Facets of India's Economy and Her

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 Facets of India’s Economy and Her Society
Volume II

‘Professor Raghbendra Jha is the right scholar and economist to take readers through the
development of the Indian economy. Readers will be in good hands.’
—Edmund Phelps, Columbia University, USA,
winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Economics

‘This two-volume study on India’s economy and society by Professor Raghbendra Jha
skilfully combines high quality analytical scholarship, and nuanced exposition of empiri-
cal evidence to bear on India’s development policies and challenges. As linking of econ-
omy and society is increasingly recognised as essential for addressing policy challenges
by the current phase of globalisation, this study should be valuable not just for those
studying India, but also for those interested in global developments.’
—Mukul Asher, National University of Singapore, Singapore

‘Over the years, I have benefited from reading the works of Professor Raghbendra Jha,
and from teaching from them. I enthusiastically recommend these two volumes to you.’
—Raaj Kumar Sah, University of Chicago, USA

‘It is perhaps the best and most scholarly contribution to understanding the Indian econ-
omy and society. Its rich historical perspective and a profound understanding of how India
has evolved into a major economic power set standards of scholarship and analytical rigour
that will be hard to surpass.’
—Raghav Gaiha, University of Manchester, UK

‘India is critical for the world. Knowing India is vital. This book is a tour-de-force review
of the fundamental topics on the Indian political economy and society that are relevant
for any committed social scientist to be aware of. Raghbendra Jha is one of the lead-
ing contemporary India scholars globally, and he has conscientiously put together the
materials in a careful and structured way that will find substantial and immediate user
acceptance worldwide.’
—Sumit K. Majumdar, University of Texas at Dallas, USA
 Raghbendra Jha

Facets of India’s
Economy and Her
Society Volume II
Current State and Future Prospects
Raghbendra Jha
Arndt-Corden Department of Economics
Australian National University
Acton, Australia

ISBN 978-1-349-95341-7    ISBN 978-1-349-95342-4 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95342-4

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To Mother India and Mataji with love
 Preface

These two volumes cover aspects of Indian economy and society. They
take a long view of both and try to position them on a broad cultural and
historical canvas. These are the most important characteristics that distin-
guish this work from the vast amount of literature that exists on India.
India has a continuing cultural history spanning about 7000 years.
The whole country shares some key beliefs and practices that have sur-
vived internal challenges and encounters with hostile external civiliza-
tions over several millennia. In the process, a composite culture has also
grown, testifying to India’s ability to absorb and assimilate external ideas
and practices in a largely peaceful manner, even when those ideas and
practices are imposed in aggressive fashion.
Even since attaining Independence on August 15, 1947, and declaring
itself a democratic republic on January 26, 1950, India has faced a mul-
titude of problems of a scale and intensity that would test the most
mature of societies. These challenges included intense mass poverty and
hunger; poor literacy and lack of education in the population; the task of
uniting a country with scores of languages and ethnicities ruled by differ-
ent entities for decades; and the persistent threat of external aggression,
to name just a few. At a deeper level, India has had to regain its self-­
confidence and rediscover its ancient cultural moorings in order to define
the kind of nation it wants to be in the future. Unlike India’s large and

vii
viii Preface

powerful neighbor to the north, the country chooses to address its chal-
lenges within a pluralistic democratic framework.
The present work is an attempt to give an account of how India has
been meeting these challenges and how things are expected to evolve in
the future. This is a hopelessly difficult task to accomplish in its entirety
within the confines of two volumes; therefore, I concentrate on key
aspects of India’s economy and society, hence the title of the book. These
volumes constitute a narrative—my narrative—on India’s economic and
social development, and do not profess to be complete or exhaustive.
They are meant to introduce the reader to the vast amount of literature
on this subject. That said, these volumes are written on a simple level,
which students (both graduate and undergraduate) of social sciences and
also the general reader can use to learn about India.
The selection of topics has been made with this in mind. This work has
been divided into two volumes. Volume I is entitled Facets of India’s
Economy and Her Society: Recent Economic and Social History and Political
Economy. Part I, of volume I is entitled “India’s Economy in Historical
and Spatial Perspective.” This presents a long view of the performance of
the Indian economy, and then discusses key aspects of India’s population,
land and labor. It then discusses human development in India. The
impact of Muslim rule is considered, after which the state of the Indian
economy under British rule is discussed. The shape of the Indian econ-
omy and society were deeply affected by India’s struggle for freedom, so
one chapter is devoted to providing an account of India’s struggle for
freedom.
Part II, called “Basic Structure of India’s Governance” contains two
chapters dealing with India’s political economy. The first deals with the
Indian Constitution and basic structure of governance whereas the sec-
ond provides a brief overview of major economic and political develop-
ments in independent India.
Volume II, entitled Facets of India’s Economy and Her Society: Current
State and Future Prospects, has three parts. Part I, “Principal Sectors of the
Indian Economy,” contains three chapters. These discuss, seriatim, the
performance and prospects for India’s agriculture, manufacturing and
services sectors.
 Preface
   ix

Part II, “Emerging Issues in India’s Economy,” consists of four chap-

ters. The first discusses India’s links with the external world through
international trade, investment, migration and remittances. Since the
onset of major economic reforms in 1991, regional inequality across
Indian states has gone up. Hence, the following chapter discusses the
evolution of regional inequality in India and the role of indirect tax
reform and vertical fiscal transfers. A discussion of the newly instituted
goods and services tax is also included. The next chapter discusses India’s
performance in education and health services and suggests some policy
initiatives in these areas. The last chapter in Part II overviews the state of
the environment in the country.
Part III, “Some Aspects of India’s Society and Prospects for the Future,”
comprises three chapters. The first of these discusses gender issues. The
second chapter considers intercommunity relations and the last chapter
looks ahead at future prospects for India.
When writing about the economy and society of a country as complex
as India, it is important to remember that it represents a continuing
ancient culture, that is, Hindu civilization. Indeed, this is the dominant
reason for India’s cultural unity, even during those times when the coun-
try did not constitute one sovereign geographical entity and faced con-
tinuous assault from hostile invaders and settlers. This cultural continuity
has had deep influences on, among others, social relations, laws, attitudes
toward science, progress, policy and people’s response to economic incen-
tives. Hence, this volume will often allude to cultural issues and Hindu
scriptures. To accomplish this, I have studied and attempted to absorb
much of the major Hindu scriptures and dwelled on them. I have also
studied Shri Guru Granth Sahib—the holy book of the Sikhs. In this
process, I was surprised to learn that much of what has been advanced as
religious practice is actually gross aberration. It is my conviction that
overlooking the true tenets of India’s civilization and concentrating on
the aberrations, as some treatises on the economics and politics of India
have done, do not help our understanding of developments in the coun-
try. We cannot discuss a country with an ancient culture that is even now
at the core of the country’s civilization by ignoring this culture.
Thus, when writing a work such as this, it helps if the author can have
a broad perspective and an understanding of the history and traditions of
x Preface

the country. This is what my former professor at Columbia University,

Ronald Findlay, told me when he was visiting my department in the
Australian National University in 2012. He had confidence that I had
these two characteristics and thus encouraged me to write such a book. I
would argue that my early education in India, and later teaching experi-
ence in various leading economics educational institutions (Delhi School
of Economics, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore and Indira
Gandhi Institute of Development Research) in India, and working on
topics related to the Indian economy have always kept me linked to my
roots. At the same time, my long experience in teaching in the USA
(Columbia University and Williams College), Canada (Queen’s
University), Australia (Australian National University) and the UK
(University of Warwick) have, I hope, provided me with the distance and
the perspective needed to view issues in India objectively.
Having completed these volumes, I now realize that I could not have
done so without a lifetime of reading and introspection and meaningful
dialogue with people who have wide experience and expertise. As a result,
I have run up a long list of debts. First and foremost, I should like to
thank my dear wife, Alka, who has long been an excellent sounding board
for my ideas and has contributed much to the substance and the argu-
ments made in this volume. Her contributions to this book and to our
life together have been truly immeasurable and I cannot express my
thanks enough. Suffice it to say that she and our dear son, Abhay, have
made the task of writing this book an absolute delight. I should also like
to thank my many friends, current and former students, and collabora-
tors who have influenced my thinking on the issues discussed in this
book and helped in other ways. I shall mention only a few of them here.
These friends include Sures Jain, K.V. Bhanu Murthy, Anurag Sharma,
Ashima Goyal, Gerald Epstein, L. Sridharan, Tulsi Tawari, Raghav Gaiha,
Hari Nagarajan, Duc Nguyen Truong, Nguyen Hieu, Hai Anh La, Tu
Dang, (the late) D.P. Chaudhuri, and (the late) Ashok Seth. The com-
ments of anonymous referees were helpful. The stimulating and support-
ive working conditions at Arndt-Corden Department of Economics,
Australian National University, have been invaluable in helping me to
design and complete this work.
 Preface
   xi

I should like to take this opportunity to thank and honor Edmund

S. Phelps, my PhD supervisor at Columbia University. Prof. Phelps, a
Nobel Laureate and arguably one of the most imaginative economists of
our times, taught me to appreciate that at a deep level economics is about
human beings. Hence, our analysis must embody not only scientific pre-
cision but also a strong concern for the people to whom this analysis is
addressed.
This is the fourth time I have published with Palgrave Macmillan and,
as in the past, it has been a pleasure to work with them. Laura Pacey,
economics editor, has been very helpful with her time and advice from
the initial inception of this work. Clara Heathcock and other staff at
Palgrave have been most generous in addressing all issues and responding
to all queries.
This work has covered considerable ground, from history to politics to
culture, arts, societal affairs and, most prominently, economics. Perhaps
proper justice has not been done to all of these areas, but I would argue
that adequate justice for so many topics is probably impossible to deliver
in one book. Nevertheless, I have tried to build up a cogent argument
linking all of them, but shortcomings will remain. To quote the legendary
nineteenth-century Urdu poet, Ghalib Mirza Asadullah Khan:

Hazaaron khwahishen aisi ke har khwahish pe dam nikle

Bohat niklay mere armaan, lekin phir bhi kam nikle.
[Thousands of desires, each worth dying for
many of them I have realized yet I yearn for more.]

I hope readers find these volumes stimulating reading.

