL B. NANAVATI Kt .,
Pre,idtflt, the Indiall Society nl Agricultural Economic,

PulJUahed by
The Indian Society of Agricultural Economics
DO [B AY
1911!l
 r-AGRICUl TURALCOLLEGE,
\--;:- LIBRA RY,
l Acon. No ... S.8..J. ..........
I
Oate ...............................·:..::;;;.:
I H E ~ CAL ,CANCALC i C. ~
-'

Printed by Dhirubbai Dalal at the ~Iated Advertl en & Printers Ltd .,

lI05, Arthur RoeId, Tardeq, Bombay 7, nod published by Tb~ I ndian
800lety of A6fI.cuJturaJ EOODODl~Fs POJ1lbay,
 TABLE OF CONTENT

PAOF.8

Introduction iii

PART I

Crl1rrtll de.'cription of the T rri tory

II The People of the . tat H

PART II

nf Land and ils proLlem 21

IV Cllltivnt ion: Farm ]vluipllIrnt Itnd l'eehlliqu(' . , , :H

V :Mal'ketin~ of ' l'OpS. 53
VI F'inallC'in,g of Agriculture and Thc Co.operative ,Movement 58
YII Indll~ll'ies (Rural and rhan) 741

PART ill

YlII H aith and ;Sanitation ~ :j

IX Education , , 92
X ocial Legislation 102
XI Local elf·Government ] Oil
XII !\Ii cellaneou Agencies for Rural I plift JI8
XIII onclu ion 111
 INTRODUCTION

The League of Nations had arranged to convene a conference of

European Nations to consider the problems of rural life in
all its aspects. Preliminary to the holding of this conference, all
the countries of Europe were invited to prepare monographs accord-
ing to an outline, prepared for the purpose. Owing to the outbreak
of war, the conference could not be held, but the national mono-
graphs as well as others of a more general nature were prepared.
This literature is of considerable value, as it discloses the main fea-
tures of agrarian policies pursued by the governments ~n Europe.

As President of the Indian Society of Agricultural Economics,

it Qccurred to me that similar studies dealing with rural condi-
tions in various provinces and the important States of India, if pre-
pared by each government, might bring forth very useful data, both
for t~ research workers in agricultural economics and social workers
in rural areas. Accordingly, in 1943, a synopsis was prepared suited
to Indian conditions and was circulated among the Provinces and
important States in India. Most of the administrators were then
busy with war work and they could not undertake the compilation.
The Madras government, however, prepared a very comprehen-
sive study. This has already been published. The second in the
series is this one about Baroda. It has taken a long period in pre-
paration but we are glad it is ready just about the time the State
merges its identity into the Province of Bombay. The volume may
prove useful for the limited purpose of summarising the varied
activiti,es of this premier Indian State.

The original manuscript was ready some time ago, but it was
felt that it needed some revision. This took a much longer time
than we originally calculated. We are thankful to Messrs. A. C.
Mukerji and M. H. Shah, for the trouble they took in preparing it,
on behalf of the State authorities. The statistical data comes upto
1945 and it was not considered worthwhile to bring it up-to-date,
in view of the merger of the State territories into the Bombay Pro-
vince. At thi,s stage, it was not possible for the Society to do more
than a rapid revision and add some information on a few important
topics. This work was entrusted to Mr. T. M. Desai, a retired officer
v
of the State and one who is well acquainted with all these activities.
He has done ~t ably and we are very grateful to him for this.

The Indian Society of Agricultural Economics is glad to bring

out this monograph in its Rural Life Series and is thankful to the
Baroda State authorities for getting it prepared and for financing its
publication.

Before this monograph on Rural Baroda comes out in print, the

State as such will have lost its independent political entity and be-
come a part of the Bombay Province . . But Baroda with its three
score small towns and its three thousand villages will, of course, go
on with their variegated lives. Some will question both the pro-
priety and the usefulness of bringing out this publication, now that
this change i.n the status of the State has been decided upon. But
it should not be forgotten, that in the renaissance that swept over
India during the last three quarters of a century, Baroda and its then
ruler, made a definite contribution in originating some <?f the ideas
and movements and in emphasising others that collectively went to
make up this renaissance.

At the beginning of this urge for reform, Baroda happefted to

have at its helm of affairs, an original thinker and an administrative
genius, with the energy, enthusiasm and courage of youth.
Baroda was, indeed, fortunate because His Highness the Maharaja
Sayajirao III, was not in the direct line of succession to
the Baroda 'gadi'. He came not from a palace but from a cottage,
from amongst the people, from a small village, on the border line
where the two great cultural units of Gujarat and Maharshtra meet;
with all the early impressions of the hardships and miseries of life
in an Indian village, indelibly marked on his mind. These may have
faded but were never effectively effaced, by the sudden transforma-
tion brought about by fortune, in his environment and surrounding",
for the rest of his long li.fe.

It is now a recognised fact that Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwar

was a pioneer in many directions. He it was who not only first con-
ceived the idea that education should be for the masses and not a
privilege of the few, as it was then, but made a constructive effort
to establish schools and made attendance in them compulsory for
every child. He started a network of libraries even in the most dis-
tant rural areas. He perceived the injustice to which the Harijans
and the backward forest races, were being subjected in the everyday
life of the community and made strenuous efforts to improve their
I
lot. He attacked one evil social custom after another, that wa sap-
ping the life of the people, of all its strength and vigour. Women
of Baroda owe a great debt to this their great champion who per-
ceived their helplessness in the scheme of life and did all he could,
to re-establish their position in society, both by tr ing to educate
them and by effecting radical changes in the laws that governed
marriage and women's right to property.

All these things, though parochial in their beginnings, could not

but influence the life outside the Baroda limits. Baroda's effort to
recreate a new and vigorous life for its thousands of villages, had
many repercussions not only in the villages in Gujarat and Kathia-
war, but in many places far afield. For nearly half a century or
more, many eyes were turned to Baroda; many a reformer and ad-
ministrator came to Baroda to study its activities and ~ts institutions.
A good many of these were adopted and transplanted elsewhere.
As a pioneer, Baroda naturally made mistakes. Others were saved
from making them. As a pioneer, Baroda had to seek and evolve
solutions for a good many difficulties. Others benefited by these and
had the remedies for them without their having to undergo the waste
involved in trial and error.

The momentum that this man gave to all these movements, for
the social and economic uplift of the people, carried them on for an-
other decade after his death in 1939. Baroda will soon cease to be
a separate unit and will have to find and take its place in the larger
life of the Bombay province and that of India as a whole. There
will be many changes, there will, no doubt, be many gains, but un-
fortunately, there will be some losses too. 'T he emphasis too will
change; both the tempo and the rythm will be different. Life in
Baroda will take on new forms and new shapes. It is in the fitness
of things and the natural process of evolution, that it should be so.
lt is also natural that there should be regrets and even some mis-
givings at the passing of an old order of things and the prospects of
a radical change in the form and the contents of life for many, espe-
cially in the minds of those who have been actively associated for a
long time, with many of these activities and for many to whom it
was their life's work.

It, therefore, needs no apology from me who was associated

with the state during my active life for bringing out this short
booklet, recording in brief the efforts that were made during the
past half century, in trying to organise rural life within the state of
vii
Baroda, to bring about a change for the better. It will be an useful
record for those who follow , whether as administrators or social
workers. Bombay may even now learn a great many things from
what it inherits from Baroda. And perhaps this is the most oppor-
tunate time for preparing and publishing this record, when the state
is losing its identity and seeking its natural place in the vast ocean
of life that is India.

20th July 1949.

MANILAL B. NANAVATI -
President,
Indian Society of Agricultural Economics.
 PART I
CHAPTER I

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE TERRITORY

Baroda State lies scattered in Gujarat and Kathiawar, The

territories are divided into five administrative divisions viz., Baroda,
Mchsana, Navsari, Armeli and OkhamandaL The first four of these
lie between 20° .45' and 24 ° .9' N. Latitude and70 ° .42' and 73 ° _59' E
Longitude, The Okhamandal district lies between 22 ° .5' and 22" .35',
N, Latitude and 69 ° .5' and 69°20' and 69° ,20' E. Longtitude.
The territories of the state form part of the great natural divi-
sion of Gujarat, one of India's historic tracts. Gujarat has an area
of about 63,000 sq. miles and Baroda State with an area of 8,176 sq.
miles forms only a little more than an eighth of Gujarat. However,
the districts of the state lie scattered all over Gujarat in such a way
that the different aspects of the composite life, the physiography, the
linguistic and ethnical variations of Guja-rat as a whole, are fully
r::presented in the territories of the state. From the point of view
of administration, the interlacing of the territories of the state wHh
those of the Bombay Province and other Indian states, especially ill
south Gujarat and Kathiawar, creates peculiar difficulties and
raises problems uncommon to compact areas. Demographically,
bowe\,er, this spread over of territories has been responsible for the
rH:h::1ess of the human material, the variety of cultures and the fusion
of distinct social trends under the stress and strain of changing poli-
tical and economic conditions.

Nat1tral Divisions
(i') Korth GII.iCll'a(: The mainland of Gujarat has three main
divisions, the northern with its sloping river valleys, a belt of saline
tract towards the north-west and west, a fertile and wooded region
much cut up by ravines in the south-east and almost entirely bound-
ed on its west by the Sabarmati river. These features are found in
the Mehsana district which belongs to North Gujarat.
(ii ) Central Gttjaraf -Central Gujarat consists of transitional
.low land plains. The trans-Mabi valley of the Charotar and the
tel'rit.ory spread between the Mahi and the Narbada can be readily
divided into four roain parts viz., (1) th fertile overcultivated
Charotar tract, (2) the central low lands of the Vakal, (3) the rolling
R.B.- I
2 RURAL BARODA

dry tracts of the east frequently erupted by hills, and (4) the black
cotton soil of the Kanam of which the city of Baroda may be taken
as the" northern limit. The district of Badora lies within this tract.
(iiI ) Soulll Gujm'oi : -South Gujarat comprises the tract bet-
wcen the rivers Narbada in the north and Darnanganga on the south.
The Navsari district is wholly included in this, except for the isolated
hill fort of Salher, which is detached and lies towards the south-east
of the district and is surrounded by the Bombay district of Nasik.
(1\ ) Ii:(Jlhiflu t(lf7:-The Kathiawad divisiol\ of the state consists
of about eighteen different bits forming the districts of Amreli and
Okhctm~ndal. Its brown shallow soil retains little moisture but pro-
duces good crops with good and timely rain. It has a sea-coast, well
ma;;ked and distinctive, possessing abundant water facilities in parts
like Kodinar. On the other hand, the Okhamandal coast is black,
arid and salt infested. The agricultural population is lazy and thrift-
less, but the long coast line favours adven'ture, trade and enterprise.
This extraorctmary configuration of the Baroda territory-its
diversity and fragmentation,-is the legacy of two centuries .of mili-
tary exploits, internecine wars and financial and administrative mi:s-
management.

Physiogl'aphy 0/ th e tal e
Thc greater part of the state lies within the area of the coastal
band of the Alluvium which has been formed of the detrital deposits
brought down from the western slopes of Malva and the southern
pArts of Rajputana by many rivers, large and small, which drain the
province of Gujarat. The upward slope of the alluvial land from the
sea-board eastward is very gradual so that except where wind-blown
accumu1ations of loam or sand make small eminences here ana there,
the oun1.ry appears to be dead flat. It is only as the eastern side
of the alluvial fiat is approached that low hills make their appeatance,
The number 'of eminences deserving the name of hills is very
~mall. Among them is Lachharas in the Sankheda taluka. The
panornma from the top is beautiful and geographically instructive.
There are no hills in the Mehsana ' district itself but far and wide to
the East and North are seen the spurs of the Aravalli hills in the
lVIahikantha territories and the Palanpur State. There are many
eminences worth noting in the Navsari district. The eastern half of
the Mongrol taluka lying between the Narbada and the Tapti rive;s
is n hilly tract. So are also the talukas of Songadh and Vyara and
the porthern part of Mahuva, The only hills worth mentioning in_
 the Amreli district are found in some parts of the Gir forests within
the Dhari taluka and the Khambha peta mahal.
The four principal rivers falling into the Gulf of Cam bay ar the
Sabarmati, the Mahi, the Narbada and the Tapti. A comparatively
small part of these important rivers however flows through ijaroda
territory. Of much smaller size are the Dhadhar between the Mahi
and the Norbada, the 'Kim between the Narbada and the Tapti and
to the south of the latter the Mindhola, the Purna and the Ambica.
The only river of importance in the Amreli District is the Shetrunji .
. which rises in the highest part of the Gir forests and drains the cen-
tra] part of the district. The smaller ones are the Rawal and the
Dhatarw~di of the Dhari taluka, the Shingavdo which divides the
Korunar taluka into unequal lobes and the Rangoli of the Damnagar
Tal .... ka.
The area of the state according to the census of 1941 is 8176.12
square miles including the Pethapur tributory. This is not large as
compared with that of some other states e.g., Jodhpur and Bikaner
in Rajputana, Gwalior in Central India and Mysore in Southern
India. The area of the state is slightly greater than the total of all
other Gujarat states. is somewhat less than that of Bombay Gujlrat
and is less than one-fourth of the Western India States, as detailed
below:-
Parts of Gujarat Area in square miles
Baroda State 8,176
Bombay Gujarat 10,183
_Other Gujarat States 7,635
Western India States 36,797
Of the total area of the State, 1,933 sq. miles are covered by the
Ba-roda district, 1,811 sq. miles by the Navsari district, 1,352 sq. miles
by the Amreli district including Okhamandal and 3,080 sq. miles by
the Mehsana district.
. The climate varies considerably district by district. It may be
said generally that it is dry and hot in the hot season, which com-
mences in Mnch and ends in June. The climate during the rainly
season, i.e., July to October is hot ~nd moist. During the cold season,
which co~ences in Nov~mber and ends in February, the climate
is dry and cold. In the months of September and October the climate
is m~re unhealthy tban that at any other time of the year and the
people suffer considerably from malarial fever.
Baroda :-The maximum temparature during the hottest;. part ' of
the day rises to 112°F. Ot even to 115°F. The minimulll temperature
•
 RURAL BARODA

is as low as 80 n F. The climate during the rainy season is hot and

moist. The raiI)s set in towards the middle of June, lasting till the
end of September. The maximum temperature during this season is
86 ' F. and the minimum 78°F. The climate during the cold season
which commences in November and lasts till the end of February
is dry· and cool with a maximum temperature of 92 "F. and the mini-
mum of 40°F. The coldest months are generally December and
January. .
'lli li sa I/o : - Throughout the Mehsana district, generally speaking
the dimate is hot but healthy. There is, however, considerable differ-·
ence in the intensity of the heat experienced, the heat in the northerh
part being more oppressive than that in the southern. The heat of
Patan, for instance, resembles the heat of Marwad more than that of
Ahmedabad.
Xr!t'sIJ?'i ;-In the Navsari district, the climate along the sea coast
is equitable under the influence of a sea breeze. This district exhibits
great climatic variations. Inland, the climate around Umarpada,
Vajpur and other forest areas is far more unhealth y than that on the
se", coast. Near Navsari and Billimora, the climate is so mild and
equitable that it is frequented during the hol weather by invalids in
need of a change. Durin g the months of May and June a strong steady
breeze comes up the creek, so that even the most trying time of the
year is enjoyable here.
, .11'11I"lJ£i: - The climate of the Alm'eli district is. in general, pleasant
al}d healthy. Amreli and Damnagar are the most healthy parts of
the district. However, the months of January, February and March
are marlted by heavy dew and thick fogs, which are unhQalthy. The
hot wheather begins in April and lasts till the rains. Hot wind blows
during summer but the hot wheather months (April to June) are
the healthiest in the year. There is always a ~ool breeze at ni ght.
Oliholllandal: -Due to the proximity of the sea, the climate of
Okhamandal is pleasantly cool during the winter and not unbearably
hot during the summer. From March to October north-westerly
bt"eezes alternate with westerly and south-westerly wiflds and for the
,r emainder of the year, an east wind prevails with an occasional vari-
ation of northern breezes. A delightfully cool and invigoratng breeze
blows all the year round at night.

The average annual rainfall ranges from about 30 to 50 inches

.;n · different parts of the Baroda district, irom 19 to 30 inches in the
Mchsana district, from 40 to 70 inches iq the NilV$Ari district and 12
•
 RURAL BARODA

to 30 inches in the Amreli district. How great the variations are

from year to year can be seen from t!:e details given below:-
-
Deeellinl
District t\vcrnge
(l!Hll -n) 1940-41 1 !l ·~4 - :;

Baroda as ' 1:; 30 · 35 5:!

Mehsana 28 · M \7 · 07 Hi<
Nnvsari 50 ·:l(l 7'.l'7R I'll ' .1
Alllreli HI · tO In · I:J at
Okhal1landal \5 ' 08 1) . :.1 41

The fall is the heaviest in the southernmost district and it goes

on diminishing as the monsoon current travels from 'the south towards
the north. It is considerably heavier in Gujarat proper than in
Kathiawad. The duration of the rainfall is about 4t months in the
N~v~,l r i district. commencing early in June and ending by the middle
of October. It is four mont.l'fs in the other divisions commencing a
little later, that is, about the end of June. The character of the kharif
cropf and the 'prospects of the rabi crops depend entirely upon the
regulnrity and the seasonableness of rainfall from the middle of June
or the beginning of July to the middle of October. The late showers
of O('tober help the spring crops also. Sufficient and timely rain in
June, July and August in the Navsari district and in July and August
in other districts promises a good harvest but the full and sa.tisfactory
ma:urity of crops depends upon the September and October shower"s.
The total r ainfall and what is more important, its distribution
from fortnight to fortnight or month to month during the season, is
the chief controlling factor in the life and means of subsistence of
the people of the state which is mainly agricultural. Failure of the
monsoon current, its premature cessation or its unequal distribution
leads to a total or partial distress for a great majority of the people.
Directly or indirectly this results also in great damage to property
and even loss of life. For instance the famine of 1899-1900 was an
unprecedented calamity when men and cattle in large numbers
perished. Similarly the floods of 1927 caused a great havoc in a
greater part of the state.
It would seem from the description of the state that it cannot
have any rich minerals. Three geological surveys have been made.
These surveys showed that there are hardly any valuable minerals
except the following in small quantities:-
1. Metals-Iron .
. 2. Chemicals-Iron pyrites, Bauxite, Sea-weeds.
 RURAL BARODA

3. Salts-Natural soda, Fuller's ~arth.

4. Glass and porcelain-Sandstone, stone and china clay.
5. Cement material.
6. Stones-Marbles, granite, basalt, limestone, agates.

As part of the state is situated on the sea, there are good facilities
for the development of fisheries. The fishery resources of the Baroda
state are mainly those of true fish-both marine and fresh-water, but
they also include the Crustaceans. and Molhises. Among the last ar~
the Cenahes and Oysters, the latter of which are valued for the cheap
pearls they yield.

Soils and their Variety

The soils are mainly alluvial, except in the hilly parts of the
Navsari and Amreli districts and in ~he south-east corner of the
Baroda district, where they are mostly formed by the disintegration
of the underlying rocks. These alluvial soils may roughly be divided
into gorat or light-red sandy loam, besar or mixed loam and kali or
blnck. The soils formed from the rocks are for the mo::;t part black,
but where these have come into contact with the alluvial 'loils, a
variety of besar has been formed. The distribution. of these soils may
very briefly be described as follows :-

The soils of the Navsari and Baroda districts may principally be

classed as gorat or light coloured, kaH or black and besar ;Which is in-
termediate between the other two kinds. As a rule, the black soil of
the Navsari distri~t is far superior to the soil of similar kind found in
the othE'r districts. The lands formed in the beds of rivers from
alluvial deposits are found in the Navsari distri~t and are the most
productive. In the Mehsana district, the soil is mostly of the light
salldy kind. Black soil is met with, but merely in patches in parts
of the district, except in Kadi and Kalol talukas where in the southern
parts it is wholly black. The soils of the Amreli district except
. Okhamandal may be classed under the two main heads- black and
gorat, But the black and gorat soils of this district are much inferior
to the similar soils of the Baro~la and the Navsari districts, on account
of the shallow depths, scanty rainfall and dry climate. In Okhaman-
dal, the northern half is slightly red, but the whole of the coast line
is sandy and unproductive. Inland. the soil is fairly productive and
fertile.
 RURAL BARODA 7

The total area of the state at present is 8,176 square mil .s. The
totAl area in terms of bighas*-the local unit-is 88,90,442. Of this
total .area only 70,60,892 bighas (Le. 80 per cent) are fit for cultivation.
Of t.his t.otal cultivable area, 66,80,786 bighas are .already under aciuai
cuHivation, i.e., nearly 78 per cent of the total area and 96 per cent
is
of th~ cultivable area finder cultivation. The details Are 81< under:--

Total rea Area r (I,

D istrict • areas in eu lth'able clIltinl.tl'tl 1I0t.
. bi~has clIl ti "Lltt'(l

Ba roda ·. ·. ·. 2,102.121 1,761,000 1,151,(100 lO,OOO

MehsanQ ·. ·. ·. 3 ,842 ,882 3005,000 2, 32,000 178,000
Navsari ·, ·. ·. 1,912,11!) . 1,153,000 1,141,000 12,000
Amreli ·. ·. ·. ],167,247 ~ 5,000 893,000 72,000
Okhamnnrlnl ·. ·. ·. 806,023 289,000 1<15,000 1·,1,,000

, Total ·. 8,890441 7,129 ,000 6,182,000 3 ~ i, OOO

The extension of cultivation has gone on steadily since 1881 as wi})

be s en from the following tabl : -

Total . Cultivable Culti"ated Percellt· P erc nt·

\.'ear area
(Bighas)
a rea
. ~U'cO; nge of
2to1
age of
3 to 2

18 1 ·. ·. 9,331 ,G·J,] .'I,GO!),Oll '1.,5.J.1,8BH 00 . I'll

·. , .
1. III
1901 ·. ·. S,9'6, ll"1
X.Rl1) ,811
G,G:W,827
O.7(l1.3G2
5,·t04, 198
:i ,815,OO5
75
75
1'18
Ii(l
1911 ·. ·. 1l,!)lO,lO8 (i,161,362 O,O·n,321 7.)' !HI
1!)21 ·. ·. R,850,30S H,H68,517 6 ,437,01 n R2 !l2
1981 ·. ', ' 8,800,596: 1,090,20R 6,698,876 77 !l4
1941 ·. ·. 8,890, 4601 1,060,892 0,087,452 71'12 {HI

The figures regarding the total area of the State show that it has
remained almost constant during the last 70 years. The figures of
cultivable area in 1941 show an increase of 15 per cent over the fiiure
of 1891, thus adding 15 per cent more land for cultivation. A 1<teady
attp.mpt is made to bring unoccupied arable lands under cultivation.
Higl1 prices and good seasons have increased the occupied area during
the last quinquennium by 96,000 bighas.
.. There are 636 square miles of forests mostly in Navsari and the
rest in Baroda and Amreli districts. All forests may be ~lasRified as
dt'ciduous and mixed. The most important species of trees are Sag
• One blaha-lO/17 acre,
8 RURAL BARODA

(Sec1.ona grandis), Beeya CPterocarpus marsupium) ,Sisham (Dal-

bergi. Sisoo), Sadada (Terminatia tomentosu), Khair (Acacia cate-
chu), Haldwan (Adina cordifolia) and other species of less importance
are Kalam (Stenphygena parisflora), Kantee (Acasia modest.a), Dha-
man (Grewia silicofolia), Tirnru (Diospyros melanovylan), Bondara
(Lagerstrocmia lanceolata), Asintra (Banhimia racemosa), Behda
(Zerminlia belercia), Kagdoli (Strenlia urens), Babul (Acaci Ara-
bicA), Khakhar (Butes froidosa) and Bamboo (Bambusa arudinacer).
The total revenue from and expenditure over fore~ts ,was Rs. 14.67
lakhs an,d Rs. 1.41 lakhs respectively in 1942T43.
The territories of Baroda state are mostly situated inland except
at two places in Kathiawar and one in Gujarat. There are two sea
ports, one at Rupen in Okh~ and the other at Mul Dwarka in Kodinar.
These are fair weather ports and most of their trade is local. How-
evel', the port at Okha has recently been developed. This port is far
superior not only to the other Baroda state ports but to the rest of the
Kathiawar ports. There is only one important river port in Gujarat
viz., Billimora in the Navsari District on the B.B. & C.I. Railway main
line. It is an old port and was quite an important one before the
advent of t~e railway.
From the geographical and physical characteristics of the state,
it will be apparent that due to the distances bebtween itR component
parts and the interlacing of territories with those of the Bombay Pro-
vince and other States, the general economic and agricultural condi-
tions very greatly from one part to another,

CHAPTER II
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE

Pop1tlotion
The population of the state as ascertained in the last census taken
on 1st March 1941 disclosed a total of 2,855,010 souls (1,472,909 males"
and 1,382,101 females.) To facilitate comparison with other Indian
provinces and states in respact of area and population, we give below
figures Of thees for a few important areas:-
 RURAL BARODA

Area m
quare Population
mile. (in lakhs)

Kashmir 8~J4il 89 ' 4

Hyderabad ~2,(l!)8 101 ' 8
Mysore 29,820 78·3
Gwalior 20,867 ag · \)
Baroda ~ , 176 2 ·55
Travancore 7,625 60 ' 7
Cochin 1,4 !) 14 ' 2
Madras 142,277 4!)8 ' 4~
UnitecJ,Provinces 100,248 550 ' 21
Punjab !)!),200 284 ' l!)
Bengal 77,551 608'H
Bombay 77,221 20 ' 5

Baroda is thus one of the most densely populated areas even

amongst some of the most thickly populated .parts of India.

According to the census of 1872, the sta te had a population of

1,997,589 souls wl).ereas in 1941, the' population was 2,855,010 .
showin g an increase of 38 per cent for the last seventy
years, with an average decenial increase of only about 5 ~
per cent. This increase is shared b y the districts of the
state in various proportions. South Gujarat or th e Navsari dis-
tnct records the greatest advance, the population having shown an
increase of 70 per cent. Kathiawar i.e., the Amreli district has gained
by a1)out 65 per cent. But central Gujarat, i.e. , the Baroda district
has advanced only 30 per cent; while north Gujarat i.e., the Mehsana
distr ict has advanced by 39 per cent. The variation from decade to
decade, however, was not uniform as a glance at the figures given
bc](nv will gQ. to show.
Percentage
of vMiatioll
Year Population sine the
previous
cellsus
· 1872 1,997,598
1881 2,188,158 + 1) , 24
1891 2,415,896 + 10 ' 08
1901
1911
1921
..
'
1,952,092 .
2, 058,792
2,126,521
- 19 ' 15
+ 4·1
+ 4'6
1981 2,448,007 + 14·8
1941 2,855,010 + 16 ' 6

•
10 RURAL BARODA

The figures are significant and it would be interesting to subjec.t

them to a further analysis with regard to the main causes of these
wide fluctuations. .
1872 to 1891 Upto 1891, the population of the state showed a con-
•
tinuous increase. From 1872 to 1891 the population
rose by 20 per cent. Such a phenomenal growth is
accounted for by (1) better enumeration, (2) general
develop.ment of the state and (3) favourable balance of
migration.
1891 to 1901 During the decade 1891-1901, there was a decrljase of
19.15 per cent in the population which was mainly due
to adverse seasonal conditions, defective rainfall,
plague, and the disastrous famine of 1899 during the'
decade which killed nearly ' 600,000 of the people as
estimated in the 1901 census report.
1901 to 1921 From 1901 to 1921 the population increased by about
8.7 per cent. As compared to the earlier decades this
increase is small. The earlier decades showed a de-
cennial progress of 10 per cent, while these later de-
cades show a decennial increase of about 4 per cent.
This was due to adverse seasonal conditions and ' the
plague and influenza epidemics.
1921 to 1941 The last two decades, 1921-1931 and 1931-41 again show
a rapid growth of population, the increas~ being 14.8
per cent during the first and 16.6 per cent. during the
second . Explaining the increase during the decade
1921-31, the Census Commissioner Mr. S. V. Mukerjee
wrote:
"The volume of births declined fr~m 898,060 in
1911-21 to 870,620 but owing to healthier conditions of
living, the number of survivers increased from 71,316
to 190,620."
Further to quote from the census report of 1941, "In
the next decade (1921-1931), {however, no epi.demic~
were in evidence, but seasonal conditions still continued
to be unpropitious, what with floods, and frosts, locusts
and poor monsoons, and towards the end of the decade a
steep decline in prices. Nevertheless, the processes of
enlightened administration worked vigorously~for the
benefit of the people" resulting in an increase of 14.8
per cent: The record increase of 16.67 per cent during
the decade 1931-41 is mainly due to the improved social
 RURAL BARODA 1~

and economic conditions in the State. The decade

under consideration was markedly worse than the pre-
vious one owing to the severe economic depression
which began to be felt in 1931 and continued almost
till the next census in 1941. In spite of these adverse
conditions, the census of 1941, showed a remarkable
increase of 16.6 per cent, quite the largest rate of
growth since 1872. The rea~on for 'this record increase
was the vastly improved conditions of health and sani-
tation and other amenities of life.
It is, however, interesting to note that from a comparative study
of the growth of population in other parts of India for the period
1881-1941, population of Baroda did not on the whole increase as
much as that of other Indian states and provinces during this period.
The following statement shows the comparative rates of increase in
population:-

P r ntag
Name of the Province or ~tate. of increa c
from
1881 to 1941

India 54 %
Travancore 181 ' 1 %
ochin 118' RO/o
Bengal 85'8 %
Mysor e fltI ' 4 %
Madras 68 ' 2 %
The Punj ab 59 · 6 %
Hyderabad 5 '1%
Bombay 48'1 %
Baroda 28'0 %
Gwalior 21'9 %
The United Provinces 24·2 %

The reasons for these great variations are very complex and
would take us far into regions, which are not quite pertinent to our
present enquiry. But they are given for what they are worth , for
others interested in this branch of research, to follow up.
Density:-The density of population ~ square mile has incre-
ased pari passu with the increase of total population. As per the
cel1:ms of 1941, the density per square mile is 349 for the state. It
wns 246 in 1872, shOwing an increase of 103 persons per square mile
aftCl' having reached a minimum of 204 in 1911, indicating a fairly
rapid devel~ment 'Of the resources of the state. Comparini the
 RURAL BARODA

density of population in Baroda with other Inaian states and pro-

vine''''';;, it appears that Baroda is fairly densely populated, lying mid-
way between 664 per sq. mile in travancore and 604 in Bengal and
169 in Bombay an~ 134 in Gwalior.
Below we give figures for the variations in this density from area
to area in the whole of Gujarat and Kathiawar:-

1941 1981 1921

Baroda State - ·. ·. ·. 849 299 261

Central Gujarat · . ·. ·. 496 426 366
.
Charotar ·. ·. ·. 785 748 G82
Kanam ·. ·. ·. 342 291 251
ChorMi ·. ·. ·. 300 25 ~ 299
Vakal ·. · .. ·. 795 (142 558
Kathiawad ·. • I ·. lEI'" 151 . 182
Middl Block ·. ·. 180 ]52 138
cattercd area ·. ·. ] 73 }·12 184
en Coast ·. ·. ·. lns 154 129

North Gujaral ·. · . ·. 383 380 294

Enst Kadi ·. ·. ·. 4(]4 897 851
Trans-Sabarlllnti Arm ·. 295 220 106
West Kad; ·. ·. ·. :lIlS 277 243

South Guj arnt ·. ·. ·. 257 223 188

llani . . ·. ·. ·. 14fJ ]29 llO
Rasti . . ·. ·. ·. 530 451 890
Semi-nasti · . ·. ·. 224 202 15!)

It is evident from this that central Gujarat, which includes

the Baroda district has the highest number of souls viz. 496 per square
mile. The density ha s been increasing in these parts from decade
to decade. Next comes north Gujarat, which includes the Mehsana
district with a density of 383. The third in rank is south Gujarat (i.e.
the Navsari district) with a density of 287. The natural division of
Kathiawad which includes Amreli. Okhamandal and Beyt has 184
souls per square mile. The pressure of population on land in all
these parts has been increasing steadily, decade after decade .

Ca tes and Comm1f1titie •

The population of the State is mainly Hindus, who form 89 per
cent of the total. The next important class, the Muslims have a
strength of 7 per cent. The details of the composition of population
by communities are as under:-
• -.
 RURAL BARODA 18

Populntion PopuJation I,.arJa. t"

I 1011
Community (000) p r I I er cent

,
omitt.ed. 10000
I sinr 11131.

Hindu · . ·. ·. ·. 256;1 8984 ' 4 + 1 ·2

chedule ·. ·. ·. 231 808 · ., + 13 ' 8
Other ·. ·. ·. 23:H 1'1170·0 + HI'15
Muslim ·. ·. ·. ·. 22,t 783'2 + 22 · ·...
Jaill ·. ·. ·. ·. '~7 J (l·k:l - 8 ·2
Christian · . ·. ·. ·. U· j 3a'2 -t 30 ' 7
Par see ·. ·. ·. ·. (I ·n 2~ · a - 2'S
Tribal ·. ·. ·. ·. 2 · .... H· ~ - !H'i'
Primitin' tribes ·. ·. ·. :J7:l'~ HU5 ' (i + 1IHi
Hindu ·. ·. ·. :ml ·1-I laO"2 18 ' 1'1
Tribal · .
Others
·.
·.
·.
·.
·.
·.
:_! • •~
()'T ., R·
2·:3
~ - (H·7
I (j · H

The distribution of population 'by main castes in 1941 was:

XalliC of Caste P opllintioll

p CI' lholl SILlld.

(1) Hindu auu Alli ed.

Haria 14·H75 ~n
Brahman .. 13f1(1(18 ,m
:-ichedulcd 01' depressed 230794- 81
Pntidar .. 505605 177
Thakar or Thakarda 231978 8]
Tribes 873207 131
Rajpll1: 101156 85
Yania 94388 33

(2) Muslim.
Sha.ikh 80051 11
Pathan 1745H II
Vora IJ288!/ 12

Naturally the biggest group is that of Patidars, th e main and

the most efficient agricultural class, which is di~ided into two sec-
tions 'Lewa' localised in central Gujarat and 'Kadwa' found mostly
in north Gujarat. The Patidar total is almost equally divided b t-
ween these two-the Kadwa showing a slight majorkty. Among
t~e larger Muslim elements is the Shaikh, a somewhat vague generic
term, to which it appear many adherents on the fringe of Islam
(hitherto known as Sbaikhdas) usually get themselves added ,at
every census. It no longer retains its original ethnic significance .
•
 RURAL BARODA

Adivasis or the Primitive Tribes

There are eighteen tribes, definitely recognised as belonging to
the primitive tribes in the state. These numbered 312051 and 373207 in
1931 and 1941 respectively. It would be vseful to record the names
and the strength of each of these tribes, as the Adivasis constitute a
definite problem not only for the Bombay Province, but are a special
responsibility of the whole of India and will engage more and more
attention of the governments concerned in the near future.

