CHAPTER XIL
rt THE COUNTRY COLONY "—" WASTEWARD HO ! "
As has been already explained in the first part of thia book, the congested state of the labor market in the agricultural districts is leading to an enormous and increasing immigration of the country population towards the towns, not as a matter of preference, or of choice, but of dire necessity. The object of the Country Colony, as applied to India, will be twofold :
1. It will seek to divert into more profitable channels the steadily increasing torreat of immigration from the villages to the towns.
2. It will re-direct and re-distribute the masses of the Submerged Tenth who already exist in every large city,
Like his English representative, the Indian village bump* kin has a natural aversion to town life. Peculiarities in hia dialect, dress, and manners make him the laughing-stock of the clever Cockney townsman. His simplicity and ignorance of the world cause him to be easily victimised by the city sharper, for whom he is no match in the struggle of life. He sighs for his green fields, and longs to get away from the bustle that everywhere surrounds and bewilders Mm. He surrenders these preferences only, because starva-* tion is staring him in the face, and he has better chances of working, begging, or stealing in the city than in his village.
And yet within a few miles of his birthplace there are frequently tracts of waste land amply sufficient to support him and thousands more. He could reduce it to cultivation if he had the chance. He would infinitely prefer eking out the scantiest existence in this manner to flinging him-