Acton, Australia Raghbendra Jha

November 2017
 Contents

Part I Principal Sectors of the Indian Economy    1

1 Introduction and the State of Indian Agriculture   3

1.1 Introduction to Volume II   3
1.2 Phases of Growth in Indian Agriculture   4
1.3 Two Basic Problems in Indian Agriculture   8
Low Yield of Land   8
Continuing Preponderance of Subsistence Farming   14
1.4 Addressing Some Key Issues Facing Indian Agriculture  20
1.5 Non-traditional Developments in Indian Agriculture  28
1.6 Conclusions  30
References  32

2 Trends and Prospects for India’s Manufacturing Sector  35

2.1 Introduction  35
2.2 Phases of Manufacturing Sector Growth in India  37
2.3 Changing Structure of Manufacturing Output in India  40
2.4 Some Important Facets of India’s Manufacturing Sector  44

xiii
xiv Contents

2.5 Employment Performance of Indian Manufacturing  53

2.6 Conclusions  56
References  58

3 India’s Service Sector  61

3.1 Introduction and Overview  61
3.2 Key Characteristics of India’s Services Sector  63
3.3 India’s Services-Sector Growth: A Cross-­National
Perspective 73
3.4 Reasons for Rapid Expansion of India’s Services Sector
and Prospects for the Future  75
3.5 Concluding Remarks  79
References  80

Part II Emerging Issues in India’s Economy   81

4 India’s Recent Engagement with the Global Economy:

Trade, Investment, Remittances and the Diaspora  83
4.1 Introduction  83
4.2 India’s Foreign Trade During British Colonialism  84
4.3 India’s Foreign-Trade Policy and Performance
since Independence 88
4.4 International Investment into and from India 101
4.5 Indian Diaspora and Remittances 106
4.6 India’s External Debt Situation 112
4.7 Conclusions 114
References 117

5 Regional Inequality and Indirect Tax Reform in India 119

5.1 Introduction 119
5.2 Economic Disparity Across Indian States 120
5.3 Vertical Transfers from Central Government to State
Governments125
 Contents
   xv

Finance Commission Transfers  125

Planning Commission Transfers  128
Centrally Sponsored Schemes  130
5.4 Some Impediments to Internal Trade Within India 134
5.5 The Recently Enacted Goods and Service Tax (GST) 136
5.6 Conclusions 141
Appendix: Comment on Two Recent Structural Policy
Changes 142
References 147

6 Education and Health Services in India: A Brief Overview 149

6.1 Introduction 149
6.2 Comparative Demographic Transition and Educational
Attainment in India 151
India’s Demographic Dividend  152
6.3 Facets of India’s Expenditure on the Education Sector 154
6.4 Outcomes in India’s Education Sector 156
6.5 Challenges for India’s Education Sector 162
6.6 Sketch of an Agenda for Educational Reforms in India 166
Role of the Private Sector  169
6.7 Overview of India’s Health Sector 170
6.8 Some Critical Challenges in Health Policy in India 174
6.9 Concluding Remarks 175
References 178

7 An Overview of the State of the Environment in India 181

7.1 Introduction 181
7.2 Air Pollution: Indoor and Outdoor 182
7.3 Water Availability and Pollution in India 190
7.4 Land Degradation and Forest Cover in India 192
7.5 Conclusions 203
References 205
xvi Contents

Part III Some Aspects of India’s Society and Prospects for

the Future 207

8 Women’s Issues in India 209

8.1 Introduction and Background 209
8.2 Female Nutrition, Education and Employment
Indicators in India 214
8.3 Indian Women: Marriage and Ownership of Property 221
8.4 Policy Options to Improve Female Welfare 226
8.5 Concluding Remarks 228
References 232

9 Intercommunity Relations in India 233

9.1 Introduction and Brief History of the Origins
of Social and Religious Diversity in India 233
9.2 Dispersion of Economic Outcomes Across Religious
and Social Groups 241
9.3 Addressing Social Disparity in India 248
9.4 Conclusions: Improving Intercommunity Relations
in India252
References 256

10 Looking Ahead: Prospects for India 259

10.1 Introduction: India’s Economic Performance
in Comparative Perspective 259
10.2 The Challenge of Attaining Sustainable High Rates
of Growth: Policy Choices 264
10.3 Imagining the India of the Future 268
10.4 Conclusions: Recent Policy Changes and the
Outlook Ahead 277
References 283

Index 285
 List of Tables

Table 1.1 All India land use (million hectares) 9

Table 1.2 Average yield of cereals: India and select country groups
(kilograms/hectare)10
Table 1.3 Growth of yield of foodgrain (kilograms/hectare) per cent
per year 11
Table 1.4 Growth of yield of non-foodgrain (kilograms/hectare)
per cent per year 12
Table 1.5 Production of foodgrain and other major crops (million
tonnes, unless otherwise stated) 13
Table 1.6 Long-term production trends in Indian agriculture 14
Table 1.7 The area of land held by farmers 15
Table 1.8 Distribution of landholdings in 2010–11 15
Table 1.9 Growth of number of agricultural laborers in India:
1951–201117
Table 1.10 Distribution of agricultural workforce in India: 1961–2011 17
Table 1.11 Poverty and nutritional profile of small farmers in India in
1993–94 and 2004–05 18
Table 1.12 GCF in agriculture and allied sectors as a percentage of
agricultural and allied sector GDP at constant 2004–05
prices22
Table 1.13 Evolution of the fertilizer subsidy over time 23
Table 1.14 State of indebtedness of Indian farmers in 2002–03 (% of
farmers)25

xvii
xviii List of Tables

Table 2.1 Annual average growth rates for major sectors and GDP (%) 38
Table 2.2 Annual GDP growth rates in manufacturing 40
Table 2.3 Manufacturing as a share of GDP and growth rates: India
and other select countries 42
Table 2.4 India’s manufacturing sector in comparative perspective for
201043
Table 2.5 Manufacturing GDP by sector and employment projections 45
Table 2.6 Number of central government enterprises and total invest-
ment therein 48
Table 2.7 Shares of states in total employment/output in the organized
manufacturing sector 51
Table 2.8 Employment across various sectors, employment elasticity,
CAGR, share of employment and GVA: 1999–2000,
2004–05, 2009–10 54
Table 3.1 Share of services sector in GDP and employment 64
Table 3.2 Decadal averages of values of constituents of services and
their shares in GVA (real magnitudes at 2004–05 prices) 65
Table 3.3 Share and growth of India’s services sector in recent years
(GVA at basic price) 67
Table 3.4 Recent employment performancet of the services sector 69
Table 3.5 India’s services-sector performance in cross-national
perspective74
Table 3.6 Evolution of components of the Knowledge Economy in
selected countries: 1995, 2000, 2012 78
Table 4.1 India: exports, imports, trade and current account balance
as share of GDP (%) 88
Table 4.2 Tariff rate, applied, weighted mean, all products (%) India 92
Table 4.3 Effective tariff rates by sectors (most favored nations)
2010–11 and 2014–15 94
Table 4.4 Share of manufacturing in India’s merchandise exports and
imports (%) 95
Table 4.5 India’s share of high-technology items in manufacturing
exports (%) 96
Table 4.6 India’s NEER and REER, 36 country trade-based weights 97
Table 4.7 Trends in India’s integration with the international economy
(percentage of GDP) 98
Table 4.8 India: FII (real terms with 2010 as base, rupees crore) 103
Table 4.9 India: Market capitalization as a percentage of GDP 103
 List of Tables
   xix

Table 4.10 FDI into India 105

Table 4.11 India: inward and outward outflows from India (USD
millions)105
Table 4.12 Remittance flows into India 109
Table 4.13 Indicators of India’s debt and foreign exchange reserves since
1975113
Table 5.1 RPCNSDP for Indian states and union territories 122
Table 5.2 Criteria and weights for tax devolution by recent FCs 126
Table 5.3 Share of states in central government transfers 128
Table 5.4 Gadgil–Mukherjee formula: alternative versions (weighting:
percentage)129
Table 5.5 Trends and structure of union transfers to state governments
(percentages)131
Table 5.6 Agreed GST structure on goods and services 137
Table 6.1 Demographic transitions in India, China, LMIC and
Sri Lanka151
Table 6.2 Population dynamics: India and select other countries/
groups153
Table 6.3 Public expenditure on education in India: key characteristics
and comparison with Sri Lanka, LMIC and China 155
Table 6.4 Literacy attainment profile of India, Sri Lanka, LMIC and
China157
Table 6.5 Level-wise average annual drop-out rate in school education
(2013–14) (in %) 158
Table 6.6 Educational outcome profile of India, Sri Lanka, LMIC and
China160
Table 6.7 Global comparison of education statistics for India 163
Table 6.8 Enrolment in educational institutions in India (2014–15) 164
Table 6.9 Age distribution of child/young adult population in India in
2015165
Table 6.10 Percentage enrolment in various specializations at higher
education level (2014–15) 165
Table 6.11 Health expenditure in India 170
Table 6.12 Life expectancy at birth: total, male and female (years) 172
Table 6.13 Infant mortality rates in India per 1000 live births 172
Table 6.14 Maternal mortality rate (MMR) per 100,000 live births 173
Table 6.15 Nutritional status of children (percentage of children
under five)173
xx List of Tables

Table 6.16 Drinking water coverage estimates 175

Table 6.17 Sanitation coverage estimates 175
Table 7.1 Sources of energy for cooking in Indian households
2011–12183
Table 7.2 Ambient air quality in major Indian cities 2015 186
Table 7.3 Evolution of air quality in major Indian cities (μg/m3)187
Table 7.4 The total number of registered vehicles in India
(thousands)188
Table 7.5 Global per capita CO2 emission (metric tonnes) in 2014 189
Table 7.6 Projected water demand in India (by use) and water
availability191
Table 7.7 Grossly polluting industries discharging their effluents into
rivers and lakes 193
Table 7.8 Percentage of land degradation in India and its states 196
Table 7.9 Forest cover in India 2015—by class 198
Table 7.10 Recorded forest area in states and union territories (km2)199
Table 7.11 Percentage of types of forests to total forest area 201
Table 8.1 Key development indicators: male and female 2000
and 2013 215
Table 8.2 Incidence of undernourished and overweight male and
female children 217
Table 8.3 Education indicators: males and females for select years 218
Table 8.4 Select employment indicators: female and male 220
Table 8.5 Ratios of divorced/separated/widowed women to men
(2011)224
Table 9.1 Distribution of poverty by social groups across Indian
states244
Table 9.2 Percentage of children aged 12–23 months who received full
vaccination, by religion and caste/tribe (DLHS-4) 2012–13 245
Table 9.3 Gross enrolment rates in school for India (2010) in % 246
Table 10.1 GDP per capita PPP (current international dollars) 261
Table 10.2 Index of GDP per capita PPP with China = 100 262
Table 10.3 Comparable poverty headcount ratios: India and China 263
Table 10.4 Projected demographic dividend for India 264
 Part I
Principal Sectors of the Indian
Economy
 1
Introduction and the State of Indian
Agriculture

1.1 Introduction to Volume II

This chapter offers an overview of the current state of key sectors of the
Indian economy and Indian society and assesses their prospects. In this
chapter, I review the state of Indian agriculture and the challenges it faces.
Chapter 2 assesses the key achievements and prospects of the Indian
manufacturing sector. Chapter 3 discusses key achievements of India’s
services sector and the challenges it faces. Independent India started out
as a relatively closed economy but has now radically transformed itself
into one of the most open economies in the world, particularly in the
area of investment. Thus, Chap. 4 assesses India’s economic relations with
the rest of the world in the areas of trade, investment, migration and
remittances. Chapter 5 examines increasing regional inequality in India
and assesses the role of indirect taxation and vertical fiscal transfers in this
context. Chapter 6 assesses India’s performance in the key areas of health
and education services whereas Chap. 7 looks at the environment.
Chapter 8 discusses issues of female empowerment in India, and Chap. 9
assesses intersocietal relations in India. Chapter 10 evaluates economic

© The Author(s) 2018 3

R. Jha, Facets of India’s Economy and Her Society Volume II,
https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95342-4_1
4 R. Jha

prospects for India, particularly in relation to China, and assesses India’s

prospects of becoming a high middle-income country in the medium
term. It also examines some key social challenges being faced by India.