Tl'ib and local i ty Person.

-.
Al tribes
1041

373207
Hl81

' 812051
1. Bavcha (city) .., 1501 1186
2. Bhil (Baroda & Navsllri Pi,·jsiolt) .. 63038 84542
8. Chodhra 48205 38784-
4. Dhanka (Baroda " Division) " 2903 8457
5. Dhodia. (Navsal'i Division) 82448 26182
6. Dubla 88664 12894
7. Gamit " " 69271 59218
8. Kathudia " " 476 551
9. - Kokna " " 10025 7952
10. Koigha 1245 991
11. Kotwalia 2248 2207
12. Mavehi " " 350 919
18. Nayakda (Baroda" "
& Navsari Dn.) 16216 11802
14. Tadvi (Baroda Division) 25178 20817
15. Talavia (Bo.roda & Navsari Dn.) 87815 52565
16. Valoji (Navsari Division) .. 591 182
17. Varli " " .. 226 1368
18. Vasava (Baroda & Navsari Dn.) 26085 17527
10. Unspecified "Raniparaj " 1722 10

Bi1'lh alld D eath Rates

In the ten years 1931-1941, 835.262 births and 544,164 deaths were
registered. The birth and death rates calculated per mille on the
1931 population w~e 34.2 and 22.3 per cent respectively. In the pre-
vious decades the corresponding proportions were 27.4 and 21.0 per
mille.
There has been a steady increase in the birth rate, almost from
decade to decade which can be ascribed to extension of facilities for
medical relief, resulting in a considerable decrease in mortality.
The following table gives the total number of deaths recorded
and their causes:-
•
 RURAL BARODA

Tora.1 Plague Cholera Small Measles Fe\-er Dysent-

Year death. po - ry nnd
Diarrhoen

1930-31 41958 }o 23<~ 372 .... 3819U 671

1931-32 48056 63 8H3 61 .... 39227 G0
1932-33 40045 291 ~ 17] ' " . 89 55 699
J933-34 48521 2~2 :3 23!) '" . !39B18 4d~
1984-85 58150 210 416 15;7 159 471115 614
}!J85-36 55220 .... 291 896 570 ,1.,1758 712
] 986-87 52415 '" . 18 317 63 42979 oB
J 937·88 65709 .... 281 ] 26 229 55135 888
1988-39 64655 .... 250 259 5!l2 54049 824
1989-40 00485 ... . .. 1887 203 49]56 865
1940-41 67]88 .... 192 ~38 824 556!.l8 1080
1941-4~ 68814 .... 25!.l 1)2 574 5781] 1058
11)42-48 71.356 .... 386 80 140 (021)4 1272
H143-44 . 68401 .... ] 173 245 P 171 1] '~7
1044-45 70320 .... 165 228 ~ll G08-t.G 087

Injuries. Hcsp iratory All other

diseases. causes.
-
1930-31 ·. ·. ·. ·. :sa; I . 27,1.4 1j.203
1931-32 ·. ·. ·. ·. ;'ISO 29011 , ~281.l
] 982-88 ·. ·. ·. ·. .H~ :304,:3 ,:1-4-40 .
1038-:3-1. ·. ·. ·. ·. 5(iij 28(1) -I.22U
1!)34-35 ·. ·. ·. ·. 5(HI 8171 4119
1935-86 ·. ·. ·. ·. 4H() ~I}ll 4057
1986-37 ·. ·. ·. ·. 4!l2 3103 41)8()
] 087-88 ·. ·. ·. ·. 5]2 :3:1,02 5186
lU38-a9 ·. ·. ·. ·. 504 uz:n 49·t.0
J !J30-40 ·. ·. ·. ·. 4-4-1 :./80U 531:J
11}40..n ·. ·. ·. ·. 500 2R!J2 58R.j.
1941 -42 ·. ·. ·. ·. 50H :./!)\)O 57!)!)
]942-48 ·. ·. ·. ·. 487 :./75.j 57tH
1943-44- ·. ·. ·. ·. 48] ~H87 555U
1944-45 ·. ·. ·. ·. ' 407 #;825 5G51

Fever is the most prevalent cause of death. Preven tion of Ma-

larial fever continues to be ~ne of the main problems of the state.
Intensive Al'lti-malarial measures are being taken in the worse affect-
ed areas. Next in importance are respiratory ~ses,..among which
the most important is tuberculosis. The st tehaf-1?repared a ,pro-
gramme for eradicating this deadly diseas
. I .
I
y . \~
_ I
16 RURAL BARODA

The number of deaths in rural areas is definitely smaller than

that in the urban areas, though the latter have better medical facili-
ties. The figures given below go to prove this rather important
fact:-
Ratio of deaths
_ permille. 1928-29 1929-80 1980-81 ]~31-82 1982·88 1988-84
(1~ in towns 26 ' 5 28'9 2]·2 24·4 28·8
d~~~ 1
28 ' 8
(2 in . rural
tricts 21-6 25·2 I 16 ·1 18'7 I 19·0 I 19'7

Ratio of deaths
per mille. [34-85 85-86 86-87 87-88 38-39 89-40 40-41 41-42
(1) in towns
~5'21 ZO · 71 27"~1 31'31
di:~~ I
1j5 '111 30'41 26'91 37·6
(2) in rural
trict., 23·5 21'5 H)' III 25·1 25·5 23· ] 22·6 21'4

R'IHI[ (Inri l"rbl1.ll Popul,/lioll: -The rural popUlation has decreas-

ed frbm 81.4 per cent in 1891 to 74.9 in 1941. This is in keeping with
the general trend of growing urbanisation seen jill over India. The
figures given below for the rural and urban population from decade
to decade, however, go to show that while the proportions remained
more or less stationary till 1931, a marked change-over seems to have
occurred during the decade from 1931 to 1941. Perhaps the figures
for the next census, a couple of years later, will further emphasise
this migration from rural to urban areas.

Urban Percentage Rural P ercentage

Year population of total. populatioll. of total.
1891 .. ·. ·. 451415 18 · (1 1\)71316 81"~
1901 . . ·. ·. 'j.2044:1 21'4 1538002 78 ' 6
1911 .. ·. ·. 38571)1 18 ' 9 1680945 81·1
1921 .. ·. ·. 898068 . IR · 2 1738687 81·8
1981 .. ·. ·. 466144 19'2 1982189 80 ' 8
1941 .. ·. ·. 591211 25·1 2268789 74·9
But while the rural population shows a slight decrease, the agri-
cultural population is increasing. The following table shows the
per centage of pop~lation dependent upon agriculture in the Baroda
state:-

Year . Poreentage
agricul tural
orl Y ear
Percentage of
agricultural
popUlation. • ,population .
1891 ·. ·. ·. 57 · 05 1921 66 ' ·1-
1001 ·. ·. ·. :n . !) 11)31 71 ' 7
lOIl ·. ·. ·. 68'4 10·n
. 64"1,
 RURAL BARODA 17

The above table shows tilUt the population dep nd nt upon agri-
culture has 'increased consistently. except in the decades, 1891-
1901, ar:d 1931-1941, when there was a fall. For 1891-1901 this was
due to the great famine of 1899. The figure for 1941 on the other
hand indicates a marked tendency of the transfer of population from
agriculture to industry. transport and commerce.
Occupational J)illtributioll oj the Populat iun
The distribution of population according to the 194] census b t-
weEn urban and rural areas is in the ratio of 1 :3. The rural popula-
tion lives in 2894 villages of which 1401 have a population of less
than 500. There is a marked tendency to ml~rat from mall con-
gested villages to the towns,_a tendency which is evident from the
increase in the number of towns from 50 in 1931 to 64 in 1941. Tn-
deed the predominance of agricuItur as a means of Ii\' Iihood has
yet been little affected and 64.4 per cent of the population are ngag-
ed in it. Of the remailling 35.6 per cent. industries absorb 13.3 per
cent, exploitation of min erals 0.1. transport 1.9, trade 8.1. professions
and liberal arts 3.5, public administration 1.6, public force 1.7, domes-
tic services ].1. While 0.6 live on their own income, 0.5 are unpro-
ductive and il.O per cent follow insuffici ntly deserib d cClipations.
The agriculturist IS the backbone of the State and th e strength
of the rural society lies in the large number of proprietor farmers.
11 IS a noteworthy fact that the proportion of these, to those Jiving
directly on land in Baroda, is doubl of that in Bombay Gujarat
anel ftlllr times as high as that in the Bombay province. The fol-
lowing is the division of rura l population into various classes:-
Lllndllll,land (lth('r 11(1I1-{'1I11 i"lIl!l1"~ :.w,BHIl
('lIlti \"II lIng O\o\"II(;'r)' .• a:W.005
Cultintlillg tClluIII~ fl7,Of}:J
Out of every 1000 earning members from the total population, 634
in 1941 and 676 in 1931 derived their incomes [1' 0m agriculture. The
following tabl~ shows the distribution in different grades of those
deriving there income from agriculture:
l!HI l!1:n

Those (lc-ri"Lng their incollH'» frol1l agl i("1111 ural (HH r,7fl
. -ol\-('1l1ti"tll i Il~ pt'Op i('r 101· ... Ii III
('Illtinllillg I'l'(Jprj ('t.()I"~ . . ~:.w ~:W
T enan t ('ulli\"tlwr::. :n 71
.\ql"ieullural laholll'c l'S .. Hili Uill
Thus' it seems that there has nol been any marked change in this
distribution during the last decade, exc pt in th e number of tenant
cultivators which shows a decrease of 40 in the 1941 census. These
figUres refer to work rs only an!i represent the shares of different
n.D.- 2.
18 RURAL BARODA

functional groups in agriculture, out of every 1000 workers in the

total population. The largest percentage of people engaged in agri-
culture own their lands and out of these only a small fractio~ let out
their lands to others .• Baroda is thus a land of peasant proprietors
and efficiency of its agriculture is mainly governed by the skill, capa-
city and resources of the peasant proprietor.
The peasantry of the State can be divided into three broad
groups according to the levels of efficiency and intelligence shown by
different classes who hold lands viz. (i) Progressive farmers , (ii)
ordinary farmers and (iii) backward class farmers. (i) The first
or the most efficient class includes Anavils, Patidars and Voras. The
anavils are a section of Brahmins and reside in the Navsari and Surat
districts. They are intelligent and progressive and prepared to adopt
new ideas and methods, oncc they are convinced of their utility. The
anavils are further sub-divided into two sections, the Desai:; and ·t.he
Bhathelas. The former are revenue farmers and consider themselves
superior to the latter. who are ordinary cultivators. The Desais ob-
ject to giving their daughters to Bhathela grooms, though they have
no scruples in accepting brides from ihis so called inferior class. The
result of this state of affairs has been a scramble for Desai bride-
grooms by the Bhathelas and an encouragement to polygamy amon g
the former . In recent years, however, reformist activity. migration
to foreign lands, education and other factors have very much weak-
ened these old customs and practices.
The Patidars are the largest single community in the State.
They are divided into two broad groups which have little social
affiliation with one another-The Leva Patidars and Kadva Pati-
dars. Leva Patidars are found all over the state but are most
numerous in the district of Baroda. The Kadva Patidars )jve
mostly in the district of Mehsana. The Levas are again socially
sub-divided into Patidars or co-sharers in village land and
Kunbis or cultivators. The Patidars of central Gujarat consi-
der themselves superior to Kunbis and to Levas in other parts of
the state. They do not give their daughters in marriage to these, as
they look upon them as their social inferiors, but would not object to
taking girls from them in marriage, provided the girl brings in suffi~
cient dowry. The Kunbis allow widow re-marriage but the Patidars
do not. Patidars, however, practise poly£amy.
The Pat'.dar is a capable farmer. He is by far the best cultiva-
tor. He is fairly hardy and is used to the toil and hardships asso-
ciated with farming. He is sober, quiet, industrious, enterprising
and frugal, except on special occasions such as marriage and death
ceremonies, He knows his job so well that it is difficult to convince
 RURAL BARODA

him of the utility of new improvements, but once he is 'Convinced,

he is not slow to take to them, e en if it is necessary to inve t large
capital.
The Patidar has a keen sense of the value of money and this fact
influences the design of his field operations and his method of dis-
posing f his crops. Some of the Patidar villages in the central areas
are model units, provided with schools, hostels, libraries, public
halls, water works and drainage arrangements, etc.. The increasing
sub-division of land has made numbers of them to leave the land and
migrate to other places or occupations both in and outside India.
The dream of an emigrant Patidar, however, is some day to return to
the village, build a huge house, buy land and turn into a landlord.
. (ii) The second group of farmers is made up of a ariety of
social classes, the Rajputs, Musalmans, Kolis, Dharalas and Garasias
etc.. In general these are much less efficient and enterprising than
the members of the first class. Lazy and illiterate, they live in poor
and ill-ventilated houses, show great unwillingness to adopt improved
methods of cultivation and draw from the soil just a small subsistence.
They are heavily indebted and strongly addicted to liquor, and in
consequence of their thriftlessness, they have to sell their land to
others and migrate in large numbers to textile mills and other fac-
tories, which offer them high and steady wages.
(iii) The last group consists of backward communities and the
adivasis. They are to be found mostly in Navsari and Okhamandal
and some parts of the district of Baroda. They are illiterate, poor in
health and physique, addicts of alcohol and heavily indebted to sahu-
kars, to whom they have lost a good deal of their land.
It would be interesting to know the pi'oportions in which land
is held by the members of the three broad classes of peasant proprie-
tors described above. A complete and accurate analysis is not possi-
ble, from the data available from land revenue records. But the
following table is iIluminating:-
uf lolal
PCI·('(' lIltlJ.!('
land h 'Id.
I 1!)3!)·40 ' 11)21 ·22
B~ra~h-n-
11~
'n-
s ----------------------------------- 8 ' 1 1 8·2
Patidar 31-' i! 31 . ()
Kolis 0'1 f)·a
Rajputll .. !'I ' 7 4- . ~

Muslims ., 5 . ()
Banias 5 , 1-
Thnkardas 7 . IS 7-7
Raniparaj 4 ·1 <1, ,0
Oth r castes 21 · 7 !!(J , 1

100 % 100%
20 RURAL BARODA

The relative position of the different classes included in this

table does not seem to have changed durin,g the 20 years 1920·40 ex·
cept that Patidars have"gained definitely at the expense of other castes.
Roughly 60 per cent. of the total number of holdings is owned
by farmers of the most efficient classes, about a fo urth b persons
b longing to the next class and a small proportion by the least pro-
gressive section of the agricultural society.
 PART It
CHAPTER III.

LAND AND IT PROBLEM

11111)I)IIOIICC oj' Tel/lIl'c

The terms on which the cultivator holds his land and th
benefits that he derives from them determine to a large ext nt. his
outlook as a cultivator. Indirectly this helps or retards impro\'e-
ment in land and in methods of cultivation. A reform in the land
tenure system where necessary, is therefore fundamental fot t.he
regeneration of agriculture. We have seen that the largest num-
ber- of farmers in the State i of peasant propri tors, hence the im-
portance of the land tenure system ne ds no mphasis. ,The t rms
on which the actual cultivator holds his land from the over-lord l '
the private individual or th e State and the share of the produce that
he parts with and the attention he receives from the State or the
landlord, intimately affect his energy, and determine the yield h
secures irom his land .
I ,ffl( d 7'£11111'(' ill /I(1/'(J(/((
]n the state, the principal form of tenure is l'yotwal'i, und r
which the farmer pays rent directly to the Government, without the
intervention of a third party. Th Survey and Settlem nt d part-
ment of the state surveys the land once in 15 to 30 years and then
fixes the annual charges, which th e farmer has to pay to the state
in cash . In assessing the revenue for a taluka th S ttlement
department takes into account the prices of agricultural pr ducts,
productivity of the soil, development of means of communication,
proximity to c ntres of trade etc. It then fixes a lump sum for th
whole taluka which is finally apportioned among . villages and hold-
ings. The farmer is expected to pay his revenue from year to y ar,
it bing generally his look-out to provide against bad years, out of
the surpluses of good ye81's. H has, therefore, no legal right to
remission or suspension of land revenue, if in a particular year, the
crops turn out to be bad or fetch low prices. In practice, however.
th state gtves remissions and suspensions in bad years. The
farmer enjoys full rights of alienation and bequest over his pro-
perty, which he can sell and mortgage as he likes. The Stat does
not disturb him in his possession. so long as he pays his dues and
fulfils the other conditions of the tenure.
21
22 RURAL BARODA
.
Out of 2,896 villages in the State 2,483 are settled on the ryot-
wari basis. Of the rest, 367 are on mixed tenure, while 46 vinages
have been given to charitable institutions or to individuals and
their heirs for good services rendered to the state.
The nOn-ryotwari tenures are divided ~to two broad classes:-
(a) Naravadari and Bhagdari and
(b) Ankadabandi and Ek Ankada
In both Namvadari and Bhagdari tenures all the co-shares in a
village are jointly responsible to the Government for payment of
revenue. In the latter, each field is assessed separately, while under
the former, the revenue is fixed as a lump sum for the village as a
whole. In neither type of village, does the contribution of a co-
sharer need bear any relation to the amount of land he holds at any
moment. He continues to pay his share of total revenue that he
initially agreed to pay. In an Ankadabandi village, a lump sum is
imposed upon the village and paid by the village headmen or the
whole body of proprietors. In Ek Ankada villages, there is perma-
nent land revenue settlement and Government has fixed its demand
for good .
In 1939-40 there were 3,56,683 khatedars Le., registered holders
of agricultural land, cultivating 66,79,866 bighas of land. Out of these
2,80,233 khatedars i.e. 76 'fr of the total cultivnted personally
48,29,882 bighas i.e. 72.30 / ; of the total cultivated land, while
the rest numbering 76,450 or 24 7<, got 18,49,984 or 27 .7 per cent
cultivated through others. The average size of holdings per k ha,te-
dar was 18.16 bighas. This is brought out more clearly in the
followin g table giving the number of khatedars. land under cultiva -
tion and the size of holdings per khatedar.

Khlltcdol'S \
Kh"t-('clot" C'lIltivntinj:t Tot ol A,:cTlIge
<'lIlli"ntlng t II rough oth(' l'S. J{ha teilllTS su e
of
Y('or. - holeting
per
l\'umber Dhign ~. Nmn)jer 1 Digitus Numher Bljlhas Khnte-
dill'.

I 2 n 4
I Ii
. 6 7 8

1080-40 .. 2 0,233 4,820, 2 76,450 I, 9,9[14 356,683 6,679,866 18 .1'

1987-88 . , 20270 4 ,842,549 73,00:1 ), 00,134 85ft,87) 6,678,68lt 10.5
11127·28 .. 271 ,100 ,807,6H 67,2f11 J,728,820 888,387 6,625,964 19 . 5
19]7-18 " 262,583 4,920,058 05,766 1,427,998 828,849 6,857,956 19 .8
1907-08 " 252,6()3 4,88 , 07 45,981 1,185,828 298,584 5,4.69,638 18 .8
 RURAL BARODA·

Thus it will be seen that the number of khatedars cultivatin th ir

lands through others has increased at a greater rate than the number
of self-cults.vating owners. Similarly the land owned by cultivators
cultivating their lands through others shows a greater increase than
that in the area owned by cultivating owners. This indicates an
important tendency, that the number of persons who do not culti~ate
but live wholly or partly on income derived from rent. is on an
increase.
ize of holdillg: From the same table it will be evident that
during the last thirty years, the average size of holdings has, how-
ever, remained more or less constant. This is due in a gr at
measure to the bringing of additional land under cultivation durin
this period. This average size of holdings is, however, fictitious
and misleading because this average differs widely from district t
district in the state as can be seen below:-

Distrirt Averng . ize of holding (ill lIighns)

:'Iia\'snri 1!)
Illlroon. ]5
]\{chsana 17
AllIr Ii I'll
Okhnmnllllni 42

If)

The variation in the size of holdings in various district might

be due to the act that, in Okhamandal. a Wagher of mature age h;
given 48 bighas 'of land, if available, at a nominal rental of rupe
one by the Government. In Amreli, where the population is thrift-
less and poor, the size of holding is relatively the largest.
It will te, however, more useful for our purpose, to forget for
the time being, this imaginary average size of holding per cultivator
and to ascertain how the holdings. are divided by size in actual fact
and if any marked tendency could be established, ffom the varia-
tions into these divisions from time to time, as to whether the hold-
ings in a majority of cases, are gradually approaching the ideal of
an economical holding or falling away from this ideal. W give
below the figures for the classification of khatedars. according to th
size of their holdings during the same period of thirty years, that we
have taken for ascertaining the average size of holdings in the state
as whole and also for the average, district by district :-
2t •RURAL BARODA

Yell I' ,
•j b igbll'
' under •• tl\'(,l'n
!j ~\( :1.)
. lletwccn
2,j & ]00
H (;IWCCII
100 & ,,00
\ bo.'('
,j00 Tn1al

---I
tolal. I' ,tlll. t otal. total. Toto I

j(jH
--- --
:1.; .24M
J040-H .. I ]0 ,1J2' Hi2,3~ ';11,411] ,:1114

1!)30·40
I 10~ ,()'1!1 1.311,103 !l3, ,~i2 ~),O ' 1 ' IH !\."iti,HS3

lO37-ljlj ::I )().j ,2IH 1;.0,261 2,5011 1Il,321 l21i ;~:;:LKi l

1027 -28 lon ,Mlt! 1,;11,::1:..11 i 'a.n1:; 7.:lfI.; :Ill: :::tIl,!I:"I'i

III I (l-I 'T IIZ,U!!!! J.3 I .HlU .O,:JH 1i,711t ,tl!l ::21 ..;7(l

1001-01l 1111 ,:>1:14 1 ~2,82(; ~SHJ74.i 'A:.!t . ).(17 :IO!l . H!l~

It wilJ be seen that in the state there wer in 1937-38, little over 331.671
farms of wh ich 29.4' r were between 0-5 bighas, 44( ( between 5-35
bighas, 23.2(, between ' 25-100 bighas and the drest over 100 bighas.
It mlrst, h(/wev r , be rer.nembered that this tab:e docs pot givp h com-
plete pictl.ll' of the. Ituatiun in as much as, a good man:- of thc regIs-
ter ed llolders hove sub-partners with them just as registered field
numb r have pot. and Paiic.1! (subsidiary) numbC'rs, and are culti-
valed 1'" ('(H:hurers r'nd partners.

It,s difficult to elpcide t he size of whal may be caJled ('11 economic

holding, that is. a holding which on an Clverag , will produce enough
and will leave enough margin after allowing for the cost of produc-
tion, to m lintain <Ill .<lverage agriculturist's family, if not in actuaJ
com fort, ,, ~ least au,we the margin of human subsistance, ".'itll enough
t.o spare for his cl Jldrcn 's education and to see him through his leglti-
mat~ ~'ocll11 l't'spnl1s ibil!!ics such~ as maniages, births, funerals etc,:
at a standard of life no higher than ·thal of his neighbour. In the
first place, this would vary according to the fertilily of the land; in the
second , on the level of prices of agricultural products at a given time.
11. would also to a certain extent depend upon the social status and
cast of tl 'e farmer , because these to a large extent, determine not
only his socb1 lc.;;pnnslbilities, but his efficiency as a farmer and
heliL'0 his producth e capacity. Even the experts in agricultural eco-
nomics are not of the same opinion about the size of an economical
holding, evt:'n for a given area, with a given soil fertility, However,
for a great part of Gujarat, the size, after makin,g due allowances,
for garden land and irrigation facilities, may be accepted, for all prac-
tical purposes, and 3,t ~my rate for the purpose of this inquiry, some-
where in tl ,e neighbourhood of twenty five bighas. A farmer owning
and cultivating twenty-five bighas or more may be placed as above
the subsistence level. Those with less land to cultivate or those with
 RURAL BARODA

that much area for farming but for which he has to pay r nt to a
landlord, can sa 'ely be placed below the bread jiM.
Wotking on tl1i~ hypothesis. we have to come first of all to CI
very sad CoocbslOn tl at even n nn conomically adYnnc('d state like
Baroda, nearly thir y p l'cent of the land holder ar more nt' less en
the starvation level. as they OWn onl~' upto five bigbas of land. Til l'
C8!':(" howe'.'er. fl.\1' t1;i , catcgory 1. not so bad as i1 s ems ", fll'SI slgtlt.
Becau<;e, it must bE' taken for granted that morc than half nf thes\
landh)ldels. who dumber aboUl a lakh. htl\'e othel' sllhsid iar~ oil'
cupatiJll <ll~d sllppJI"J11enl their il1 cllme' flllm 111 ploduct' oj Ille lund .
if from nothing else. at least from :;.t RS{l1l ul labour on (ltlll'l' people',;
fields. h the \ illages, trlCl'e is also a dns. of people, I he artisans.
such as potters, cal pentl;rs, barbers, smill,~ el(., who ()\"!1 ilnd tult'-
vatl: a liWe land LIn t also can y 011 their tl'ade . .
But the really sad state of Llffalrs is l't.:vt'uled b~ the f1gul'{,-'; '01'
the next higher class. that is, thuse holdjng between fi\'(' and Iv, cnt~'­
five bighl'ls. TillS eli/S5 is th e J..,rgcst, almost ,lmollnting to i.l half of
the total landholders and form th bacl' -Lonc of th l ,lgn( ultlll'al com-
munit). Il is P,1 th:"!l1 thal the' prosp01lfy or otherwise o f tl1{' coun-
tryside depends and the whole I'uraf {'(·unum., of ablate U1' prOV111 'l;
or c'/en <l l'oun'_I'Y !1M to be judged on th e' "trpngth 01 ' wcakJwss of
• this class. It is an appalliJlg l'C'vclation thut a little less lhun half the
number of landholders. Ilumbcril g ubout u lak h and sixty l])ousunc!s,
each with f(lur to a\'e dependents, arc engaged in agriculture and
have to depend on it for their living and who, judged by the size of
their holdings, do not and cannot produce enough to maintain (hC'm-
selves and their families and who are therefore, below the bread line.
They have litile, if any, side income, except perhaps, in some families,
one of the members migrates to a town or cily and ac epts some kind
of service, either in a school or office and sE'nds his ::u,,;nr,s tn hC'1p the
rest of the family. :S11t it has to be admitteu ih nt. till n bulk o[ this
class can be placed securely on their f et (.' thC'1 b~' 111l'reasilv tll r
size of thpir hol(ling~ or by incre'asing the avcrt "t! yield of the soil.
by better manuring {lnd by providing Irrigation facilities ""here they
do not ex .;;t or imprcwing them where they do, by COil rling fielc[s
into {urrr.s as 13 result of consoHdation (.Ir by providing subsidiary oc-
cupation!> tll t would not interfere with their WOI k or efficiency as
farmers, all hopes of bringing about an~' uppreC'iable improvement
in tlw cOD(lilions of runl hfe are bound to rem jn unrealised. Any
effort for improvement and for economic uplift, must bp directed in
a pel'SistE;:1t and constructive manner, 10 this class ,md to the one
below it, who toge ther form exactly three quarters of the agricultural
population of the state.
26 RURAL BARotIA

Those holding more than twenty-five bighas and upto one hundred
bighas constitute about one-fifth of the total and can be described
as faidy comfortable and prosperous class of agriculturists. They
have a definitely comfortable standard of living and can spare enough
to sper.d on the improvement of their land and to increas its yield.
They are the best class of farmers, the Anavils, the Patidars and the
Kunbis and perhaps a few banias, but for whom ,our countryside
would be a dreary deserted waste, reproducing faithfully the condi-
tions of Goldsmith's 'Deserted Village' in the ireland of his times.
Examining the figures given above further, we find that about
2.5 per cent own more than a hundred bighas or about 1 per cent
or less than five hundred families. There is at present, thus, no
danger of the land passing into large blocks, in the hands of a limited
number of families and the rest of the population being reduced to
the position of serfs, with all the consequent deterioration in the
character and the morale of the bulk of the rural population. But
this is more or less the case, in some areas in the midst of or on the
fringe of the forests, where mostly the aborigines reside. There the
land hns already concentrated gradually in the hands of a few enter-
prising outsiders and liquor vendors and a once self-respecting class
of ignorant but happy tribesmen, has been reduced, virtually if not
legally, to the position of serfs with utter demoralisation follOWing in '
the wake of it. But this constitutes special problem, for a strictly
li,mited area and it need not detain us here to examine it. We shall
deal with this problem a little later on, when we come to consider
the question of the adivasi tribes and the specially backward areas.
li'ra{]mentafiol1 of holdi?lgS: The size of the holdings indicates
the amOUl"t of land a farmer possesses and therefore the total incom~
he is likely to enjoy. But the efficiency with which a holding is
cultivated depends among other things, on its unity or fragmentation.
To give an idea of the extent of fragmentation, the follOWing table
showin~ the total agricultural land of the State, the survey number
of the fields and the number of · registered landholders who own
them, is quoted. f..
Name or
- Total
agrkulturlll
I . S. Nos. No. of Average Averalle
In t~ \\:lIi('11 1{hn(ednrs. lnnd per lIurvey
diRtrirt land It IS ]{hatednr nllmber per
lBighns) divided . (bighnsl Khntednr.
1 2 8 4 5 fo

narooa . .
febsonll
..
..
1717,ll ll)
2';111.9 2
430,001
589,(\S7'
! ]07,638
141,141)
]5-0-2
17-]5-5
J..OO
'~ . 18
"I\V or! .. .. 10-1.0,176 210470 52,1152
II 11l-17-S
AmreJi .. .. D72,O!W 55,685 )7',214
I r.6. 0-7
i .12
3.23
Total ..
6249,1117' I
1292,6'Tl 818,649 I 19·12·" I 4 .00
• • Rnrodn 1\:('onolnlo De"elop Inert Comm'ttee HePort • r . 11 .
 RURAL BARODA

AVf'rage per survey number (uiglllls)

