Page:Bulandshahr- Or, Sketches of an Indian District- Social, Historical and Architectural.djvu/49

 the ordinary estimate for works of such magnitude, having been reduced by a system of immediate supervision, with no contractors and middle men, and no large establishment for the elaboration of accounts and returns. But the great secret lies in the persistent adoption of the principle, that no public improvement should be undertaken unless voluntary subscriptions are forthcoming as well as State aid. In order for this system to succeed, it is necessary to be in sympathetic accord with the people, and not to force upon them anything opposed to their prejudices, or greatly in advance of their real requirements. Though themselves illiterate and indifferent to the laws of hygiene, they are quite sensible of the value of education for their children and of the advantages to be derived from bridged and avenued roads, convenient tanks and ghats for bathing purposes, good wells, clean paved streets, commodious market-places, and substantial water-tight houses. In all such works as these, the majority of the people concerned are always ready to co-operate, and even the obstructive minority will in the end be gratified by the result. Instead of the impracticable dream of purely native self-government, if only a modest scheme of decentralization were introduced, every District Committee, without the worry and delay of repeated references for sanction to higher authority, would have certain limited funds of its own to lay out in the furtherance of local projects and the encouragement of native enterprise. The result would be a great and immediate saving in State expenditure, and the eventual development of a public spirit, which would be a real qualification for higher political responsibilities.