1.2 Phases of Growth in Indian Agriculture

India’s reform-induced growth acceleration has charted a different path
from that of China. China’s economic reforms program began by address-
ing the agricultural sector so that in the early phase of its economic pro-
gram Chinese agriculture grew at 7% or more a year. This “bottom up”
approach led to very sharp reductions in mass poverty in the rural sector
and, hence, a consolidation of support for the economic reforms pro-
gram. In the case of India, reforms began outside agriculture and perco-
lated down to some extent. This is a “trickle down” model of economic
reforms. Whenever agricultural growth was high there would be sharp
reductions in mass poverty but this momentum could not be sustained
when agricultural growth slackened. This has also meant that political
support for the reforms program has not been robust, and policies that
interfere with the operation of the market mechanism have often attracted
votes and, more problematically, been introduced. Part of the difficulty of
devising a cogent reforms policy for agriculture is the fact that under the
Indian constitution agriculture is a state subject, so adopting a national
policy is problematic.
The development strategy adopted immediately after Independence
emphasized industrial growth through central planning and often involved
the neglect of agriculture. Between 1951 and 1966 grain production
growth at 2.8% per annum was lagging behind population growth. Food
deprivation was widespread and the likelihood of severe famine involving
a large number of deaths during a drought period was quite high. Indeed,
a famine was declared in parts of Bihar state during and immediately after
the drought of 1965–66 with foodgrain production and yield declining
by 19% and 17% respectively. India’s food insecurity was raising
serious concerns and the country had to import vast quantities of
foodgrain through the US PL-480 (begun in 1956) and other programs.
The outlook was grim. As I note in vol. I Chap. 8, food imports
 Introduction and the State of Indian Agriculture 5

often came with political conditions (such as supporting the US position

on certain contentious issues in the United Nations [UN]), which was an
affront to the country.
Against this backdrop it became clear that new technologies needed to
be adopted to increase agricultural yield in India. This came in the form
of the now famous “Green Revolution” technologies. Gulati and Fan
(2008) identify three phases of this revolution. In the first phase
(1966–72) a policy of boosting agricultural yield through the import of
high-yield variety (HYV) seeds from Centro International de
Mejoramiento de Maizy Trigo (CIMMYT) in Mexico for wheat cultiva-
tion in the well-irrigated areas of Punjab and Haryana was adopted along
with provision of remunerative prices for farmers. Then Minister for
Agriculture C. Subramanian was instrumental in the adoption of these
policies. The Food Corporation of India (FCI) was set up to organize the
collection of foodgrain from farmers using some of this procurement to
build a buffer stock for use during crises and to distribute the rest through
the Public Distribution System (PDS).
Initially there was some opposition to this policy (Kapila 2014) as it
was feared that it would cause inequity between farms, with those using
HVY seeds achieving much higher yields than those not using them.
However, the policy was supported by two successive prime ministers—
Lal Bahadur Shastri and Indira Gandhi. The results of the adoption of
HYV seeds were phenomenal. In five years (between 1966–67 and
1971–72), harvested foodgrain increased from 74 million tonnes to 105
million tonnes, India became self-sufficient in foodgrain and grain imports
dropped to zero. It should be emphasized that the combination of policies
of adoption of HYV seeds and lucrative prices gave farmers the incentive
to increase production, which resulted in India finally attaining self-suffi-
ciency in foodgrain. A complementary policy measure was to establish a
PDS for the supply of foodgrain at a relatively inexpensive price. This was
the genesis of food subsidy in India.
The second phase of the adoption of HYV seed technology covers the
period 1973–80. This was the period when Mrs Indira Gandhi embarked
on a massive program of nationalization including that of the banks. The
agricultural sector was not left untouched by this as wholesale trade was
nationalized. This was a disaster and was soon abandoned. In addition
6 R. Jha

there was a drought in 1972–73 when foodgrain output fell sharply and
led to a drop in food procurement. An additional shock at that point was
the quadrupling of international oil prices, which led to a sharp increase
in the cost of production of fertilizers. Hence, fertilizer subsidies had to
rise sharply. This period was also marked by an extension of HYV seeds
to include rice, with considerable potential for spreading into the eastern
states. In the absence of irrigation networks, water for the new varieties of
rice seeds came from boring wells. Between 1972–73 and 1979–80 there
was a healthy growth of 3.1% per annum in the output of foodgrain and
a 2.5% growth in yield so that the fear in 1972–73 of food insecurity
reappearing receded. This was also a period showing a spectacular drop in
rural poverty from 56% to 50%, illustrating, once again, that in a coun-
try with mass poverty in the rural sector, enhanced agricultural growth
leads to greater poverty reduction.
The third phase of agricultural growth in India was from 1981 to 1990.
There was a consolidation of India’s self-sufficiency in foodgrain with rice
output at 63.8 million tonnes and wheat output at 47 million tonnes in
1986. The country was able to build up a buffer stock of 25.4 million
tonnes of grain so that there was no loss of life from starvation during the
particularly severe drought of 1987. HYV technology, particularly for
rice, spread eastwards toward West Bengal and Bihar. However, by 1985,
the possibility of increase in yield through HYV plateaued.
Throughout this period, international trade in agricultural products
was more or less forbidden and there were widespread controls on pric-
ing, movement and private trading of agricultural produce. The latter led
to the phenomenon of a lack of market integration in agricultural mar-
kets in India, which led to their isolation meaning that a local scarcity
could not send the right signal to other markets to help fill the gaps in
supply. A large volume of literature has grown up around this theme. For
instance, Jha et al. (2005) have shown that wholesale rice markets within
states tend to be integrated with each other, whereas markets across dif-
ferent states are not.
Another important characteristic of these three periods was that there
was rampant protectionism in industry. Hence, terms of trade were biased
against agriculture.
 Introduction and the State of Indian Agriculture 7

Fan et al. (2008) consider the period 1991 to the present to be the
fourth phase of agricultural reforms. In 1991, major reforms were initi-
ated (vol. I Chap. 8). As part of these reforms the Indian economy was
opened up to the forces of globalization and the tariffs on imports were
reduced—a trend that has persisted. Landes and Gulati (2004) identify
two beneficial consequences of the off-farm sector reforms. First, higher
rates of growth induced by the reforms led to increased demand for agri-
cultural products, particularly food. Second, the lowering of tariffs meant
that the terms of trade between agriculture and industry, which had hith-
erto been biased against agriculture, were finally moving in favor of agri-
culture. This meant that agriculture could now trade with the rest of the
economy on more favorable terms. As a consequence, agricultural growth
went up. However, poverty reduction was not as significant as in the
1980s because this period also saw fiscal contraction, which had a delete-
rious effect on poverty reduction. Agricultural growth also slowed (Gulati
and Ganguly 2010).
If we examine figures for growth in yield over the 1980s, 1990s and
2000–13 we find that growth in rice yield was at its highest in the 1980s
as this was the period in which HYV technology spread to the eastern
part of the country where much rice is grown. This yield fell by more
than 50% in the 1990s and rose only marginally in the last period con-
sidered. The yield of wheat followed a similar pattern. The yields of coarse
cereals picked up only in the last period considered here. Yields for pulses
and oilseeds have been quite modest and rose above 2% only in the last
period. Total foodgrain yield growth was less than 2% in the first and last
periods being considered here. The yield of a cash crop such as cotton
grew in spectacular fashion in the first and, in particular, the last period.
This was probably in response to favorable demand conditions, particu-
larly in international markets.
Hence, since the 1980s, Indian agriculture has been experiencing
steady but unremarkable progress. However, it has not yet been able to
become a leading sector for sustained economic growth in India. As a
consequence, some long-term structural problems persist in Indian agri-
culture.1 These are discussed in Sect. 1.3. Section 1.4 discusses some
key reasons why these problems persist 70 years after Independence.
8 R. Jha

Section 1.5 provides an analysis of some recent developments in Indian

agriculture beyond the cultivation of foodgrain and other major crops.
Section 1.6 concludes.

1.3 Two Basic Problems in Indian Agriculture

Low Yield of Land

The first basic problem facing Indian agriculture is the low yield of its
agricultural land in comparison to that of other major country groups as
well as India’s own requirements for food. Since land is the scarce factor
in India and labor is the plentiful factor, it is the output per unit land
rather than per laborer that is crucial to ascertaining productivity.
As indicated in Table 1.1, the net sown area grew from 118.8 million
hectares in 1950–51 to a peak in 1990–91 and has since then stabilized
at about 140.0 million hectares.
The proportion of total land under forests has gone up quite substan-
tially and area under non-agricultural use has nearly tripled, signaling
rapid urbanization.
Cereal yield from cultivation of land has been rising and the average
yield for 2010–14 was three times that for 1961–69. Table 1.2 reports
average cereal yield (kilograms per hectare) in India compared to select
UN Classification country groups: least developed countries, low- and
middle-income countries—the group in which India currently sits—and
high-income countries for select time periods. India’s yield was very low
in the 1960s. It improved somewhat in the 1970s and increased more
sharply in the 1980s (in response to the adoption of Green Revolution
technologies). Average yield during the 1990s also shows a large increase,
whereas subsequent increases have been more moderate.
During the 1960s, India’s cereal yield was the lowest in its group. The
yield improved in the 1970s to overtake that of the least developed coun-
tries and stayed above those levels throughout. However, cereal yield per
hectare in other low and middle-income countries, has always been
higher than that in India. The yield in high-income countries was more
Table 1.1 All India land use (million hectares)
Land use classification 1950–51 1960–61 1970–71 1980–81 1990–91 2000–01 2004–05 2008–09* 2009–10*
Forests 40.5 54.1 63.9 67.5 67.8 69.8 70.0 70.0 70.0
Non-agricultural uses 9.4 14.8 16.5 19.7 21.1 23.8 24.8 26.1 26.2
Barren and uncultivable land 38.2 35.9 28.2 19.7 19.4 17.5 17.5 16.8 16.8
Permanent pastures and 6.7 14.0 13.3 12.0 11.4 10.7 10.5 10.2 10.2
other grazing land
Land under miscellaneous 19.8 4.5 4.3 3.6 3.8 3.4 3.4 3.4 3.4
tree, crops and groves
Cultivable wasteland 22.9 19.2 17.5 16.7 15.0 13.6 13.3 12.8 12.9
Fallow land 28.1 22.8 19.9 24.8 23.4 25.0 25.7 24.5 26.2
Net sown area 118.8 133.2 140.3 140.0 143.0 141.3 140.6 141.9 140.0
Source: Compiled from Compendium of Environment Statistics India, 2011, Central Statistical Office (CSO), Ministry of
Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India; Agricultural Statistics at a Glance, 2012, Ministry of
Agriculture, Government of India, and other sources
Notes: *Provisional; net sown area represents the total area sown with crops and orchards, with the area sown more
than once in the same year counted only once; barren and uncultivable land includes all land covered by mountains
and deserts, which cannot be cultivated except at exorbitant cost; cultivable wasteland includes land available for
cultivation, but not cultivated for the last five or more years
Introduction and the State of Indian Agriculture
9
10 R. Jha