Baroda ., "
l\fehsall!' .. 41
NS\'88f1 .• 4~
Amreli .. )7,
Total . . 4-7 /8

In the State, the noldings are on an average divided into several

plot.s, usually four in number, but sometimes 8 or .even 10. The table
shows that the average survey number per khatedar is 4.06 for the
whole State. The s'ze of the average plot or holding is 4-7/8 bighas.
These plots aTe again scattered about in the village and are at a great
distance from one ~ll1other. Moreover, a plot with a survey number
has often, pot and paiky numbers. The number of thes pot and
paiky holdings is large and not easily ascertainable. In the Petlad
taluka, where a special inquiry regarding these pot and paiky num-
bers was made, it was found that along with 72,575 survey numbers
there were 10,381 pot and 8,020 paiky numbers, the total number of
plots being 90,976. It would appear that though the average number
of fields per khatedar comes to 4, the cultivating khate da7's must
have on un average more than four pieces to manage. One cultiva-
tor may have 2 to ;j while a third may have 8 to 10 or even. more.
These seldom adjoin each other. They are usunlly situated in diffe-
rent localities. One field may be near the village site and another at
a distance of on or two mil es.
Cl)lI.olidat io'll of holdill (J.~: In the efforts of the Stat to solve
this problem of fragmentation, the first landmark was the applica-
tion of the co-operative principle to the consolidation of agricultural
holdings in 1922. Prior to 1905, the revenue rules of the state per-
mitted sub-division of land upto 3 bighas of jirayat (unirrigated)
land and one bigha of bagayat (garden or irrigated) land. In that
year, th~ revenue department for the convenience of the cultivators
amended the rules and permitted the sub-division of dry dands up to
1;. bighus and of wet lands upto half a bigha. It was in the year
1917 th~t a Committee was appointed by the Baroda Government to
consider the steps to be taken to stop the excessive o:;ub-division of
agricultural holdings. The Committee's recommendations wer
divided into two groups, (i) those for prevention of further minute
sub-division and (ii) those for the consolidation of small and scatter-
ed fields. To give effect to these recommendations of the Committee
an Act for the consolidation of scattered holdings was passed in 1920.
The Law:! Revenue Code was also amended laying down a restriction
by which dry land could not be divided below 8 bighas, bagayat land
28 RURAL BARODA

below 3 bighas and kyari rice lands below H bighas. The part of
the Act to bring about consolidation was a perrrussive piece of legisla-
tion and could be applied by notification to any village. where two-
thirds of the khatedars holding. at least one half of the total occupied
laI\d of the village sired it. When the Act is so applied, Land Com-
missioners are to so re-distribute the holdings that each kltatedar
may get in one piece, land equal to the amount previously held by
him in sm::.l1 and scaHered pieces put together. The fights of mort-
gagees, t Iiants and others were not to be affected. The owners were
to h'lVe the same rights on the new consolidated holdings as they
had on its component parts. As no advantage Was taken of this
Act, Government with a desire to adopt a policy to arrest sub-clivi-
sion of land beyond specific limits, appointed a Committee in ]9:22
to advise Government as to the best means of pl'omot ing the objects
in vie v. The Govcrnme t accepted most of the recommendations
of the Committee, of which the most important \\ os l he organisation
d co-operative societies for consolidation holdings . .
As 0. further step in the direction, provision was made in the
partition of Immoveable Property Act to prevent fragmentation
below prescribed limits. Still a looph()le was left {or fragmen-
tatiol1 in trrmsf rs through mortgage and sale. To prp\,cr. L this, a
speci:;.l Act for the prevention of fragmentation of agricultural hold-
ings was p,1SSCJ uy he Government in 1933. 'Under this Act, neigh-
bours and C0-p<l! (Cl}(" -s were given a right of purchase of the adjoin-
ing Jands under prescribed limits and intendi ng sellers were requir-
ed to inform the neighbours, of their intention to dispose of their land .
This merely cmbo(li~d the application of the prinCiple of the law o~
pre-emption which ,...blains among Mohomedans And is also tradi-
tiollally pl'cval£'n1 among Hindus in som parts of Gujarat. Th is
Act \\ as subsequently abolished. The number of societies working
for consolidation of j'olrlings increased from ~ in 1924-25 to 71 in
]941-42. but they did little useful work.
This fragmentali on of holdings into small uneconomic fiel s lying
far away from each other, is a very serious problem for agriculture.
all over Il ~ dia. It is responsible along 'with a few other things, for
the low yieldS, lack of improvement in the qualicy of the soH,
absence of fencing , tree planting, si.nking of a sufficient number of
wells to enable the farmer to grow irr igated crops and devising neces-
sary means for the proper drainage of fields. It not only makes the
use of mechanical aids and implementll to farming impossible, but it
int rie, es e\'E>J1 witll our traditional method~ of ploughing and har~
. rowing etC'., with the aid of bullocks. Till we are able to elim inate
 RURAL BARODA

tllis w ~tdul facto!" Irom our agl'icultw'al economy and to pI'ovid

a comp.lct blook of l~nd to each farmer, with a home~tead for himself
and strLling b'c litjP::; for his cattle, properly fenced and protect d
from the dt!p ..(.)dtt\.i011~' of stray caUl and wild animals, with a Wf'U,
we (anl~~)t helpe ior bringing about an) material improvement in the
prescn_ dispr~lpnrti()Jlale)y low yield of his land or in his g n('ra!
e::on0I1m: o'1dilion "nd his standard of life, Th' land has been Cl' \'-
ing fu!' this iundumental and rc\ olutiol1ary change III the who'k
stl'Ut:fure of Uur ng ' iculture, but hav so fill' done I1lllhing bUl
1i :lker "'iLh 1h e problem, trying to put a patch here and a patch there
or a t best to devise half-hearted 'means to stop the situation from
g tting worse, by further fragm ntation, In many parts of the co un -
try, thi b i'raglnllltatJIJ!l of ho]ding~, ha~ nllt COI1W to b' regarded C?\'('n
as U11 ltrgclll all 1 impl)l' lant problem,
Tra.ditiun::; and prejudices die hard in a country like India , This
is ali thl.' J1)()r e Sd :11 Ih' rural areas, E,' ry farmer, however pOOl
the' c;ualll,' (I hi :·' "uil , rcg<lrdl; his little bit of lond ,.-hich hilS come
to him h(IJ'l1 LIS r(J~' diltiJcrs as peculiarly good nnd has an aIm SI an
unhealtl 1) aHacli:lll'llt 101 ii Of {'ourse, there at'(' strong psycllolo-
gkal J hl~( ' II:_' [.)r ,tl. 's slrullg attachment lo a pal'tkul:lr bit of land
but Jll' ;\ P' ('pc; jJlogramlJle of economic regeneration for (l P()(J)'
country llke ours, man:'.' dearly held prejudices, pr possessions anti
1ralJiiill lls ".tV!? lit bE" silci lfic.:(·u at some !'t<lLe or another, The silua-
tIll,' .,~ II IhJt 1'Igb\ by itself, n01' woul.d (my urge for reforming it
, cver gro'.\' from amungst the farmers thenu;l'lves, because (~V n a few
I'cca lcitlant and cussed indi\'~cluals could iwld up, even the most ad-
mirable and strenuous ('(1'orts on the part of vo]tmtary workers, to
1 edistribute lawl on a more convenient basis, without depriving any -
body of any of his land, apart from small insignificant adjustments
Whir'l may be inc\,l~?ble, It could be done only by drastic action by
the stat~, ignoring ~~m[.)orary outcries and loud wailings, This l ~'
the most opportunate time, when ther is 0 much food S('alTlt,' ,HId
the- oUl1iry j, b mg bled white by the droitl on its resources for finane-
:ng imports of foodgrains fr 111 abroad, Go\.'t'rnment must make a
begil1nil1g somcwiJere, on however small a sCElle, The be~ t thtng
woulrl be to E'ngage ~ few Sf'ts of surveyors, make a programme fol'
taklng up a llumucr of Villages in each district each year, prepare a
plan cf H!distribut lOn of land for each of these villAges on certain
prev iOtls1y accepted princi pIes anel enforce it with all its' powel' of
gentle p'u rsuasion where possible and coercive compulsion where
necessary,
Trnanc!I 1.1 yi:>i(lfiull : To regulate the tram,acLlons of the land-
owners with 1he tenants, the Government had to undertake special
30 RURAL BARODA

tenancy legislation. There are at present three Acts in force for the
purpose. They are the Rent Regulation Act, the Backward Classes
Land Protection Act and the Ankadia Villages Tenants Act, the work-
ing of which is reviewed below.
Allkadia Villag es 7'clwllil; l td; In ankadia villages the Gov-
ernment demand is assessed in a lump sum on the village as a whole
and recovered from the ankadedars, the proprietors of the village.
Till recently, Government did not interfere in the internal manage-
ment and left the plf)prietors free to settle their relations with their
tenants who cultivate these lands. Excessive rents, arbitrary eject-
ments and levy of taxes and imposts, however, threatened to disturb
the relations between the two, till Government thought it tit to in-
troduce the AnkDdia Villages Tenants Act to regulate the relations
between them. The Act g uarantees to the tenants security of tenure,
inheritance 'If tenancy: fair rents and safeguards against arbitrary
imposts. To the ankadedars it gives quick and easy remedy for the
realisation uf arrearr. of rent and for restoration of possession of their
lands. No civil suit can be filed with regard to -these matters,
which are ent:'usiE!u under the Act to the Naib Sub a (Deputy Collec-
tor), a revenue authority, The Act has proved to be useful and both
the ankadedal's and tenants are taking advantage of it,
Backw(/rd ( 'leIS .,C'S L(llId I'l'ult-clioll . lel , 1!J3 ; The absence
of any restrictions on the alienation of land helped the greedy sow-
cars to deprive the backward classes of their land , Transfers from
the illiterate people in Sankheda and Tilakwada mahals were con-
siderable during the qUinquennium 1930-35, as 15 percent of such
lands changed hands and the loss of land to the backward classes
continued, The same state of affairs prevailed in the Navsari dis-
trict. SuC'h alicmation, if it has been allowed to continue would ul-
timately ha\'e turned these people into a landless class. The object
of the Act, introduced in 1938 was to prevent this, The Act prohibited
the alienation of lands of backward classes except on oQe year's lease
without permissiun. The Naib Suba was authorised to give permis-
sien for transfer in cases where the land was to be alienated only to
a per~; f)'l belonging to a backward community. Land alienated
against the rules was restored by the Naib Suba to the previous owner.
The Act was applied to Songadh, Vyara, Mahuva, and Mangrol talukas
of the -Navsari district and 'Sankheda, Tilakada, Dabhoi and Wagho-
dia talukas of the Baroda district.
Ul1ckr the Act 90 applications were received during the year
1944-45, Of these permission for transfer of Khata land was granted
in 37 cases only and 43 applications were disallowed.
 RURAL BARODA :jJ

The Act, by preventing alienation curtailed the credit of their

proprietors. Therefore, along with the legislation for their pro-
tection, co-operative societies have been organis d to finance
them, and in order to facilitate lending. co-operative societi s,
agticultural ballks and land mortgage banks have been allowed to
accept tht: Raniparaj lands in mortgage without the consent of the
Naib Suba. The Government ha\ e ordered that settlement of mort-
gage lnms8(:1.ion., by transfer of suitable lands should be allowed in
respect of land belonging to backward classes, provid d, thes tran-
sactions were prior to the date 011 which the Act came into force and
for the uenE:tii of b!lckward classes only.
HI II/ Rl'fill/lI/ioll .. t rl. ]!I:I.J : The Rent Regulat ion Act was intro-
duced in 1934 to provide securily of tenure on re'1 sonable t rms, to
the tellaJlts (.If th e backward communities. In the first. instance, it
was applied to the adivasi (Forest Tribes) peopl in Vyara,
Mangrol and Songadh taluka s of the Navsari district. But in
1936, it was extended to the adivasis of the Sankh da and
30 villages uf Tiiakwada in the Baroda district. The Act authorised
the Naib Suba (lJeputy Collec.:tor) to fix a fair r nl on application
of a tenant, but provided that under no circumstances the rent was
to (');.ceed five timE.'s the assessment. Als o a tenant could not be eject-
ed so long as he paid his rent regularly and did not do anything that
would injure the future productivity of the land. If the proprietor
w,mted tv cultivate the land himself, possession of it could be restored
on conditivn that he did not lease it to someone else within five years.
To malte this process speedy and to protect the tenant from having
dragged into lOT'g and expensive litigation, either party was not
allowed to be represented by pleaders and the civil courts were
deprived of j'-lrisdiction in cases in which relief was to be obtained
under this Act. The following statement shows the number of cases
classified under different heads, dealt with LInder th e Act during the
last five years:-
Typcs of CllSe~. In4.1 -42

2 .~ 5 II

fo:jcrtrncnt of tenont s 1:!1 170 1711 12'; fill

l\I()(lilh·ation of rent .. I.j :lfIO 1.1;; 711 748
Fbdng of rent . . a~o .-':10 111 ~:1 27(1 1:12

Tolul .. filii Uf}O 4711 UJ.II

Restoration of I.osses.i '" .. :1(1 1211

Suits for rcco,·cry of urreu .... of
rent . . .;(){) 477

T otlll .. - :;22- ' lllln r.o7

 RURAL BARODA

It will be sef:n that tluring the last five years, th e t enants had
1 ec(!un.e to this legislation in 3768 cases, The m ost common applica-
tion,:; we! e for fixation or modification of rent covering about 81 per
cent j 11 lhe: year 1944-4:5, The landlords instituted 2338 cases in the
last five years, most of which were for the recovery of ar rears of ren t
and a few for I. l ,e restoratIOn of the land to themselves,
The effect of this piece of legislation has been very beneficinJ,
as both tenants and landlords could have recourse of it, T he adi-
l'asi tentint has been assured security of tenure at a fair rent.
BcsJ(le:; 1his, be has been saved from a number of exactions in kind,
to v .. hirh Il':~ \\In,> formerly a victim, Another advantage, both to the
t('nal'. unci tu lh'~ IClndlord, h,1:, lJlC II that civil suits for arrears of
l'l"lt J:01', c (cased, ~ lac tenant bas been saved the cost of litigation, an d
I he 1."lCl!(jI·t1 ~ he:: il'ngth,Y prucedure of civil c'lur{s.
TilL' J'1'(,\ j"i',n (lj' the Act, iJllpoSJl1g a maximum limit of live times
III" ;,-,.I', : ,lilL'I"iL 01 , tile rCllt, induced the lundlords to resolve their
dllf")l'nPr'!, II ;'!)I,ut h~l\,jng recourse to law, 11 is largeJy clue to this,
111,(1 !I'i..l{;O!,!i 1)('\\0\-('(.'11 the parties hayc steadily improved since the
11111"11<111"1111': 1.1 11,(, Act, The lJumber of ejectments lw,\'e fallen from
G;)(j jll J~\:,j-J;) tu 211 in HI44-45, u£ Ilxalion oj' rent "from 949 to 539, of
Sldh Illl' a r\'(';.Jl'!; of rent from ]297 to 16~ and the total numher of
U:lSCS Il\dli ;;li:,7 1,1 l;)09 during the samf' period,

'1'11. ' I r 1"('1«'1/\'( 1l1<..'<lSUJ'l'S lh(\'(' 1111( ('on)(. 11 da,\ loo so{)n, FOl
\'('d!; .Ill I ' '') : I!'~ 't' llt!I'l'!- <In<l jlqlltll \'('I;n.J)'S had been ('xpl()Jling these
1,llll<.: ..··lI,'" ;,IHI [lh~SICdll~, i>ad,\\ul'd 1",ll' ,:S hy gradua l penetration
11,1" lhl'l I,, : , ,- I I {<..'(.'S~I..':· Tillng' {'~un(' ((' a hertd <'Iff"r J9:;:2, Clnc! J(
' h I , r 'all'd 111.11 11,,1 (l1l1 .... III, I'I'l..til'"'~ \)l'\\\('('Jl til!.' «ct'/';I~;i tenallt;o;

,11HI 1;)"11 1,111 II, '1,1 • '.1 ()uld be: l'(~j lllUllen 1l~ s\r; ti 'H'd, ["t'sulting ill bl'eac:h
II, IJC'II.'(· l/~l of ph,\'!> i (.'3 I \ ,(l]cl1ee'. At (l ~h()J't intci \'al of (:jbou1
.old
.' ,'1'" ~l,'\. III Il,::: >N1 i1L(;Jill ill HI~ 1-:,2, G )I'prnll1E:'nt :1ppo il;tcd two
lllllll,tilt(, , I" '':1' I ,·t(l Iill'; \\ltl'lP (!Ue,,\Hll1 and to make rccomnwnda-
li",': ["" "fi')l, J",,, J\lC pI' 1['('11('1) 10 tlws!-' classes. The legislation
d! t;!lIt, I alH'\'(' \\"dS the I'l·;o;ull ()f Ihe lablltll':-; oj thesE' two illlportullt
bl ,t! ('.. 1\11 Ii;' " :-;1)('('1:; ()i' fill :!fl' oj' thl::; pt!npk .tl P pxamined and
I ( ' ( l ) (hod 111 full rJetails in lhL' 1 t po)'ls of these t'l'lllmit1C'(>s und. re-
kn\I1~;' ;" 1ill Td :.I.luld !,j()\'idt " mine of mformatiun to th )SC interest-
( I i, II'!, q(lt'~t'("JII Not rJllldl ('()uld be done to repair the harm t h<ll
I'. d alt'l':tcly bcen d,llIL, 10 tilL illtcru;b (;J Ihis unfortunate class of
.\ l'{'pk l ndL'\" till' earlier p\)tk~' of iaiss(' fair ro • but action has been
tak 11 noy/ [It any .. Me 10 afford them protection till they arc able t o
('atel IIp with lh.· more advanced classes and al:e able 't o look after
theiI' own ll,tE'l'e:-:h iJ1 an efficient manner, But for this timpiy ac tion ,
 RURAL BARODA 33

there is little doubt that some of these tribes would have gone to the
wall in the fierce struggle for existence and been completely eradicat-
ed, as no doubt, some small tribe.> have b en extinct in the past as a
result of unl1<:'alt.hy economic and physical exploitation by their
su perior Ileighbours.
An iJllen~sting experiment 111 village rehabilitation Scheme to
make a comparative study of the results of farming under \'arioLls
form~. '_'f b)ldint? land such as tenancy, pi-oprietory, collective and
co-op rative farmlllg has \"ery recently been start d by the state under
the auspices of the Indian Council of Agricultural Res arch and part!.\"
financed by t!Jell1, may be mentioned h reo Under this scheme thre
villages in the !\.mroli tappa of the Tilakwada p La mahal in th
Baroda district. which is a backwan! ar a, where most of the land had
passed into the 11::1nds of the saokars. All lands were r acquired by
the state a.nd redistributed among the former possessors in <"qual blocks
of 20 bighas (>n Jiflerent tenur and basis of cultivatioll. to study the
effect cf such I.:ul tivatinn on the economic, social,) nel ut h0r a. pects
of \ i1l8ge lif ::lS Cl whole.
The village of Pachamba works on the b:1Sis of tenanc,v at will , in
Khodia each cu]tiYalor is made i:l pe;l S(l I1 , uroprielor. in Pal;l East the
la;1r1 is owned :m·i cultl\ nted 011e("t tv el~T ,\l Id in PalH West both arc
on ; ~ \ u·(,p<,:·" t iv(' baSIS. The last t wu scheli"les are worked by the
vill:'g,~ l-'u:wilayn:s, ,,-i th the clifl'erclll:c that under co-operntive furl11 -
ing ill. PuJ~ Wr's l aach IanliJy hcld .<1 s hare in the uwnership of the
h (l lcli n&~" while ij~ PHla East (collectlvc farming) guvernment was
the owner of th e lanl'l . a nd the harvcst was divided in proportion to
• the amount of labour each family put in.
The res ults of the firs t yea r's working for ench, in the produce
valued in rupees, p r holding are given below.

I
Fa 1'111 , 1'lIllit r~' J lairy \',':.(''In''I,',.\ Tota l
1'l"IldIH '('

'1-
I . Tcnult,·v .. I'lldoalllba 1(1):1 M ~:! ,j.:! I I ·n
:! . Propric'lary Khvdiu l:1 ,j;; t.:! J~ I l87
:.1. l'oll('('th·t· .. Palu-J' ",I
~ . ("""I'('ral ;\ ,. Pnla - ,,-,"1
l:!~H
1O.;!1
I :!
;1
7;)
:;0
III
,.'j l
I
I
138t!
lwa

Ii hi tlJ'; c .... ll y If) form a ny ulJin on on thc'le rel:i ults w), ich are oniy
for l) ,'(: yc .. r ;.Jnd it woultl. be dangerous to du so. ,But there is no
c1l'ubt that \\'r.< I' fetll res ults are ;"l"Hilable, when th schemes arc
con.plt)trcl in H) ;) ]. they w ould be vel',\' interestin g and supply useful
g \ll( 11! f u;' L1,(: i:'ltU l"t?
11 . 0 :t.
84 RURAL BARODA

CHAPTER IV

CULTIVATION: FARM EQUIPMENT AND TECHNIQUE

C-rops grown: For the State as a whole, cotton is easily the most
imIJortant crop in terms of the total value and area cropped. Next
in order, but a long way behind come Juwar, Bajri and Paddy. For
the third group we can put wheat, other grains, and pulses and oil
seeds. However, the importance of these crops vary and the emphasis
shifts from dislnct to di::;l~rict. For the district of Baroda, the most
important crops are cotton , rice, juwar, bajri and tobacco; for Navsari
they ar<: cotton, rice, juwar, groundnuts and sugarcane; while Mehsana
relies ma inly on bajri, juwar, wheat and oilseeds. Amreli's chief
crop.:; are bajri and juwar with groundnuts and sugarcane taking on
some ir.·, porla nce of late years. We can see this distribution of crops
and th eir feiati\'e importance, district by district, in a proper pers-
pective in the table given below:-

Total
Bighas

,• 1··00dl( TO in. .. 1154.(1,,7 1,111.1, 11'4 (J2';, :l(12 000.1:19 52,(104 ,~, 0,;:l , 15(1
't. ( 'ondim cuh nn<l
sJ' i ct~ :t,IlIS 31 ,860 1 ,122 1,8)9 10 37,638
a. SUKlll'I·1l0C •• IfKl 2311 :l,0fJ4 0 ,5)7 0,0211
.~ . Fru it s 3,263 :t , I .~l 2 ,815 682 ]6 10,017
.i. Y<'l(elnblt·, J3,902 8,360 3 ,823 1 ,791 ))2 28 ,078
H. Fodder ('I'(lr>~ 111,067 12,634 30,7611 2,707 10 J57,193
7. Oit Mced ~ . . 52,828 ] ,4.6,324- ] 8,237 J55,1I81 )';,205 388.145
to. Cotton .. .. 423,817 93,7511 J1I7 ,1I76 29,287 744,839
H. l"ilm'N ulhrf than
('olton . . 7,210 872 1 11,660 ,
10. 'rubu'('o .. 55, 51)8 :.!82 (16 6ii.328
1J. Opium , drugs nod
NllwOtiH 80 8,661
1"
lao
J) F " luff, ..
J\l1~('('lIaneoll"
non ·
7'
food ('rnps .. 294 381 ].I.j';
Tuln ' ('Topped Ill'eQ ,. 16,25,21l0 22,35,498 88<i, 107 09f),O'.l1l . ' /_ 5,,112,11112
68,0';:' 2,110
U's, "Ten ('ropl'f'd mOTC
Ihon on"(' .. -- 111,842 - 98,96(1 - '~I ,/H7 1' 11,326 HIIi , l81
H. N('I ('r<lpp<,d 111'<'11.. 1.(105, '118 2, 1116, 007 1144,00" , 691.',70:1
, 6H,0.1UI 5,346,75(1

This data is of immense importance to the agricultural expert.

in enabling him to frame his programme for special attention in his
research and propaganda work, as it furnishes him with the infor-
mati0tl regarding the varyipg emphasis that a particular crop has
h1 a given area. It also shows him a way as to the possibilities of
certain crops in certain areas or the introduction of new crops in
these tracts. It would perh{lps be interesti!1~ tQ !jee how thi distri.
 RURAL BARODA 35

bution has varied from decade to decade under natural conditions

of demand, supply and prices, when the farmer was free to all cate
his land under various crops as he liked and under the present par-
tial control imposed on his choice, due to the shortage of foodgrains.
The figures for the distribution of principal crops during the last
twenty-five years are, therefore, reproduced below.-

Year.
:\'ct Il'l'ell IFood
s own with
~rnin~'
1
nil seedS. , {'olton I
TUl:RC<'O. IllthereroP"

er<!ps.
1 (D.gbas)
I
ArclI Ilnd
% u 'f'
ArNI nnd -I Art'llund ' .\1'('11 Il nd-I rca Ilnd
% !lite % age , % uge % sg..
I 2 3 4' ;; I 6 I 7
,
3,22:! ,+lo61 31:1t1,3161 -
1-.11-7C-!),-13- a l - - ·'7,17·' 1 228,212
)1)20-21 5, Hl5,281 I II:.! . :I 7 .5 :W . 7 0 . 11 2 .(1
:I,59U.571 1 ,j,36,171 1,3UI)," 5tI, 62,I:IOtl' 22·1,02U
11)30-;Jl 55\)78391 64 . 2 7 .6 24 . 4 1 . 11 2 .7
, , /
a,357, 02'~ 461,08t1 ' 1,4-0n.nOI 8.;.1.-;:; 2·~0.:WX
1039-40 5,460,473 61.4
·~,052, 156/
tI."1
381:1,1'5/
25.7
7·j.~,!II19
1 .7
a.i.321:1
2.X
llU,21:1t1
1
) 9""-,l.5 .. 5,846,7561 74.7 7 .3 ) .' .(11 1 .2 1.11

It is obvious that the distribution which had remained more or

less the same for twenty years from 1920 except for a slight rise
under oilseeds and tobacco, shows a sudden increase of about 12 per
cent under foodgrains within a period of five years. This -is all the
more noteworthy because the total cropped area shows a slight
decline over that for 1930 and 1940. Whatever the other me-rits of
the 'grow more food' campaign and the control measures, one can-
not escape the conclusion that these have to a large extent succeed-
ed. This increase has been brought about mainly at the expense
of oilseeds and cotton and some of the fodder crops. Tobacco too
has yielded some of its acreage to foodgrains .
Let us now see how the area under foodgrains was distributed
under various crops sueh as rice, cereals, pulses etc. during this
period, which might be of some use to the civil supply authorities,
to locate and seek remedies for deficits under particular commodi-
ties. The following table shows area under different food crops:-

Year
I sown
Area I I
with ' Juwar . , Hajrl.
I Rj~ .
I
Other I'ptOON,
Wheat. PulJle8 and fi'ruit8 &;
Total
uuder food
crops. I I I grains. vegetables. crops.
- --
--
101~ -la
2~
4.270,101 706,0
4 I
922.298 ~a2n ,7!0 1 181l,?841
5 ,-,-od 7
55-1,11111
8
1
0

4.6,001 1 :.!.7t10,0t!:l
1910-17 5,015,02ll 910,0401,027, 101 11l15,85(),10fl._II4, 122.771 7:1,7201 n . ~IR . 71-1l
1020-21 5,105,281 003,097 012 .808 :1211,0001170.11(10 821.nOO Ro.n:!1l a.aOO.flII4
1928-29 15,226,191 010,'''4 1,015,0241:l:l1J,82:!11 ~5,II1J I 11111.11 ~ 4'.,5:!U a,a70.a14
1932-38 5,654,0131,01 1.00J 1 ,057,074405,416 H.S,4{}1 1 8711.Il:lO' 70.1172 :1 ..')1111 ,101
1986-87 5,520,88111,166,6 945,4.80 :m2.11 101111.017 11111.711.; !» . HH~ :1,270,:12(1
19110-'0 5,466,"71111,279,837 069.:tIH 2110,·n 71131 .03·~ IJ:)O.O:I!! 7.;.N7 ' a.W3.!l'Tl
19++-45 5.MO,7M 1.224,81<t 1,2110,215'48;).208 IOO.()(ltl 21:10.1>31 1 71,,73:1 4-,127.81111
:j(j RURAL BARODA

It is obvious that the area under juwar, bajri and wheat shows
some welcome improvement, but not to the extent of making the
state self-sufficient in the matter of food. For this , the experts will
have to look mainly to increasing the yield per acre, by better cuJ.-
tivatlOn an d by providing irrigation facilities, because there is not
mueh scope for increasing the area. The big jump of two lakhs of
bighas under rice. however , calls for some comments. This is main-
ly due to th [;:)et that beca use of th extreme shortage of rice
and the consequent high prices in the black market. of this commo-
dity, ever,v farm e r must have put in rice as an intercrop between
two rows of bajri, juwar, cotton 01' other cereals, as is sometimes
dOlle, Th e extension in the ar a eould not be naturally in the
kYfll'i land , which is the only proper way of growing rice. This
inlercl'oped ricc is of an inferior quality and the yield is only Tlumi-
nal , pro\' iding the fUl'lnc'r with a sIT,all quantity for the personal
use of Id s ramll~'. The only solution posslble for the extreme shortage
In rice, IS a radi.cul change in the dietic habit:, and preferences of tnc
}JeopJe 111 tI](.: whole of the stall' ,

CruI" Iv~we j,')(lo~ '6'~71paign: ' Coupi~d with the increased prices of
Iooel ('\'l'p.S, the Grow More Food Campaign during the war, gave
H fillip tll the iJlcrea ~ed eLdtivalion of Jood erops. in 1941-42 , the
s latt' as a whole expcrieneerl Ll deficit of 23,48,560 maunds in
case (If wheal, juVI ar ane! mtllt. t put togcther and a deficit of 4,~O , OOO
J1)cwnds in rice, As a rcstl lt of the Grow More Food Cam-
l)<.l ign and steps taken tn make it compulsory, for every cul-
tivator so to distribute h is crops over his holding, as to devote ,a
certain minimum to the raising of Ioodgrains, together with various
Inducements held {Jut and concessions ofl'ered to the cultivator of
fll OOl' J"OPS , the state ccased to be il cieficit cU'Cil almost in all cases of
I'ood grai ns except ric. The Grow Mort' Food Campaign adcieci 5
lakhs (d' bighas to the normal area under ["ood crops. But this pro-
gress of the state towards self-sufficiency in the malter of food
crops was sudd nly anested by untimely and excessive rains during
th s ason 1944 which washed away foodgruins seeds from thousands
ot bi gbas of land in the state and the state had to suspend the opera-
tioil of the 'grow more food' campaign and tb e minimum percentage
of compulsory foodgruins cultivation for a year. The scheme was
again put illlO OjlCratlon in 1943 and a budget grant of Rs. 29 lakhs
w s m ade ill th' appropriations for this purpose. It is certain that
with the rest of the world, the state will have to consider the question
?f becoming s If-' 'ufficient in the matter of food, within a stated period
and a lel-w food and agricultural policy will have to be laid down,
 RURAL BARODA

With an all embracing programm e of agricultural d v lopment, ther

a re )'easonable grounds to belie"p that thi ~ could be achieved .
Fm'mer's Epuipme?ll :-An ordinary cultivator possesses a pair of
bullocks, a kos' f.)l· drawing watf'r out of wells, a plough or twn. som('
crude implements and ma y be a cow or a buffalo. This is the min imllm
equipment, apart from land itself, that an <-IV l'rlg farmcl h" In hI;,
possessioll . He row)', in some cases, h ve a cnrt in ildditi n. A com -
parativel y well .. oft agriculturist will hav e an oil nginf' anci pump.
a nd more than one iron ploughs . BUI tho. e who hav (his equipm nt
are fev,' in !\U:110E'1'. There usua ll y is a suf1iciel1C'Y of man po\,\' r II
relation to the ~i<:e or the holding. We have seen that the size or the
averClge hlll(iin_g is 18 bighi'ls :lod the average farmer's family has about
five members. Ind ed, it is obvious that ther al" too man~' m luth ..
to feed, considering the area of land available to an ordinary farmer .
We get details regarding bullocks, cart, plough etc .. from the table
undernea th:-

:'\11",lwl' l 'I" " g h, \,.,." ( :11'1,

I .llnd "I' Itlli . 1' t ' l' ('Il lth lllj 'd 111'1'
I',dl h ult'ri klo:oll" B,d · 1"<'1,, I"" l' llIlIgh ... I ~h:d('. IH ' r poil' (d' t ' :II" .... I, lilt I t '-
(ltir.rh"" .lit,,,, " 11'1. - kl; :11,·· d"... 'k, 1,,,,,,, dal ,
01:0' .
., • ;\ ;, r; 7 s II III

,:, ., ., ';'j .:i l :t

IH:!C, -:! 1 .-I. l .-,) .:!ili :~o-; .!Hi I :\\1:1.:;11:\ I' I ~ H. , ~~-; :::1 .'.!

1n:l0 ·a l ,i , 19;::I,O!H':~ I,a !t:!:t I :! I .:I:\O I :!1 1!'I . lol, .i :.!~ · n III., ~:! .. ,
I !,;IH - ~(f (i.:,'::! . (';:j :L;(; nx:' f :.! I . i!I,'i I' I :!O:.! ..i!l.; ..ill ;11 . 1 I I :1., II.; ..
For t he rrimitlve nl('thoci in which agricultur' IS sti ll 'a rr iccl
on nVf'r rt larger part of the state, i.l pair of bullocks is, til r('fore, lh·'
most important Dnd most costly item of the elY rage farm ,,'s ('quip-
mel't. III Incl., OnL' could safe ly judge both his stAtus i'tn<l hi ~ d'fi -
ciency as a farmer , fr m thE: quality and the Ilumber of bullllck s
he j)OSSCSS(,S. 'I ll f're ha s been n w ·jcome increas in the numher of
bullocks from 393.50:~ in 1921 to 421.595 in 1939-40. Th sam(.' could
f.:>e said about the ploughs. which increased from ]79.487 to 2(12.59,)
durin~; t1:c salrc period . Carts also show the same tE"'1dency. Bow-
ever, if we lc'Qk to th a" rrlgc number of bullocks, pel' kholcdar, 1\
well be not iced inat there is in s uffici e ncy o( bullo ks for a plougr"
if the ate" cul tivated pE"r pair of bullocks is ta ken into consi.:i('ratioll .
it will be seen th.ll , it has increased from 23.2 to 31.1 bighas in ]941 .
The normal area which a pair ef bullocks can as i1 y cultivate. IS sup-
posed to be 20 bi g has. At this rate, it can be seen from the figures giv n
above, that there is a grievous shortage of both ploughs and cattle.
 88 RURAL BARODA

In some backward areas, male buffaloes which numbered 10,392 in

1939-40 are used for cultivation. The number of carts in the state
in relation to the total number of cultivators seem to be 1 in 4 i.e.
roughly every 4 cultivators have one cart between them.
Compared to a well stocked and well equipped farm in the U.S.A'.,
Western Europe or Australasia, or to one even in the comparatively
backward East European countries, this is a very depressing picture,
when we realise that even for the most primitive and the least profit
yielding method of farming, we have not a sufficient supply of the
most elementary equipment, ploughs, carts and bullocks, that agri-
culture requires. We need nearly double the number of bullocks
and ploughs and four times the number of carts, to equip our farms
to the barest minimum needs. The pace of increase that we have
noticed, is so slow that at this rate it would need a hundred years, to
reach th(> minimum standard. What is required is perhaps a greater
resort to mechanised farming, wherever possible and a system of
state subsidy for the purchase and maintenance of adequate farm
equipment. It is better and cheaper to do this than to waste million
on imported foodgrains .
We have also to pay more attention to cattle breeding, cattle
feeding and cattle insurance. to bring about an increase in the
raising of bullocks :md a reduction jn their price, to ~ level which an
averag~ farmer can afford to pay. Today even if the money was
there, or even if the state or the co-operative societies were prepared
to finance the purchase of more bullocks for the Carmel's, there are
!lot enough bullocks available for this purchase. There are only two
ways in which this supply could be increased and maintained. Either
each farmer bre~ds enough bullocks for his requirements and re-
placeinents as they grow unserviceable or die, by keepiug more cows
or cattle breellbg is raised to the ~tatus of an impo!'tant industry
and naot left to a roving class, the Rabaris and Charans.
AgriCtLtturat Engineering:-As we have seen before, tht' culti-
vato}' is using his old !;imple tools and implements in farming his
land. It is necessary that he should be taught to take to improved
implements like tractors, bor.ing pump, iron plough, the cutter etc.
To sec~rc this the Government maintain 1m engineering section in
the Agriculture department, whose work it is to find out the best im-
plements suited to the soil and the nature of farming operations ic
various parts of the state, after experimenting and field trials and
to persuade the cultivators to adopt .these new implements. Among
the duties of this section are the improvement of wells, the study of
underground water supplies, the introduction and demonstration of
 RURAL BARODA

power driven machinery suitable to the farm needs, the designing and
trial of agricultural implements, imparting training in the use of
oil~engjnes and tractors, and the demonstration of t.he application
of electric power to agriculture.
As a result of the activities of this section, on the irrigation side.
there are today more than 400 sets of oil engines and pumps, irriga t-
ing tobl:ocCO cultiv'ation in the Charotar area in the Baroda dislr icl
and about a 100 more in the other parts of the state, f01' a number of
other c.wps. Over and above these, there are about a hllndred
electrically driven pumps, round about the city of Baroda. On the
other hand, the state itself has undertaken two larger irrigation
projects, in the Naw;ari district, for irrigating sugar cane, by install-
pumping sets of considerable power, on the banks of rivers. But fo r
the war, this activity would have made considerable progress, as the
people are now anxious to utilise these means of irrigation , havin g •
seen thklt is u profitable proposition .
l'h,~ departm~nt also does well-boring, well-blasting and supply-
ing modern machinery, for farmers at cost ~rice. A systematic
effort w&s made in 1937 to design and construct agricultural imple-
menl s suited to )c,cal needs and to create a local industry. This at -
tempt r esulted in the crel'ttion of the Gandhi~~llan cultivator a nd
hoe '" hieh is capable of sever~l types of work and is practicall y
adapter! 10 Gujarat soils and planting conditions. The hoe is made
in Baroda and in the last two or three years sales have run to many
hundreds. An important type of threshing implement has al so been
pr oduced, which dl)es away with the large number of bullocks em-
ployed for this purpose, making them available for better tillage. Th
cost of thresh ing by the use of this implement is cheAper by about
70 per cent. A workshop is maintained at Bnroda for repairs of bor-
ing materials, and agricultural implements. The mechanic, engaged
f~ the purpose also imparts practical training in carpentary and
smithy, to the students of the agricultural institute at Barod a .
. Tractor ploughing was introduced and experiments in trac tor'
ploughing wer e c0nducled during 1921-31. Some headway was made
in tractclr plough:ng during this period, but after 1930 onward th ere
came a period of deterioration in the use of tractors, owing to the
general fall tn prices, which made it impossible for the cultivator
to pay the v~ry high rates which were then demanded, The interest
in power cultivation thp.refore to all intents and purposes ceased and
by 1935 hardly any tractors were seen. It was, however, decided
by the Government, that a further attempt should be made to re~
introduce power cultivation, as it was felt that, provided the prices
 RURAL BARODA

at wll'c:J~ the work done were reasonable, there existed ample scope
for work of 1hi:, descriptio!!, particularly in the Navsa!'i district, where
several types of soil were showing signs of being overrun by Kp:n,'
grass. It was, t herefore, docic!ed that the agricultural department
should build up .:i Beet of tractors, which co uld be utilised as sin gle
uni,ts when so required, but in ge neral , as a fleet for this purpose
duril1g four months of the year. The prices that are at presen t
charged by the department, for cnl'rying out of work o( this character,
are very much l ,~ss than those which prevailed niteen years ago,
There has been a very marked increase in the demand for the use
of this service. The area turned by these tractors was only 600
highas in ] 937 w llile it was about 4,000 bighas in 1940. This section
also completed 519 weJJs durin g the yoar 1944-45. Work in 407 wells
was in progress. Of the 44 bores taken up 36 were com pleted . The
numbers of wells drilled and blasted came 10 105. 1891 bighas were
.. ploughed by tractors, while G7 students WE're trained in the oil en gine
and tractor class.
Agric 1 lltw'aZ R.scal'c": Agricultural research in the state fall s
within five main head s; (1) Experim'ntal Farms. (i1) Seed Supply
(iii) Agl'!eu lh!ral Chcl'ni ~; t. · ~· . th') Plant Breeding, and (v) Plant
Patholog~·.

