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 202 THE KA1EA QUESTION

Gujarat Sabha oarried on investigations, as also Messrs, Decdbar, Joahi and Thakkar of the Servants of India Society. Their investigation was necessarily preliminary and brief and therefore confined to a few villages only, But the result of their enquiry went to show thab the crops in the majority of oases was under four annas. As their investigation, nob being extensive enough, was cap- able of being challenged, and it was challenged, I under- book a full inquiry with the assistance of over 20 capable, experienced, and impartial men of influence and status. J personally visited over 50 villages and met as many men in the villages as I could, inspected in these villages mosfe of the fields belonging to them and after a searching cross- examination of the villagers, came to the conclusion tab at their crops were under four annas. 1 found that among the men who surrounded me, there were present those who were ready Bo check [exaggerates and wild State- ments. Men knew what was at stake if they departed from the truth, As lo the ' Rabi ' crops and the still standing ' Kharif ' crops, I was able by the evidence ol my own eyes to check the statements of the agriculturists. The methods adopted by my co-workers were exactly thfr same. In this manner nearly four hundred villagers were examined, and with but a few exceptions, crops were found to be under four annas, and only in three oases they were found to be over six annas. The method adop- ted by us was, so far as the ' Kharif ' crops were oon corned, to ascertain the actual yield of the whole of the crops of individual villages and the possible yield of the same village in a normal year. Assuming the truth of the statements made by them, this is admittedly an absolute test, and any other method that would bring about the same result must be rejected as untrue and!

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