Table 1.2 Average yield of cereals: India and select country groups (kilograms/
hectare)
1961–69 1970–80 1981–90 1991–99 2000–09 2010–14
India 959.89 1212.65 1621.81 2137.21 2431.41 2898.32
Least developed 1085.35 1176.55 1342.41 1390.05 1696.75 2010.55
countries
Low and middle 1270.31 1662.82 2205.32 2457.16 2813.89 3289.89
countries
High income 2518.63 3166.03 3771.86 4353.12 4912.11 5424.13
countries
Source: Author’s computation based on data from World Development
Indicators 2017, World Bank

than twice that of India until 2000–09. During 2010–14 this was just
less than double that of India.
From the national accounts and census figures we know that agricul-
ture’s share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is less than 15%, whereas
more than 60% of the population rely on agriculture and allied activities
for their livelihood. As long as this excessive dependence of the popula-
tion on the agricultural sector persists, significant improvements to India’s
poverty and deprivation problems cannot be had. This needs to be done
through a combination of movement of labor out of agriculture and an
increase in agricultural yield.
It should be noted, however, that there are wide variations in the share
of agriculture in Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) across various
states of India. According to the Ministry of Agriculture (2016), in
2015–16 agriculture’s share in Arunachal Pradesh’s GDP is more than
30%, whereas it ranges between 20 and 29% in Andhra Pradesh, Assam,
Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur,
Nagaland, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tripura and Uttar Pradesh; between 15
and 19% in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka and
Meghalaya; and less than 15% in Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Maharashtra,
Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Mizoram, Odisha, Telangana and
West Bengal. Thus, the low share of agriculture in aggregate GDP is
largely because of latter group of states. For 2012–13 the yields (kilo-
grams per hectare) for rice for select various states were: West Bengal
(2755), Uttar Pradesh (2459), Punjab (3989), Andhra Pradesh (3126),
 Introduction and the State of Indian Agriculture 11

Odisha (1896), Bihar (2258), Chattisgarh (1749), Assam (2036), Tamil

Nadu (2785), Haryana (3262), Karnataka (2583), Maharashtra (1961),
Jharkhand (2244), Madhya Pradesh (1479), Gujarat (2143), Kerala
(2650) and all India (2462). The corresponding figures for wheat for
major producing states were: Punjab (4577), Uttar Pradesh (3114),
Madhya Pradesh (2477), Haryana (4448), Rajasthan (3174), Bihar
(2423), Gujarat (2990), West Bengal (2844), Maharashtra (1492),
Uttarakhand (2333), Himachal Pradesh (1500), Jammu and Kashmir
(1400), Jharkhand (1688), Karnataka (739), Assam (1200) and all India
(3118).
Indian agriculture’s performance in terms of growth of yields of
foodgrain and non-foodgrain are given in Tables 1.3 and 1.4 respectively
for the period from the 1950s to 2007–08.
Average annual yield of rice grew at 2.59% during the period 1950–51
to 2007–08, whereas wheat and coarse cereals recorded higher yields at
2.85% and 2.72% respectively. Total cereal yields also grew at a higher
rate (2.69%) than rice. This further reinforces the view that rice-­producing
states (mainly in the eastern part of the country) have been at a disadvan-
tage compared to cultivators of wheat. As I indicate in vol. I Chap. 8, this
was because the technical progress in wheat cultivation occurred at a
faster pace than in rice. Growth of pulse yield has been the slowest, and

Table 1.3 Growth of yield of foodgrain (kilograms/hectare) per cent per year
Total Total
Rice Wheat Coarse cereals Pulses foodgrain
Year (%) (%) cereals (%) (%) (%) (%)
1950s 4.30 2.08 3.01 3.27 1.45 2.89
1960s 1.91 5.25 1.30 2.33 2.60 2.41
1970s 0.73 2.02 1.68 1.62 −2.57 1.18
1980s 5.45 4.17 4.01 4.74 4.02 4.62
1990s 1.36 2.87 2.03 2.38 1.82 2.43
2000s to 1.79 0.09 4.74 1.64 0.59 1.32
2007–08
1950–51 to 2.59 2.85 2.72 2.69 1.34 2.51
2007–08*
Source: Author’s computation based on data from Handbook of Statistics on the
Indian Economy, Reserve Bank of India
Note: *To 2007–08
 12
R. Jha

Table 1.4 Growth of yield of non-foodgrain (kilograms/hectare) per cent per year
Oilseeds
Rapeseed Cotton Jute &
Groundnut and mustard Soyabean Total Sugarcane Tea Coffee (Lint) Mesta Tobacco
(%) (%) (%) # (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%)
1950s −0.06 0.72 0.23 1.26 0.28 0.34 0.30
1960s 1.39 5.81 1.96 3.62 4.82 1.77 0.94
1970s 3.35 0.48 7.95 0.77 0.19 2.40 4.21 3.99 0.71 3.34
1980s 3.60 8.17 5.44 4.72 3.03 1.40 4.92 5.86 4.04 2.75
1990s −0.29 2.96 4.68 1.77 0.85 0.32 7.12 −0.53 1.16 −0.73
2000s 16.64 1.61 2.91 5.47 −0.49 −0.35 −2.55 11.27 1.72 2.47
1950–51 3.74 3.40 5.30 2.42 1.48 0.97 3.73 4.11 1.64 1.48
to
2007–08
Source: Author’s computation based on data from Handbook of Statistics on the Indian Economy, Reserve Bank of India
 Introduction and the State of Indian Agriculture 13

Table 1.5 Production of foodgrain and other major crops (million tonnes, unless
otherwise stated)
2014–15
(advanced
2004–05 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 estimates)
Rice 83.1 96.0 105.3 105.2 106.7 104.8
Wheat 68.6 96.0 105.3 105.2 106.7 104.8
Coarse cereals 33.5 43.4 42.0 40.0 43.3 41.8
Total cereals 185.2 226.3 242.2 238.8 245.8 235.5
Pulses 13.1 18.2 17.1 18.3 19.3 17.2
Foodgrain 198.4 244.5 259.3 257.1 265.0 252.7
Oilseeds 243.5 324.8 298.0 309.4 327.5 266.8
(100,000
tonnes)
Sugarcane 2370.9 3423.8 3610.4 3412.0 3532.4 3593.3
(100,000
tonnes)
Jute and mesta 102.7 106.2 114.0 109.3 116.9 114.5
(10,000 bales
of
180 kilograms
each)
Source: Author’s compilation with data from the Ministry of Agriculture (2016)

total foodgrain has grown at only 2.51% per annum. Since the 1980s the
growth in yield of key foodgrain like rice and wheat and even total cereals
dropped considerably.2
In contrast, as Table 1.4 shows, the growth in the yields of non-­
foodgrain, particularly groundnut, rapeseed and soyabean has been high.
Sugarcane growth has been sluggish and coffee and cotton have recorded
impressive yield growth. Table 1.5 indicates levels of production of
foodgrain and other major crops since the turn of the century, whereas
Table 1.6 presents the corresponding long-term picture for a broad range
of agricultural products.
Although foodgrain production has increased over time, its per capita
availability has not increased at the same rate. According to the Ministry
of Agriculture, per capita daily availability of foodgrain was 444 g in
2009, falling to 437.1 g in 2010 (because of drought), rising to 453.6 g
in 2011, falling to 450.3 g in 2012 and rising on the back of a good har-
vest to 510.3 g in 2013.3
14 R. Jha

Table 1.6 Long-term production trends in Indian agriculture

1950–51 1970–71 1990–91 2010–11
Foodgrain (million tonnes) 50.8 108.4 176.4 259
(2011–12)
Milk (million tonnes) 17 23 53.9 127
(1973–74) (2011–12)
Fish (million tonnes) 0.75 1.75 3.84 8.00
Eggs (billion) 1.8 7.8 21.1 60
(1973–74)
Fruit and vegetables (million 85 221
tonnes)
Population (millions) 361 548 846 1210
Source: Author’s compilation with data from the Department of Agriculture and
Cooperation, Agricultural Statistics in India (various issues)

Thus, India’s agricultural performance has been less than robust. Food
availability in the country has gone up but that, of course, does not mean
that high nutritional standards have been achieved for the people.
Over the 60 years from 1950–51 to 2010–11 agricultural production
in India has recorded growth across a wide range of outputs. Foodgrain
output increased fivefold, milk showed more than a sevenfold increase,
fish increased by more than tenfold, and eggs showed a more than 30-fold
increase. In the 20 years between 1990–91 and 2010–11 the production
of fruit and vegetables has nearly tripled. All this growth has outstripped
population growth, which has more than tripled over the 60-year period.
Hence, assuming that distribution channels are working efficiently, the
availability of agricultural output has improved over time.
However, sustained growth, even at these rates, is contingent on a
number of policy measures—in particular rapid technological progress in
parts of eastern India. East and central India need to have their own fully
fledged Green Revolution. The existence and aggravation of the problem
of subsistence farming discussed below, is an impediment to progress.