E::r;pel'irn~nfal Fanns SepHl"Itc farms have been estab lished

for each of the distinctive agricultural tracts of the stale. to cxpcri-
m nt with crops and processes 01' agriculture and to cliscovel' those
best suiter! 1.0 the soil, the chroatc and the cf'nclil ion of the area lwd
to help to provid e tilE' n -ed [or pedigree seeds, modern implemen~s
and manure. Til re are ;'\bout a dozen such farms in the state oc-
cupying an 1l1'-'d of about 500 acres.
Na/,(lrla Pal'll!
The central farm is at Baroda. It has. an area of 178 bighas of
:;andy loam known as gorat. Cultural, varietal and maJ:lurial t x·
periltlenls <Ire carried out wilh th 'rops of the district. Thc Baroda·
. farm-Bajri has maintained its high yielding capacity by giving 1394
Ibs., per acre. The Horticulturist and the Economic Botanist conduct
their researches mainly on this farm, attached to which is the Agri-
cultu-:al Jnstitut , which imparts agricultural education. The farm
supplied in 1944-45, 4100 Ibs. of B.9 nucleus cotton seed, 6660 Ibs. of
wheat seed, 690 los. of T .2 1 Paddy and other seed.
T>abltoi FIIt'1II

It has an area of 122 bi ghas of medium black, black cotton gorat

and kyari lands. The farm serves as a centre of production for
 RURAL BARODA

pedigree seeds of B.D.8 cotton, which is found to be the type be t

suited to this tract. Of this seed, 3487 Ibs. were supplied in 1944-45.
Experiments w;th open field paddy are also conducted here in co-
operation with the Imperial Council of Agricultural Research .
In the Nuvsari district, there are two afrn1s, the Vyura farm for
the sugar cane area and the Vesma farm which serves the cotlon
interests of thc distl'ict.
•
1'1/ 11/'(/ ]/111'111

In the Navsari district, th ere are two farms, the Vyara farm fol'
principiI fUllction j~ to experiment with different types of sugar
cane anti supply :-eis of improved can to ulti\'ators. Vari tal an I
manurial experimen1s 011 paddy arc also in progress, and bone-meal
has becn fOLlnci to b useful ilJ conjunction with green manure or
comp()st. The jm'm supplied 26,';55 lbs. of Paddy ~eeds and 29235
sets of S11g0J' cane for extension in Umra and Gande"i during the
year 1944-45.
" ' ( SIII(( /0' (//'11/

'J'h. ar a of' Lilt' farm is ] 06 bighas repr sen ting the black cotton
soH of lhe N : :vs,:ri dis1rict. Th e primary function of the farm is to
supply 111.H.Je:u!> ~: ecds of 1027 A.L.F. long staple cotton for the exten-
slon of t.he seed organisation und during 1941 -42, 7012 lbs. of such seeds
wero Isused.
,/"O/Idl/)/ 1'(11 '))/

The nrea of this farm is 88 bigh;!s representing the s::tndy nllu\·i:.tl •

soil of the IVlehsana district. The farm is associated with Dholleras
cotton improvement scheme of the Indian Central Col.lon Committee
and conducts experim nis with wagad types of cotton. A ttathed
to the farm is Se~h Bhogilal Rajaram Institute, which offers long and
short term courses of training in agriculture. The farm sllpplieJ
23GS lbs. of C'otton seeds, 3200 Ibs. of Jagudan bajri, 447 lbs. of Jowar
and 76f>2 lbs. of Wheal seed during 1941-42.
[Jroilol'r/rr F(l1'1I1

The farm has an area of 86 bighas of sandy alluvial so i1 . Pr i-

marily it is meant to serve the Thakarda b al'ding schonl to which
it is att:3.ched, but it also form s a station for experiments to develop
drought resisting varieties. A feature of the farm is its "isal
plantation .
l' ij olJll1' FOI'//1

It has an area of 75 bighas. This is a new station, recently estab-

1ished for investigating problems connected with the Vijapur tube
 RUkAL BARODA

weJl irrigation scheme. Its layout has not been completed and only
exploratory tests have been taken. .
Am1'eli Fa1·)Jt
The farm at Amreli represents the medium black soil of the tract
and.. conducts experiments on important crops and multiplies seed of
promising types. The Dholleras cotton scheme functions at this
farm also. The area of this farm is 100 bighs. At Kodinar a small
farm of 20 bighas has been started as a joint enterprise with the
Kodinar Co-operative Banking Union. The farm provides th~ talukr.
and Lhe union with a nucleus for the effective testing of new
varieties of crops and serves as a principle focus for the expansion of
fruit in that area, Trials of urine earth and compost manures were
continued and 153,000 Ibs. of compost and urine earth produced and
3,764 Ibs. of A.H, 32 groundnut, 1,700 lbs, of C13 wheat and 55,000
sets of sugarcane were issued for seed purpose,
J)I')J li'm'min{J S I(llions

Besides the above farms, two dry farming stations have been
established at Harij for North Mehsana district and the other at
Kalyvnpura at Okhamandal. The Kalyanpura farm has an area of
22 bighas. It serves the useful purpose of developing agriculture
among the Waghers, whose' methods of farming are primitive in thc
extreme, The Harij farm which covers an area of 90 bighas of salt
crusted soil has been specially established for studying the possi-
• bilities of dry farming cum drainage in dealing with salt accumula-
lion in the soil.
That these farms are fulfilling their function is proved by the
incr'e<,sed number of recommendable varieties of all the main crops
now extant, as compared with those in exist.ence five or six years
ago, before the farmers began to pay any attention to modern field
experimental work. The value of the pure nuclei of the seed main-
t.ained on I'uch farms is reflected in the big and ever increasing seed
supply. Another indication of the good effects of the ,field experi-
mental work is given by the increase in the use of fertilisers ,
chemicals and others,
Seed Supply: In the last few years much has been done to
increase the number of major farms and to extend the areas of such
as did exist, so that these can cope effectively with the work of
xperimen t under local conditions and cl'eation of sufficiently large
number of such types of seeds as are definite improvements, so as to
meet t.he requirements of tirst class registered seed farms, whence the
selected variety may pass on to growers' seed unions or to the seed-
 RURAL BAROt>A

farmers in the village better-farming societies for further multipli-

cation and subsequent distribution for commercial sowings. For
many years past, the state was distributing seeds of ' good types
brought from outside through seeds depots established at various
places in the state. But to-day it is in a position to satisfy
itself that the varieties offered are suitable and are improvements
and that it can create the necessary primary seed on which its seed-
organisation can be developed. Under cottons, it can recommend
and provide according to district and soil-1027 A.L.F., B.D.8, B.g,
Wagad 8; under groundJ?ut-A.H. 32 and A.H. 25; under sugarcane
P.O.J. 2878 C.O. 421; under Juwar, Budh Perio Juwar in NaVllari and
Ramkhel Juwar in Mehsana ; under paddies Kolam 2~ and 184,
Nagina T.1 and T.22 ; under Bajra in Mehsana district "Jagudan
Special"; under wheats Pusa 22, Pusa 4, Cawnpore 13, and Dec~an 808.
The following figures show the expansion in seed organisation:

Year. Towl omount or Origin.

I seed iss\lt'd.

1985·36 . . 4.11 IRklls Ibs. Dombny.

1989'40 .. 1!l .77 Baroon Stalt'
1940·n .. :1(\ . 4:1
1941·42 .. :'H. :;
1944··1.5 .. Il ·~ . !!

AgricuZrural Chemist1'Y: The starting of this new branch in

agricultural research has supplied a long felt want. The capricious
character of rain in India makes irrigation an imperative necessity
and if irrigation is to be developed, well and tank waters in relation
to soil, need to be specially studied. The analysis of different
soils is also very useful in indicating the lines alon g
\vhich enrichment of soils could be made and selection of areM f0C
better production of each kind of crop may be undertaken. With
these objects in view, an agricultural chemist was recruited in 1936.
The work done by the agri~ultural chemist since his appointment
comes under the following main heads:-
(1) Extensive survey and intensive study of well and tank
w~ters.

(2) The growth of different · cottons in different districts.

(3) Application of rapid chemical methods of analysis to soils
and irrigation waters.
(4) Sugarcane research at Vyara.
(5) Investigations into the salt lands at Nimetha.
•
I
 RURAL BARODA

(6) Investigation into the effects of manuring and cooking on

the Vitamin C content of fruits and vegetables.
Plant Breeding: In view of the extremely lower yield on Indian
soils and the poor quality of that yield, plan t breeding becomes a
very important item in the development of agriculture. In this
branch of Agricultural research the main target has been the improve-
ment of cotton. Cotton in the state is not a unifo rm crop. In Baroda
Jistnct, the position is even more complicated as in addition to the
difficulties of the soil, there are two serious soil borne diseases. Typ~s
of coiton immune to these diseases are investigated and recommended,
The planl breeding work at Baroda, is concerned with the produc··
tion of an improved Root-Rot resistant type of cotton for use OJ)
gorat and besa1' soils. Although a completely immune variety
r:otion has not been evolved, the department h~s in a cotton selec-
tion, called Karkhadi , a cotton from which, typcs or cation having
a marked resi stance to thi s disease have been evolvcd, Field trials
with types of juwar, bajra and castor !;how that in many of these
cases, lhe local variety is bel tel' than those Jrom outside.
PLall' Pathology: The w0rk in this section has been main I. '
devot.ed to cotton problems and largely financed by the Indian
Ce ,tra1 Cotton ComnliUee. The incidence 01 Root-Rot in cot1.on ha.-;
ueen traced to the influ nee of the organisl'llion Maerophomina
phescola and N ma(ories, acting eilh r singly or in combination.
When bajra is sow n ill Jines between cotton, a high protective fronl
Root-Rot is afford d. J..,iberu1 applications of urine, earth and com-
pl)sts 113VC some retarding influence. Work is also Ullder progres:,
m s eking remedial measures against soft rot of ginger, which is
rapid I b coming a menace in Gandevi . A number of experiments
han' been undertak en 1'01' the control of this attack, and of these
Bordeau, mixtur apperus:o far to yield the best results.
VctC'l'ina1'Y and Live-stock:-This ection of the department wa:;
established in 1936. under a qualified deputy d.irector , assisted by two
inspectors, a s pecial liv -stock officer and a disease investigation
oITicer. There arc 34 veterinary dispensari s under its control. In
1945. 62,789 cases were tr aled at thes(\ dispensaries besides the
routine work of about 80,000 preventive vaccinations and inoculations
carried out , in the villages surrounpil')g or in those from· which out-
break of contagious diseases were reported . Satisfactory as these
fig\ll"eS nrc, the fact remains that on ly a fraction of the cattle
population in the Stat , receives veterinary aid when re-
quired . Practically, all these cases that have been treated are ani-
mals [rom places within easy walking distance from the dispensaries .
•
 RURAL BARODA IJ

The number of animals left at the hospitals for 11' atment was 1I1-
fipitesimal, partly on account of the heavy cost of maiQtenanc ,
The sectional laboratories attached to this section, c<lrr,v out in-
vestigation in reported diseases, examines pathological sp cim ns
and prepares goat virus vaccines for the use of th Statl;! and the
neighbouring areas,
L inked with th is section, th ere is now the beginn1l1g of c; defiJllY!
mo,'ement towards t.he improvement oL thc \ ' jlia~c slnck. Tile ]\Ia -
kai'pura Dairy Farm ha!' now a herd of Surf i buffaloe's CInd KanJ..I'Pj
cows, A fairl y lar 'e scale subsidised Kankrej breeding farm ha s
bl'!en opehed at KhoJ'aj neilr Chharodi. the si te of the Bomba,\' 0\'-
ernment farm. Thi s farm will provide abuut 25 bulls C \ ('1'.\ , year .
Steps have also been taken 1.0 grade up the villagc cow s of Kodlll :II '
- primaril y of Gil' extraction-by the issuc of s let'tcd Gil' bn'('d
bulls. The dcpartment is n ow enguged In developing ,Ibuffalo bu ll
rai!,;ing l'al'm for th e Mebsi.ll1a bu ffa locs, which nrc in J'c;.Jlity t1w ill -
direct grading up of the l oca l stock with Delhi MUrl'Glh and Silld
MUJ rah buffaloes. About 14,000 to 16,UOO uf l"(' ~:i<' <11'~ ('xl.lort('d tIl
the Bombay stables and provide a flourishing subs ld iar.v JI1dustr ~'
fo], 'the Nortll Guje-1rat farmers, c~pe('iolly the Mvmin::i, who arc engag ·
eel in this business.
A more r cent de\'clopment has been t he settlement Hnd coloni-
za ti on of Rabal'is-th professional but Ihnnadic cattlc brL'('(\ rs of
north Gujarat, on blocks of Governn,ent ",astc lands. The bI gges t 01
these is that at Bellasar on which about ;;0 families ar (:(lloni zed (, ll
1,500 acres. These colonies and settlements seek to provide ti le H,I -
baris with sufficient land for cultivation of grain producill g ;.lI1d fod-
der producing crops , at the same time finding substanti a l areas on
which grazing could be controlled and steps taken to il1lprOH' tIll'
grass yield. There are at present two such coJonjc~ and eight seLt Ii.:-
menis. A colony is plHce I on a single block of f nced lane!. In tht,
case of settlements, local Rabaris are provided with :llCaS of cultiv·
able land over the village waste area , while the larger s ill g le blocks
of these are set aside for grass,
Sheep breeding and a more II ctive [lnd ct:oJ1on li' handlIn g or
fleece of the existing shC'C'p, arc bcing attended to fr()m a :, tu lw l1 ail e!
wool laboratory, opened at Patan in the Meh;lsana distJ'J ct.
Prevention of soil e7'osion: There is much loss from sod ero-
sion which goes on unchecked in Gujaral and Kath iawad , by 5h('('t
erosion or by gully erosion, along the banks of large rivers lIk thE'
Sal:"armati and the Shetrunji. To educate the people to the seriuu. -
ness of this loss and discover the best way of checking it, the Govern-
46 RURAL BARODA

ment established a separate organisation with a special Soil Conser-

vation Officer under the control of a committee consisting of the
Sar Suba, the Commissioner of Agriculture, The Chief Engineer and
the Conservator of Forest. Special officers were deputed to study
operations for prevention of soil erosion in the Punjab. Funds have
been provided for prelimi,:ary operations in three blocks:-
(1) at the head waters of the Shetrunji south of Dhari,
(2) in the area to the west of Dhari-Amreli road,
(3) at Hirapura, typical of the area bordering the Sabarmati.
At Dhari the work has been in progress for 5 years with en-
couraging results. There was a demand for bunding 20,000 Bighas
from 275 cultivators- 9,000 Bighas were bunded. In contour trench
system 18,000 feet of trenches have been dug; for gully plugging 750
new bunds were erected and 300 fresh wood plugs put in; in the tree
planting section 30,000 trees were planted. At Hirpura vat bun ding
has been found the most effective. During the year 1944-45, 2,125
Bighas were vat bunded with bunds 12,916 feet long. The steep
banks of kotars and ravines have been sloped and sown with grass
sec(ls. For afforestation purposE's, the denuded areas have been
shown with 23,500 seedlings.
Propaganda: The crux of the problem in agriculture is to link
the work of the experimental farm with the villages, to induce the
agriculturists to adopt the varieties of seeds, methods of farming and
collection of manure etc., which the farms after numerous experi-
ments and field trials, have found to be the best suited to tht! tract. A
solution of this problem is attempted on a comprehensive plan which
includes (i) intensive work (ii) agricultural education (iii) tours and
exhibitions and (iv) rural reconstruction centres.
Agricultural propaganda took shape in 1893, when a resident
fieldman was appointed at Okhamandal. Later on agricultural ins-
pectors were appOinted at Amreli , Mehsana and Okhamandal. These
inspectors were responsible for the introduction of certain new crops.
Later, as enthusiasm in agriculture was kindled among the people,
agricultural associations were formed all over the Raj . An Agricul-
tural Museum , which arranged cattle shows in each taluka was start-
ed in Mehsana. Agricultural shows demonstrating the benefits of
improved implements were held. A travelling agricultural exhibi-
tion was also put into effect. Lectures were given by the revenue
officers and leaflets and pamphlets on various subjects such as the
advantages of green fodder, the improvement of cattle breeding and
small holdings, were published and freely distributed. During the
last phase, severa l new agencies mentioned above have been added
 RURAL BARODA

and all possible efforts are being made to. bring home to the culti-
vator~, the results of various experiments and research in agricultural
improvement.
(i) Intensive work units. Thi,l; is the mo t important and wide-
spread section of agricultural propaganda. Areas selecled for intensive
work are divided into units of about 20 villages and each unit again
di vided into 3 or 4 sub-units. A unit is in charge of an overseer and a
sub-unit under a Kamgar assisted by a fieWman, all trained on· the
government farms. The Kamgars carry out Relected experiment on
farms of agriculturists as an object lesson to the villagers, besides dis-
trihlting improved seeds and implements and showing impro\red
me1hods of collecting manure. In this work they are assisted morc
and more by the better farming societies, which have been established
in the villages of these units. Under this plan, th~re were 19 int(.!l1-
sive units serving 393 villages of all the districts in 19:44-45.
The following figures indicate the work these units did during
the year:-
I I
1'1'011.11
Haroda
Distrkl
:"1,,·slIri .
di~tri(·t
I ;\1,·h slI lIlI !.\rtlfl" i
lIis! rit-1. di, 1rid .

- I-
Crol) t rials on agriculturists'
.. ..
I
farm s ., 251 350 I
I
:.180 885 1,275

Compost coll ccted in tholl~und I

of lbs. . . .. .. :;85 2,020 I
3,165 9,570 / l(i,:BO
I

In the area outside the intensive zones, graduate assistants tout'

with itinerant carts, according to settled programmes. These. too,
show cultivators improved seeds and implements, teach them the
best methods of collecting and preserving menure and distribute seeds
and implements at concession rates. A new feature is the introduc-
tion of 16 m.m. films on these circuits in co-operation with the Gov-
ernment of Bombay. During the year 1944-45, 33 itineries were com-
pleted reaching 586 villages. Over 1,50,000 people attended lantern
lectures and cart exhibitions and 855 implements and 92,000 lbs. of
seeds vvere sold.
(ii) Agricultural Education: Another important means of dis-
seminating knovvledge among the rural population is to train young
agriculturists at Government farms, so that they may go back to their
lands with greater experience and knowledge and become more effi-
cient. Courses in agriculture are given at the farms at Barndn,
Jagudan and Amreli. Baroda farm has a long course in training ex-
48 RURAL BARODA

tending over a year and several short courses of six to twelve weeks,
giving instructions in practical farming, and special subjects such as
tobacco production and curing, poultry rearing, horticulture, oil~
engine and tractor, dairy and livestock. One hudred_ students are
taken up at a time. At Jagudan and Amreli farms, similar one year
and short courses are being conducted . All students receive stipends
while they are on the farms under training. The candidates that go
back from year to year to their villages after training, help to im-
p:0ve the standard of cultivation in the neighbourhood. Some 300 to
400 students are trained at these centres every year.
(iii) TOLlrs and Exhibitions : The third means of propaganda is
by conducting instructional tOLlrs, agricu ltural shows, exhibitions and
·d emonstrations. Every year leading agricu lturists interested in the
agricultural progress and resea rch, are taken to the institutions of the
department at Government expense.
(iv) Rural Reconstruction Centres: A rural recon s truction cen-
tre is an efficient agency for sprea ding agricultural knowledge, but
it is not merely that. Its aim is to develop in the people, living in
the surrounding villages, a desire for higher slandard of livin g-li the
will to live better" - and to brin g into existence in the area, enthu-
siastic workers with qualities of leadership, who can eventl'a11 :v take
over, maintain and deyplop th e work of the ('entre. ThiS a bjl.x·!.
is m:hieved by establishing in cvery village n[ the centre a Le-
operative soc iety, whose aim is to efTeet im pro\'emer.t in all rl,spelt:-;
uf r ural life alld whose functi on ' comprise al l objects of u t i-
lity to the Village. Wh(;;!11 suc h soc:i<.!lics havc been established in all
the villa g s, a union ii: i form d which is 1(1 be enln1sted with th e task
of continuing the work of the centre. With th ese objE'cts in view ,
a Rur ..'l R construction Centre was opened at Kosamba in 1932. it.,
activities are two folcl :- (i) Work a t the centre and (ii) work in the
selected villages. The activities at th e centre are directed towards
subsidiary occupations like poultry keepin g, kitchen and flower
gardening, holding slimmer school lor cottage industries, sco utin g,
sanitation and cottage industri es like spinnin g, weavi ng, carding,
tape-making etc. The other centr' a t Karjan conce ntrates its work
in the surroundin g 11 villLl ~;( ' ~> fur th e presen t , and deals wilh agri-
cultural impruvcment. li vcl;tuck, cultage industries, ad ult .cducatiuII,
sanitatiun, and education relating to ruraJ welfarc. A third Rural
Reconstruct iun Centre has been opened at Vankal (Navsari ) for a
:;pecia l effort for ruraj improvel1l nt in the backward arcai::i in that
part. .
Horticulture: As the territories of Baroda State represent a wide
\'ariety of soil and climate, the state is specially suited for edeveJoping
 RURAL BARODA 9

a· profitable fruit industry.The nutrition value of fruits in the diet

of the people being very high, it was decided by the Gov rnment to
encourage fruit growing on scientific and systematic lines. Fruit
growing was first started at Jagudan farm . Government opened a
horticultural section of the agricultural department in 1936. The
activities of the section are at present centred round the following
main phases of development: (1) orchard survey (2) economics of
fruit growing (3) District propaganda (4) Registration of nurserymen
(5) shows and dem·onstrations (6) organisation of fruit growers
(7) 'fruit development schemes (8) training and education (9)
publication of literatUre (10) fruit preservation (11) preparation of
lime juice (12) marketing of fruit$ (13) fruit nurseries of fruit
research stations (14) remodelling of Government plantations.
Kodinar and Dhari hold possibilities of becoming important
fruit growing centres in Kathiawar. At Kodinar, a small plot of 20
highas was started in 1939 as a joint enterpri.se with the Kodinar
~anking Union. They sold 7,200 plants during the year 1945. At
phari, the nursery is now fully established and local farmers are
beginning to get interested. There is one more nursery at Gandevi
in the Navsari District, which is one of the most important fruit
growing centres in Gujarat. .
Fruit surveys have been carried out in all th e districts. A fruit
pr servation laboratory has been ~tar ted to investigate into the m -
thods of fruit preservation and to introduce them among the public.
In this laboratory, full and exhaustive work has been carried on
regarding the economic utilisation of kagdi lime-fruit. which is x-
tensively grown in the state. L1me juice and cordial, dried lime peel
powder, lime pickle and lime seeds for nursery purposes ar the
varied products obtained from thi s fruit, turning its money
value from about Rs. 45 r- per ton of fresh fruits, to about Rs. 650 /- for
the various products obtained from the same quantity. Several other
fruits such as papaya, mango, orange, grape fruit and pine-apple ar
found for the first time to yie ld a jelly of high quality.
A quarterly training class in elementary fruit preservation is
bei,ng conducted in this laboratory and about one hundred students
have been trained. There has been a considerable increase of about
4',000 bighas in the area under fruit as a result of the efforts of th .
section. Further work on the economic utilisation of country man -
goes in squashes, jams, chutneys etc., and of papa)ta, guava and c'hiku
in making jams, jellies etc., is about to be taken up in this laboratory.
The State and Agriculture : Before the accession of His late
Higbness Sayajirao Gaekwad. little or no attention was paid to thi s
R . B ._'
 50 . RURAL BARODA

most vital industry of the State. During the reign of the late Maha-
raja Sayajirao, greater and greater attention began to be paid to agri-
culture. And after all the preliminary steps were taken, the work
of real improvement in the technique of agriculture began. The
history of these improvements falls within three well marked periods:
1. From 1887 to 1908
2. From 1909 to 1927
3. From 1928 to 1944
The first plan in the intensive development of agriculture has
been characterised as a period of "Set Fair" when matters relating to
agriculture were given a fairly good attention. The chief features of
this period are the provision for agricultural education, agricultural
bank and experimental farms. During this period efforts were made
to introduce exotic varieties of cotton and sugarcane and to extend
the cultivation of wheat, tobacco, indigo, safflower , potatoes, mul-
berry and Indian fruit trees. Trials were made with artificial manure
on dry and irrigated crops, and attempts were made to introduce iron
ploughs, reapers cane crushers, winnowers, steam ploughs and
other heavy machinery. The first phase is thus crowded with agri-
cultural. improvement. The foundation of agricultural improvement
and that too an all-sided improvement was thus laid in the first phase.
The second phase which began with 1909, saw the consolidation of the
work of the first phase. The famine of 1899 impressed the necessity of
talting more serious steps to improve agriculture. The agricultural
department was organised as a separate department under a full time
Director. The progress made during this phase was fairly good. At
the end of the first phase, Baroda wIls very much in advance of other
Indian States and distinctly in advance of British India, in respect
of ideals and steps taken to realise these ideals 'in actual prActice.
In the second phase, not only the work done in the first phase was
consolidated and advanced, but also distinctive additions in the form
of veterinary relief and agricultural engineering were made to the
existing facilities. The third phase which began with 1928. has
been designated as the rising barometer and is the most remarkable
for the all round increase in the activities of the Agricultural depart-
ment. It is in this phase that Baroda gets definitely associated with
the Indian Central Cotton Committee, the Imperial Council of Agri-
cultural Rsearch, the Indian Society of Agricultural Economics and
many other assoSiations of world-wide fame.
The agricultural department which was established during the
second phase, was expanded by the addition of several new bran-
ches such as Horticultu~~, Agricultural Chemistry, Economic Botany
 RURAL BARODA 51

and the Marketing section. Thus the department definitely approaches

'parity in its potential powers of scientific investigation, with similar
organisations in the other principal provinces and states of the
Country. That the agricultural department has expanded consider-
ably durillg recent years, is shown by the fact that the budget of the
department has risen from Rs. 1.35 lacs in 1931-32 to Rs. 12 lacs by
now. Even this outline is sufficient to show what important part
.the government plays through the agricultural department in im-
proving the condition of the people. To what extent, it may well be
asked, has it benefitted the ordinary cultivator in terms of money and
services? The answer to this may be found in what follows.
The use of improved seeds, new methods of creating manure, the
use of chemical and other fertilisers, the employment of modern
agricultural implements, all these have attained great dimensions ,
due chiefly to the activities of the aepartment, like demonstrations,
experiments on Government farms , seed organisation. Besides
this, the services of the engineering section and the marketing orga-
nisation has been increasingly utilised .
An inquiry to measure these benefit:;; in terms of man y was
instituted by the department of Agriculture, and the results on a
conservati\'e basis are given below :-
As the outcome of the efforts of the agricultural section during
1943-44, the potential gain to the cultivators, adopt~ng one or other
improved varieties or practices suggested by the department and
adopted by the grower:s is, at a low estimate, as follows:-
'r .:.
Improved tYlI'lhod s of ngrit-ulluTc , TI s.
new \'urietics of crops ek . ] , 11; ,10,000
Ve terinary aid lind reli ef .. m,oo,OOO
Ag. Engincering 11,<10,000
Horticulture .. !I,OO ,OOO
Mark eting 05 , ()()()

'rota I ] ,87, 05,000

Benefi\S ana)ysed: It is difficult to assess the benefits accl"Uing

from the varied activities of the Agricultural Department to the
agriculturists in the State, in general; but of the fact that th(:' steps
taken are in the right direction , there can be no doubt. The beneftts
to the agriculturists in terms of money can only be approximatel y
assessed, as th at depends upon various other factors such as price,
communications, financial facilities etc. But it will be instructive to
detail the items directly affected by the activities pf the Department
of Agriculture and the improvements brought therein. The table on '
page 51 gives some of the relevant figures for recent years in connec-
tion with each of these activities.
52 RURAL BARODA

Particulars, J08:;-1193 7- 1 19<10--I° 1 1941-,12 ! 10, ~2--"!1

I 1036 1038

- - - 1 - :1-:1 ' , ~--

X "'10 II ' I' of villugcs ulld eriotClls;~c-a-ttc~ti~n 1-- -:8~1 [) :lIlai -w,~1 4'111
:-'0 , oj' fl<'ld c1cmonstrutions "lot., nrrung(·d Oil
farmcrs' fI('ld s " II! lo~8 2iHOj 127':; I.HI!
~() , of demon strlltions in manur!' ('onsen'a tion 1232 1768 3277 1100.3
~ o, or dcmon:;1ration. of implelll('J1t~ lind
simple mll(' hillc~ l :l 2'>13 201'" UI10 :.!10tl
St'crH of Hctd i~H ll c d h v ,e ...d or~an ;,;ution in ti l('
Stat '
St'rrh of I,olle-Illea l ferl i1isl' n ('I " " from d epart-
LU,jG:l2 ;;1101I1J8 1:l77IG(} .~22!1(11011j"7)
5H

mental dcpot~ llW:':O 07200 :?l:JllB 8020{)8 n-l216'~

( 'artlouds of new llI11nllrCh !IInd e ltv villages I J ()() "noo 23310 :11366
' 0 , of ma; or implclIIl'nb slipplit'd to funners 'l7 10U3 111 a 110(\ S35
No , of ('IlSC8 trentcd h,v \',' Il'r;nll"\' SlIrj!'QOn s ;JJ 8J 7 4:lQ701- OJlJ08 G0370 (1)553
No , of uniJ1lulH prol,'('It'd ""0111 l' pirl CI"I ~ di s t'a~(,R ' 970ij 478BO 8HI"55 10247, ; 1)1207
No, of ",(' II ~ d"'"IIIl;I ('cI
Kos (If ",atr" ~dd,'d
20
1.3
fl,;/
4lJ
580
181
2,'l-L
1 ;17
2'10
lIH
I\rt'u )11~'II/.(Il('<1 h~' Stul l' Im, 'turs UII I'()nt,',u't
(Bll!ha,' ) ,, ,, ,, ,' jU5 U:tl':; :WJ..I
Fruit plllll!'S issued hy ~tat " "ur,' (' r; c~ alld hy
the lIorticlIltu"i st '_ (Jilin' lUll 7(1IJ, ~ 1 111:.1(11 U802/ l7:l,iO
Totul b,,'(.'~ (Ii' "olton "l'rtifie<1 hv th e lI'arkt'l i n"
ulliN: , ' " 21,~ul fji;j{J/1 J 22,; 50H2
Tolul prcrtliu (I"C" "Il'ul ral es Sl'( 'lIrt'" try

""j
gfO"'crs (R c, l ', ,, ,, ,, ,j(l17! JIJJOO
P e rsons truin d , ill 1\ ! ri,'\I!I.\",,· lind ullinl
su1)jccls for a months and 0\'1' 1' ,L7 22 318 252
Totol cx pcndilur(' "I' Ih e Ol'PIII'I'"Cnl Ii " IlIkh.~ HOI
,1.3
of rnpcI's) 2 ,08 ,~ (l , UI! 8,28

One has to admit that the greatly increased number of demon-

trations, increased quantities of seeds and manures distributed and
such other activities go a long way to improve the methods of agri-
culture, and raise the yield, Further, the ploughing by tractors of
larger areas, the sinking of wells, the increased supply of imple-
ments have aU added to the cumulative efforts in the regeneration of
agriculture, The increased marketing facilities and the training of
persons in larger numbers in methods of agriculture, aye expected
to b ar fruit as time goes on,
 CHAPTER V

MARKETING OF CROP

Im!)ot'tance of marketing: The advantages of sound mar-

keting cannot be over-emphasised. The existence of a good market-
ing system is expected to do away with the middle-men, who have
been traditionally considered as a source of great evil to Iodian
agricultural economy. It is said that the real cultivator never gets
a fair return for hirs goods and that he is robbed of his fair share in the
profit of his undertaking by such middle-men, who are often a com-
bination of money lender, merchant and broker. Other advantages
accrui.ng from a good marketing system are standardisation of qua-
lity, security of a fair return, removal of frauds due to weighment
and transit and preventing and adulteration. Marketing facilities
in order to be a success have therefore to be accompanied by co m-
prehensive measures for achieving the above ends.
M(l.1'kel 'ill{J of chief ('I ' O))S: Cotton, oil-seeds, tobacco, fruits,
wheat, millet and sugarcane are the important crops of the state.
In the Mehsana District corns and cereals are locally disposed of
at places like Patan, Visnagar and Mehsana, from where finally they
are exported to Marwar and Jodhpur to b consumed there. This is
financed by saokars or the co-operative societies where it is grown. Oil
seeds are sent to Bombay to be exported to foreign countries. Buyers
finance the kheduts. Cotton is disposed of at Harij, Kal01 , Kadi and
Dchg~m to be finally exportep to Ahmedabad and Bomhay. Futur
sales take place in case of cotton and oil seeds. The local merchants
also finance the crop. In the case of cotton the gin owners and mill
agents of Ahmedabad as well as exporting agencies from Bombay
also do the same. Sales of wheat take place through the middle~
men and petty merchants who are financed by money lenders. In
the Baroda District rice, cereals and oil seeds are disposed of at the
places of production such. as Savli, Baroda, Petlad and Padru for loca1
consumption. Generally these crops are financed by the middle-men ,
there being no organised markets. In the Navsari District, rice and
cereals are disposed of at Billimoria in the open market, while cotton
is sold to gin owners, middle-men and to merchants and mill agents
of Bombay. Generally, these crops are financed by the saokars
while in growth. In the Amrel~ district of the state, the' principal
markets are at Amreli, Kundla and Chalala. As regards the facili-
ties for finance the conditions are more or less the same in all the
districts, in as much as the farmers have to depend upon saokars.
 RURAL BARODA

('o-opM'a live 1It(t1'keting: Certain important marketing

cer.tres in the state such a~ Gandevi, Billimora, Sidhpur and
Unjha have been in existence for a long time. The usual procedure
for sale followed in these markets is through professional weighers
.Hid brokers, to whom the farmers send their samples. To protect
themselves from the money lenders and other agencies, who come in
the way of the farmers getting the full price for their products, the
farmers organised production and sale societies on co-operatIve basis '
with the help of the Government.. These societies mostly function.
as agents for their members for sale of produce on a commission basis.
The produce of the members is pooled, graded and sold in commOll
as and when considered best, the members agreeing to take the avc-
rage price secured in the season .. There are at present 8 cotton saJe ·
societies, 2 groundnut sale societies, 1 sugar-cane growers' associatlcn,
2 pure milk supply societies and 3 other kinds of sale societies.
(',,/lOll 'all' .~oc ic/il,, : The cotton sale societies are doing
very good work, especially in the Navsari district. These societies
coUected 4,99,200 mds. of cotton in 1943-44. The total realisation
from the sale of that cotton amounted to Rs. 36 .92 lakhs. Joint sale
resulted in fetching better prices for the cultivators, to the extent of
Rs. 5 to Rs. 20 per bhar.... As a further s~ep towards co-operative
marketing of cotton, co-operative ginning and pressing of cotton
came into existence. Individual members were exploited by capi-
talistic gin owners, who generally combined together in charging
higher rates for ginning and pressing. Five factories were working
on co-operative basis. These factories ginned and pressed 22,000
bhars of cotton in 1943-44. They were successful in bringing down
the rates of gining and pressing from Rs. 6 to Rs. 8 to Rs. 3-4 and.
Rs. 4-8 respectively, and these are now more or less normal rates
throughout the whole tract, including those for private ginning and
pressing. A rebate in both these charges is allowed to the members.
The Government have encouraged these societies through grants of
subventions for the first three years of their. establishment.
Jfa,.keti?lO sm'veys: Government have carried out exhaus-
tive surveys of all the major crops of the state with a view to pro-
vide information, which would serve the basis of a comprehensive
and efficient marketing system. The following surveys have been
completed.
(1) Surveys pertaining to marketing of animal husban~ary
and fruits:- 1. Cattle; 2. Milk; 3. Eggs; 4. Bananas;
• DhBr-24 mds.
 ;' RURAL BARODA ' 5

5. Pine apples; 6. Lemons ; 7. Grapes; 8. Hides and

skins; 9. Mango.
(2) Surveys pertai,ning to marketing of crops :- 1. Wheat ;
2. Rice; 3. Tobacco; 4. Groundnut.; 5. ·L inseed; 6. Gram,
Tua~ and Bajri. 7. Mustard seed. 8. Rape seed. 9. Potato ;
10. Ghee and butter; 11 . Wood ; 12. Sugar.
Pnoling ce'll,'es: Pooling centres for the co-operative mal\
keting of agricultural products have been established .at 7 places.
The marketing through these centres is financed by a loan of Rs. 5
lakhs' secured from the Bank of Baroda Ltd. The loan enables advance
payment upto 70 percent. The Government also sanctioned Rs.
15,000 free of interest for the purpose. In 1937, a Marketing Officer
of the state was stationed at Surat, to keep groups of farmers and
sale societies in touch with the markets there. In 1938-39 five
societi,es and four groups pooled their crops at the pooling centres.
The number increased to 16 and 19 respectively in 1939-40 and in
1941 these rose to 19 and 35. This helped the cultivators in realising
better prices for cotton growers in the Navsari district, and resulted
in securing Rs. 5 to 12 as premium over day to day prices of such
cotton. The figures in the following table show th e useful work
done by athe Surat Marketing office.
- Yenr
!Dales Bold Avern:e premium
b~ the realise over locnl
m 'c. prl('t~8 per Khantii

RH. (I. I'.

