Page:Indian Journal of Economics Volume 2.djvu/547

 A GiIOUL TUI{AL HOLDINGS at the agricultural problem from any specific point of view without taking into consideration at the same time the other factors relating sufficient that attention should be and distribution of holdings alone. to it. It i not devoted to the size It is also neees- sary, when we are considering these as hindrances to agricultural prdgress, to find out what other factors or causes are responsible for preventing the ryot from using his land to the best advantage of himself, his family nd survey of. he the state. conditions in Such a comprehensive a number of villages seems to me absolutely called for, before the present admittedly back-sliding position of the agricultural population can be effectively explained. The present position is that the average area of the land enjoyed is less than 5 seres, and at the bottom of the agri- cultural class of the population it is much smaller. Without entering into a discussion of the relative merits of large and small farming it may at once be said that such a holding is hardly sufiieient for maintaining a family, and yet the danger with which we are threatened an average holding is that even this is likely to be present size o! diminished under the various forces which are tending towards a constant diminution of the size of holdings in India. Of these forces that are responsible for this process of. sub- division, the increase in the population, the Hindu law of equal inheritance, the Mahomedan system o! inheritance which favors wide distribution of. property, the esteem in which the occupation of agriculture is held by the people, the absence of ottrer occupations, and the joint family system with its defective social economy, play a prominent part. consolation if only a sub-division It would be some of holdings took place and the holdings so sub-divided were constituted in compact farm. As a mater of. fact, however,