Continuing Preponderance of Subsistence Farming

A second major problem with Indian agriculture is the continuing pre-

ponderance of subsistence farming. If anything, the size of farms is
 Introduction and the State of Indian Agriculture 15

Table 1.7 The area of land held by farmers

Total number of Average size of
operational holdings landholdings Total operated area
(millions) (hectares) (million hectares)
1995–96 115.58 1.41 163.35
2000–01 119.93 1.33 159.44
2005–06 129.22 1.23 158.32
2010–11 138.35 1.15 159.59
Source: Compiled with data from the Agricultural Census of 2010–11,
Government of India

Table 1.8 Distribution of landholdings in 2010–11

Operated area Percentage area Percentage of number
Category (hectares) under each category of landholdings
Marginal Less than 1 22.5 67.1
holdings
Small holdings 1–2 22.1 17.9
Semi-medium 2–4 23.6 10.0
holdings
Medium 4–10 21.2 4.3
holdings
Large holdings 10 and above 10.6 0.7
Source: Compiled with data from the Agricultural Census of 2010–11,
Government of India, and other sources

declining over time, and fragmentation and dispersion of plots of land

are increasing. This is depicted in Table 1.7, which shows that the average
size of farms has been falling and the total number of holdings has been
rising over the period 1995–96 to 2010–11. At the same time, the total
area under cultivation has been falling.
Table 1.8 provides a snapshot of landholdings in 2010–11. It makes
for sober reading.4 Marginal holdings (less than 1 hectare) account for
22.5% of the area under cultivation but for 67.1% of total landholdings.
The table provides similar information for small holdings (1–2 hectares),
semi-medium holdings (2–4 hectares), medium holdings (4–10 hectares)
and large holdings (10 acres and above). Land is quite inequitably distrib-
uted in India.
16 R. Jha

A staggering 95% of Indian landholdings are less than 4 hectares. This

means that land consolidation should be high on the agenda of policymak-
ers. If this could be established, land productivity would go up. However,
whether this policy can be pursued depends on the ability of non-agricul-
ture sectors to generate enough employment for displaced farmers and
farmers with non-economical size holdings and for farmers to willingly
accept some form of consolidated farming. On the other hand, addressing
the high degree of land inequality should also be high on the policy agenda.
There is an important social aspect to the on-going diminution of land-
holdings. The percentage of Scheduled Tribe (ST) households possessing
up to 0.4 hectares of land rose steadily from 43.2 in 1993–94 to 56.7 in
2009–10, whereas the proportions owning up to 1 acre climbed from
64.6% in 1993–94 to 76.5% in 2009–10. The figures are even more dis-
turbing for Scheduled Caste (SC) households. Some 71.7% of rural SC
households had less than 0.4 hectares and this rose to 80% in 2009–10.
The corresponding proportions of landholdings of up to 1 hectare rose
from 86.6% in 1993–94 to 92.1% in 2009–10. These proportions are
much larger than the shares of these groups in the population of the coun-
try, which in the 2011 census were 16.6% and 18.5% respectively for SCs
in total and in the rural sector, and 8.6% and 11.3% respectively for STs in
total and in the rural sector. Hence, there is no escaping the fact that the
landownership patterns reflect old caste inequalities.
As a consequence of this continuous fragmentation of landholdings,
many farms are becoming unviable. This is reflected in the growth in
number of agricultural laborers in India. The term “agricultural laborer”
is hard to define in India because the country does not have a capitalistic
type of agriculture with a separate group of workers depending on wages.
Various census documents have defined agricultural laborers as those who
derive most of their income by working on the farms of others. In essence,
they are largely landless workers.
As Table 1.9 indicates, the number of agricultural landless laborers has
increased steadily over time. Over the period 1951–2011 it has increased
by more than fivefold.
As Table 1.9 indicates, in 2011 there were 144 million landless labor-
ers in Indian agriculture. This is a staggering number.
Table 1.10 provides more detail about agricultural laborers in India.
We need to distinguish agricultural laborers (cultivators + agricultural
 Introduction and the State of Indian Agriculture 17

Table 1.9 Growth of number of agricultural laborers in India:

1951–2011
Year Number of agricultural laborers (millions)
1951 28.0
1961 32.0
1971 48.0
1981 55.5
1991 74.7
2001 107.4
2011 144.3
Source: Compiled with data from the Census of India, 1951,
1961, 1971, 1981, 1991, 2001 and 2011

Table 1.10 Distribution of agricultural workforce in India: 1961–2011

Total number of Total number of
agricultural Total number of agricultural
Total workers (as a cultivators (as a laborers (as a
population percentage of percentage of percentage of
Year (millions) total work force) total work force) total work force)
1961 439 72.36 52.80 19.56
1971 548 70.12 43.14 26.98
1981 683 68.35 42.33 26.02
1991 844 67.01 39.85 27.16
2001 1027 58.40 31.71 26.69
2011 1210 54.60 24.60 30.00
Source: Compiled using data from the Census of India, 1961, 1971, 1981, 1991,
2001 and 2011

workers) from agricultural workers who are not cultivators. Table 1.10
makes this distinction explicit. The total number of workers in the agri-
cultural sector is classified into two main categories as a percentage of the
total labor force: cultivators and agricultural (landless) laborers.
Over the period 1961–2011 the proportion of the population who are
agricultural workers declined, essentially because the proportion of culti-
vators has fallen. The proportion of agricultural laborers has risen from
19.56% in 1961 to 30.00% in 2011.
Against this background it stands to reason that there would be wide-
spread poverty and under-nutrition in rural India. We illustrate this point in
Table 1.11, which provides an overview of the poverty and nutritional pro-
files of small farmers (those owning less than 2 hectares each) for some
Indian states and the country as a whole. The figures are based on household
Table 1.11 Poverty and nutritional profile of small farmers in India in 1993–94 and 2004–05
18

Percentage of Small farmers Percentage Small farmers

rural as a Small and calorie- of rural as a Small and calorie-
households percentage of deficient farming households percentage of deficient farming
who were rural poor house-­holds as a who were rural poor households as a
R. Jha

small farmers households in percentage of rural small farmers households in percentage of rural
State/all India in 1993–94 1993–94 households in in 2004–05 2004–05 households in
(column 1) (column 2) (column 3) 1993–94 (column 4) (column 5) (column 6) 2004–05 (column 7)
Andhra 89.27 91.07 91.05 90.48 91.88 90.95
Pradesh
Arunachal 86.20 94.06 87.57 78.17 77.17 82.73
Pradesh
Assam 79.83 84.95 81.75 77.59 90.53 80.83
Bihar 87.42 90.08 90.68 91.34 97.65 93.54
Jharkhand 87.92 90.83 89.13
Goa 97.70 100.00 98.99 97.34 100.00 95.56
Gujarat 87.02 86.60 88.19 87.72 92.94 89.61
Haryana 87.31 88.82 93.61 89.11 98.04 94.84
Himachal 84.32 89.48 89.24 90.30 94.74 93.08
Pradesh
Jammu and 74.76 70.46 89.58 87.17 91.07 91.61
Kashmir
Karnataka 83.68 82.42 87.68 85.57 87.12 86.52
Kerala 95.35 98.57 97.07 96.07 98.94 97.67
Madhya 79.93 81.18 85.87 79.47 81.96 81.07
Pradesh
Chattisgarh 82.83 83.97 85.72
Maharashtra 83.82 85.07 85.92 84.64 87.33 86.57
Manipur 81.44 74.17 85.96 84.97 69.30 84.93
Meghalaya 80.78 81.66 81.20 81.91 75.35 82.02
Mizoram 66.14 74.41 67.91 81.64 90.27 82.39
(continued)
Table 1.11 (continued)
Percentage of Small farmers Percentage Small farmers
rural as a Small and calorie- of rural as a Small and calorie-
households percentage of deficient farming households percentage of deficient farming
who were rural poor house-­holds as a who were rural poor households as a
small farmers households in percentage of rural small farmers households in percentage of rural
State/all India in 1993–94 1993–94 households in in 2004–05 2004–05 households in
(column 1) (column 2) (column 3) 1993–94 (column 4) (column 5) (column 6) 2004–05 (column 7)
Nagaland 49.41 100.0 65.47 74.50 84.76 79.24
Orissa 85.75 87.47 90.13 86.92 87.85
Punjab 89.17 98.53 95.85 92.63 98.93 96.61
Rajasthan 81.27 80.23 89.59 82.64 85.59 86.83
Sikkim 81.38 88.38 81.51 94.99 100.00 94.10
Tamilnadu 92.78 95.05 93.33 93.98 95.52 93.55
Tripura 88.23 94.81 88.15 95.00 98.31 94.79
Uttar Pradesh 84.96 87.91 90.61 87.66 93.31 91.04
Uttaranachal 94.46 96.96 96.90
West Bengal 92.39 96.74 95.99 94.34 97.66 95.19
Andaman and 91.55 100.00 90.80
Nicobar
Islands
Chandigarh 97.38 100.00 99.07
Dadar and 87.06 87.40 83.34 84.07 84.88 73.30
Nagar Haveli
Daman and 95.31 100.00 94.13 96.86 94.68
Diu
Delhi 98.14 100.00 100.00 98.93 100.00 100.00
Introduction and the State of Indian Agriculture

Lakshwadeep 99.91 100.00

Pondicherry 96.71 100.00 98.78 96.50 100.00 97.50
All India 86.52 88.54 90.23 88.19 91.42 90.05
19

Source: Author’s calculations are based on NSS data for 50th round (1993–94) and 61st round (2004–05) for rural India
20 R. Jha

data from the National Sample Survey (NSS) for the 50th and 61st rounds
for 1993–94 and 2004–05 respectively.
A very large proportion of households belong to the category of small
farmers (column 7). For the country as a whole, the proportion was
86.52% in 1993–94 (column 2), which rose to 88.19% in 2004–05 (col-
umn 5). In many states this was near and even above 90% in both time
periods. What is important to note is that the proportion of poor small
farming households as a proportion of the total number of rural house-
holds was even higher (88.54% for 1993–94 as shown in column 3 and
91.42% in 2004–05 as shown in column 6) than the share of small farm-
ing households in the total number of rural households.5
Furthermore, this proportion has increased between 1993–94 and
2004–05. Similarly, small farming households constituted a higher pro-
portion of nutritionally deficient rural households (90.23% in 1993–94
as shown in column 4 and 90.05% in 2004–05 as shown in column 7)
than the proportion of small farming households in the total rural popu-
lation in 1993–94 and 2004–05. Once again this proportion has increased
between 1993–94 and 2004–05. In the case of the incidence of poverty
as well as that of undernutrition there are some regional differences, but
the broad conclusions remain the same.
Thus, there is a social and economic crisis of sorts brewing in India’s
agricultural sector. Cereal yields are below those of many countries and
are not growing particularly rapidly and agricultural landholdings are
getting increasingly fragmented (and being rendered unviable) with large
numbers of farmers holding less than 1 hectare of land, with many com-
ing from the weaker sections of society (SC and ST households).6