10aH .• :.!141J 4
19811. .
1040 ..
27110
67GO
"
7 1:.1
10 (J
II
I)
II
19 'n M71S 13 11 :.I
1945 .. 488·1. It! (I 0

Besides obtaining better prices for 1027 A.L.F. cotton, the Surat Office
has helped in standardising this cotton under the AG Mark, which is
accepted in the market as a guarantee for purity. Besides the above
office, the state maintenance a staff of marketing officers, whose duty
is to carry out surveys of marketin g of princ ~pa l products in the
state and to advise the people in the efficient marketing of their
products.
Regula.ted markets : .8.e£ore 1939, there were no regulated
markets in the state. The evils of unregulated markets are well
known in India. The uneducated sellers of the products have
to pay for various services performed and unperformed, and
various deductions are also made from the price which
he expects to iet from the sale of his produce. And when
 RURAL BABODA

finally he gets the price for his product, there is a great gap
between the price in the market and the price realised by him. To
stop this evil the state established a regulated market at Bodeli as an
experimental measure in 1939. The state proposes to establish regu-
lated markets at other places, but due to war conditit>ns, the scheme
had to be postponed for the present. The principal objects of these
regulated markets are:
(i) to bring the cultivator into direct touch with the mer-
'chant and to enable him to get as good a price as
possible and for this purpose to disseminate market
news.
(ii) to guarantee proper weights and prevent fraudulent
methods of weighing by frequent inspections.
(iii) to minimise illegal practices of middlemen,
(iv) to prevent irregular deductions such as muthi and
Dharmadllya.
The regulated cotton market at Bodeli was opened in 1939.
There was a great opposition from the merchants and the dalals
(brokers) in the beginning, but they all co-operated afterwards.
During 1940, 43,531 bhars of cotton were handled at the market.
Further, the Agricultural Produce Act wa1> enacted in the year
1939, which provides for the constitution of a Marketing Committee
giving 50 ~{ repres ntation to th e growers of agricultural produce
along with one elected member each from the co-operative soci~ties,
the Prant Panchayat and the Municipality and two nominees of the
Sar Suba. The rest of the members are to be elected by the trad-
ers dealing in agricultural produce. The Marketing Officer advises
the Committee wherever nec ssary. This Committee is responsible
for the effective enforcement of the marketing rules. There are three
sub-committees; one supervises the weights and measures and the sales
by the dalaLs and the merchants, the other sees that there are no
disputes between the sellers and buyers and if any, the sub-com-
mittee acts as arbitrator and ·its decision is final ; the third committee
supervises the market area, roads, buildings etc. Thus the market-
ing committee greatly helps the smooth working of regulated
markets.
GmdVn.{J of Gllee : Baroda has a , very large export trade
in ghee. But during recent years on account of the malpractices of
the traders, the/ trade began to decline. Hence it was necessary to
start centres of ghee-grading. Two centres were opened; one at
Dhinoj and the other at Visnagar, both in the Mehsana district in
1939. Two more centres were later started; one at Baroda and the
 RURAL HARODA 57

other at Dhari. In 1944-45, the number of centres increased to six. The

total quantity of ghee graded b~ these centres was 1,15,000 maunds,
valued at Rs. 152.9 lakhs in 1944-45. These centres are placed in
charge of a ghee grader who supervises the heating and filtering of
ghee and gets 4 gallons tins packed for the trader in his presence,
affixing AG Mark seal on each tin before sending it out. He charges
a cess of as. 3 per tin:
I

Gradil/g 0/ Eggs: Egg producers in the state being illite-

rate people, were being deceived by the egg merchants. by offering
them a price far below the market standard. To improve the system
of egg marketing and to introduce a system of grading them, an egg
grading c~ntre was started at the village of Anaval in the Navsari dis-
trict. The subsidised poultry farmers were established as egg pack-
ers, so th'at they could collect the eggs produced from improved stocks
and from the village poultry. During 1944-45 five packers graded
and Agmarked 2,33,000 eggs worth Rs. 27,000.
Fall 0/ prices altd 1'elie/ meas((res: During the depression
thai started from 1929-30, the prices of al l the articles fell tremen-
dously. This phenomenon was not peculiar to Baroda. It was a
world-wide phenomenon. Every where in the world and in India
there was a slump in the prices of agricultural products and raw
materials and every where relief measures had to be adopted for
preventing the agriculturists from being insolvent. The fall in the
prices of some commodities was greater than in others, and hence dis-
tricts which grew commodities, the prices of which had fallen very
much, suffered heavily as compared with others. To relieve the dis-
tress of the agriculturist. government came forward with bold mea-
sures of relief.
By marketing surveys, by the establishments of grading centres,
by passing the Weights and Measures Act which is meant for stand-
ardising weights and measures, by advancing loans, by the introduc-
tion of the Agricultural Produce Act and by the establishment of ghee
and Egg grading centres, the government have helped directly and
indirectly the cultivators to get for him as far as possible, the whole
of the price which is paid by the consumers of his products.
 .
CHAPTER VI
I .1

.
FINANCING OF AGRICULTURE AND THE CO-OPERATIVE
MOVEMENT .

It is a peculiar thing for India that the whole question of agri-

cultural finance differs radically from industrial finance and has
always been viewed, studied and organised in a manner entirely
different from that of other industries. The ordinary banking insti-
tutions cannot and will not even look at it. It is not a question of
financing, the raising, the marketing and the movement of crops or
of pro\fiding finance for agricultural improvements. Agricllltural
finance in India has always been studied and organi,ed from the
point of view of agricultural indebtedness, which has been. chronic
for centuries. A large number of Indian farmers has never been
free from personal debt . He has never been completely solvent
at any time.
It was the crushing pressure of this indebtedness of the farmers
that first drew the attention of the Baroda Government to the whole
question of agr~cultural finance. The first attempt made iin the
state to get a rough estimate of the farmers' indebtedness, was in
1901, when soon after the famine , which accentuated the problem and
brought it to the forefront. by undertaking a census of these debts.
The returns showed that out of 2.53,734 landholders, 1,57,722 or 60
per cent were indebt d to the extent of a little over rupees se,'cn
crores- and a half.
The second stag in the history of the question of this indeb-
tedness, was the preparation of the report of Agricultura'l Indebted-
ness in the State in 191 2, about.. a decade after the first inquiry .
This disclos d that the indebtedness then was in no way less than
tn 1901 (it was estimated at a little over eight crores). The next esti-
mate was made by the Baroda Economic Inquiry Committee in 1918-
19. They also arrived at a more or less the same figure of indebted-
ness. The Land Mortgag Bank Inquiry Committee of 1925 endors-
ed these earlier estimates. In spite of the earnest efforts of the '
state, the next fifteen years i.e. upto 1939-40, there was no improve-
ment in this state of affairs, because 'Of the effect of the world depres-
sion that set in , in 1929. In 1939-40 the whole agricultural economy
of the State as that in the country as a whole was tottering and on
the point of collapse, as can be evidenced from the fact that the
number of transfers of land from the agriculturists to non-agricul-
turists and the area so transferred reached its peak-about three
thousand transfers and about 27,500 bighas-in this year. But the
 RURAL BARODA 5

war in spite of all its untold evils came to bolster up and support
this collapsing economy and we find that five years later 1944-45,
these figures show a sudden drop of nearly one thousand in the
number of transfers and fourteen thousand bighas in ar a, the lowest
on record for the last thirty years. Similarly, there is ·a big jump
in the number of transfers of land and the area transferred from
the non-agriculturists to the agriculturists. For the first time in
the history of Indian Agricultural Economics, si nce the registration
of doctlments of such transfers was made compulsory, the net result
of such transfer has been in favour of agriculturists i.e. mor land
was transferred from the non-agriculturists to the agriculturists
than from the latter to the former. These figures fUl'nish a very
interesting study in the revolution that has come over, as a result
of the war and they are, therefore reproduced below for each year
for the ten years from 1935-36 to 1944-45 :-
Number of Transfers I)f Land and Area Transferred.

From Cultivnlor From Non-cultivutor

Dislri,'t To Non-c'ulti\,a- j '1'0 CulUvlltor

_ ___:t:::o.;_
r _ _-!..._ _ _ _ __.:.
I
To On-CUlli-I TO
villor
Clllti~'lItor
No. I Bighns I No. IBighns I 1 o. BigllllN IN=lnill'~ln8
- ---
Totnl 1044-1,5 " 1,042 18,602 10,09' . (1:1,505 1 ,88; / ~u,O'U' 2,546 17 ,821
___.__
--
-
f'~~'
" 2 ,400 22,501 )2,148 88,02:) 2,107 \ 22 , 5311 a,IIlH 2",091
1942-43 ·. 2,228 18,130 11,756 117',123 1.1'1:'(1 20. 507' 1 ,8 011 1 '~ , 686
1940142 ·. 2,408 21,501 4,272 811,7Ia 1,286 17,886 1,lla6 1:.! ,80fl
11)40-41 .. 2,H57 18 ,778 7,588 (12,580 1,6 58 15,846 1,21 5 10,027
TO.... ] 1938-80
' ...."" ·. 2 ,956 27,457 6 ;452 52,O()H ' ,27 1 1:1,007 1, ,107 'O ,till(l
·. 1l,612 :.!3,062 (1,777 5:2.0 1n 875 J:I .24O
I"tilll
1O,42a
19117'-1:18 ·. 2,450 21.425 <lAO " 411,27H ,1.(lZ.1 18,2 12 1,572
\11 ,IIR"
11)86-87 " 2 t 570 26,022 U,20 5 51,44.9 I 1.147 1 10,R39 1,Oti·. 1() .'~50
1985-86 ., 2,106 1 22 ,157 5,(154- G9,097 I l~OO2 12,tll' \1,087 1I ,(lIJ()
I
Sout'ces of Fmance:- There are three agencies in the State that
finance agricu,lture; 1. the private moneylender, 2. th,e govern-
ment and . 3. the co-operatives which include the village credit
societies, the agricultural banks and the land mortgag banks.
The Private Money lende!·.~ :- Even now, in spite of all the efforts
to eliminate them by the co-operative and government agencies and
all the protective legislation enacted to qlinimise their gains and so to
discourage them, they are responsible for a greater part of the work
of financing agriculture and providing both short term and long
term credit to the farmers. The money lenders are, as a rule a very
60 RURAL BARODA

shrewd class of people and they make it their business to see that
the advantages from all the sources do not go to the farmers but
to them. It is t.o their interest that the khatedars should not be
completely free from debts and beyond the reach of their influence.
It is not at all uncommon that in good years when the farmer has
money, they encourage him to undertake all sorts of unnecessary
expenses by voluntarily offering them loans. Otherwise, with some-
what favourable conditions, we might have expected a greater fall
in the pressure of indebtedness. We believe that had there been a
straightforward, honest agency for financing agriculturists on
reasonable terms, in operation during these years, the pressure of
indebtedness would have diminished considerably. Without such an
agency there is little hope of attacking successfully the problem of
chronic indebtedness amongst the farmers, even if we go on having
good seasons on an average and good prices for agricultural products
for some time in the future, because the reasons fol' this indebted-
ness are not purely economic but also psychological.
In considering the problems of agric ultu ra l indebtedness in
particular and agricultural finance in general, we have to guard
against a possible misunderstanding. It is neither possible nor quite
necessary that the farmers should have no debts at all. Even, when
the condition of freedom from debts , that all well w~shers of agri-
culture are trying to bring about, is realised. therc will always be
the ordinary current debts for financin g the seasonal demands o( the
industry and debts for large scale remunerative improvements. The
exist~nce of these debts in no way constitutes a disease of or a
danger to the industry. It is a common feature of almost all th e
industries to have current short term debts for the ordinary opera-
tions and to have debts of longer duration for development purposes.
What is to be aimed at is the elimination of the chronic debts, which
are neither for development purposes nor for current neec!.s and
which form a regular drag and dead weight on the industry. This
can be done only if there is an agency, which by its straightforward
dealings, honest accounts, a reasonable rate of interest that the con-
dition of money market would justify, absence of any 'graft'
and genuine desire to free the farmers from the burden of
these debts, undertakes to meet the needs for finance of the agri-
culturists. It is not necessary to go into the various intricacies of
the money lender's business. They are by this time fully exposed
and known to all. Under the existing conditions, he has found a
place for himself in our agricultural economy. But it is nevertheless
true that even at his best, he is a necessary evil and has to be re-
 RURAL BARODA 61
~

placed at the earliest opportunity, by more honest and businesslike

insti tu tions,
001 ('1'11111('111 MfG"u/'('s to j'roll'ti /"f/1'I1/0's.- The variou mea-
sures introduced by the State to protect the farm r against unres-
tricted and unscrupulous money lending are detail d below :-
1. Illt eres l ;tet.- This act was passed in the year 1891. Under
it no Court can allow more than 12 per cent interest. When more
than 12 per cent interest is charged, the contract is not adjust d null
and void but the court does not allow more than 12 p r cent intere!'t.
2. I'll 1111/" IIf 1>0111 - /)11) 1(11.- is enforced in all money suits, but
its provisions are applicable from the period of the last settlement
of the accounts.
3. Under the Civil Procedur Code, a certain class of backward
agri,culturists can have their accounts looked into by courts even
when they have been finally settled by the parties. The cultivator
is also permitted to sue for accounts.
4. In the execution of decrees against a cultivator, an amount
of land paying assessment upto Rs. 50/-, his house, his cattle and the
grain which are absolutely needed for agriculture and for mainte-
nance cannot be attached.
5. No agriculturist can be arrested in the working season. The
agriculturist can also ask for making payment by instalments before
or after the sum is decreed .
Govermnellt LO(l.IIs .- A method of financing agriculture by the
Government is to advance tagavi loans at a low rate of inter st to
the farmers. At present there are three kinds of such taga vis grant-
ed -under the rules.
1. Fixed or Jathu
2. Famine and'
3. Special.
The Jathu Tagavi is granted out of the fixed sum allotted to
each taluka and is given for the following purpose~ :-
(a) to construct new wells and to make pacca wells out of
kutcha.,
(b) to make agricultural improvements including purchase of
bullocks, seeds, implements, grass and, building of farm
houses and also
(c) to maintain the family.
On this tagavi, 5 per cent interest is charged and the sum is to
be repaid by instalments. which are spread over from 1 to 10 years,
•
62 RURAL BARODA

Famine tagavi is granted during famine years, and is given for a ll

sorts of purposes, viz. purchase of seeds, fodder, digging of wells, for
maintenance etc. Usually no interest is charged on these loans. Spe-
cial tagavi is granted where some special improvements are to be
affected, such as the sinking of weDs, the purchase of oil engines,
pumps etc.
It will be seen that the Government is advancing tagavi in
larger amount and for a variety of purposes. The purposes for
which these sums have been advanced have become more varied
during the recent years. The total amount of tagavi loans advanced
upto comes to Rs. 1akhs.
In spite of the fact that the ta,gavi is granted at a nominal rate
of interest, and in some cases without any interest, the people are
unwilling to take full advantage of it, due to some unavoidable delay
and rigidity natural to Government transactions,
The problem of financing farmers for large agricultural improve-
ments 01' a directly productive or protective nature has not yet been
systematically tackled, though, as in everything else, we have made
a small beginning by granting Government loans for this purpose
through the Agricultural or Revenue Department. This has, how-
ever, been in the nature of an experiment to popularise the use
of certain types of machinery, rather than of an undertaking of a
permanent business like effort. The scope of and the probable de-
mand for financing aid for this work in the near future is so great
that the state in spi te of its resources will never be able to cope
with the problem by the present method of tagavi grants. The very
success for which the present experiment on a small scale has been
attended. goes t show that the tagavi machinery will break down,
iJ th ese facilities w re to be extendecl fre l.Y for all legitimate pur-
poses all over the state. The state has already realised the draw-
back of the tagavi administration and if the systeJ!l has been tolerat-
d, it is because, we have not yet seen our way to develop a suffi-
ci nt numb r of banking institutions, suitable to the needs of· the .,
farm rs.
Though pr judics, want of education, want of enterprise and
many oth r things must have combined to retard the progress of
improved agricultural methods and the introduction of labour and
tim savi l1g machinery in this industry. it is believed that the lack
of a suitabl financing agency granting loans on convenient terms
must hav been on of the causes. It is no use trying to remove
·these pr judices and the attitude of lethargy and indifference, if we
cannot, at the ame time, make it possible for the farmers to · raise
•
 RURAL BARODA 63

loans necessary for undertaking improvements. Without such an

agency, the efforts of the Agricultural Department are bound to. . be
unproductive. At present, at place where the need is recognised
and where people are willing to undertake improvements, they do
not do so because there are no facilities for raising loans xcept from
saokars. And if loans are raised from saokars for this purpos , the
underta}dngs would not b economically profitable.
There are many kinds of improv ments that ar possibl toda~'
and for which the ground has be n pr par d by d pal'tmental
action. The problem of the shortage and cost of agricultural labour
is getting so acute, that it is going to revolutionise our agricultural
organisation within no distant date. Industrial d velopment in the
state and elsewhere is going on and as years go by , there is bound
to be a still greater shortage of agricultural labour. The only solu-
tion of the problem is th introduction of more and more labour sav-
ing machinery, that will diminish the need for human labour in tlw
fields. Similarly the cost of draught cattle is also soaring high and
in course of time this will also lend an impetus to the movement for
the adoption of machinery.
The live stock industry in the State has been engaging for som
time past the serious attention of th e Government. We have every
•
reason tv fear that several good breeds in the state have deteriorated
considerably and the problem both of milch and draught cattle is be-
coming very acute. As we have st aled before, the cost of draught
cattle is causing a great drain on th resources of our agriculturists.
It is not unlikely, therefore, that in the near future serious efforts
will have to be made to put the Iiv€' stock industry on a sound basis.
This industry is a very important adjunct of the agricultural indus-
try. Besides the efforts made by the agriculturists on a small scale,
there is plenty of scope for the commercial raising of farm live stock
and dairying, under suitable conditions. On the other hands, the natu-
ral adjustment betwe n the professional live stock producers and their
users in the old days of land abundance , has given way slowly under
pressure of modern farming conditions. The mutual accommodA-
tion of these two interests is becoming increasingly difficult. It is
also believed in some quarters that the professional breed I' will b
non~existent in course of time and the burden of raising his milch
and draught cattle will be throwl) on the farmer him self. This will
be an important phase of agricultural progress during the next fifty
years and it will require considerable outlay, for which the farm ers
will have to seek the assistance of a land mortgage bank.
The field for agricultural improvements is too vast and too tech-
nical to be closely defined here, but in the general manner the im-
 RURAL BARODA

provements may be grouped as productive and ameliorative or pro-

tective. The first of these are naturally the most important and in-
clude within their scope improvements of irrigation resources, in-
troduction of modern farm machinery, rearing of live stock neces~
sary for agricultural operations and extension or fresh purchase of
holdings.
Besides the directly productive improvements, there are
other measures which sho uld be directly beneficially, although
a direct measurement of profit could not be so easily ascertain-
ed. There are many pieces of land which are not productive upto
their innate capacity, because of their not being properly drain-
ed. At many places there is also the problem of fencing to
protect the crops from being attacked by wild animals or stray cattle.
These and many other similar works will require a supply of capital,
on terms which will make the investment profitable to the farmers.
'O- 'I)J (' /'(/((V(' jII]Ol'(' IJl Cltl

In December 1904 the Co-uperative Credit Society Act was passed

in the state, mainly with a view to provide easy and cheap credit
to the agriculturists. In that year 24 societies were established and
by 1911, the number of societies rose to 79 with a membership of 1805
and a total working capital of Rs. 1,26,567 ,-.
But a revelation soon came. It was learnt that a small and
struggling farmer could not be helped by mere provision of cheap
and abundant capital. Cheap credit might ruin him , ulJless he was
thrifty and able to und erstand the use of credit. The fundamental
basis of co-operation is thrift and self-reliance. qualities which need
to be developed among our farming communities. But the Act 'of
1904 provid d for the prganisation of credit societies only. It was
ther fore nec ssary to amend this Act, in order to allow co-operation
it1 its v<lri d asp ct to pJay a vital pari in the economic elevation of
th people. Such an amendment was carried out in 1912, in order
to permit organisati on of societies other than those meant for finance
The decade 1911-21, therefore, saw an all sided and rapid growth
of the co-operative movement in the State. By March 1921. the
number of societies had increased from 79 in 1911 to 509 and the
total membership had risen to 17,590. During the same period, the
total working capital rose from Rs. 26,567 to Rs. 25,70,790. The aver·
age membership per society came to 34.5 and working capital per
society came to Rs. 3,207. It was Rs. 113 per member. The -usual
rate of interest charged by these societies was 9i per cent.
 RURAL BARODA 65

Ceni"al Banks and Ranki11{1 U91ioliS

The main point that the credit societies were underfinanc d and
hence could not do as much as was expected of them, was met by the
organisation of central banks and banking unions during 1911-21.
It was also during this period that the problem of rural indebt.
edness was tackled on the basis of co-operation and arrangements to
start land mortgage banks were made. This decade also unshered
in the idea of non-credit co-operative societies. Societies other than
credit societies were organised, to play their part in the structure of
rural economy. By 1921, ' about 37 non-credit societies had sprung
up for co-operative milk supply, irrigation, fodder-storage and such
other purposes. Of these 37, three were co-operative stores and 8
were urban societies.
Much has been done during the 25 years that followed to improve,
enlarge and consolidate the organisation and to create new branches.
Special attention has been paid to consumers' co-operation and a
special type of multi-purpose society has been evolved to meet the
many sided requirements of village life. The department has also
followed a vigorous policy of consolidation. The main features of
the development are :
The active reconditioning of week societies. A thorough enquiry
is made into the financial conditions of the societies, which have fail-
ed to repay their loans to the central banks. For societies which
are solvent and give hope of improvement; programmes of repayment
are drawn up, after scaling down their debts . On the other hand,
societies in which reconstruction is not likely to be succ ssful AI'
taken int.o liquidation .
The introduction of the controlled cr dit syst m. Under ihis,
loans are advanced for agricultural operations and regulated accord-
ing to the area of cultivation and the kind of crops. Members arc
resuired to sell their produce jointly or through the sub-society so
that the recoveries mighJ be facilitated.
Emphasis is Jaid on soundness rather than on the number of in-
stitutions in respect of future development.
Organisation of the multi-purposes societies. It has been the
policy of the Government to e ncourage various forms of non-credit.
work, so as to emphasise the primary idea of co-operation, ;lamely
lhr ift, and make the co-operative societies centres of vilJag life,
embracing all its activities.
Education in co-operative methods : A revised curriculum for the
co-operative training has been introduced .
H. n.-:;
66 RURAL BARODA

• The co-operative movement now embraces a very wide field of

activities. The total number of co-operative societies in the State
stood at 1487 during the yar 1944-45. Of these 1,261 socities, were
actually working. These societies included 823 credit societies:-S45
agricultural credit societies, 178 non-agricultural societies, 91 thrift
societies, 13 central banks, 2 land mortgage banks and 2 supervising
unions. Of the 438 non-credit societies, 289 were agricultural and 149
non-agricultural.
Of the 645 agricultural societies working during the year , 629
were classified according to merit of whi~h 185 were placed in class
A (thoroughly good); 194 in class B (having defaulters and mistakes
in accounts), 134 in class C (not falling under class A, B, or D), 116
in class D (bad and liable to be closed if they fail to come under
class C in two years) . The total mempership of these societies is
125,000. The average membership per society comes to 84.1. It is
estimated that movement directly affects 19 per cent of the popula-
tion- the agricultural society about 10 per cent of the village popu-
laton and the non-agrkultural about 45 per cent of the town popula-
tion.
The financial position of most of the societies is satisfactory. In
1944-45 the working capital of the societies stood at Rs. 199.5 lakhs
while the share cap.i tal was Rs. 28.2 lakhs and the deposits from mem-
bers Rs. 72.9 lakhs. The loans and deposits from non-members o:-ame
to Rs. 66 lakhs.
L .lud ltfor/ g(fyf' lJU11KS

The first land mortgage bank was started in Baroda in 1933 with
a specialised machinery for investigation of titles of land and their
valuation , and securing long term funds by floatin g of debentures.
There are at present two land mortgage banks in the State, vi z., the
Baroda Co-operative Land Mortgage Bank and the Navsari Co-ope-
rative Land Mortgage Bank.
The Baroda Co-operative Land Mortgage Bank operates over 1he
Baroda district, except in the Petlad and Bhadran Talukas. Its share
capital increased from 1.11 lakhs in 1938-39 to Rs. 1.75 lakhs in] 944-
45 . Its reserve funds amounts to Rs. 0.87 lakh whiJe its workin g
capital was Rs. 7.59 lakhs. Two series of debentures have been issu-
ed by this Bank .
The total amount of loans advanced since the beginning of the
bank 12 years ago, came to Rs. 9.56 lakhs, for liquidation of debts
amounting to Rs. ] 1.31 lakhs, the debts having been scaled down
~hrough conciliation by Rs. 1.69 lakhs. All instalments were repaid,
 RURAL BARODA 07

the total recoveries during the year 1944-45 being Rs. 0.58 lakh. The
outstanding loans stood at Rs. 5.04 lakhs. The bank's rate of interest
continued to be 6 per cent. The net profit of the bank was Rs. 14,375.
There is another land mortgage bank in the State. It is located
at Navsari and operates in all the talukas of that district. The Gov-
ernment have made available to this bank, a special loan of Rs. 1 lakh
for advancing loans to the Raniparaj (Adivasis) societies to enable
their members to liquidate their debts. The working capital of the
bank was approximately Rs. 2.25 lakhs and a total membership of
486 in 1944-45.
The most important point in the working of these banks is that
the Government have guaranteed the repayment of the principal
and the interest of the debentures issued by them. Land valuation
officers were also lent to the banks free of charge in the initial stages,
and a grant was given towards the expenses of managem nt.

]I'i nancing Insti t1dioft.s

There were 8 Central banks including 2 banking unions during
the year 1944-45. These banks usually finance the affiliated societies,
but some of them in exceptional cases are authorised to finance in-
dividuals also. The agricultural banks numbered four during the
year 1944-45. They are governed by a special Act and advance loans
to sodeties as well as to individua!s.
A noteworthy feature of the co-operative movement in the stat
for the last 15 years, is the increased emphasis on the non-credit as-
pects, though the provision for such work was made as early as 191 2
by amending the co-operative credit societies Act.
The non-credit work is carried on both by the credit instit4tions
and non:"credit institutions. Of the former, the Central Bank anc;l
Credit Societies have considerable non-credit work at their credit.
The Central Banks undertake the business of joint-purchase and joint-
sale, while the agricultural credit societies help the introduction of
improved varieties of seeds, and increased use of artificial manure.
Among the non-credit institutions are found purchase and sale
societies, production societies, insurance institutions, societies for
consolidation of holdings and others. Co-operative marketing and
Co-operative consolidation of holdillgs, Co-operative ginning and
pressing are other non-credit activities undertaken in the state.
CJ1loliidation of Societies
With a view to eliminate week societies and encourag growth
of healthy societies, the state ~doptec:l q policy 0 reconstructing
68 RURAL BARODA

weak societies in 1938. By 1943, 190 societies have been reconstru€t-

ed. Of these 123 societies were indebted to the banks and 67 work-
ed with their own capital. Of the former, 101 societies fully paid
their instalments to the banks while 17 have paid partially and 5
could not pay at all. The policy continues and is having a beneficial
effect on the co-operative movement.

{'U-(ljJ<'I'Illive l/l .~til/(Ie

Last but not the least is the emphasis that has been laid during
recent years on education in co-operative methods and the qua-
lity of the movement in respect of future extension. With this view
a co-operative institute has been established in Baroda. The Insti-
tute has membership of 1,069-574 societies and 495 individuals. It
received Rs. 1,931 as fees from the members, and obtained a susidy
of Rs. LOOO from the Baroda District Local Board for its work of ex-
tensive propaganda in the district. It has 11 taluka institutes affi-
liated to it. The institute continued to edit "Gram Jivan" a monthly
magazine, dealing with co-operation, agriculture and topics of rural
interests. The Government paid Rs. 3,273 towards the expenses of
the Institute.

