Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 696

NO STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS
658
he most useful helps to a judge, might he gathered from these
works but, as usual, they are immersed in a farrago of non-
For instance, one may find
sense, religious and otherwise.
there numbers of decisions in hypothetical cases that are
;
either perfectly ridiculous or morally impossible, and also
numbers of idiotic theses propounded ex cathedra. Further-
more, whatever valuable information may be found here
and there in these books is quite beyond the comprehen-
sion of the majority of Hindus, who do not in the least
understand the learned terms in which they abound.
The Hindus, it may be remarked, recognize no prescriptive
rights.
A person in actual possession of any property, who
happens to have no legal and authentic document stating
that
it
belongs to him,
judicially
is
liable to
be proceeded against
of a soi-disant
and evicted by the representatives
legitimate proprietor, even though the actual possessor could
prove that he and his ancestors had enjoyed the property
without question and in good faith for a century or more.
The same principle holds in the case of debts. It is not at all
an uncommon thing for creditors to sue the great-grandson of
the original debtor for a debt contracted more than a hundred
years before, and to force him to pay it even though he
himself might be totally unaware of its existence.
Usury is a recognized institution everywhere and there
is no limit to the rate of interest.
In the parts of the country
where I lived the lowest rate was twelve per cent., and that
they call the dharma-vaddi or fair interest, a rate that would
not shock the most sensitive conscience l
Indeed to lend money at that interest is considered a
meritorious action.
Eighteen to twenty-five per cent, is
the usual rate, and money-lenders have been known to
exact the extortionate rate of fifty and even a hundred per
cent.
Happily the cupidity of these money-lenders often
ends in their over-reaching themselves, for only people who
are ruined and absolutely penniless will consent to pay such
interest, and consequently the greedy creditor runs the risk
;
.
both interest and capital. Borrowers of this class
do not, as a rule, offer any security which the creditor can
of losing
1
There has been no improvement in this direction since the days of
the Abbe, and various proposals have been made to legislate in the
matter.
Ed.