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order to supplement their earnings; and the remaining
nineteen have been engaged by a few landowners of the
village as Halis or permanent labourers. Thus only those
who migrate in the off season and return in the monsoon
serve as the fluctuating labour supply. All others are
occupied either with work on their own fields or on their
masters' in the season, when there is a great demand for
labour from the general class of landlords.
The above discussion does not exhaust the whole story,
because, as we have said above, the labour problem of
the village, like that of South Gujarat, is twofold due to
the existence of what is known as 'Hali system.'
THE HALI SYSTEM
The word 'Hali' literally means 'one who handles the
plough or Hal/ The system by which a labourer is en-
gaged by others for performing field operations is called
the Hali system. In actual practice the system works
thus. A poor member of the Dubla community and, for
the matter of that, of the whole Kaliparaj of whom Dub-
las are only one sect, on coming of age, approaches one
of the big landlords of his village, or of some neighbouring
village, for a loan to finance his marriage. In return for
the loan, as he has little landed property to offer as secu-
rity, he gives a verbal promise to serve the creditor till his
debt is repaid. This promise is usually renewed
every year. In the majority of cases the labourer is
never able to repay the loan all his life, for the
simple reason that even if he works for all the days of a
year, he cannot repay the full amount, as he has to bor-
row corn from his master every now and then to maintain
himself and his wife and children. The natural result
is, that, in fulfilment of his promise, he has to serve the
master for his whole lifetime.
Having thus studied the general nature of the labour
problem of this village, we shall now pass on to an exami-
nation of some of its important aspects.