P /'(!!lI 'NJS uj' Ih l' MOI'(' III(' 1I1

'T he table on page 69 shows the progress of the co-operative

movement in the state during the last seven years:-

f' Ull dllSioll

Co-operation is meant to be the movement of the people. How-
ever, it has to be admitted that greater initiative has been taken in
this respect by the Government. in the state as elsewhere in India .
That all Co-operative Societies do not succeed is not due 1.0 an y de-
fects in the principles of co-operation but to inadequacy of capital
want of proper management and general ignorance. It cannot be
denied that if the principles are strictly adhered to and the manage-
ment be sufficiently enlightened as to its functions , co-operation will
fill up the gaps in respect of joint endeavour so lacking in present
d~y rural economy.
 RURAL BARODA

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 CHAPTER VII

INDUSTRIES : RURAL AND URBAN

SUBSIDIARY INDUSTRIES
The basic fact in the agricultural economy of India, as well as
that of Baroda, is that agriculture depends upon seasonal conditions
and our farmers are therefore actually employed in agricultural ope-
rations only for a part of the year. 'The resultant enforced idleness
causes great economic loss to the agriculturists as well as to the
state. Further, this enforced unemployment leads to make the peo-
ple unemployable and brings other evils in the train. Broadly, this
problem can be attacked from two sides; the first is to enable agri-
culturists to work longer on their farms, and the second is to develop
occupations subsidiary to agriculture. It has been seen in the earlier
chapters, how the sta te has tried to solve the first problem by pro-
viding facilities for sinkin ~ wells. irrigation facilities and research
experiments. Subsidiary occupations and rural industries will be
discussed here. Before proceeding to describe these, it is advisable
to be clear about the meaning of subsidiary and main occupations of
the rural populations. A particular industry might be subsidiary to a
farmer, while it might as well be the principal source of inc'ome to
others. Hence, th e division between the main and subsidiary occu-
pations is not water-tight and this has to be borne in mind while
arriving at conslusions in this respect.
Dr,.il'Y Indu.stt·1I
The most important industry connected with agriculture is the
dairy industry, especially for Charotar in Gujarat, the whole of the
Mehsana district in North Gujarat and Gir in Kathiawar. Almost
every cultivator keeps a buffalo or a cow and utilises the milk either
for his domestic us or for the manufacture of ghee. This industry
has been specially developed in Charotar (Baroda district) . Baroda
State has long been famous for its superior breed of cattle. The
breeds commonly found in the State are the Kankrej, the Gil' and the
Deshi or Gujarati, among cows and the Jafrabadi and the Mehsana
and the Surti or the Charotar among buffaloes.
Du'wy Products
The dairy industry is not properly organised. There are some
528, 116 milch-cattle in the State. In the Charotar (Baroda district)
in almost every village there is a cream separator. The merchant
separates the cream and sells it to Anand. Bombay or Ahmedabad
 RURAL BARODA 71

butter factories, while the separated milk is either thrown away or

casein is extracted from it. From the Gil', ghee is exported either
to Bombay or to other parts of Kathiawar. Out of the skimmed milk.
mava is prepared and sold to local confectioners, who utilise it for
preparing sweets. The State produces annually about 240,540 maunds
of ghee and butter. The total import of ghee is about 12,000 maunds.
The total export of ghee from the State is 26,000 maunds. The chief
places of export are Ahmedabad, Bombay, Surat. Calcutta, Poona,
Igatpuri, Sindh and Kathiawar. About 81 ~; of the export of ghee
is 'f rom the Mehsana district, 12' ( from Amreli. 5', f from Baroda and
2'lc from Navsari.
With a view to secure better prices and improve its quality, ghee
grading centres have been opened at suitable places in the State.
The starting of these centres has met a long felt need, as is seen from
the fact that 1,15,000 standard maunds of ghee worth Rs. 152.9 lakhs
were Ag-marked in 1944-45. The state also maintains a dairy at
Makarpura, which supplies pure milk to the Palace, hospital and
outside customers. The State has been doing its best especially
during the last ten year~ to create conditions, in which the dairy
industry might .develop and prosper in the state as an important
subsidiary occupation for the hard pressed agriculturists.
Just recently, the Government have sanctioned a scheme to deve-
lop the Mehsana milk industry and to establish a central pedigree
herd at a capital cost of Rs. 1,00,000 and recurring annual cost of
Rs. 41.200.
Sanctioning the proposal the Government have further directed
that the export of milk and its products should be allowed, only after
the requirements of the Baroda State are satisfied. The scheme has
been sanctioned for 10 years at a total cost of about Rs. 5 lacks. An
interest free loan of Rs . 1,50,000 has also been sanctioned for the
scheme.
P '! lLllry.- Owing to religious prejudices and their strictly vege-
tarian diet, a majority of farmers do not take kindly to this industry.
In fact, many will take it as an affront to their religious sentiments,
if asked to do so. The sentiment is still very strong in the country-
side. However, in recent years due to propaganda, some of them
especially in the Navsari district, whO do not belong to the highet'
castes, are beginning to have poultry farms . The state has
been helping those who want to develop this industry. The activity
is carried on under the supervision of the agriculture department.
To popularise and spread this industry, poultry development centres
have been organised in the itate. These centres may be divided
12 RURAL BARODA

into two groups:-(1) those managed by the Goverpment and (2)

those managed by the poultry farmers. In ah, there are 24 such
centres today, 16 managed by the poultry farmers. Every poultry
farmer is given a subsidy of Rs. 200/- for implements and purchase of
breeding cocks. During the year 1940-41, 3,000 eggs and 126 breeding
cocks were distributed in several villages by these poultry farmers.
Each popultry farmer raised 100 birds during the year. Besides the
falms developed by the poultry farmers, there are departmental farms
WhlCh issued during the year 163 cocks and 1510 eggs for hatching. A
central poultry farm has also been developed to supply pure bred
birds to the chicken farmers and the public when required.
In many of the villages, spe-
SlJ i nlliltV llI.d /1I11/dloOIil lI 'N/ l' ll/fl .
cia~ly in Kathiawar, hand spinning was done by the agriculturists. But
wah the advent of machine made yarn, hand-spinning has declined.
But, lhanks to the Swadeshi and Khadi movement, it is being revived
agE-in. Handloom weaving is also practised. According to a recent
SUi vey carried out by the Industries department, there are some 15,000
looms in the state. This is a subsidiary as well as a main industry.
About 35,000 persons get their livelihood from this indu~try. A notable
centre of hand-loom spinning and weaving in the state is Chalala. A
Khadi centre was established there under the supervision of the All-
India Spinners' Association. It has been receiving considerable help
from the Baroda Government also, which gives a subSidy of one anna
per yard of Khadi produced by it. The inst~tution has made very
good progress. Besides ChaJala, Khadi centres have been opened at
other places too. The total number of employees of all the centres is
732. Khadi measuring 8,499 square yards was produced in 1938
while in 1940-41, 42,403 sq. yards valued at Rs. 22,000 was produced.
The activities of the Chalala centre have induced farmers as well as
non-farmers to take to sp_inning. There is another Khadi centre at
Visanagar, working under the supervision of the All-India Spinners'
Association.
E"i-silk industt-y.- rhis has been very recently introduced. A
scheme for training cultivators in batches was sanctioned by the
Government in 1939. and a specialist was obtained from the Govern-
ment Silk Institute at Bhagalpur. Training classes were opened in
Kodinar and Navsari talukas. The eri-silk eggs reared by those
classes have been declared to be satisfactory by the Government Silk
Institute, Bhagalpur. The classes in Kodinar Taluka trained 150
persons in 1944-45.
Ootton ginni71g and pres$-illg.- This industry gives work to some
10,000 people. Cotton gins and presses are worked during four months
\
 nunAL JjAnVUl\ Tn
generally at a time when the agriculturists have little to do and helle •
gives subsidiary employments to agriculturists. These gin ane!
pres~es not being far away from their villages, agriculturists willingl y
seek employment in these factories, and in this way are in a posi t; n
to augument their meagre income.
Leafhet· Indlll;fry.- Taravada , Palan, Mehsana, Visnagar and
Dabhoi are the important centres of tannin g in the state. The
Sarvodaya Mandir at Taravada which aims at developing tanning
and production of leather articles as a cottage industry, is the most
important centre for the leather industry. The industry is making
good progress and full advantage is being taken of the facilities
afforded by the state for imparting training in technique. A tan-
ning factory has also been started at Patan with Government hlp.
This factory has made good progress and its trying to export tanned
skins to England to secure higher prices. A few more tanning factors
arc also being started.
Glue Making .- In India, glue is manufactured in the Punjab
and in Mysore State on a cottage industry scale. Glue produc d in
India being of an inferior quality , the country has to depend on othel
countries for glue of superior quality. The state had undertak n
an experiment in glue manufacture. A glue expert was appointed
and experiments are being carried oul in th e Diamond Jubil ee Cot-
tage Industries Institute, Baroda.
Of her " mall calc J nd I/,.sf,·ies.- There are other industries such
as husking of paddy, rope-making, oil-milling. wood carving, metal
and lacquer etc. The following table shows the number of workers
in some of these industries according to the 1931 census.
, ,
Earnl'rs ! Total Earners
AclulIl
IIIl1' I '·'lrn(.'rM work"rs
I~"
working I Hhowing 8uhsidillry in
depcnd· /OCCUPlllion occllplltion. 1021.
cnts.
pri';:::plll.

Cotton ginning .. .. .. .. .... .... 1021 0000

Cleaning and prcssing working in leathcr .. 7007 5452 11 1K 575<1.
Basket m8kcrs, ctc. .. .. .. 11266 21177 42IJ 2716
Rice founders .. .. .. .. 2280 20]0 f,7 24.1\2
CtUIle , mule. bullock Dri verB .. .. 1f182 082 1161 262

State Aid To Cottage IndlltSt t'i-es.- For the development of cot-

tage industries in the state, the Government maintain the Diamond
Jubilee Cottage Industries Institute at Baroda, and in the villages
a large number of training classes, where SUbsidies by way of scho-
74 RURAL BARODA

larships are given to students, while under training. The Govern~

men1 also give grants-in-aid to private institutions, which promote
the development of cottage industries, and loans for starting them
'l'/te Diamond .1ubilee Cottane Industries Imfitllle.- The Institute
was founded in 1936 to co-ordinate and extend the efforts of the
Government to introduce and develop cottage industries in the state.
The industries which the Institute is intended to encourage are those
that can be taken up (i) as whole time occupation by men with small
capital. (ii) as part time subsidiary occupations by agriculturists.
The functions of the Institute are to take up industries which can
usefully employ these classes of people, teach such industries, carry
out investigations for simplifying the processes and for the use of
power and mechanical devices, introduce new designs, finance
schemes started by trained personnel and help in the marketing of
finished products. The Institute pays special attention to the revival
of such well-known arts as the Visanagar brass work and the San-
kheda lacquer work. Besides this central Institution, training
classes are run at various places in the districts of the state for
-training in tanning. spinning and weaving, calico-printing, eri-and
bee keeping. In all 20 such classes are conducted at different centres
and so far about 550 persons have been trained. With a view to
encourage the people of the state, to take full advantage of the above
facilities, a sum of Rs. 10.000 has been aUoted from the Diamond
Jubilee Peoples' Trust Fund for giving scholarships, while receiving
training in different cottage industries in as well as outside the state.
The Government advance loans for starting cottage industries free
of interest and recovers them by small monthly instalments. The
Government passed an order in 1938 that an amount of Rs. 28,000
be sanctioned every year for these purposes. Recently the amount
is raised to Rs. 40,000/-.
J,fol'Krli11g /ocihties.- To advance the 'c ause of cottage industries
in the state and to help buyers and produces, Government have
established a show-room emporium in the Diamond Jubilee Cottage
Industries Institute at Baroda, for a display of the products of arts,
crafts, cottage industries and other useful articles manufactured in
the state. The value of the prodvcts sold at the depot was
Rs. 5,074 in 1944-45. Recently a store for these products has been
opened in the Baroda City Bazar.
Over and above all these, we should not leave out of account an
important class of the rural population of the state, who are in
essence part time artisans and part time farmers, the emphasis vary-
ing from one ('tcupation to another with every person. A village
 RURAL BARODA

to be economically self-sufficient needs besides the actual farmer

a number of people engaged in carpentary, smithy, oil crushing, tan-
nery, shoe making including \the manufacture of and repai rs t o
leather water bags for well irrigation and certain spare parts mad
of leather for the village all purpose cart and its harness, tailoring,
earthen ware making, shaving and hair cutting and a host of other
small services that the farmers need and which are ncessary to
maintain the corporate life of the village. Even scavangers come
under this class. There is neither full time work in nor ' full living
to be obtained from these occupations. All these people or at any
rate, most of them, do a little farming as a subsidiary occupation.
They were either given a small piece of land on a special village
service tenure, to induce them to settle in a village when it came to
be established or were in a position to buy some land from their
savings i.n the past. Even the village purohit who performs mar-
riage, death and other religious ceremonies for the residents and
performs daily puja at the village temple or temples, is a small scale
farmer, having a little land given to him either by the government or
by some of his well-to-do patrons or disciples.
All these people who contribute to the peculiar Indian villag
economy and are an important complement of the agriculturists as
such. are really artizans-cum-farmers. In a way, these are subsi-
diary occupations to agriculture. Some of these occupa ti ns can
provide excellent spare time employm nt for the growing sons of
farmers. In a great many villages there is an actual shortage of
men supplying these services. Some of these like tailoring or car-
pentary are quite well paying and it is a welcome si gn of the lim s,
that some agricultures are taking these up as subsidiary occupa ·
tions. Even if they learn some one or other of these trade and onl y
do the work connected with their own farm or their own homes,
they could effect considerable saving in their annual budget. What
is perhaps wanted is the organisation of short term courses to teach
these at some convenient centres for boys and girls from the families
of farmers, to enable them to pursue them in their spare time.
LARGE INDUSTRIES
Large lndustn'es ,in lit e ,f(lff' : Besides small cottage industries
a number of small and large industrial establishments lie scattered
all over the State and afford good employment also to the people
from rural areas. The Baroda City contains about two dozen such
establishments ; and the rest are spread from Okha in North to Billi-
mora in South. The number of factories coming under the Factories
Act lSI 170 and the number of operatives employed in these factories is
 7'6 RURAL BARODA

41,771. The percentage of operatives to total population is 1.5 as

cO!Jlpared with that of less than 1 percent in British India, as {*1'
the figures of 1938. The total amount of paid up capital of companies
(excluding foreign insurance companies) working in the state is
Rs. 2,014 lakhs of which Rs. 555 lakhs and Rs. 1459 lakhs respectively
respresented the capital of the companies incorporated in and outside
the state. The principal manufacturing industries in the state' are:-
1. Textiles.
2. Chemical
3. Metal (iron manufacture)
4. Cement
5. Salt
6. Sugar
7. Match
8. China-clay
9. Rubber.
'j'{:r/il('s il/rllI .I/1'!}: Textile is the major industry in the state
In all, it gives employment to 33,000 or about 72 percent of the
labour force employed in all the industries of the state. The rate
of expansion of this industry has been very fast; from 11 mills in
1928-29, the number has increased to 19 in 1944-45. The capital in-
vested has increased to 744 lakhs and the quantity of yarn produced
to 348 lakhs Ibs. There is one woollen mill in the state which has
specialised in producing fine blankets, the output being worUl Rs.
24 . 25 lakhs in 1944-45. The cotton ginning and pressing industry
is also very important. It employs about 10,000 wOl'kers. It has
been shown earlier how this industry helps the agriculturists by
giving them subsidiary employment in some parts of the state.
Chemical indusl,.!! : Second in importance is the chemical in-
dustry . This industry as established in the state occupies an im-
portant place not only in the state but also in the whole of India.
Some 3.900 workers get employment in this industry. Besides other
small concerns, the most important concern manufacturing chemi-
cals, basic and otherwise are:-
1. The Tata Chemicals Ltd.
2. The Alembic Chemicals Works Ltd.
3. The Petlad Chemicals Works.
4. The Baroda Chemicals Works.
5. The Billimoria Chemicals Works.
6. The Hindusthan Colour Chemical and Manufacturing
Co. Ltd.
7. The Sarabhai Chemicals.
 ..
RURAL BARODA 77

11'016 WQ1'ks: Iron Works in the state are well developed.

Apart from the workshops of the G, B, S. Railways, where lathes,
drilling machines and other locomotive parts could be manuIactul -
ed, there are three important works in the State, viz, the Sayaji Iron
Works, the Bolt and Engineering Works and the Jyoti Iron Works.
Other indu,st1'ies: The cement factory at Dwarka is one of the
biggest cement factories in India. It has recently il1creased the
capacity of its plant by 50 percent. Its production has now increased
to 1,20,000 tons. The salt works at Mithapur (now the Tata Chemi-
cals) situated in the north-west corner of Kathiawar, are producing
salt of far superior quality which is mostly exported to Bengal, th e
average production of which is 50,000 tons. There are at present
three match factories in the State at Baroda. Petlad and Billimora.
The production of the Petlad match factory is 477,482 gross box s on
an average, while the Billimora match factor y produces 899 gross
match boxes and 15,632 Bengal lights. Deposists of China-clay which
can be used in textiles mills are found at Ransipur in the Mehsana
district. The output of refined china clay is at present about 1400 tons
per annum and as a result of impro,;ements in plant which are ill
progress, the output will soon be doubled . Th re is a rubber fac-
tory in Baroda called the Gujarat Rubber Works Ltd .. which manu -
factures moulded r ubber articles used in machinery . The following
are the main classes of goods manufactured .
1. Rubber rollers. 2. Ebonite rollers. 3. Ebonite sheets.
4. Moulded rubber articles. 5 Trolley wheels.
These goods were formerly imported from abr ad and are now sup-
plied by this concern to texti le mills, sugar and paper factories, pow r
houses and cement factories. The value of th present annual output
is about Rs.l ,50,000.

The fishery resources of the state mainly relate to true fish , both
m.!rine and fresh water, but they also include the crustacoans and
Moluses; among the last are the Conches and Oysters, the latter
\'alued for the cheap pearls yielded. Experiments in fish manurE'
conservancy are carried out at Mul-Dwarka and Vansi-Bnrsi stations.
The fishery station at Okha serves as a laboratory for the prepara-
tion of medical Shark Liver Oil. Fresh water fish , culture as a sub-
siduary occupation for the people is being gradually introduced. a
beginning having been made at some villages served by the Kosamba
Rural Reconstruction Centre.
.-
78 RURAL BARODA

Pl)r':st Industries
The forest resources of the State have been fully described in ·an
~arlier chapter. 'The total area under forests is 712.8 sq. miles or
7,7;},780 bighas. The average annual yield of timber and firewood
from the State forests is about 15 million Cft. In the forest area open
to grazing about 80,000 to 90,000 number of cattle graze on permits.
The State derives from this a revenue of Rs. 4.5 lakhs per year. Lac
production, utilisation of grass and bamboos, extraction of the cate-
chu-catha, basket and manuIacture and collection of mi nor forest
products are some of the important forest industries in the State.

S CII' In!1l1 s!1'ies

Due to the policy of encouraging industrialists followed by the
Government, more and more industries are being started. Some of
the important ones arc mentioned below:-
1. The Pankaj Products at Baroda for the manufacture of textile
auxiliaries, anti-gas-mixture, sanitary material, soaps, puer-
fumes etc.
2. The Hindusthan Colour Chemical and Manufacturing Co. Ltd.
at Kathwada to manufacture modified starches, other bleach-
ing agents, sulphuric and hydrochloric acids etc.
3. The Brass Rolling Mills for manufacturing brass sheets.
4. The Vijaya Enamel Works for manufacture of enamel wares
and sanitary articles.
5. A concern at Billimora for manufacturing surgical instru-
ments.
6. Arvind Straw Boards.
7. Three Factories for manufacturing crockeries and glass are
also started. Attempts are also being made for manufactur-
ing pencils.
8. Factories for manufacture of vegetable oil products.
9. Engineering and automobile industries.
N"t/' c]rl'!lIes

There are several schemes for starting new industries in the State.
The most important of them recently started is a paper mill for the
manufacture of writing paper, craft paper and straw boards. Bam-
boos and straw will be the chief raw material to be used, the factory
being situated in the Navsari district along the Tapti river. This
factory will have a capacity of 15 tons per day. Another important
scheme is for the manufacture of pencils and a factory for this is
already started at Petlad. A big factory for the manufacture of croc-
kel'Y and other pottery products is also started. Factories for the
 R URAL BARODA 70

manufacture of vegetable products, breweries, and engineering works

are also being established.
J II Lh~ll'i(/1 CCIIII'CN

The most interesting feature of th industrial structure of the

State is that it is broad-based and diffused. The industries are not con-
centrated at a single place; they are dispersed all over the territori s
of the State. Each of the four districts of the State has major and minor
industries situated in it. In Kathiawad, at Okha, the biggest chemi-
cal industry in India,-The Tata Chemical Works Ltd. is situated.
Besides this, there are other two: the Cement Factory and the Salt
works. Baroda, Navsari Kalal, and Sidhpur are the centres of Cotton
Industry. In Okha the above industries have been a great b oon to
tbe Waghers-most important class of population of that district. Till
recently the Waghers, due to absenc of regular employments were
responsible for many crimes, but to-day th establishment of thes~
indi.lstries has turned them into peaceful citizens, as they now get
regular and well-defined employment tlu'oughout the year. In the
same manner, the Mehsana district has various industries, like textile
mills, china clay works etc. Baroda and Navsari have textile mm~,
ginning presses, chemical works, bobbin factories, iron works I.'te.
Thus the disposal has been beneficial to the State as well as to the
public at large. The problems arising out of the concentration of in-
dustries have never been acute in Baroda , and the Government is
left to devote its attention to other more important items of labour
welfare. The boon to the public liE'S in that the benefits of indus-
trialisation have not accrued to one clas~ or tract, but are diffused
over all communities inhabiting the various di~tdcts.
Eltwlll'agclIll' lIl 10 illdllsfri('l)
The encouragement to industries in the State can be outJined
a:.> i.mder:-
1. Pioneering efforts. 2. Financial help. 3. Concessilms.
4. Investigations and advice . 5. Labour welfare activities.
6. Provisions for research facilities and technical education .
P, /IIe/willg effort .,
When His Highness the late Maharaja assumed full powers
in 188l. there were practically no established industries in
Lhe state. He steadily pursued the policy of pioneering several lTt-
c!ustrial enterprizes in the state such as a cotton mill at Baroda a
3ugar factory , a brick factory and a leather factory. He pioneered
in tl,e field of industry as in various other spheres and gave a lead
 o RURAL BARODA

to the people of the state. This served as an object lesson to the

capitalists and to the the industrially minded people, mostly of the
state, who were thus encouraged to start private concerns.
Pilloncial help and faciliUes tOl' tra'invng
Financial help is and was the chief feature of Government en-
cUdragement to industry in the State, as at present as well as in the
past. Though the policy of granting liberal financi al help to the nas-
CC1'lt industries has been vigorously pursued at aU stages of the history
of industrial development, there have been certain periods of marked
activity. They are as under:-
1, 1891-1894 3. 1914-1920
2. 1908-1909 4. 1931-1941
During the first period about Rs. 2, 32,000 were advanced to 13
conr:crns. During the second period loans to the extent of Rs. 2,90.000
were granted to three concerns. During the third period loans ex-
ceeding a lakh of rupees in each case were sanctioned 'to proposed in-
du.,lrial concerns, the total amount being about Rs. 80 lakhs. During
the last period i.e. 1931-1941 loans to the extent of Rs.
6,30,500 were granted to 45 concerns. This is over and above the
sum of Rs. 25 lakhs which has been subscribed as sha'r e capital of the
T:.t(a Chl"!miC'1l1s. All these go to prove that a bold policy has been
followed by the State to promite development of its resources.
The loan policy of the State during the decade 1931-41 reveals
not only a marked increase in the number and amount of IOllns given,
but <'Ilso reveals certain important developments which are particularly
helpful for the development of small industries. Secondly, the terms
for granting these loans have been more liberalised in respect of the
rate of interest, the period for which the loans are granted and the
natllrp. of security taken. The liberajisation of Government policy
in these directions has enabled many of the small industries to receive
fill(l.nc.ial aid.
The success of the industrial policy of the state has been due
Jnoinly 1.0 three important measures taken by the government. These
ure
l. a thorough study of the resources of the state mineral forest
and agric ulture with a view to determine their economic worth .
Tht:se studies by experts are summarised and published for the in-
formation of the public.
2. laying down the industrial policy of the state so that the pub-
lic may know what concessions and facilities the state is prepared
grant.
 RURAL BARODA 1

3. active participation of the state in the d velopment of thes~

resources. Each industry was taken up one after another and plans
w~re made to show how they could be developed. Regular cam'as-
sing was done to invite capitalists from the state and from outside it,
to establish these industries.
In this connection one has to remember that in the early stages,
there was considerable prejudice on the part of industrialists,
against establishing industries in Indian states. This prejudice disAP-
peal ed as Baroda emerged from its feudal conditions into a well
governed State, with a constitution and a set of laws, rules and re-
gulations for conducting its affairs.
]lIvl'sligolioll alld .I(tt'icc :-
The organisation for the exploitation of resources must be scien-
tific and sound, if it is to be successful. This demands facilities for
JOvestigations into the nature and scope of the industries that could
be started and helpful advice for the improvement of the existing
industries. This has always received the attention of the Govern-
men t and several industrial and geological surveys have alrenuy
been carried out. But the establishment of the Development Board
in 1929 marked 1he beginning of active interest of the Governm nt
in this direction. The functions of this board are mainly advisory;
to assist the development departments in framing their respective
programmes of work and thus to coordinate the work done by these
departments in the direction of social and economic uplift of the
people of the State. Eight ycars latcr i.c. in 1937 the Government
established another board known as th State Economic Board which
cU!lsiders all questions relating to the economic development of the
State and helps the development departments in executing their
industrial schemes. This board also performs the functions of tl' e
Central Communications Board and the Advisory Board for Railways.
Ei.leh district has got its economic board and this central board works
as a coordinating agency in so.lving the economic problems of each
district. Another board known as the Industrial Board was also
established in 1937 and it has been carrying out several experiments
to ('xplore the possibilities of starting new industries in the State.
Besides the above boards, the Government established a Techno-
logical Institute for industrial research in 1936 and placed it in charge
of the Industrial Chemist. This institute forms a part of the famous
Shree Sayaji Jubilee Science Institute, where besides this institute,
there are the Public Health Laboratories, the laboratories of the
Excise Chemist and the Agricultural Chemist and the laboratory o(
R .B.-~
 RURAL BARODA

~~
. tr)' depar tme
nt of the Baroda College. They are
.
un war',...
Ille r heml S t' nd collaboratIOn .
. . '/ m close consulta JOn a
IljA ,1.. .1l ,I.. I}.' .
Industrial Researcl1 section of tfle ec.t}JJo. 'lglcol Institute f~
.The
ci.l;lying out an analysis of a variety of products such as typemeld,
ink, ~tarch, soap, waters, different types of ores, industrial raw mate-
rials, textile auxiliaries etc., both for the Government deparmellis
alltl the industries in the State. It has evolved a standard composi·
tion for the type-metal, which is utilised for the manuf<lcture of types
at the Baroda Press Foundary, at almost half the market price. It
help!'; the textile industry by handling its problems in sizing aml
{i:~ i i>hing of cloth, analysing raw materials, auxiliaries, boiler feed
\\laters etc. It also advises the Public Health department on prob-
lems connected with food materials. It has investigated the condi ..
tions of manufacture of "Lime Washes" from china clay and has ren-
dereu help to 8ml111 manufacturers by giving advice and guidance
whenever these were sought. The research section is at present en-
ga~ec1 in studying the polymerisation of Indian vegetable oils with tl
view to their utilisation in the manufacture of patent leather, book
Wl1ding leather, etc. and also the s1l1phonation of the same oils wit;1
a "jew to their utilisation as textile auxiliaries and as wetting ont.
emulsifyin g and cleansing agents in the textile industry. These inves-
tigations have been allotted to the Institute by the Industrial Research
Bureau, New Delhi. The possibilities of manufacturing ultramarine.
water-glass and the whitening of china clay of Ransipur Mines, are
nil'" under ihv~stigation:-
Sir Ceryl F'ox, the Geological Expert of the Gov~l'J1mcnt of Inuia.
recently carried out a fresh geological survey of the State. Hi~
report whieh has been published just recently, discloses fresh possi-
bilities for establishing important new indusf;ries in the State,
L U/) 6 111' Welfarc;-
'The intensive industrialisation of the State has made it necessary
to safeguard labour against possible evils of industrialisation. The
Government of Baroda therefore, applied with certain modifications
the Bombay Payment of Wages Act, 1936 to the territories of the
State in 1940. The Factories Act was passed as early as 1930 and it
was revised in 1940 with a view to bring it in line with the Indiall
Facto'r ies Act of 19.34. The Trade Unions Act was also passed in
1938. The Government have also put into force Workman's Com-
pensation Act which is administered by the Subas of the distri cts.
During the year 1944-45, compensation amounting to Rs. 24,693 V; i:l S
paid. Provision has also been made by the Government for the pay-
 RURAL BAP,ODA

ment of Maternity Benefit to female operatives. During the 'eH I'

19'1 4-45, Rs. 3,818 were paid as maternity benefit. For amicabl ::i tlk·
mcn t of differences between . the emplnyees and the employers the
Government have enacted the Trades Disputes Act.
Besides the enactment of the varioub Acts mentioned above, tl :c
Government have also tried to organise co-operative housing soc ic-
tic:.; in order to provide cleaner and more convenient quarters lUt'
t.he b bourers. A detailed stud y of thE' economic condit ions of t! Ie
m;Jl operatives has also been undertaken . A scheme for trainl l'g
boys educated in the hostels maintained by the Slate f r the (ldlva~is
and other backward people in textile mils has been put int.o opera-
tions. Th(' apprentices receive ' a stipend of Rs. 10/- a month for :t
PCl iod of six months after which the mills. it is agreed would engage
them on regular wages. A sum of Rs. 3000/- a year has been sanc·
tiolled for thi s purpose form the Diamond Jubi lee Trust Fund.
Co-operative Societies-The present prosperity of the factory
workers for the first time offers him an opportunity to make a sub-
s ~ nntia l saving. To capi talise this opportunity for his future welfare
spc,:lal efforts have been mad by th government to start workmen's
co· operative credit and thrift societies. The as!iistant director (Jf
labour was appointed Special Register and by the end of th year,
20 societies were organ ised, with a membership of 23,267. In the
fu;lowing statement the progress in savings is shown:-

Year Shul'c l ·OlllplIl,or." SavillI-(' fro III

cilpitul :'~"' in~s fruit I dcurlll's~ Tutul
lI'al-(<" "lIowunl'I'
I HI· L- ~ :; :l . I l! a . 11.1 1I1. :W :.!:.!.IO
1~ J I,:~ - J:; 1 .(;(1 :! . I!) 1I · l!!} l:1 . l!O

It may be seen from the foregoing record that the industrial

policy of the state has borne ample results. Most of the raw materials
found within the territories of the state, have been fully exploited
and the few that remain such as those found in Kodinar and other
distant plar.es, will be taken up in course of time. Industrjal devo-
lopment requires active co-operation from the people of the state and
the Baroda public, especially its business community which includes
tl.e Bania, the Parsis and now the Patidars are enterprising enough
 RURAL BARODA

to develop new industries, even when raw materials are not locully .
available. This enterprising spirit of the people of the state can be
guaged from the fact that not only have they helped in the industri.d
and commercial development of the state, but have gone out as
pioneers in all parts of India and abroad, so much so that wherever
Indians are found in appreciable numbers in any part of the world,
Baroda would be sure to have its quota amongst them.
 PART III
CHAPTER VIII

HEALTH AND SANITATION

The problem of improving the health of the rural population

occupies a central place in all programmes of Rural Reconstruction.
Considerations on this t.opic fall under the vari01lS heads such as
birth rates and mortality, medical relief, water supply, housing, san-
itation, nutrition problems etc.
rital S tat; tics;- The average birth rate for the whole o[ the
State is 37.4 per mille on the basis of 1941 census population, while
the average death rate comes to 23.5 The number of female births
and deaths per 100 births and deaths comes to 92.2 and 92 res-
pectively. In rural districts, the average death rate per mille is 22.6
i.e. ::;lightly lower than that for the whole of the State. Deaths under
oue year of age numbered 13890 in 1945 forming about 20 per cent
of the total deaths. The death rate is highest among the Hindus and
the lowest amongst the Jains. Fever, respiratory diseases and dysen-
tery are'the common causes of death. The average expectation of
life for the State is 27.61) as calculated in the 1932 census report.
lIol/sing ;- Houses in the rural areas in the State, as in other
parts of India, are situated very near one another. In the Amreli Dis-
trict and the rani (iorp.st) Mahals of the Navsari District, they have
some space between them. Generally, these houses ha ve no windows
at the back or in the side-walls and are hence without sufficient ven-
tilation. Inside, they are dark and in some of the houses even during
nOO:1 time it is difficult to see without lamp light. There are no out-
lets or chimneys for smoke. In many places, men and cattle Jive
together and the whole house is full of filth. Designed during Ull-
certain times, when life and property were insecure, they have con-
tinued to remain so even though the times have changp.d. The census
of 1931 disclosed some interesting facts. Out of 538,342 houses in the
State, there were 439,S83 houses in rural areas. Out of these 10696
or 2.4 per cent were under the category of "above comfort", 346,754
or 78.9 per cent "below comfort" and 81933 or 18.7 per cent "in conl-
fort". The census of 1941 showed 618 ,014 occupied houses. To quote the
1941 Census Report:-"The growth of houses has not been pari passu
with the population and congestion in the household has correspon-
85
 86 RURAL BARODA

dingJy increased from decade to decade. A random sample survey

of village housing was carried out for the purposes of 1941 census.
Of the houses selected for random sampling, nearly 62 per cent were
one-roomed in which 23, 543 (60.8 per cent of the total sample) live.
'l'!le proportion of dwellers in the highest comfort (i.e. four rooms
and over) is only 4.6 per cent. The proportion of such houses is also
about the same."
The best class of houses are foun d in their greatest number in
the Badoda district villages, whilst the poorest class is most frequently
seen in Kathiawar. Houses inhabited by the lower classes and of the
so-called inferior castes are generally situated on the outskirts of the
village. They are small huts, thatched with grass or palm leaves,
the wlrtls arc of 0.axth or of the split-bamboo smeared with mud c;nd
enclosing a space about 12 feet square, diVided in some cases int o
tWIJ rooms by a partition consisting of split sta lks, the inner bein g
u!>cri for cooking and the Quter for sleeping, though in many cases
the whole of the interior forms but one chamber. The furniture uf
a well-to-do cultivator consists of one or two boxes (petaras) for hold-
ing clothes, utensils etc., three or four wooden bedsteads, one or two
swing cots, mattresses, cotton durries, about 15 to 20 coverlets, 11m ·
rienne lanterns and brass cooking pots. The furniture of a cultivato;:
in iniddling cirmumstances or of a village artisan consists of 0)1('
or two bedsteads, an equal number of durries a few lanteths, petara
anei copper and brass vcssa ls. The poor labourers have no furniture
e ('ept a mattress and a few eathern water pots and storage jars [Cl r
fo(').j grains.

1~('licJ ill cOII{jN/cd Early in 1936, the attention of

I'II/a!}",,:-
the Government was attracted to the question of relieving congestiull
in \'illages. On a schem developed by the revenue department, thE.
Government laId down principles for the extension of village sites.
It was decided that where the village site area fell short of 30 bighas
for a population of 700 or 43 bighas for 1000, the gamthan or the
v~llage residential site should be held insufficient. In such villages
~tlita ble area for expansion should be selected, acquired and divided
into convenient plots, with suitable building regulations. No site
reat should be charged for the firs t three years; half tht> rent should
be charged for the next five years and full rent should be charged
after eight years. Work of extension of gamthan to remove conges-
tion, has been taken in hand in the Baroda District and it is proposed
to carry out the programme in the other districts also. During the
year 1944-45 twenty villages were selected for extension of site.
 RURAL BARODA 87

•'unit at ion :-- Outside the houses, in the village, there are no
gUIld roads, nor are there any proper conservancy arrangements,
Eve, y village has on its village service staff, one or two sweepers,
They sweep the streets at long intervals as they are entrusted with
other duties as well, One other nuisance is that of manure pits whi.:ll
are situated too near the dwelling places, Sanitation forms the prin-
cipal function of the municipalities in towns and of the panchayat
in the villages, The municipalities are assisted by sanitary commi-
tt~cs consisting of municipal members and others, The village
panchayats are guided by the district inspectors, The Sanitary Com-
missioner exerciseR general supervision, Systema1 ic steps are being
t.lken for manure heaps to be removed to a distance from the dwell-
ings Rnd wells providing drinking water, Here too, the sanit,H'Y
authorities have to meet with a great deal of reSistance, as the removal
of the manure pit away from the houses, means extra work everyday
fl)r the already overworked housewife, But gradually by mans of
a combination of pursuasion and compulsion, they are being brought
round tn recol1cile themselves to this change in their traditional mocJ c
of iiving, In 1945, suitable sites were acquired for the purpose in
70 yillages, The health and sanitary services are str ngth ned ever ~'
year, To study the problem of rural sanitation like the disposal of
I'dl 1 :;e , m:1nure heaps, conservancy, suitable types of vallage blrincs
and to improve ('onditions in this respect, special s8nitnry circl s hav'
been organised, induding a health unit at Kosamba , All the villages
of this unit ar(' cleaned and their wale!' sources rlisinfccled. An tl-
m;Jal'ial work if. also done and people are advised to adopt se ptic
tallks, bore-hole latrintes, sokage pits and chimneys in th ir hou ~e!':,
lrnf (/' SII )JJl1!I :- The problem of the suppl y of pur > wat l'
to the villagprs is very important. In the past, thf're were enough
kachha wells but they often fell into disuse, and hence a programme
for the eons! l"uctir)l1 of village wells was started in Hl30-32 after (1
detailed survey of the rural area _ Every year a fixed number of well :,
are constructed for the supply of water (drinking) to the villag s,
About 1500 wells have so far been constructed under this programmt!,
The Prant Panchayat and the village panchayats also spend larg
amounts of their income on sinking of wells for supply of drinki ng
water, The total amount spent by the panchayats for this provisi01)
from 1931-32 to 1939-40 was Rs, 7 iakhs, out of which a sum of Rs, 30
thousand was contributed by the Government. In villages in whieL
potable water could not be tapped even at great depth- by t,he sinki l!£::
of ordinary wells, attempts to bore tube wells have been successful.
The total number of borings made in the State upto 1939-40 is 277
and the total amount spent on them is Rs, 400,548, of which a SUIG
88 RURAL BARODA

of Rs. 228,289 was granted by the Government. The Government

abo encourages such schemes on a voluntary basis in the villages, and
helps by granting them a substantial amount. If the people of t.h~
village desire to have water works in the village and are ready, Gov-
.:!rlllnent helps them.
lVater WM'ks;- The idea of having a common source of water sup-
ply and that too at one's door has not gained much strength in rural
are:Js. The old system of having wells in each house continues. How-
ever. during recent times the advantages of a common water supply
such as the saving in time wasted in bringing water, the purity of
the supply etc., have begun to be realised by the village population.
When the inhabitants of any village desire to have water works in
the village, and are ready to contribute half the cost and bear main-
tenance charges, the Government gives t of the cost as a gift and
the remaining i is contributed by the District Board. Moreover,
loans are also advanced to the village panchayats by the Government
for this kind. of work. There are in all 13 village water-works oi.
which one at Kholwad alone in the Navsari District is under the
management of private agency. Two of them are in the Dabhoi
Mahal, 8 in the Sinor Mahal, one at Sarar in the Baroda Mahal and
one at Methi in the Karjan MahaL The water-works of Jambuva in
the Baroda Mahal is under construction. One at Ranoli was declared
open in 1943. Below we give the total expenditure incurred, 'e he
Government grant and the village contribution for this item of vill-
age sanitation:-

I''''pcnditlll'c
Totu! Governmcn t inc'lIrrt'd llv
nn'olln" of grant the Villu!?c
expcndi ture. H 8. l'[lll('hnynls.
ll~. Rs.