1.4  ddressing Some Key Issues Facing

A
Indian Agriculture
Insufficient yields and the persistence of subsistence farming with ever
falling landholding sizes are key concerns for India’s agricultural sector.
The sharp rise in the number of landless agricultural workers needs
urgent attention. The fact that most subsistence farmers and landless
 Introduction and the State of Indian Agriculture 21

workers come from the weaker sections of society—particularly SC and

ST—makes this a serious social as well as political issue.
There are several reasons for the accumulation of problems in the rural
sector, even though food adequacy holds at this point in time. The most
significant of these reasons is the insufficient number of job opportunities
being created in the non-agricultural sector. I comment on this in some
detail in Chaps. 2 and 3 in the context of the manufacturing and services
sectors. Rural non-agricultural activity has also expanded insufficiently.
One of the key reasons for that is the sluggish performance of invest-
ment in agriculture. During the 1970s and 1980s there was substantial
public investment in agriculture, particularly in the form of irrigation proj-
ects. The new HYV seeds had high water and fertilizer requirements and
expansion of irrigation through canals was the preferred way to proceed.
Gross capital formation in agriculture as a percentage of agricultural GDP
stagnated and even fell for a long period in the 1980s and 1990s. Table 1.12
reveals that this stagnation continued well into 1998–99. It picked up sub-
stantially in the 2000s but was bounded from above by 20% of agricultural
GDP. However, the public-sector c­omponent of agricultural investment
dropped while private-sector investment went up. The share of agriculture-
sector investment in total gross capital formation (GCF) has steadily
declined, with only small exceptions, from 1993–94 (when this share was
20.69%) to 2011 (when this share was a mere 4.99%).
During this period, however, aggregate GCF as a percentage of GDP
has been on an upward trend from 26.05% in 1995–96 to 38.03% in
2007–08, dropping marginally to 31.4% in 2013–14. Hence, compared
to investment in the rest of the economy, investment in agriculture is fall-
ing. This has implications for long-term agricultural growth. Unlike
China, which began its reforms process with a sharp increase in the
growth rate of agriculture, Indian agriculture has grown slowly and may
not be able to increase its long-term rate of growth, at least in the tradi-
tional areas of foodgrain production.
On the other hand, subsidies (particularly input subsidies) in Indian
agriculture have been expanding rapidly (Fan et al. 2008). There are four
major categories of input subsidies—those on power, fertilizer, irrigation
and credit.7 In constant 1993 prices, fertilizer subsidies increased from
₹ 2.6 billion in 1976 to ₹ 80 billion in 2000 (Fan et al. 2008).
22 R. Jha

Table 1.12 GCF in agriculture and allied sectors as a percentage of agricultural

and allied sector GDP at constant 2004–05 prices
GCF in Share of Share of
agriculture agriculture agriculture Share of
as and allied and allied agriculture
percentage sectors in sectors in and allied
of total GCF total GCF sectors in GCF
agricultural (%) public (%) private total GCF (percentage
Year (1) GDP (2) sector (3) sector (4) (%) total (5) of GDP) (5)
1993–94 9.1 10.96 27.99 20.69
1994–95 8.1 9.56 19.01 15.05
1995–96 8.1 9.10 12.34 11.27 26.05
1996–97 7.9 8.34 14.70 12.45 22.06
1997–98 8.6 6.71 12.47 10.73 24.51
1998–99 9.2 6.07 13.28 11.06 23.51
1999–2000 13.1 5.62 16.06 13.01 26.97
2000–01 11.9 5.21 15.22 12.17 24.21
2001–02 14.6 5.74 16.95 13.72 25.65
2002–03 14.2 5.35 14.21 11.87 25.02
2003–04 12.4 5.76 11.15 9.74 26.17
2004–05 13.5 6.73 7.77 7.53 32.45
2005–06 14.6 6.80 7.16 7.07 34.28
2006–07 14.6 6.45 6.09 6.17 35.87
2007–08 16.0 5.26 5.89 5.74 38.03
2008–09 19.7 3.87 7.63 6.59 35.53
2009–10 20.3 3.83 6.73 5.96 36.30
2010–11 3.29 5.31 4.83 36.53
2011–12 4.99 36.39
2012–13 34.70
2013–14 31.4
Source: Author’s compilation from CSO data and other government sources

The subsequent changes to the fertilizer subsidy is shown in Table 1.13.

As a percentage of total subsidies, the fertilizer subsidy has ranged between
25.30% in 2002–03 to 59.06% in 2008–09. The latter was the year of
the food-price crisis, and a serious drought, not to speak of the Lok Sabha
Election for which farmer votes were necessary.
The fertilizer subsidy (mainly on urea) has biased the composition of
fertilizers applied by farmers. During the 1960s, credit subsidies grew at
12.62% a year, and during the 1970s this increased to 22% a year but
dropped in the 1980s and 1990s to 7.3% and 4.7% respectively (Fan et al.
2008). Fan et al. (2008) calculated the electricity subsidy to agriculture at
 Introduction and the State of Indian Agriculture 23

Table 1.13 Evolution of the fertilizer subsidy over time

Fertilizer
subsidy as a Fertilizer
Fertilizer Subsidy as percentage subsidy as a
subsidy Total subsidy percentage of total percentage
Year (₹ Crores) (₹ Crores) of GDP subsidy of GDP
2002–03 11,015 43,533 1.72 25.30 0.44
2003–04 11,847 44,323 1.56 26.73 0.42
2004–05 15,879 45,957 1.42 34.55 0.49
2005–06 18,460 47,522 1.29 38.85 0.50
2006–07 26,222 57,125 1.33 45.90 0.61
2007–08 32,490 70,926 1.42 45.81 0.65
2008–09 76,603 129,708 2.30 59.06 1.36
2009–10 61,264 141,351 2.19 43.34 0.95
2010–11 62,301 173,420 2.22 35.92 0.80
2011–12 70,013 217,941 2.43 32.12 0.78
2012–13 65,613 257,079 2.53 25.52 0.65
2013–14 67,971 255,516 2.25 26.60 0.60
2014–15 72,970 260,658 2.02 27.99 0.57
Sources: Compiled using data from Public Finance Statistics, Government of
India, Economic Survey and Budget Documents, various issues, Ministry of
Finance

₹ 2.75 paise for every kilowatt hour consumed. The subsidized electricity
led to excessive use of groundwater for irrigation, which contributed to a
substantial drop in the water table in some parts of the country. Irrigation
subsidies grew at 20% in the 1960s, 10% in the 1970s, 5% in the 1980s
and 1% in the 1990s. The most important point to take away from
Table 1.13 is that current subsidies have been rising steadily (although
they are well below World Trade Organization (WTO) mandated levels
and the levels in Europe and other developed countries). Combining this
with the information in Table 1.13 it is clear that there is greater emphasis
on short-term increases in revenue/output as opposed to long-term gains.
These are two important reasons why Indian agriculture is facing a con-
tinuing crisis despite registering substantial progress.
There is, therefore, a need to rationalize current subsidies and acceler-
ate investment in agriculture. These steps, together with faster develop-
ment of HYV seed suited to eastern parts of the country will lead to a
new Green Revolution in these areas. This will increase yields, raise pro-
ductivity and farmer profits. The current government has as one of its
24 R. Jha

objectives a sharp rise in farmer incomes. So, enhancement of investment

in agriculture is a desirable route to take to revitalize Indian agriculture.
Some of this investment must be in new technologies and HYV seeds as
well as agricultural research. In a speech to the Ministry of Agriculture,
famous agricultural scientist MS Swaminathan (1999) said that India’s
low agricultural yield should be treated as a “yield reservoir”, which can
be exploited to sharply increase output. Further, deeper engagement in
international trade in agriculture and agricultural-market liberalization
would result in better incentives to increase output on a sustained basis.
This could finally lead to agriculture becoming a lead sector in India’s
economic development.
For this to happen land consolidation must occur on a war footing in
India. Transparent rules for small farmers to work on large plots of land of
which their own plots will form a part will lead to economies of scale.
Sharing of work and the revenue from such operations would be key con-
cerns. Also a transparent land-leasing model should be set up so that farmers
can lease their land (without losing ownership) to firms that want to pro-
duce foodgrain as well as commercial crops. The issue of very high inequal-
ity of landholdings with large numbers of farmers with tiny landholding size
and only a few farmers with large landholding size also needs to be addressed.
Indian agriculture faces another major challenge in managing water
resources and responding to the effects of climate change. Considerable
research is called for in the area of developing sustainable water and agricul-
tural practices. Transparency in subsidy administration would be efficient
while at the same time saving the government money in administrative costs.
In particular, there needs to be a level playing field for large and small
farmers in the area of acquisition of inputs and credit. For instance, until
recently, large quantities of urea (the most commonly used fertilizer in
India) were diverted to industrial use. There have been instances of riot-
ing among small farmers who were denied this fertilizer. The innovation
of coating urea with neem has led to an abundance of urea, as neem-­
coated urea is unfit for industrial use. Similarly, small farmers have had
poor access to credit compared to large farmers. Indeed many of these
small farmers do not even have bank accounts, although the density of
banking in the rural sector has gone up considerably in recent times.
Credit availability to farmers has gone up from a very low baseline.
 Introduction and the State of Indian Agriculture 25

Table 1.14 State of indebtedness of Indian farmers in 2002–03 (% of farmers)

Small and Medium
States Marginal Small marginal and large All
Andhra Pradesh 80.3 86.9 81.9 82.7 82.0
Arunachal Pradesh 5.1 7.7 6.3 5.0 5.9
Assam 19.6 16.5 18.9 12.6 18.1
Bihar 35.7 20.8 33.9 21.4 33.0
Chhattisgarh 38.6 44.9 40.6 38.6 40.2
Gujarat 43.2 57.3 47.0 67.0 51.9
Haryana 47.8 59.4 50.2 64.0 53.1
Himachal Pradesh 32.7 35.2 33.1 39.1 33.4
Jammu and Kashmir 29.4 32.5 29.8 52.6 31.8
Jharkhand 21.1 20.5 21.0 18.5 20.9
Karnataka 58.8 65.8 60.8 64.2 61.6
Kerala 63.8 72.9 64.6 59.9 64.4
Madhya Pradesh 42.6 49.9 45.4 62.0 50.8
Maharashtra 44.9 56.9 49.3 66.7 54.8
Manipur 25.6 21.4 24.9 18.7 24.8
Meghalaya 5.0 2.8 4.5 2.3 4.0
Mizoram 22.6 29.2 24.6 19.0 23.6
Nagaland 36.9 38.8 37.5 18.6 36.5
Odisha 47.6 48.4 47.7 49.1 47.8
Punjab 58.6 75.3 62.0 77.6 65.4
Rajasthan 50.4 53.1 51.2 54.9 52.4
Sikkim 32.3 28.6 31.7 40.1 32.8
Tamil Nadu 74.5 75.5 74.6 73.5 74.5
Tripura 49.8 42.2 49.5 36.4 49.2
Uttar Pradesh 39.3 42.1 39.8 46.0 40.3
Uttarakhand 6.1 25.6 7.5 2.0 7.2
West Bengal 51.1 44.7 50.5 41.5 50.1
All India 45.8 50.8 46.8 57.8 48.6
Source: Computed using data from A Special Programme for Marginal Farmers,
National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS),
December 2008, and also computed using NSS unit level data, 59th round on
Situation Assessment Survey of Farmers, 2003
Notes: marginal: 0.002–1.00 hectares; small: 1.01–2.00 hectares; medium:
4.01–10.00 hectares; large: >10.00 hectares

