Page:Indian Journal of Economics Volume 2.djvu/561

 ECONOMIC P.ROBLEM$ O.F INDIA food. What to contribute and What much have we in our Arts Colleges to offer, to this fundamental problem of health strength, and of the poverty have we to offer to these of of the villager ? men .up. on whom our economic superstructure is built ? Are they to have no more human interest for us than that "economic man" of. the class roomy Are we s. imply to remain with our students in the class room and weave theories about their l/lace in the economic life of. the country? .- Within our college towns themselves do we mean anything to the workers at our doors? What do we do, through our students, for the chawls of the cotton mills where plague walks triumphantly so often ? What do we do for the gwalas, the chamars, carpenters and masons, for who live too often in filth the and squalor, content to spend their money on feasting or drink? We live surrounded by the City. Are we of it, or apart from it? Do we contribute directly or indirectly not in a mere amiable philanthropic way, or in spasmodic bursts of zeal for social service, but as serious students ot problems which have their roots in the common places of. common men's daily work ? I admit that it is not possible for students when undergraduates to contribute a great deal towards the solution of, these and kindred problems. My students tell me that people in gwalatolia--the slum district opposite our College--resent their presence amongst them. They cannot do great things. But should we calmly accept what too often is the student's position: it it is not great, it is not worth doing ? It is not possible to go into the villages to conduct demonstration farms; nor to introduce new methods of. training to the chamars. It is, however, possible to conduct anti-malaria demonstrations in the villages; to organize consumer's leagues amongst the factory workers; and to provide