,jf)7()()
DAbhol
DRrodA
...
Sinor lnlukA
:l ,~f)4 ~
tlOOO
I ~!l2.'
1!3M
lOOO
4477:;
211;;50
7000

".
KarjAn 10000 Zrl{){) 750<1
Knmrej :17400 18700 1 87(){)

Total .. J .j()().W 45570 ](~~ .; !!.j

Medical' Relief in Rm'al areas:-The Government programme

of granting greater medical relief to the rural areas consists of the
provision of a dispensary within a radius of five miles from every
village of the state and subsidising medical practitioners including
Ayrvedic practitioners who live in rural areas. A scheme of village
di pensaries financed by contribution from the village, the Prant
 "
• RURAL BARODA

PanchRyats and the Government was adopted in 1934. It ob.Wet wa

to meet tbe ordinary day to day medical needs by supplying medi-
cine chests containing such medicines as may be used without special
medical advice by the people. There were about 338 such dispen-
saries in 1944~45. Baroda is not behind the other Indian States or
Provinces in granting medical ;elief to its people as seen from the
following table based on 1941 figures .

I A\'('rngc
POfll~llItion I
I
I A\,(,I'n~l'
Aren No . of urea IPOPlIlllt ion
Name. st'n'rd by Sl'rn'(j h~'
in s'l .
miles.
III
Inkhs . I Illl'dicni
unit s . 11 \('0 i "III I
I1lt'dl, ·,,1
lInit in IInit.

I NC) . ruill·S.

--

'IT
I
Dombay ·. . ·. .. 77221 208 .25 428 4 508
Bengal .. , ·. 177521 603 .14
I 2111 5<10 211564-
Madras .. .. "
"
"
444277 403.42 ]:)22 1201 :15770
U.P. ·. " 1002'~8 550.10 (IlW 17R Z02·lO
The Punjab ·. " ..
"
09200 284 . 19 !l08 IO:.! 21121(1
Kashmir .. 84471 40 .21 113 0011 · ~a2:1f1
l\Iysore
Travancore ..· .
"
·. ....
"
20820
7625
78 .11
60 .7
aa7
87
04
H7
2171m
U0770
C.ochin .. "
·. .. 1489 14 .2 57 2 ·~ 2·101 2
Hydt'rabad ·. .. 82608 Hll .8 l50 ut;~ 107200
G"'alior .. "
" "
2(1l)() 7 :la . 1) HI 187 28208
Rilrocl,\ .. ·. ·. "
8lGI 28 .55 :lOll 2 'L 82!H

These figures indicate that Baroda stands almost above all the
provinces and states in respect of medical relief. There is a big
central hospital for the whole state at Baroda fully equipped with
modern appliances. Patients suffering from various diseases are
treated }Jere by the specialists free of charge. There are also big
ho~p;tals of similar type at Petlad and other towns in the state.

Medical relief for women and c:hildl'en:-The extension of

medical relief specially for women and children has also been receiv-
ing t.he attention of the Government. Trained midwivE's are appoint-
ed at district headquarters and 'dais' (midwives) fr om villages are
trained by them at the district hospitals. To co~ordinate all efforts
in this direction, a trust associated with the name of Her Highness
the Maharani Shanta Devi was created in 1939. The GovernmE'nt
have transferred to this fund rupees five lakhs and sanctione~ an
aM ual contribution of Rs. 300,OOO/~. A gratifying feature is the
public support received by the Trust-an amount of about one lakh,
having been already received as contribution. Since its foundation
the Trust ha1' established 24 maternity homes with 145 beds. The
programme for 8 more has been sanctioned . The municipalities in
the state made a total annual contribution of Rs, 19,260 dUl'ing 1944-45.
 90 . RURAL BARODA •

Be$ldes this, the Trust received an annual contribution of Rs. 10,OOOj. .

[rom the Sayajirao III Memorial Fund. The total amount spent for
the construction of maternitly wards is Rs. 2.31 lakhs.. During 1941-
42 there were 15 maternity wards in th~ districts with 81 beds. The
nurl1ber of patients admitted was 2116 and the number given anti-
natal treatment was 2876. Besides the maternity wards, there were
31 trained midwives stationed at suitable centres in the districts for
WG1·k in the villages. They attended 2463 labour cases, 11324 post-
natal and 8997 anti-natal cases. There are also four sanitary associa-
tions and maternity leagues at Navsari, Amreli, Patan and Petlad.
These arrange lectures on sanitation, hygiene and maternity welfare
ann distribut.e pamphlets on these topics. Shree Maharani Chimna-
bai Maternity and Child Welfare League is an important non·official
agency doing very good work in Baroda city. It runs baby clinics,
and arranges for pre-natal and post-natal care of the expectant
mothers in the city.
Health propaganda and education:-To create interest of
tl e people in problems of health, exhibitions are held every year in
each district and health weeks organised in district towns and villages.
Lectures on First aid, nursing, home hygiene and sanitation are
important villages and towns. To teach surface clealiness, proper dis-
posal of refuge, disinfecting and repairs of wells, removal or manu!"
lion on th nbove subjects is held for those attending the lectures
eve!') year [lnd some 300 to 400 students pass in variolls subjects.
Sanitary Sllrvcys are made by the Sanitary Commissioner of
important villages and towns. To teach surface cleanliness, propel'
di sposal of refuge, disinfecting and repairs of wells, removal of manure
hcap~ form the vicinity of the houses and such other important items
of :;anitation, a few villages are selected for the purpose of giving
practical demonstration of what sanitation means with the help of
magi" lantern slides. Construction of bore-hole latrines and soakage
pit s, removal of manure heaps to fixed sites, disinfection of village
wl?lls once every month , house to house distribution of quinine, dis-
iniection of step wells with lime to stop guinea worm and practical
hints in personal hygiene to school children, form the chief items of
the programme of the Sanitary Department.
Anti-mala1'ia Campaign :-Malaria is one of the most common
of the prevailing diseases in Baroda and it accounts for the majority
of deaths. Besides the free distribution of quinine, anti-malaria mea-
sures were conducted in Baroda city, in 16 municipal towns and 50!)
viUages in the state during the year 1944-45. For an intensive cam·
paign against malaria in the worst affected areas, RIO. 20,000 a year
 RURAL BARODA

have been sanctioned by the Government for a period of five .'ears.

Mosquito nets are distributed in the villages.
Anti-guinea worm measures have been taken in 288 villages of
the Mehsana and Baroda Districts-the most affected areas.
There is a branch of the Indian Red Cross Society :1t Baroda.
Junior Red Cross groups are organised in schools and th ir number
is ',54. There were 8701 boys and 4163 girls enrolled in th m. The
branch publiRhes a quarterly journal in Gujarati nam d "Ar gya'·.
Sanitation and allied subj ects are discussed in it in a popular sty} .
The journal is freely distributed in the schools and librari s and to
the public in general, serving ther -by a \'er~' us fu I purpose.
Anti-tuberculosis measurcs:-Tuberculosis has been d cIaI'd
a notifiable disease in all lYJUnicipal town s of the state. In the
Government's effort to eradicate this dis ase, th most important
step taken iR the establishment of a tuberculosi s hospital and sani-
toruim at Baroda. The Badoda State Tuberculosis Associat ion har.
been J'egistered and to it has been transferred a sum of Rs. 2.11 Jakhs.
In addition donations to the extent o( Rs. 1.0~ lakhs have been l'ecf'iv-
(od towards the consiruction of general wards and independent cot·
tages. Besides private wards, there is in the sanitorium an ope nail'
paviJi(ll1 along with avenues and shelter d walkf; for 1he paU nts.
There if. also an anti-tuberculosis clinic which is rioing very useful
work. The Sanitorillm receives an annual gn1l1t of Rs. 3.3 lakhs
from the Government and Rs. 20 ,000/- from the Maharani Santad vi
Trust. During the year 1944-45, 158 persons w re admitted to (he
hospita l and 872 new cases and contacts were examined.
Nut1'ition problems:-Government have opened a Nutril ion
section in charge of a Medical Officer. He studies dietary hahits of
lllffel'ent classes of people, delivers lectures and distributes bulletins.
Diet surveys in the Navsari District have been carried out. Thpse
were also undertaken at special residential institutions such at Fate-
sing Anathashram, Women's Training School, Boarding Ilous s,
Nurses' Hostel, Shree Sayoji General Hospital and the Leper Asylum.
The nutrition department has publised a series of popular articles
on food and nutrition to educate the public. People in r cent years
have taken to machine polished rice, dal, etc. and the fact that vita-
mins of nutritioned value are wasted when these arc machine polish-
ed has been overlooked. New efforts are again made to go bnck to
the hand pounding and hand milling of rice, wheat, dal etc. In this
respect t.he All India Village Industries Association has ~i ven a lead ,
and in many places Grama Udyoga Sanghs (Village industries as-
!l2 RURAL BARODA

sociations) have been established. They supply to the public hand

pounded rice, hand milled flour, oil pressed in the old village ghanies
~tc. The movement is gaining strength as it appeals to the public
fur two reasons: (1) higher nutrition value of the products and (2)
t;ubsidiary employment to village population.

Side by side with these, the problems of adulteration of food

-Products are becoming more and more urgent. Pure ghee is adulterat-
ed with vegetable ghee. Milk is adulterated with other substances
and hl")nce it is difficult for the people to get pure food produrts. The
state has passed the Food and Drugs Act which is being extended
to all parts of the state. A public Health Laboratory is maintained
which analyses the samples sent to it by the sanitary authorities.
The one fact which requires emphasis is the apathy on the parI
of the public in these matters in the state, as in the rest of India.
There arc four associations in the state, interested in combating thi ~.
It rnuc;l be r0cognised by the public thal no official agency, however
efllcicnt, can make them and their homes healthy unless their co-
uperation is forthcoming.

CHAPTER IX

EDUCATION

The establishment of Government educational institutions

began as early as 1871 . Before that year most of the towns and
villages had elementary schools conducted by private individuals,
where instruction was given. in the three 'R's, of which only the upper
classes took advantage. In 1896 the system of free and compulsory
education was introduced in Amreli . In the year 1906-07 on the
occasion of the Silver Jubi1ee of His late Highness, it was extended
to the whole of the state. Baroda was thus the only and the first
state among the Provinces and States to adopt this epoch making
measure in India. In addition to this, His late Highness established
a number of high schools :lI1d a College for secondary and higher
education. The Baroda College was established as far back as the
year 1882. In his scheme of education, technical educat.ion also oc-
cupied 0 very important place. Again, the RLU'al Library System
introduced by him has achieved very wide fame. Thus the traditional
ignorance of the people was attacked from all sides and a comprehen-
sh'e educational scheme introduced,
 RURAL BARODA 3

Educational II/ ,~Iilliliul/s

The general progress in education can be first judged by the in-

crsase in the number of educational institutions. The following
tables sHmmarises the progress in the direction :-

IHI:HHI3 10:n · l!l:!:!

I --+1--
Ite11l.
, \~U1H'wr
of ( (If
I
;-;;umh('r ;-;;Illllb 'I' ;-;;Illllber NUllll)('r ;-;;\l11I\-('r
r of of or
in~litll' I
pUpilN , inlilll' I
pupilH, i~.< 'iln . p"!l ib .

I I ,
h om., l lOn~ , , Ion>,

t TniversilY Education ('OIJr~~-- 1 -1- .~IO: - II - 021>1- - !I/ :JOOO

High Schools ., ,, ., 4, IIWR 1:;1 , ~H·~() ,I.; a471KI
/\. V, Schools .. ., ., :t,; a~1I() :w ar.;WI l:t(l I()(K/U
l'rimllTy Schoob , , .. :tIt! III 1ua ~,~7 1 :.w,ii 11'1111-111 :l';'O:l1 211000(1
1\'chnkul St:hools .. 71 13 ~21 a
l
Nil ,~ or.o
'rolnl . , ~-m(l( - 2003171- - m:!i 1U,\51)0 21l82\ :m~H ~O

.Y .. U! Il1 stiluliol/ ,'

Certain new ventures have been undertaken by the state r cently,
to make its educational establishment comprehensive and self-suffi-
cient. Of l~te , technical education is receiving greater and gr atel'
attention. It now embraces within its fold agricultural schools, in ·
stltutions and farms, industrial and vocational schools along with
technical institutions, There is a full-lledged technical institute
known as Kalabhavan at Baroda. Schemes to stabUsh a T chnical
ll'stitute at Patan on the same model and to establish Engineering
and Medical Colleges at Baroda have already been framed and al'e
taking shape. The foundation stone of the medical College has already
been laid, In addition, post war educational programmes costing
l':Jpees one crore have been prepared ,
E ,f } lc nditlll'e 011 Educatioll
The following table gives the total expenditure of the state on
education with percentage to total revenue:-

g"pcnditul'( 011 \ P('r('('ntu~t' o f

Ycur. ('du{'lItif n (in
lukh s of 1'IIJ)(le'), I revenue'.
e~pcne1i t\lro
educRtion til
em

1010·Jl 10 11 . 1
]020·21 211 11 , 5
1080·81 a:l 111 , 4
1941·4:1 all 111.1
11)44·4,; '~2 10 . 1
 RURAL BARODA

While the total expenditure on education shows the above in-

crease, the expenditure on primary education shows even more,
nmounUng now to as much as abo ut 60 per cent of the total expendi-
ture on education.

L:/ t'rl/I'!)

The efficiency of educa tion imparted in schools can be judged not

by the number of primary schools only but also by the steady rise in
the number of literates. The following figures show the steady rise
il. the number of literates during the last four decades:-

Year.

l!HI (I!l~,fl7.; 22 . 11
J H:1l I:)k7:1~ 17 . 11
]fl:? I :!7':'!. '.l H I:.! . :;
lUll :to.kHIT 1 (] H

Between 1921 and ]941 the total number of literates increased

by 420,557 i.. by nearly 154 per cent and stood at 692,975- 482,353
males and 170,622 females. It must be remembered that the literacy
perc ntage for all India is l~ only, while for Baroda it is 22.9. Com-
pari sion wit h other sta tes and provinces shows that Baroda is ahead
of all provinces and stands third in the list in the number of literate
per million of population:-

I.it ""lI l t" I>t' r

::-";11'1<' 0(' I III' Sla l (' "" Prel\ ill(·(·. :-:\111\1)\',' .. I' "'illl- ni' Ih('
literal('~. t (ltHI population

Tra ""nt'orr " 2,8114,416 ·n7

( '()('hill 50:1,000 :154-
HlIl'odll .. G5~.Ui:; ~!!H
HOTnhH\" P n1\ hlt,t, 4.007.T()() IV"
Ill'" I!"( . 1),7:l!?,()(j() Hit
Ihd,'rnllll·1 1, 111 .2· ~5 (il)
1\";''''III:i" ,., 2(1 ~ . 1O:; (10
,

1'I'II1WI"Y III HI'(" ion

Under the Primary Edu<:ation Act every child of school going
nge is required to attend a primary school. The school going age is
from 7 to 12 years and the parents are held responsible if their child-
ren do not at tend such schools. As is natural defaults are most
(..Ommon in cases of girls and the children of backward classes.
 RURAL B ARODA

j\" ~II1Lbcr of sC"(lo/ ~

The total number of primary schools, Governmt.nt,-aided, Ilnd

unaided in the state was 2,289, 52 and 30 respectively in 1939-1\0. The
total number of pupils attending these schools was 760104 . The
iollowing table gives a comprehensh e idea of the number of pupil
and schools from time to time during the past:-

Tlell" . l ,noH-1l7 1 HI U·Hi 1 1 H:!G·:!7 11I;:U·37 I IIH3. U 1\) II · ~ .;

1

:>:,,11111.. 1' (lr 1''Il'il'

1 I
!! I!! ,()(;u l :!1I},II:1I,i 2711 . 111) I ., -" ., ~ _I
~1'II,ht.:r of :-,,'hooj ... .. "I U11.TUIl

I.:.: }l l :) , 111)
I
:!,IIII4'1 :.!~.:")J:! 1-" :.::~u~,
:':."O,IM'"

~ l jU'.!
I !

The following table shows the perc ntage of pupil!' to the total
population of school going age: -

11I:!0·:': 1

I
H".,·' tlll('II"ill1,: '(·"""h 1(1 t(ll,,1 rllalt- 1'01'1IIatioil "rl
... ·hpol ·rning n;.tt· whidl i:-- l'l'Itill1atl'd at lao,~ uf tht')
101,,1 r" tll,' ]1",,1,,1 ill II "I' tI ... Stili " .... Ij':; . t 1(1(1

(;i ,'1, u (( "II"ifl~ "'10""" (" lola I 1', .,lIa I,· P"I '111,,1 iOIl "I
~l'IH,'\}I · ;.t'()in~ Ill!l' l'~ t illwtt',l ut 1:! (\~ 01' "H' "'hukl
1',·",;,1,· 1I'I"I(;,liol1 "r tilt SI"", ·w .U ,U (I .0

The abo\'c 1able reveals the fact that there has been a considera-
ble ir.,(, t'ease in the number of pupils. It is also gratifying to note
1hat there is Ll steady improvement in the enrolment of girl-students.
The enrolment of boys is 100 1 ; while that of girls has increased from
40.9 /; in 1920-21 to 79 /( in 1939-40.
r l;la!J c /::jr/i 011/
It has been the policy of the state to make the village school, the
centre of all beneficient activities in the village. To this end arrangc-
ments are made to give preference to candidates from rural Ilr as in
getting admission to the Teacher ' training schools. Scholars under
training at these institutions are given an insight into the problems of
cural life. The present reading series, prescribed for the schools, in-
cludes topics pertaining to rural life. In addition, the Department of
Education has prepared and prescribed "Gram Jivan" (Village life)
Pathmala books for extra reading in the rural as well as in the urban
schools. The teacher's outlook on life is important in building up a
healthy village life. Steps are taken to choose teachers from rural
areas and to give them practical training in agriculture, at the training
schools for men. In addition to these , theoretical and practical know-
 6 RURAL BARODA

ledge pertaining to rural reconstruction problems such as co-opera-

tion, sanitation, the library system, vHlage economics, religious train-
ing, scouting, and first aid to the injured, is imparted to them. In
the village schools, it has been the policy of the Government to en-
courage the studen ts to maintain gardens. Instruction is g~ven by
the teachers to the students in this subject, and they are made to
realise the dignity of labour by practical work. At some places
teachers sow monsoon crops in the school grounds with the help of
the students. Students are encouraged to grow their own plants and
to water them . Arrangements have been made for the supply of agri-
cultural implements and other necessaries wherever this type of
trflinin g is given. The tot;:11 number of schools having such gardens is
879.

The policy of Government is to encourage private bodies to open

~Ind mAintain English schools ~nd <:lasses. The Government gives
grants-in-aid. During the year 19.f4-45, there were 45 high schools
in tll st.'1te, 1'i Government and 28 private. The number of Middle
Schools was 126,830 Government, 21 receiving grants-in~aid and 75
others. The total number of pupils in secondary c;chools is 34,790.
I
( ' I/i/'(I'si/y 1~'''';(' (//il)l/
Th re are 6 Colleges in the State:-(l) The Baroda College with
Arts t'nd Science course upto M.A. and M.Sc. degrees (2) The Pratap-
sinha College of Conlrnerce and Economics (3) The Spc0ndary
reachers' Training College (4) The Garda College at Navsari (5)
Sil(;!th Maneklal College at Visnagal' (6) The Arts College at Petlad .
Th I'e 31' about 3000 students studying in th e<;e col1egp.s. In addition
Lh 'rc :'J' ' two oth r colleges: Training College for Men and Training
College for Women.

Tccpnical ducation in the Bayoda State was reorgAnised on tpe

lin s suggest d by Mr. A. Abb .t, formerly H.M. Chief Inspector of
Technical Schools in Englund. Technical education at present pro-
\'icie~ for :-

past high schools grade courses at Kalabhavan Technical

(::J)
Institute, Baroda.
(b) past middle schools grade or vocational high school courses
at Kalabhavan Technical InsLilutc, Baroda.
(c) past primary school courses at Kalabhavan Technical Insti-
tute, Baroda and the industrial schools at Amreli, Patan and
 RURAL BARODA !)7

at Petlad and a grant-in-aid Hunnershala (Crafts School)

at Navsari.
The central technical institute, popularly known as Kala-bhavan
was established in the year 1890. Subjects such as, Mechanical, Elec-
trical and Civil Engineering, Chemical and Weaving Technology.
Architecture, Photography, Commerce etc., are taught there. The
t(,tal number of students attending the courses in this institute was
469 in 1945. Technical Schools at Amreli and other places teach car-
pentry, weaving, tailoring etc. The School at Patan offers industria~
courses in turning, fitting and smithy, carpentry and wireman's cours .
The J. N. Tata Hunnershala at Navsari offers courses in mechanical
cngineering and cabinet making. A technical institute on the lines
of the Baroda Kala-bhavan is to be shortly established at Patan.
A~' I and Music
There is a school of Indian Ml1sic at Baroda. It offers severaT
courses, spread over a number of years. Besides the central school.
there are 4 district music schools and twenty two mu ic classes. The
l1Itmber of pupils in the school of Indian Music at Baroda was 285 in
1944-45. The number of pupils in district music schools at Dabhoi ,
Navsar i , Patan and Amreli was 59, 111, 45, and 39 resp ·ctively. In
addition to these music schools, music classes are also attached to
primary and secondary schools. No fees are charged. The number
of students attending these classes was 4,113. There is in the Public
Park, Baroda City, a fine Museum and Picture Gallery which has
interesti ng exhibits pro 'iding useful information to the people of the
staie. Occasiol1~lly art exhibitions are held in the Picture Gallery.
In the Kalabhavan Technical Institute also, there are classes in archi-
L~ciure painting and photography.

"(,UHf Ol'ganillatioll
The scout rna ,'ement ha~
been in existence for the last twenty
fi 'c years in the state, and has amply proved its utility. In 1919-20
there wt:!re only 100 scouts of all types, while by 1942-43 their. number
rose' to 20,000. Steps have been taken to spread this movement in
the raral areas, and the efforts have met with success. In most of
the village schools, scouting has been introduced. Scouts have been
I->l:lying a very useful part in the work of rural uplift. Village scouts
;)t some places manage dispensaries; they help the Medical and Sani-
tary ciepartments in the distribution of medicines and propaganda
literature. At fairs, they organise themselves for rendering various
scrvices and undertake to maintain order. Village boy-scouts try to
locate the insanitary places in the village and do cleaning work for
R.B.-7
98 RURAL BARODA

the village. Recently they have started night schools for imparting
education to the villagers.
The girlf;-guide movement in the state was started in 1935-;36.
Annual training camps are held regularly and a large number of
guidel's and guides are trained at these. At present the number of
guides, blue birds and other ranks is 2106. In the field of special
service the guides have been rendering useful services.
Ph ,,~';cal Education
In 1938 the Government adopted a scheme to make physical edu-
cation compulsory in all the primary and secondary schools of the
~tate. The same year physical training was made compulsory in
chools of the Baroda city and taluka. During the year 1939-40 com-
pulsory physical educatiop was extended to the Baroda district and
st ps were taken to extend it to the r\avsari and Mehsana districts.
Since the y ar 1940-41, it has been extended to all the schools, both
primary and s~condary, in the state, where physical training accord-
ing to a well laid down syllabus is imparted. To provide trained
teachers under this scheme, training classes are being conducted
every year . . Besides these, regular physical training classes are con-
ducted in the Training Schools fe r Men and Women and in the Secon-
dary Teachers Training College. All these classes during the year
]944-45 turned out 243 trained teachers, bringing the total number
of such trained teachers to 4,221. In addition to physical training,
students in schools and colleges are medically examined every year
and their defects are attended to free of cost.
l:.'dl(ca,tioll of tlte BackwaI'd Class s

The backward and the intermediate classes of population have

since long been the object of special care of His Highness's Govern-
ment. The Harijans, the Adivasis, the Bhils, the Thakardas, the
Waghers and the Muslims have been given special facilities for obtain-
ing education for their children. .Poor students of these communi-
ties are given free-ships in all secondary !'chools and there are special
freeships in the Kalabhavan and other Government institutions for
them, There are also special primary schools at some places for
them. Besides this the Government maintains a number of hosteJs
nnd boarding houses for children of these communities.
lIl:l t'jalls
The number of Government Harijan schools in 1944-45 was 64 with
4,075 pupils (2310 boys and 1765 girls). There were 5 private Hari-
jan Schools with 125 pupils. Besides these 18050 Harijan children
 RURAL BARODA

were attending Gujarati schools, Colleges, Technical instit utes etc.

The total number of Harijan population under instruction was 22,425
or 9.7 of the total population. Government supply books and other
school requirements to these children free of charge. Poor students
are given free studentships in all institutions and there are also
scholarships. Harijan residential sc!,\ools are maintained by Govern-
ment at Baroda, Patan, AIm'eli and Vyara. Moral and religiou.;;
training in agriculture and gardening is also given at these institu-
tions.
Till> Adiva is
The education of boys and girls of the forest tribes, living in
sparsely populated places, with hardly any well defined centres of
habitat.ion, is a problem of peculiar difficulty. Compulsion proved
unsuccessful. For the benefit of boys and girls of these tribes Gov-
ernment residential schools are maintained at Songadh, Vyara,
Mahuva, Vankal, Anaval and Amreli. The number of boarders in
these schools was 391 in all. There is also a similar school for girls
of thec;e tribes at Songadh, with 58 girls. Model farms are attached
to these schools at Songadh and Vyara for practical training in agri-
culture. In order to train teachers from this community, it was
decided to send every year, ten boys and five girls Ix> the training
schools at Baroda. Five students were studying in the Kalabhavan
also.
Till' Waghers
In the residential school for Wagher boys at Dwarka, they are
gh'en mRnual training at the workshop and training in agriculture
at the farm attached to the institution. Special scholarships are
sanctioned for students of this class studying in the Kalabhavan and
the Baroda College.
T" (' Thakal'dag
A special residential school for the Thakm'das, a backward tribe
in Mehsana distri ct, was opened in 1936 to commemorate the Diamond
Jubilee of His late Highness. The school is a model for similar insti·
tutions. The school aims primarily at three things, viz.
(1) - to teach good agriculture,
(2) to instil among the boys "the will to live better"
(3) and to train leaders.
so that when the boys go back to their villages, they make good culti-
vators nnd good members of their community. The school has a
farm of 93 bighas and accommodation for 100 boys. Education is
100 RURAL BARODA

partly literary and partly manual. Manual education consists of

agriculture, poultry keeping and cottage industries.

J'lu, LibrarJ/ Movement

To prevent lapse into illiteracy, to keep the people in touch with
modern ideas and to inculcate in them the habit of reading, His late
Highnesc; estab];<;hed libraries all over the state. His aim was to
provide every village with a library. or a reading room at least. That
is why we see in Baroda today the best library system in the whole
of India. Af, much as 82.6 % of the total population of the state is
served by libraries and reading rooms. Out of the total rural popula-
tion 78.27 percent is served by these facilities. There were in all 1440
libraries consisting of 72 district and town libraries, and 1368 village
libraries in 1944-45. To them have been added three other types the
reading room, -the children's room, the ladies' library. The reading
rooms generally develop into libraries in due course. Child-
rens' rooms have come to be regarded as an essential compliment of
{!()mpulsory primary education. Free public libraries are eminently
silited for preventing lapse into illiteracy after the few years of com-
pulsory schooling. Village libraries start with a basic collection of
rbookf; worth a hundred repees. People's share in this is just Rs. 25:
the other Rs. 75 are given as a gift from Government. All the libraries
.and reading rooms are ftee.
Mention must be made of the "Travelling Libraries" spp.cially
<lesigned to meet the demands of those areas, which have no libraies
.at all or whose libraries do not contain certain books l"eq1.1ired by
.a few advanced readers. The Rural Library section, as it is called,
has travelling libraries consisting of wooden boxes containing from
15 to 30 books. These boxes are despatced free of chal'ge to any
library or school or in fact to any responsible perRon or body of per-
50ns, who undertake to distribute the books in his locality. Th€
freight both ways is borne by the department. Somfl of the books
.are termed fixed sets and contain books on usef\1J subjectR, such as
.agriculture, book keeping etc. There are 345 such travelling boxes
in circulation at present. The books in these Jibraries are mostly in
{7ujarati, the local vernacular and on ubject useful to the masses .
. itllfll Educatioll
In May 1939 the organisation of a literacy campaign with a view
to impart literacy to the adult population of the state and thus t(1
stamp out illiteracy was undertaken. Adult education classes were
first started in the Amreli district where compulsory education was
first introduced, but now they are establish d all over the state. From
 RUR AL BARODA
\01

the inception of the literacy campaign upto 1941, th total number

of class~s conducted is 1795 In aU 26457 ad"U initerates attended
these classes and out of them 9861 have been successful in attaining
the literacy standard fixed by the state. Last but not the leaRt is the
pro isiotJ against the lapse of new adult literat.es as w 11 as literate
children into illiteracy, owing 10 lack 01 faci lilie ' for using th ir newl
acquired knowledge. A Committee has ther for been appointed
to examine the question of preparing suitable literature fm' th~ newly
made literates and to xpJore all the possibilltics in thi" connection.
A det.niled scheme about the preparation of such literature is also
being worked out.
In a scheme of education, the recruitment of trained teachers
must be given preference to the provision of propP'7 te -t books. The
best way to increase the efficiency of primary ed ucation is, ther -
fore, to provide for an increasing number of trained teacher . Th re
are two training schools for men and women, which are turning out
a fairly large number ot tramed teachers every year. Every teacher
is required to take a minimum training of two years. The percentage
of untrained teachers to the total number of teachers in primary
schools is only 21 and this is decreasing year by year. Out of R total
of 6436 teachers 5718 are men and 718 women. To refresh the know-
ledge of teachers who are already, in service, refresher classes arc
held for two weeks every year. Teachers' gatherings are organised
at some central schools every mont.h . Th y discuss difficulties they
meet with in their schools, with a view to finding remedies for them.
They also discuss the latest methods of teaching different subjects
in primary schools.
It has been the policy of the stat to aim at having a ~c hool in
each village and to make it a centre of all village activities. Towards
fulfilling this end, the state is encouraging teachers from n)l' Rl areas
to be specially recruited and trained in subjects which go to help th
boys and girls taught by them, 10 grow into good memb rs of tJ-.e
rural community.
 102 RURAL BARODA

CHAPTER X

SOCIAL LEGISLATION

Rural Society in Baroda, as elsewhere in India, is showing

signs of change due to the impact of new forces creat.ed by modern
conditions of life. The effects of modern education, of the expansion
of communications, and the more difficult economic conditions have
each in turn modified Rural Society and the outlook of the people.
The Farmer even ill the remotest village, is now affected by these
changing conditions, which indirectly influence his economic and social
life. Illiteracy, untouchability child marriage and traditions of
extra\'agant expenditure at times of marriag~ and deaths are evils.
of which he is but slowly becoming conscious.
The slate has tried to encourage the spread of education on the one
hand and to enact social legislation on the other, to help the growth
of t.his change in outlook of the rural population and for creating
a healthier background for rural development. His late Highness
Shri Sayajirao was pioneer in this field and he drew up a comprehen-
sive programme of social legislation, for the benefit of the people.
The important Acts introduced in the State in this connection
arc :-
1. The Child Marriage Prevention Act.
2. The Hindu Divorce Act.
3. The Hindu Women's Property Legislation.
4. The Special Marriage Act.
5. The Caste Tyranny Removal Act.
6. The Social Disabilities Removal Act.
7. The Sanyas Diksha Restraint Act.
8. The Hindu Monogamy Act.
9. The Muslim Women's Divorce Act.
'I'lt Child MlIl'riay (' I'/'(·t'c lltioll Act : The Child Marriage
Prevention Act was first passed in 1904 before which child marriages
were very common. The marriage of boys under 16 and of girls under
12 was made liable to punishment. In the first seven years, the Act
was leniently worked as it was against old established customs. In
later years as public opinion became more sympathetic, it was possible
to enforce the provisions more strictly. However, as late as 1928 no
less than 34% of the registered marriages were below the age limit.
The legislation was, however, exercising steady pressure and educat-
ing public opinion. In 1926, the Government reviewed the working
cf this piece of legislation. They found that public opinion had suffi·
 RURAL BARODA
103

cit.:~'ltly crystallised against child marriages, to permit the extension

of its scope. The act was am'ended in 1928. The amendment declared
marriages of parties below eight years to be void. Parties and priests
responsible for such marriages were liable to be punish d with a
fine up to Rs. 500 or imprisonment upto one month or both. In 1932,
the marriage age was raised to 18 for boys and to 14 for girls. By
1937, public opinion had become so favourable that in that year, on
the recommendation of the Dhara Sabha (Stat L gislativ Assembly),
the punishment for all child marriages was raised to imprisonment
upto one month or fine upto Rs. 2000 or both. This law has been in
operation for 38 years. So far as marriag s of children under eight
years ar(' concerned, the law has succeed d in practically eliminating
them. Though the total number of marriages has almost more than
doubled, the percentage of child marriages is 1 ss than half of what
it was in 1916. The effect of this legislation on the civil condition
of the people is reflected in the 1941 Census figures. The proportion
of unmarried in the child population aged 0-5 has risen from 79.3 in
1901 to 99.98 per cent in 1941. In the next age ' group 5-10 the propor-
tion has risen from 89.7 to 99.3 per cent in the last rorty years. In
the age groups 10-15 and 15-20, which used to be nol"n1al ages of mar-
riage in the old days, the percentage of unmarried h~s risen amongst
males from 73.0 to 96.2 and 46.2 to 71.2 respectiv ly and amongst
females from 47.7 to 86.2 and 12.7 to 29.6. Thus age of marriage has
obviously risen on an average by about five years. L gislation has
a great deli 1 to do with this, though no doubt, the influ nce of social
changes, the pressure exerted by economic circumstances and the
leavening influence of education have certainly played an important
pArt. In 1944-45, the percentage of child marriages to total marriages
was 9.7 only :>howing a great improvement.
The Hin(Z!! Dirorce Act
The Hindu Law does not allow divorce, except in communities
ill which it is permitted by custom. To remove this disability, th
Hindu Divorce Act was passed in 1931. It provides for divorce, judi-
cial separation, separate residence, nullity of marriage and restitution
of conjugal rights. There is on salutary provision in the Act, which
is of a remarkable nature. It enables the wif to claim separate
residence without presenting a suit for judicial separation. This
section which gives relief and protection to the wife, enables the
parties 10 settle their differences and resum marit<ll reJ<lti(ms. The
grounds on which relief can be sought under the Act are cruelty,
drunkenness, desertion, adultery, impotency and incompatabHity of
temperament. Relief on these points is available to all Hindus. Per-
 10.... RURAL BARODA

sons belonging to castes in whil:h divorce is not permitted by custom,

can obtain relief only by a decree of a court, whereas the others are
only required to register the dissolution of their marriage. The Act
has been in force for the last fifteen years. During that period 736
suits for relief under the Act were instituted. Of them 631 were for
divorce, :i2 for judicial separation, 11 for separate residence, 6 for the
declaration of Jlullity of marriage and 56 for the restriction of conjugal
rights. The main grounds for relief were cruelty by husband, habi-
tuaJ drunkenness and desertion. However it appears that people
belonging to such communities as do not permit divorce are unable
to resist established ('usto.m). and traditions. Such people have been
sluw to take advlwtage of the law. In communities in which custom
allows divorce, the law has provided a regular procedure and a record
of the fact of divorce.
'['Ill' ,lflllSli", /)iLIOI'CC Act
Under the Mohmedan Law, a Muslim wife cannot obtain a divorce
from ' her husband without his consent, except Wlder a constract · made
before or after malTiage. She may in some cases obtain a divorce by
judicbJ decree e .. g. on the ground of her husband's impotency or on
the ground that he has falsely charged her with adultery. These
nghts have been clarified and defined under the Muslim Womens'
Divors:e Act, 1942.
Hindu Womell' P1·01>crt!J Legislatioll
In 1933, the Hindu Law Code was amended so as to widen the
right of Hindu women in matters of inheritance and rights of pro-
p rty. Under the amended law, widow of a co-parcener has been
givell the rights o( her husband, with few modifications. She has been
all owed to become the bsolute owner of properties upto Rs. 12,000.
"h is put on an equal fotting with - the other members of the
family . During the year 1944-45 nine suits by widow co-pa ceners
wer insLituted for partition of their shares in the joint property as
against flv in the preceding year.