In Table 1.14 I detail a snapshot of farmer indebtedness for India and

various states for 2002–03.
All categories of farmers—marginal, small, medium and large—across
all states were indebted in 2002–03 with nearly half of all farmers in debt.
The incidence of indebtedness was lowest for marginal farmers (those
owning less than 1 hectare of land) for the nation and across nearly all
26 R. Jha

states. More than anything else, this is dues to a lack of access to credit
rather than a lesser need to borrow on the part of small farmers.
Government of India (2007, 2009) and Mehrotra (2011) indicate strong
regional inequalities in credit offtake. The share of credit disbursed in the
eastern region of the country was much lower than its share in gross
cropped area, whereas the southern region with a good banking system
had a much larger share of credit and this was spread over a much larger
number of bank branches/borrowers. Credit disbursal also has a strong
seasonal component with much of the lending concentrated in March,
with some in January and February. Since this does not coincide with the
planting season it would appear that these disbursals had little to do with
the timing of actual agricultural operations and more to do with lending
out funds before the end of the financial year, March 31st.
Mohan and Ray (2017) show the overwhelming dependence of the
Indian farmer on non-institutional credit, although this dependence has
reduced over time. They show that in 2002, for which farmer debt figures
are reported in Table 1.14, only 57.1% of the credit in the rural sector
came from institutions. Cooperative societies and commercial banks
were the major contributors and it is highly likely that farmers with large
landholdings were the major beneficiaries. So far as non-institutional
sources of credit are concerned, professional moneylenders were the
major source of credit. Most of the small farmers accessing credit would
have approached these moneylenders.
Over time, however, as Mohan and Ray (2017) indicate, there has
been an improvement in the composition of credit toward institutional
sources. In 1951 a staggering 92.8% of rural credit came from non-­
institutional sources, but this had climbed down to 36% in 1991,
although it picked up again marginally in 2002, falling slightly in 2012.
This structure of rural credit has had its share of problems. For one,
small farmers have often had great difficulty in paying off their debts. As
a result, several farmers, particularly those facing long periods of drought,
experience serious problems with indebtedness. Indeed large numbers of
them have committed suicide in the face of such debt. These farmer sui-
cides are a serious policy as well as a human-welfare challenge. Press
reports indicate that there were 8000 such suicides in 2015, a particularly
bad year because of widespread drought.8 As already noted, small farmers
 Introduction and the State of Indian Agriculture 27

are a very important political constituency in India. In response to farm-

ers’ debt problems, then, the government has often had to write-off loans.
It is not clear from the data whether the debts of only the poor farmers
are written off or if all farmers with debt receive this largesse. In any case,
this development has led to the accumulation of bad debts by the bank-
ing sector (non-performing assets), which has been a drag on the econ-
omy and has exerted pressure to keep interest rates high.
To counter some of these pressures the government has set up a strong
crop insurance scheme. This would definitely help address the issue of
farmer indebtedness, but a more long-lasting solution must await sub-
stantial augmentation of farmer incomes through diversified productive
and trade activity.
The paucity of bank finance was significantly reduced when the new
Modi government implemented the policy of opening up bank accounts
for the poor—even with a zero balance. These are the so-called Jana Dhan
accounts. As of March 2017, 277 million such accounts have been
opened with ₹ 647 billion deposited in them. Only a tiny fraction of
these bank accounts have a zero balance. All serve the purpose of making
banking accessible to large sections of the Indian population. The Jana
Dhan program initiative has been recognized as the single largest initia-
tive for financial inclusion in the world. Government consumption sub-
sidies and, increasingly, production subsidies are flowing directly to them.
There has been growth in the credit offtake by small farmers and a gener-
ous crop insurance scheme has also come into operation. Thus, this wel-
come policy initiative needs to be sustained and followed through.
Further, agricultural markets through the country need to be inte-
grated more fully so that agricultural produce can be sent from surplus
markets to deficit markets. Digital technology can be very useful in this
area. However, the fact that agriculture is a state subject in the Indian
Constitution means that there could always be some residual impedi-
ment to the free flow of such produce within the country. Thus, market
integration would be aided considerably by supportive legislation in the
center and states, including the now imminent enactment of an inte-
grated goods and services tax (GST). The sales and distribution for agri-
cultural goods has also gone through a drastic change. The previous
system was non-transparent with prices privately negotiated. Naturally,
28 R. Jha

smaller farmers were put at a disadvantage because of this. This system

was replaced by an Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee, whereby
agricultural products were sold directly to wholesalers under a more com-
petitive system (Panagariya 2008).

1.5  on-traditional Developments in Indian

N
Agriculture
So far, I have discussed some key aspects of the development of Indian
agriculture. Emphasis was placed on yield growth, particularly with
respect to foodgrain, and on the state of Indian farmers, particularly small
farmers.
Kapila (2014) forcefully argues that much of future growth in Indian
agriculture would come from high-value-added items such as fruit and
vegetables, livestock and marine products. Several reasons can be cited for
this. First, these commodities have high income elasticity of demand, so
as income expands in India one would expect demand for these com-
modities to pick up. Furthermore, India has already taken some steps
toward entering the global supply chains for these commodities. This
would also raise demand for these products, and hence revenue.
The opening up of the economy to international trade also helps this
process along. Not only does a reduction of non-agricultural tariffs lead
to an improvement in the terms of trade in favor of agriculture, but also
direct trade in agricultural products has helped the growth of high-value-­
added agricultural items. As a consequence, with the Green Revolution
in foodgrain there has been a Blue Revolution in fisheries and a White
Revolution in the production of milk.
Chand (2014) carefully catalogs the improvements that have occurred
in the Indian economy in some of these areas. The trend in rate of growth
of fruit and vegetables increased from 3.79% per year during
1995–96/2003–04 to 2003–04/2011–12. Similarly, the trend in rate of
growth of livestock decreased from 4.10% to 3.43% between
1987–88/1995–96 but increased to 4.84% between 2003–04/2011–12.
Further, the trend in rate of growth in the production of fruit and vege-
tables increased from 2.64% in 1994–95/2003–04 to 6.26% in
Another random document with
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 As for Rose, she had been but a little while with the Fifields till she
began to realize the difference between that and the Blossoms.
Especially was she quick to notice the petty friction, the note of
jarring discord, that made up the atmosphere at the Fifields’. What
one wanted another was sure to object to, what one said was
immediately disputed; the sisters nagged Mr. Nathan, and he in turn
nagged his sisters. No doubt at heart they loved each other, but the
delicate consideration for each other’s wishes, and the gentle
courtesy of affection, that so brightened the Blossom home was
wholly absent here.
Another thing she could not but see was the prevailing tone of
discontent. Though the lives of Miss Fifield and Miss Eudora were
much easier than those of Miss Silence and Mrs. Patience, the one
was always complaining of the dullness of Farmdale, and the other
making bitter reflections on life in general. Had Rose come directly
from Mrs. Hagood’s all this might have escaped her notice, but her
stay in the white cottage with its sweet-spirited inmates had given
her a glimpse of a different life, an ideal that would always linger with
her.
As the two houses were not the length of the green apart Rose
was a frequent visitor at the Blossoms’. “Did your plants freeze last
night?” she asked as she came in one afternoon. “Miss Eudora lost
some of her very prettiest ones. She says it was because Mr. Nathan
didn’t fix the fire right, and he says it was because she didn’t put the
window down tight. They were quarreling over it when I came away,
and yesterday they disputed all day whether the meat bill came in
Tuesday or Wednesday.”
“There, there, Rose,” interrupted Mrs. Blossom, “you are a
member of the Fifield family now, and have no right to repeat or we
to listen to anything you may see or hear there.”
Grandmother Sweet laid down her knitting, “As thee goes through
life, Rose, thee will find many people whose lives seem not to be
ordered by the law of love; at such times always remember that
silence is not only the part of prudence but of true charity. At the
same time thee can learn to avoid the mistakes thee sees others
make.”
“Well,” Rose spoke with emphasis, “I will try to avoid the mistake
of squabbling all the time over trifles—I’m not saying that any one
does so, you know, and when I get to be an old lady I’m going to be
as gentle and lovely as Grandmother Sweet,” and she gave her a
hug and a kiss.
On her part Rose had gone to the Fifields’ with the firm resolve to
do her very best. On her first coming to the Blossoms’, while her
nerves were still keyed up in a tension of excitement, little had been
said to her in regard to the manner of her leaving Mrs. Hagood. But
after she had calmed down to her normal self Mrs. Blossom had
talked to her very seriously of the danger of yielding to passion and
impulse, and had shown her that in spite of all she had to endure
what trouble she might easily have brought on herself, and how
much worse off she might have been because of her hasty action.
So that Rose instead of thinking it a very fine, brave act to have run
away, as she was at first inclined, began to feel that it was something
to regret, and be ashamed of, and because of which she must do
exceedingly well indeed, to win and hold a high opinion.
As Rose was neat and deft, and above all anxious to please, she
soon became quite a favorite with the two middle-aged Fifield
sisters, and Miss Eudora inclined to make a confidante of her.
“So you have lived in cities most of your life?” she said one
morning as Rose was dusting her room.
“Yes, but I like the country better.”
“You do?” exclaimed Miss Eudora, pausing with a curl half
brushed, for, unlike her sister, she affected the willowy, the
languishing; she liked garments that flowed, ribbons that fluttered,
and still framed her little wrinkled face in the curls that had been the
pride of her girlhood.
“Now, I think it is perfectly delightful to live in a city. I spent a winter
in Albany, with my Aunt Morgan some years ago. What a winter that
was—” and she clasped her hands, “one round of gayety and
amusement. Aunt made a large party for me, I shall have to show
you a piece of the dress I wore. Aunt said she was proud of me that
night, and I’m sure,” with a little simper, “I had compliments enough. I
suppose,” and she gave her grey curls a toss, “it’s my own fault that
I’m not living in Albany to-day.”
“If you liked it so well why didn’t you stay?” asked Rose.
“When a young girl has the admiration I had, she doesn’t always
know what she does want. But I can tell you I made quite an
impression on Some One that evening.”
“How did you look then?” Rose was trying to imagine Miss Eudora
as a young girl.
“Oh, just as I do now,” with a complacent glance in her mirror. “I
haven’t changed as some people do. Not long ago I met a friend—
well, an old admirer, and he said he would like to know what I did to
keep myself so young; that I didn’t look any older than I did when he
first knew me. I think my hair may have something to do with that;
curls do have a youthful effect. That’s the reason, I believe, Jane is
always wanting me to put mine back.
“Jane,” and she sank her voice to a whisper, “was always plain,
and never received the admiration, or was the favorite with
gentlemen I was, and it has always made her jealous of me. But I’m
fond of my curls,” giving them a shake. “Why, I even had a poem
written on them once, and I sha’n’t put them up, at least not till I
begin to grow old.”
Rose listened in amazement. She was sure Miss Silence was
younger than Miss Eudora, her hair was not grey, nor her face
marked with such little fine lines, and neither she nor Mrs. Patience
ever talked like that. It was all very queer, and most of all that Miss
Eudora could fancy that she looked young.
“You were a long time doing the chamberwork,” Miss Fifield
remarked when Rose went downstairs. Miss Fifield was in the
kitchen baking, her scant house dress clinging to her angular figure,
and her grey hair drawn back with painful tightness.
 Rose noted the contrast between the two sisters as she answered,
“Miss Eudora was talking to me.”
“What about?” a trifle sharply.
Rose hesitated slightly. “Several things; her visit to the city for
one.”
“I’ll warrant. Perhaps you found it interesting, but when you have
heard the same story twenty-seven years, as I have, twenty-seven
years this winter, it will get to be a weariness of the flesh; that and
her lovers.” She shot a keen glance at Rose, who could not help a
giggle.
Miss Jane Fifield shook the flour from her hands with energy. “I
used to hope that Eudora would grow sensible sometime, but I’ve
about given it up. One thing I am thankful for, that there is something
inside of my head, and not all put on the outside!” and she shut the
oven door with a force that threatened danger to the lightness of the
pound cake she was baking.
 CHAPTER XVI
UNDER A CLOUD

