IMPROVEMENT UNDER BRITISH RULE 93 wretched state; while a few hold that things are practically where they were before the change of government took place. But it is evidently absurd to suppose that a well-meaning, just, and equitable Government, which has succeeded one that was arbitrary, oppressive, and tyrannical, has produced no amelioration in the condition of the people, whatever peculiarities of character and disposition the latter may possess, and however great an obstacle their institutions may be to the philanthropic endeavours of the new regime to make their lives more bearable, if not actually happier. This common-sense view of the case is borne out by my own observations. To me it seems undeniable that the condition of the people has improved in many important directions at least, and I have found that the most sensible natives themselves admit it. I do not mean to imply that the lowest classes in the land are better off, for in some provinces close observation will reveal an increase of misery: but where that is the case,
I attribute it to causes beyond the power of any Government to prevent or put an end to; and further, I think that, given the same causes, the misery would have been more acute under the old regime.
Of these causes the chief one is the rapid increase of the population. Judging by my own personal knowledge of the poorer Christian populations in Mysore and in the
districts of Baramahl and Coimbatore, I should say that they have increased by twenty-five per cent, in the last twenty-five years. During this period Southern India has been free from the wars and other decimating calamities which had been dealing havoc almost uninterruptedly for
centuries before.
Some modern political economists have held that a progressive increase in the population is one of the most unequivocal signs of a country ' s prosperity and wealth. In Europe this argument may be logical enough, but I do not think that it can be applied to India; in fact, I am
persuaded that as the population increases, so in proportion do want and misery. For this theory of the economists to hold good in all respects the resources and industries of the inhabitants ought to develop equally rapidly; but in a country where the inhabitants are notoriously apathetic