Sjle ·ierl Ql"'iaoc ,lct

Th Special Marriage Act came into force in the state in 1908.
It seeks to legalise marriage between persons of different communi-
ties. In the state, unlike British India, the parties are not required
to declare that they do not belong to any of the recognised religions .
.The Act thus offers a wider scope for selection in marriage, without
compelling the parties to renounce their religion. During the 37
years the Act has been in operation, only 87 marriages were re-
 RURAL BARODA 105

gistered under It and of these more than half were during he last
five years.
The Caste Tyranny Removal Act
In Gujar.at numerous customs impose restrictions on the indivi-
dual which are detrimental to social progress. There are certain
social di8abilities imposed upon members of certain communities .g.
compulsion to marry amongst particular sub-castes, ban on foreign
travel, compulsory heavy expenditure on soeial and r ligiou cere-
monies etc. The offender in such cases is generally made to pay a
fine or excommunicated by the so-called leaders of the community.
With a view to remove this evil, the Caste Tyranny Removal Act
was passed in 1933, empowering the courts to punish with imprison-
ment upto six months or fine upto Rs. 1000 or both, persons who
ostracise and penalise those who do not observe the above customs.
The Act has met with very limited success. During its 170 years of
operation, there have been only 80 cases, and the records do not show
any growing tendency on the part of the people, to resort freely to
the courts for redress on this account. The operat.ion of the Act
showb once again the difficulti es of enforcing social legislation when
not sufficiently supported by public opinion. People are reluctant
to resort to law, because it endangers their relation with the lead rs
of their CAste, on whom they are largely dependent social ly. Even
when c~ses are instituted, the other m mbers of the caste are un-
wining to incur the udium by opposing their leaders. The pEl.'lC;ing of
this Act has had some beneficial efT ct:; though on both sides. It has
emboldened enlightened young men to disregard such tyranny and
wiser counsels have prevailed with the elders.
SOCI(ll lJisClbili(i c~ RCllloval d
The object of the Social Disabilities Removal Act passed ill 1939
giving formal shape to the previous proclamation in forc , is to
punish those who deny the members of the Harijan community such
('] men lrlry rights as the use of public wells, roads, buses etc. The
preventing of any member of this c]as ~ from exercising his I men-
tary rights, is made punishable by a fine which may extend to Rs. 200
in th" first instance. For enforcing the Act, Standing Committ es
have be n s t up in all the districts and in talukas wh re n cessary.
These committees are charged with the duties of investigating com-
plaint~ and instituting action wherever necessary.
The 0111108 Dik~ha llcs("aillt Ad
The Sanyas Diksha Restraint Act was passed in the year 193a.
with a view to prevent initiation of minors into Sanyas by th re-
ligiolls preachers specially amongst the Jains.
n. 8.- a.
•
106 RURAL BARODA

The Ilincl u MOllogamIJ A ct

In 1942 by an amendment to the llindu Code, monogari~y was
enforced and all polygamous or polyandrous marriages wp.re declared
invalid, except in case of persons suffering from incux:able diseases
or mental derangement.
C,}lIclusion
Social legislation f!)r removing various disabilities of social life,
described above are fundamental in character. Unless the individual
is free to act in these matters, even his initiative in other spheres of
life gets restrained. It is not often realised how much energy is
wasted by individuals, in fighting such tyranny. The village life is
vitiated by petty quarrels, when tradition and age try to impose .their
authority on new life. In view of the conditions in Indian villages,
it appears to be the bounden duty of the Government to oppose and
eradicate such evils. Public opinion has also to be created and foster-
ed, to lend a helping hand to legislation. Shri Sayajirao's insight in
these matters was admirable, as he put emphasis on the creation of a
better social environment, so necessary for the regeneration of social
and economic life.

CHAPTER XI

LOCAL SELF·GOVERNMENT: THE PANCHAYATS

A comprehensive system of Local Self-Government is indispensa-

ble {or the success of democracy, not only beclltlse it offers the widest
possible opportunity for the political education of the people, but
also because it is essential in t.he successful administration of many
of the welfare services, which a progressive state in the present age
must undertake.
The traditions of local governi~g bodies are deeply rooted in
the soil of India. The villages in India from time imm morble were
self-governing units. They managed all their internal affairs through
their leaders. These self-governing vill~ge institutions were in exis-
tence {or centuries. However, with the introduction of rayatwari
form of land settlement, the tax payer was put in direct. touch with
the government and the unifying force that such institutions exer-
cised was weakened. This naturally led to a certain amount of disin-
tegration in the life of the village as a whole. In course of time, th ..
indispensability of these self-governing units was realised and efforts.
'were made to revive them.
1 i :rlURAL BARODA
107

Village Panchayats
In Baroda., however, from the very inception of the n w land
settlement pollcy, efforts were made to preserve as much (1£ th tradi-
tional element of self-government as possible. Provision was there-
fore, maue for the appointment of a panchayat in ev ry Vm ~<1 and
for the maintenance of the village authority and servir.('s \ !1 0 accor-
dance with established usage as far as practicable. To meet the x-
penses of those services, a deduction was made in the Jand rev nu
demand in each case, involving the state into an additi oll ul x p nsc
of Rs. 3,08,011 per year. A school master was add d to th list of
village servants and in the two years- 1891 to 1893, 62 villag choo!!;
were opened. Hereditary claims were recognis d in malting thes
appointments. The names of the servants with particulars about
their services and their remuneration were registered ; and they were
allowed the option of holding land on service tenure or on payment
for their servlces in cash. A further advance was made in 1901,
when His late Highness decided to introduce an elective system intI')
the viUage panchayats, and to bestow on them extended powers.
Rules were therefore passed in 1902, for a more elaborate organisa-
tion of the village panchayats.
These rules provided that every village with a population of one
thousand cr more should have a panchayat of its own; and thos
with a population of less than one thousand should be conveni ntly
grouped together and have a common pan<:hayat. The panchayats
should not have less than five and more than nine members; of these
half were to be nominated by Government and half elected by the
vmagers themselves. The Pat 1 WAS to be the presid nt and the
village accountant, the Talati and the school master were ex-officio
members. The supervision of village road s, wells, tanks and schools,
dharmashalas, choras and the village temples and all government
and common property vested in the panchayat. The institutions were
required to help in relief works in times of famine and epidemic.
co-operate with village Munsiffs in settling minor civil disputes, with
sub-registrars in their official work, see that the village boundary
marks were kept in order and that the cattle t.rough1> were properly
managed. Regular monthly meetings of the panchayat5 were' mad
compulsory and each group of villages was empowered t o return one
member to the Taluka Local Board .
A fresh act to include amendments and modifications wa,Ii" passed
through the Legislative Couneil in 1920. This Act is in force a t
present. By this Act the constitution was broadened , the franchise
was extended and important powers in connection with sanitation,
water supply a'nd drainage, the supervision over public . charities:
108 RURAL BARODA

the trial of civil and <:riminal cases and the right to tax people with
the previous approval of the Government, were conceded to these
bodies.
SO iU'cea of I ncome
The main source of income of these bodies is the allotment of
2 pies per anna of the local ease received by the Prant Panchayat-
District Local Boards. Other miscellaneous sources allowed to them
include (a) rent of the village site, (b) sale proceeds from the auction
of gral'lS, fruit and fuel from Government waste lands, (c) the levying
of their Qwn taxes with the previous sanction of the Government and
(d) receipt of an equal amount as a subsidy from the Government,
whenever they raise any such amount either by taxation or by con-
tribution for some work of permanent utility to the village.
F' 1I11Cf ions
The functions of the village panchayats are varied and multi-
farious. Supply of good drinking water, construction ~. nd main-
tenance of village roads and drains, maintenance of proper conser-
veney arrangements etc. are some of their important duties. In fact
the activities of the village panchayats embrace all such other works
as wO'ild add to the comfort, convenience and well being o~ the vil-
lages. To this end the village panchayats have now taken t9 activities
like tree planting, provision of medical relief, and celebrations of pan-
chayat and baby weeks. The number of village and union panch a-
yats during the year 1942-43 stood at 2054 and 31 respectively. The
number of group panchayats was 391. 26, 623 meetings were held
and 39, 264 resoluti.ons were passed. Their income was Rs. 2.86 lakhs
find they spent in all 2.82 lakhs.
Vi~ h ishta Pa IlCllO yo,' s
A village panchayat institution of a peculiar character, which
Baroda ha developed to meet certain special circumstances, deserves
a mention here. This is the vishishta panchayat or the B class munici-
pality, as it is sometime called. As we have seen, all the villages
have a villag panchayat either of its own or in partnership with
another village or a group of villages. The big cities and industrial
towns have their municipalities, to manage their local affairs. But
they are some units too big to be called villages, but which are not
industrialised enough or big enough to be called towns. Their local
ne ds embrace all those of the villages and some that are special tl)
bigger tOW)1S. They cannot afford full fledged municipalities of th~
urban areas, but the village panchayat constitution and powers are
much too simple to meet their needs. These vishishta panchayats in
their constitutions, functions, finance etc., are a cross between the
 RURAL BARODA 1

two typical local government institutions described above. There

aTe only a few of those institutions in the statp., in the overgrown
villag.es or in the smaller towns and as they succeeded in meeting a
peculiar need, they natually deserve a mention in this study, as also
because, they might be found useful at other places in similar cir-
cumstances.
If not in every village in which they are established, the e village
panchayats and the Vishishta panchayats in several cases have proved
to be of immense help in the work of all round development in the
rural Areas. With government help and sympathetic guidance by
local officials, they are capable of undertaking almost all the im-
portant activities that go to contribute to the welfare of the rural
population. This spirit of self help and ready response t.o any sug-
gestion which makes an appeal to them, was a good deal in evidence
when, during 1935-36, on the occasion of the Diamond JubiJ e of th
late rnJer, Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwar, every Village CAme forward
with a programme of some work of public utility, to meet its local
r{'quirement, to commemorate the event.
That the policy of the state has been very liberal in the matter
of giving all the assistance that it can give, to a r ally enterprising
town or village, in the matter of meeting all its requirements, can
be WE'll illustrated from the example of the small semi-rural town of
BhadrAn. This place with a population of about five to six thousand
souls can boast of amenities and institutions that no town in India
of its size or perhaps double its size, can show. It has good roads .
• wat.er works with house connections, pucca drainage, a town hall.
a cJoC'k tower, a highschool, several primary schools for boys and
girls with good buildings, playgrounds, an agricultural bank and 3
number of other well mAnaged institutions. The help, concession::;
and facilities that Bhaciran got are there for all towns and villages
in the state. Many of them have availed themsp.lves of them for
one thing or another. But because Bhadran had more civic spjrit
and good leaders and workers, it managed to take advantage of the
policy of the state, in every sphere of its civic existance. This town
is a living example of what the bigger villages could become, gjven
proper civic spirit, good leadership and an enlightened government
policy.
M(lhal Pallohaua(s
A group of Village Panchayats forms the Mahal Panchayat of
which there were 38 in all. They were abolished at the time oC the
re-organisation of the local self-government scheme in the year 1929,
as they were found redundant and superfious, as constituted then .
110 RURAL BARODA

The Mahal Panchayats as now constituted are advisory boards under

the direct supervision of the Prant or Distri,ct Panchayats without
administrative or financial powers and their duties are to make a
thorough and searching inquiry regarding works of public utility
needed for the Mahal, prepare programmes of work, supervise the
executwn of important works and educate the members of village
panchayats.
lJi~trictLocal Boards-Pran l Pancltayats
Over the Maha1 Panchayats there are Prant Panchayats i.e.
District Local Boards. The District Local Boards Act was passed in
the year 1904, laying down the duties, the sources of revenue and
the number of nominated and elected members, of these bodies.
Each of the four districts: Baroda, Mehsana, Navsari and Amreli
has its Prant Panchayat i.e. district local board. The Okhamandal
Mahal Panchayat was invested with the powers of the Prant Pan-
chayat. The presidents of all such bodies were Subas of the
respective districts, except in Baroda which had an elected president
upto March 1928. The vice-presidents were non-officials, elected
by the general body. These Prant Panchayats were thus composed
of elected and nominated members, of whom the former represented
two thirds and the latter one third. Of the latter again one half
were officials and the other half non-officials.
After the re-organisation, the Mahal Panchayats in their original
form were abolished as stated above and the Prant Panchayats were
made directly respons\ble for the development of the village
Panchayats. In 1939 the right of electing their own presidents from
among their non-official members was conferred upon them and
now all Panchayats including that of Okhamandal have elected
presidents. The vice-presidents continue to be elected from among
their non-official members by the general board . The constitution
of the Prant Panchayats provides for 2 '3 representation by election
and 1/ 3 nomination by the Government. Amongst the nominated
members half are officials and the other half non-officials, amongst
whom there is at least one representative of the depressed classes.
The system of representation for these boards is direct. Each
mahal is divided into groups of villages on population basis; there
beLng one representative for every unit of 25,000 population or less.
Such groups in the different mahals vary from 1 to 4 and each group
elects one representative to the Prant Panchayat. Some other inte-
rests are also represented.
The qualifications of an elector are as under:-
(1) He must be of 21 years of age, and
 RURAL BARODA 111

(2) should have anyone of the following qualifications:-

(a) He must have an annual income of Rs. 750 or
(b) He must be paying at least Rs. 30 as land revenue; or
(c) He must have immovable property worth Rs. 1,000; or
(d) He must have an educational attainment not below
Matr~ulation.

Functions: Works beyond the sphere of the village Panchayats

are carried out by the Prant Panchayats. A Prant Panchayat has
mainly to deal with the larger roads not placed under the public
works department and generally with all the works not exclusively
belonging to a single village, as well as with the village works cost-
ing Rs. 500 and above, which are beyond the capacity of a village.
Supply of drinking water to rural areas is one of the main duties
of the Panchayats. To meet this necessity in full, a comprehensive
survey of the whole State was made and a quinquennial programme
was drawn up in 1931. The total number of wells constructed under
this programme is 459. The total amount spent on them is
Rs. 4,82,525 of wh~h 2,51,596 is Government contribution . A further
ten years' programme has been framed recently and 150 wells have
already been _constructed.
The scheme for well water-works in villages is framed on th ~
following basis :
J of the cost by the Government
! of the cost by the Prant Panchayat.
; of the cost is contributed by the people.
Where people fail to raise the requisite amount,
i of the cost is advanced as loan by the Govern-
ment.
The Government contribution for tube-wells is ~ of the total
expenditure. In addition to the above, additional wells and borings
have been undertaken by the Panchayats from their own funds and
from grants given under the Shree Sayajirao III Diamond Jubilc
Trust.
Recently Government have passed orders to have another com-
prehensive survey made of the needs of villages in regard to drinking
water. In preparing the programme instructions are issued to
induce the bigger villages with a population of about 1.500 to 2,500
to undertake water-works in villages situated at a short distance
from places having electrical installations. The Government have
offered to assist villages which propose such water work~ , provided
112 l\URAL BARODA

the village panchayats are prepared to bear the whole cost of main-
tenance and a portion of the capital cost.
In addition to these acti vities, the Prant Panchayats undertake
many other works and campaigns of public utility. Construction of
fe der roads, anti-malaria campaign, opening relief works in time
of famine, opening and a~ding dispensaries, helping gymnasiums,
students' hostels etc., amongst these.
SOUTce of Income: The income of the Prant Panchayats is
derived from:-
(a) local cess,
(b) a surcharge on income-tax at the rate of two annas per
rupee of income-tax paid to Government,
(c) a flat rate of one rupee on individuals deriving non-agricul-
tural income above Rs. 250 and below Rs. 750.
(d) such contribution as the Government choose to make.
Out of these items (b) and (c) are intended to shift to the non-
agriculturists some part of the burden of taxation almost all of which
was previously borne by the agriculturists. These taxes are how-
ever levied by the Boards at their discretion.
P "esenf Position: Every district has now a Prant Panchayat
which consists of elected and nominated members. The aggregate in-
come of the Prant Panchayats was Rs. 8.30 lakhs in the year 1944-45
while the expenditure was Rs. 10.13 lakhs.
Village Panchayats and Prant Panchayats are basic institutions
in the State. They serve as good training grounds for the people in
managing their own affairs. The Prant Panchayats are making
themselves increasi,ngly responsible for the development and growth
of the village panchayats. Both those institutions are playing a
very useful part in the administration of local problems. Besides
this, they have proved useful in raising the standard of living in
rural areas by providing necessities and some amenities of life. A
large sphere of work is still awaiting the activities of these bodies.
The Government is straining every nerve to banish illiteracy and
disease from rural areas and to provide the means for better living
a!ld in this task the local bodies are expected to play a very useful
role.
 RURAL BARODA 118

CHAPTER XII

MISCELLANEOUS AGENCIE FOR RURAL UPLIFT AND

RURAL STUDIE

J)C Vl'l OjlIll Cll t D par/lil en/s

E .r,f)PlItZifllrc on
On an average about a crore of rupees is the revenue of th
State from land. With the increase in revenue from other sources,
the Land revenue has formed a smaller percentage of the total from
decade to decade. In the decades ending the last century, it was
about 65 ~~ whereas in the last decade ending 1940-41, it was 38%.
In 1938-39 a permanent reduction of about 23 . 2 percent in the land
revenue was sanctioned by His Highness on his accession to the
throne in 1939. The total revenue of the State in the y ar 1944-45
stood at Rs. 434,26 lakhs. In recent years, there has been appre·
<.:idble rise in revenue due partly to war conditions. The main
sources of revenue are land revenue (Rs. 102,64 lakhs), customs
(Rs. 20.28 lakhs), excise (Rs. 74.27 lakhs) , railways (Rs. 23.20 lakhs),
and taxes (Rs. 103.42 lakhs).
The total expenditure of the State came to Rs. 373.78 lakhs in
1944-45. Of this, Rs. 42 .30 lakhs was on Education, Rs. 10.17 lakhs
on Agriculture, Rs. 0 .77 lakh on Co-operation, Rs. 12.16 lakhs · on
Medical and Rs. 1.37 lakhs on S::lnitation. Thus about 1'1 . 86'; ;'
amounting to about Rs. 66.77 lakhs goes directly fOT rural uplift ,
apart from expenditure through other departments, of which a large
part is spent for the masses in general. It may be pointed out here
that expenditure on nation-building activities has risen by leaps
and bounds. The greatest increase has been in the expenditur on
Eutfcation which rose from Rs. 1.64 lakhs in 1881 to Rs. 42 lakhs
in 1944-45. New departments like those of Sanitation, Agriculture,
Cottage Industries, Co-operation have been opened. This indicates
th~ liberal and enlightened policy of the State wh\Ch puts greater
emphasis on all-round development specially of the rural masses.
I.and Revemle E(]1wlisaJioll Fund
With a view to remove the effects of bad years due to failure of
crops, a land-revenue equalisation fund has been created. Land-
revenue forms an important source of income to the State and
seasonal vicissitudes have their repercussions on the State revenue.
The Land·Revenue Equalisation Fund is a reserve from which
deficits can be made up and consequently remissions granted without
affecting the normal budget of the State . . Under the scheme, incom
from Land·revenue is stabilised at Rs. 95 lakhs, receipts above which
are.. taken to the Fund. To start with, the Fund was credited with
114 RURAL BARODA

Rs. 50 lakhs from the savings of the State. The Fund now stands
Rs. 90.18 lakhs. Fluctuations in land revenue do not now affect the
working of the departments.
Apart from the regular departmental agencies for the welfare of
the people, there are others sponsored by the Ruler and the people.
The following may be considered under this had:
Diamond Jubilee PeopLe's Fund: This was a fund collected by
the people at the time of the Diamond Jubilee of His Late Highness
Sayaji.rao. The total fund amounts to Rs. 7.09 lakhs and yields an
income of about Rs. 25,00 a year. The income is utilised for award-
ing scholarships to bona fide agriculturists for obtaining practical
instruction in agriculture, horticulture and subsid~ry occupations
like poultry-keeping, spinning, weav\ng, tailoring. tanning, paper
making etc.
Diamond Jubilee Trust Fund : The main object of the Diamond
Jubilee Commemoration Fund, which represents the interest on
rupeen one crore endowed by His Highness the late Maharaja Sayaji-
rao III. is to assist in the improvement of village life in all its
aspects-economic, social and cultural. In carrying out the object,
special preference is given (1) to poorer areas in which development
has not kept pace w~th the rest of the State, and (ii) to the needs
of backward communities like the Adivasis, the Harijans, the
Thakardes, the Kolis, th e Rabaris and the like. The income from
this fund is about Rs. 3.50 lakhs a year.
Shree Sayajirao III Men101'ial Fund : To perpetuate the memory
of His Highness the Late Maharaja Sir Sayajirao, a sum of rupees
one crore was endowed by His Highness the Maharaja Pratapsinh
Gaekwar on the occasion of his accession to the throne. The fund
is intended to finance schemes benefitting. all the sections of the
people without any distinct\on of caste or creed. The income of this
fund is Rs. 3.50 lakhs per year.
Development Boards ; The State Economic Board and the Indus-
tries Board are constituted for advising the Government on mea-
sures to be taken for the economic development of the State. The
Economic Board consists of a Naib Dewan who is the President, heads
of the Revenue, Public Works, Railways and Police Department and
members representing trades. industry and agriculture. The Board
is charged with the following functions ;-
(1) to advise the Government on all questions relating tG the
economic development of the State.
(2) to co-ordinate the activities of the District Economic Boards
and advise the Government on schemes submitted by them.
 RURAL BARODA 115

(3) to assist the development departments in w rking out im-

portant schemes and in making intensive studies of import-
ant questions.
(4) to undertake surveys of trade centres of production exist-
ing market routes and conditions of marketing agricultural
and other products of various localities.
(5) to advise the Government on all question relating to pro-
gramme of road construction, new railway projects, tele-
phone installations etc. and
(6) to consider the question of providing markets at suitable
centres for the disposal of agricultural and other products
and for distributing trade.
Besides this central board, there is in each district an economic
board constituted on lines similar to the central board. These boards
are doing very useful work.
To provide technical information regarding the possibilities of
starting industries in the State, and to assist industrialists with
advice on technical matters, the Government have created an Indus-
tries Board. It consists of four sections- mechanical, agricultural,
chemical and general. Government officers and nominees from the
pl!ople are appointed to these sections.
Rural studies by Government : To get first hand infttrmation,
Government appointed from to time many committees to go into the
questions affecting rural life. Early in the century, His Highness
realised the gravity of the suituation arising out of the increasing
burden of debts on the agriculturists. He appointed Mr. (Now Sir)
Manilal B. Nanavati to go into the question of rural indebtedness in
the State who made an exhaustive enqu\ry into this problem and
produced a masterly report, which even today, after the lapse of
30 years is a guide to those who want to solve this problem. The
next most important Committee to be appointed was the Baroda
Economic Development Committee in 1917, with Sir M. B. Nanavati
as its Secretary. This Comittee surveyed the economic conditions
in the State and produced a valuable and scholarly report, with re-
commendations, most of which have been adopted by- the Govern-
ment. This report was published in 1920. Meanwhile, the problem
of fragmentation as we have seen before was becoming more and
more serious. The Governmen t appointed two Committees, the first
in 1919 and the other in 1922. We have already dealt with the re-
commendations of these committees and the action taken.
The question of starting land mortgage banks was hefore the
Government from 1916 onwards. In 1916, Sir M. B. Nanavati as Direc-
116 RURAL BARODA

tor of Commerce and Registrar of Co-operative Societies submitted

detailed suggestions for the establishment of an independent bank de-
signed mainly for granting long term credit facilities. Nothing was
done then but later, the Government revived the whole question in
1924, and a Committee was appointed to report. on this question.
The Committee recommended the establishment of a separate
agency for granting long term loans for liquidations of past debts and
the improvement of land. On the recommendations of the Com-
mittee, the first Land Mortgage Bank was started in 1930 with spe-
cialised machinery for investigation of title to lands and their valua-
tion and securing long term funds by the floatation of debentures.
Another important study of a question vitally affecting agricul-
ture i,n particular and rural life in general, that of cattle breeding and
fodder supply, was undertaken about the same time in 1924-25 by
another committee also presided over by Sir Manilal B. Nanavati.
The committee's report is a valuable contribution on this aspect of
rural life and much of the data unearthed by this committee and
mnny of its recommendations are of great usefulness even today .
After this committee the most ~mportant study of the rural pro-
blem undertaken by the Government was the Social economic sur-
vey of five viUages-Simodra, Shekhdi. Nana Bhavde, Padarsinga
and Tawadia, by the Development Board under the direction of Dr.
J. M. ME!J,ta. These WC1'e th e most exhaustive surveys carried out
by the Government.
The great depression once again brought the problem of rural
reconstruction to the forefront. The report of the Royal Commis·
sion of Agriculture in India further stimulated interest in the study
of rural economy. This resulted in an intensive survey of the village
of Rasulabad, embodying economic and social conditions prevailing
in the village, and a study on occupied and unoccupied time of the
cultivators. These studies were followed by investigations into the
conditions of weavers in Amreli and Baroda.
Though not directly concerning itself with the problem of rural
Hie, the Baroda Banking Enquiry Committee made a detailed and
exhaustive study of the problem of agricultural finance, and made
certain recommendations for improving the methods of the money-
lenders, organisation of the co-operative societies and marketing of
rural products.
Besides all these, a wealth of material useful to any student of
rural affairs, lies in the successive Census Reports of the state.
Baroda has been unusually lucky in its choice of census commission-
ers, especially the last two-the late Rao Bahadur Govindbhai H.
 RURAL BAROE>A 11'7

Desai (1911) and Mr. S. V. Mukerjea (1921-1931-1941). They'Und r·

took many special inquiries, besides the subjects laid down by the
Government of India and earned very high praise not onl from th
All India Census Commissioner but from a number of International
bodies in Europe and America. They provide scientifically colJectcd
and classified information and statistics on all important aspects of
rural life and its evolution from decade to decade.

CHAPTER XIII.

CONCLUSION

The foregoing chapters show what attempts have been mad by

the State to raise the general standard of living of th rural ma s s.
Along with measures for an all round improvement of agricultur ,
which is the main occupation and also the means of subsistenc to
the masses, steps I}ave been taken to provide faciliU s for sub idiary
industries. Further. the very liberal education policy of the Stat
and the intn'duclion of social legislation in which Baroda is far ad-
vanced, have gone a long way to awaken in the people a will to live
better.
I
Rural economy has but two aims, viz., (i) development of the
resgurces and (ii) improvement of the standard of life of the p opl. .
As ,matters st~nd. the initiative for bot h thes has to be largely taken
by the Government. Not only capital, implements, seeds and manures
are to be provided for better farming, btlt the masses are to be tpught
the ways 'of utilizing them to the best advantage. The probJem is
vast and it is Emly through decades of sustained effort that results
ean be expected.
Without non-official co-operation, government howsoever em·
dent it may b , can do little. Till very recently, the people of th
state as elsewhere looked to government even for their minor re-
quirements. But now there is a distinct change noticeable in their
outlook, showing that they have to certain extent realised the value
of self-help. There are now 31 taluka and village deveJopm nt asso-
ciations over and above several multi·purpose societies. More ani:!
more people are coming forward for voluntary work on an honor~ry
basis for village uplift activities. People are also trying to meet
their local requirements by providing manual labour, over and above
that which has to be supplied under compulsion, as imposed by the
village panchayats. The value and the number of works, don as a
result of such manual labour voluntarily offered by the inhabitants,
118 RURAL BARODA

ISIncreasing every year. Contributions from private individuals and

non-official agencies as well as for schools. colleges, hospitals and
maternity homes, are also on the increase. These contributions
though not very large point to an awakening of public conscience.
The war has affected the state in the same manner as the rest
of India. We are all now familiar with the idea of a government
controlled economy, rural and urban. The 'grow more food' cam-
paign, the compulsory cultivation of food crops on a prescribed
minimum area, the shifting of emphasis from the commercial to non-
commercial crops, with a view to attaining self-sufficiency, are but
few of them destined to shape the future economic structure of the
country. For the post war period ambitious schemes of rural uplift
are being framed by the State. These include plans for rural elec-
trification, an improved system of communications with more and
better roads and the installation of radio stations. In all these mat-
ters the state has to co-ordinate its efforts with those in the rest of
India, especially those in the Bombay Province with which the terri-
tories of the State are interlaced.
In the last analysis, the prosperity of a state is to be measured by
the pro~perity of its average citizen. With a predominantly rural
populatlon, the results of Baroda's successful effort for more than
half a century, can be seen in the healthier, more enlightened and
better equipped village cultivator of today. The policy of ·intensive
rural uplift initiated by that brilliant King-Statesman the late Maha-
raja Sayajirao is being followed by the present administration. since
his death ten years ago. ...

It has. however, to be remembered that · Maharaja Sayajirao

started this effort under a very great handicap. His territories were
not in one compact block, with easy communication and homoge-
nious conditions, but scattered j,n small and big fragments over the
whole of Gujarat and a greater part of Kathiawar, making it difficult,
almost impossible for anyone policy or programme to be formulated
for the state as a whole, except in the most general terms. Apart
from this, he inherited ugly traditions and a rotten administrative
machinery, which he could only very gradually replace. He, how-
ever, started with a great determination. He had to face both a
general inertia of the people and in many cases active opposition
from orthodox or vested interests. He naturally met with several
setbacks-famines. epidemics etc.-bu t he was a real pioneer and he
persisted, opening new ground as he went along. No aspect of life
was le!~ unt.ouched and one cannot fail to se~ his mark in every
 RURAL BARODA 11

activity that one witnesses in Baroda today. He has gone but his
work is still unfinished.
However, the problems have been w 11 studied and both the
state and the people know what they want. There is a policy and a
programme, as we have seen in the foregoin g pages. We are now
at a stage when perhaps, three things are needed to make them both
work and to show results to suit the quickened tempo of the times.
In the first place, there should be a continuous study of the new pro-
blems that are bound to arise, with a view to bring about a r adjust-
ment of the policy from time to time to meet the new situation. An
efficient administrative machinery is equally necessary to grapple
with these problems. But even more important than either of these
two, is to have at intermediate and lower stages, popular organisa-
tions, wi,th enlightened leadership that will co-operate with the gOY-
ernment and its officials and carry out the policies, once they have
been adopted with due care and deliberation.

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 NIVERSITY OF AGRI ULTURAL
SCIENCES
t.;;'I;l\ ER In' LIBRARV
8 t\NGALORE-24
Thi~
boo " should be returned Oil or bdore
Ihe dale mention..:d below; or else the
Bllrrower- will be liable t~) r overdue char-gel'
or 5 P. rcr da y from the DUE OA TE.
n No. _. Ac . ~(' ~
30Ti)
'1\ ~.
 If...:;) {

"TEN YEARS OF RUR\4~,...._

.'."- \
~

._/'

REHABILIT A TION '?~:fu

IN THE UNITED Sl"A TES "
SUMMARY OF A REPORT EDITED

BY
OLAF F. LARSON
Bureau 0/ A.gricultural Economia, Department
oj A.griculture, U.S.A.

LN SOCIETY OF AGRICULTUl'lAL ECONOMICS

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Mahatma Gandhi Road. Fort,
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PRICE Rs. 5/-
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III/IBIBIImfilBllU
887