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but they also use physical force in recovering their money.
We believe that they are a great menace to the people
in the surrounding area and should be checked in their
rapacity, by legislation.
(3) The purpose or use of loans.
The purposes for which the debt has been incurred
could not be determined because of three reasons : (i) the
Kaliparaj borrow petty loans from one and the same sow-
kar frequently during the year for different purposes ; (ii)
they also borrow from several sowkars, one after another,
during the same year ; and (iii) in several cases debts run
over more than five years. Under the circumstances, a
detailed inquiry into the nature of each transaction of debt
was impossible. We have, however, studied this aspect
in the next section, so far as the loans advanced by the
Society are concerned.
SECTION III.
THE CO-OPERATIVE CREDIT SOCIETY
OF THE VILLAGE
We are happy to find that in this village the task of re-
construction has already been begun, of course, in a
small measure, by the Co-operative Credit Society. • In
order to gauge properly the extent to which it has con-
tributed to the economic reconstruction of the village,
we must glance at the economic history of the area prior
to its introduction, as well as during the period it has been
in existence. The history of the village prior to its intro-
duction divides itself into two parts : that referring to the
period prior to 1914 and that referring to the period 1914
to 1917.
The economic history of the village,
In our investigations on this subject, we have been
able to gather the following impressions about the condi-
tion of the village before 1914 and from 1914 to 1917.
The main points show how the dominating position of the