photo credit: JPD Photos

AN EXPERIMENT IN INDIA

The much travelled and well known author, Karl Eskelund, whose many books on foreign countries and their people have countless readers, describes the effort which a band of young American and English Quakers made in the way of assisting some of the Indian population, millions of whom live at starvation level.

The young idealists took up their task in 1946 at the village district of Pifa, which lies in the Ganges delta, 45 miles east of Calcutta and four miles by bus from Basirhat railway station. They were fully aware that their work would test their patience, for in India you can get no results “at five minutes past twelve.” But after having outlined their plans to the peasants, the fishermen and the landowners, which met with general approval, they organised a co-operative enterprise in cultivating the land and in marketing the produce. They set up day schools for the children, evening schools for adults, clinics, etc.

After overcoming the initial difficulties, they saw signs of progress; inspiration grew. Health conditions improved. All took greater interest in their work and their earnings increased. New ideas took shape – there was advance along the whole line – an advance, slow but sure.

Five years after the experiment began Karl Eskelund visited Pifa and with one of the Quakers as his guide, he went through the village to see how it was faring. The Quaker had lost more than two stones in weight and was as thin and spare as the natives. But what was worse, he had lost heart because the experiment had proved a total failure. The day school still existed, but only one-fourth of the children attended it. The evening school was closed.

The clinic was hardly used. Agriculture, fishing and trade were back again to old methods. The author asked for an explanation of this fiasco. The young Quaker offered quite a number of reasons, none of which he could accept.

Finally he got to the root of the matter. This is what he says:- “In the first year after beginning the experiment, both peasants and fishermen earned more than ever before. What was the result?”

“The large landowners at once raised their rents and the smaller landowners followed suit. The peasants had to pay more for permission to cultivate the land. The fishermen had to find more money to buy permission to cast their nets on the flooded fields. In that way practically the whole of the increased earnings passed into landowners’ pockets.”
Read More