Rose had been a few weeks at the Fifields, long enough to learn
the family ways, so that Miss Fifield felt she could leave home for a
long-planned visit. It was a stormy day, and Mrs. Patience suddenly
exclaimed, “I wonder who can be coming this way in such a hurry?
Why, I believe—yes, it is Rose, running as fast as she can. I hope
Eudora is not sick.”
Almost as she spoke the door opened and Rose rushed in, snow-
powdered and breathless; her hat blown partly off, her face wet with
tears as well as snow flakes, and her voice broken and thick with
sobs, as without giving time for any questions she burst out:
“You said it was a leading of Providence for me to go to the
Fifields’. But it wasn’t; and he says he will have me put in jail if I don’t
tell where the money is. And how can I tell when I don’t know?
Maybe God cares for some folks, but I’m sure He doesn’t for me or I
wouldn’t have so much trouble. I wish I was dead, I do!” and flinging
herself down on the well-worn lounge she buried her face in the
pillow and burst into a storm of sobs.
What did it all mean? They were equally perplexed by the mystery
and distressed by Rose’s evident grief. Mrs. Patience drew off her
things and tried to calm her with soothing words; Miss Silence
brought the camphor bottle—her remedy for all ills. But Rose only
cried the harder till Mrs. Blossom kindly, but with the authority that
comes of a calm and self-controlled nature, said, “Rose, you must
stop crying, and tell us what is the trouble.”
Then choking back her sobs Rose lifted her tear-swollen face and
exclaimed, “Oh, Mrs. Blossom, Mr. Fifield says I have taken a
hundred dollars! A hundred dollars in gold! And I don’t know one
thing more about it than you do, but he won’t believe me, and he
calls me a thief, and everybody will think I am awful, when I want to
be good, and was trying so hard to do my best. What shall I do?” and
she wrung her hands with a gesture of utter despair.
Further questioning at last brought a connected story, from which it
appeared that Nathan Fifield had a hundred dollars in gold, that from
some whim he had put for safe keeping in the parlor stove. That
morning, going around the house to tie up a loose vine, he had
glanced through the parlor window and seen Rose at the stove with
the door open. And when, his suspicion aroused, he had looked for
the money it had been to find it gone, and at once had accused Rose
of the theft.
“And he says I showed guilt when I saw him,” Rose wailed, “and I
did start, for I was frightened to see a face looking in at the window,
and with the snow on the glass I didn’t know at first who it was.”
“But what were you in the parlor, and at the stove for?” questioned
Mrs. Blossom.
“I was dusting the front hall and the parlor. Miss Fifield sweeps the
parlor once a month and I dust it every week, though I don’t see the
need, for those are all the times anybody ever goes into it. Some
feathers came out of the duster, it’s old and does shed feathers, and
I had opened the stove door to throw them in. I didn’t know there
was ever any money in a little leather bag in there; I never dreamed
of such a thing. And if I had I shouldn’t have touched it. Madam
Sharpe always trusted me with her purse, and I never took a penny
from her. I’m not a thief, if he does say that I am. But they won’t
believe me. Miss Eudora is just as certain, and I shall have to go to
jail, for I can’t tell where the money is.”
“Poor child!” and Grandmother Sweet stroked the head that had
gone down in Mrs. Patience’s lap. “It is borne on my mind,” and she
glanced around the little group, “that Rose is wholly innocent, and
that mindful of her youth and inexperience it were well for some of us
to see Neighbor Fifield if an explanation of the mystery cannot be
found.
“No,” with a wave of her hand, as both of her granddaughters
made a motion to rise, “Silence, thee is apt to be hasty and might
say more than was seemly; and Patience, thee inclines to be timid,
and might not say as much as was needful. Thy mother is the one to
go; she has both prudence and courage.”
“Oh, how good you are to me!” Rose exclaimed. “And never so
good as now! I thought you would believe me, I just felt it would kill
me if you didn’t, and now that I know you do I won’t be afraid of
anything.”
Mrs. Blossom was already wrapping herself in her cloak. “Come,
Rose, put on your things; the sooner this is sifted the better,” and
Rose, as many another had done before her, felt a new comfort and
strength in Mrs. Blossom’s strength.
They found Mr. Fifield and his sister hardly less excited than Rose.
“You cannot regret, Mrs. Blossom, any more than I do, this most
distressing occurrence,” and Mr. Nathan rubbed his flushed bald
head with his red silk handkerchief. “I would rather have given the
money twice over than have had it happen. But I must say that it is
no more than I expected when my sisters persisted, against my
judgment, in bringing into the house a girl of whose ancestors they
knew nothing, and who most likely is the child of some of the foreign
paupers who are flooding our shores. I’m sorry, though not surprised,
that it has ended as it has.”
Mr. Nathan was really troubled and sorry, as he said, but he could
not help a spark of self-satisfaction that he had been proven in the
right and his sisters in the wrong. As for Miss Eudora, keenly
mortified at the turn matters had taken, her former friendliness to
Rose only increased her present indignation.
“It’s not only the loss of the money,” she exclaimed, “but the
ingratitude of it, after all our kindness to her, and I gave her my pink
muffler; she never could have done what she has if she had not
been really hardened.”
“But what proof have you that she took the money?” asked Mrs.
Blossom. “As you say she is a stranger to us all, a friendless,
homeless orphan, whose condition is a claim to our charity as well
as our generosity.”
 “Proof,” echoed Mr. Nathan. “Pretty plain proof I should call it, and
I’ve served three terms as Justice of the Peace. Last Saturday the
money was safe in its place of concealment. This morning I
surprised her there and her confusion on discovery was almost
evidence enough of itself. When I look for the package it is gone,
and during this time not a soul outside the immediate family has
been in the house. I regret the fact, but every circumstance points to
her as the guilty one.”
“For all that,” Mrs. Blossom’s voice was calmly even, “I believe
there is some mistake. At the Refuge they told Patience they had
always found her truthful and honest, and while she was with us we
never saw anything to make us doubt that she was perfectly trusty. I
did not even know of her meddling with what she ought not to.”
“Oh, she’s a sly one,” and Mr. Nathan rubbed his head harder than
before. “She has taken us all in—and that includes myself, and
inclines me still more to the belief that this is not her first offence;
and also to the opinion that she should be promptly dealt with.”
“At the same time I hope,” urged Mrs. Blossom, “that you will do
nothing hastily. Imprisonment is a terrible thing for a young girl like
Rose, and might blast her whole life. Time makes many things clear,
and it is always better to err on the side of mercy than of justice.”
“Certainly, certainly. And I do not know,” lowering his voice so it
might not reach Rose, “that I should really send her to jail; but the
law—” and he waved his hand with his most magisterial air, “the law
must be a terror to evil-doers. If not, what is law good for? We might
as well not have any, and my social as well as my official position
demands that I enforce it.”
“And she deserves to be well punished, if ever any one did.” Miss
Eudora gave an indignant shake to her curls as she spoke. “And I
was just thinking of giving her the blue cashmere I had when I went
to Albany. Jane is always complaining of what she calls my ‘shilly-
shally’ ways, and finding fault with my lack of decision, and I feel that
at whatever cost to myself I must be firm in this. Though nobody
knows what a shock it has been to my nerves.”
 “Besides,” triumphantly added Mr. Nathan Fifield, who felt that he
was on the defensive before Mrs. Blossom, and holding up as he
spoke an old-fashioned, richly chased gold locket, “here is further
evidence. While Rose was gone Eudora made an examination of her
effects and this is what she found concealed in a pincushion. Now I
leave it to you if it looks reasonable that a child in her position would
have a valuable trinket like that; or if she had, would keep it hidden?”
When they entered the house Mrs. Blossom had told Rose to stay
in another room, but through the partly opened door she caught a
glimpse of the locket as it swung from Mr. Nathan’s fingers.
“That is mine!” she cried, darting in. “My very own, and it was my
mother’s. What right have you with it, I should like to know? And why
isn’t it stealing for you to go and take my things?”
“Hush, Rose!” Mrs. Blossom reproved. And then her faith in Rose
a little shaken in spite of herself, “If the locket is yours, as you say,
why did you never tell us about it? And why did you hide it so?”
“Why, I never once thought of it,” she answered, looking frankly up
at Mrs. Blossom. “I don’t think the locket is pretty at all, it is so queer
and old-fashioned, and I don’t even know whose picture is inside. All
the reason I care for it is because it was my mother’s. And I sewed it
up in that pincushion, which one of the teachers at the Refuge gave
me, because I was afraid if Mrs. Hagood saw the locket she might
take it away from me.”
“I wonder if this could have been her mother’s father,” for Mrs.
Blossom’s mind at once turned to the subject she had thought of so
often—that of Rose’s family.
“There was a chain to the locket once, but I broke and lost that. I
remember that mamma used sometimes to let me wear it, and it
seems to me she said it was Uncle Samuel’s picture, but I’m not
sure.”
“It certainly is a good face.” And Mrs. Blossom held out the open
locket to Miss Eudora, who as she took it let it drop from her fingers
that the unwonted excitement had made tremulous. In striking the
floor a spring was pressed to a compartment behind the picture, and
as Mr. Nathan Fifield stooped to pick it up a piece of closely folded
paper fell out.
Mrs. Blossom hastily spread this out, and found it the marriage
certificate of Kate Jarvis and James Shannon, dated at Fredonia, N.
Y., some sixteen years before. “Here is a clue to Rose’s family,” she
exclaimed, as they all clustered about the bit of time-yellowed paper,
forgetting for the moment the cloud that rested so heavily over Rose.
“It surely should be,” responded Mr. Nathan.
“I shall write to Fredonia at once,” continued Mrs. Blossom. “And
as the minister whose name is signed may in the meantime have
died or moved away, my best course would be to write first to the
postmaster for information, would it not?”
 “Here is a clue to Rose’s family.”—Page 216.

“That is what I should advise.” Squire Nathan was never so happy

as when giving advice. “It might be well to inclose a letter to the
minister, and also a copy of the marriage certificate. If Rose has any
relatives living she ought to trace them by this. Though whether she
is likely to prove any credit to her family or not is doubtful,” he added,
recalling with a frown the fact that she was a suspected criminal.
“I have faith in her that she will.” Mrs. Blossom’s tone was decided.
“And if you are willing to let matters rest for the present I will, if you
have no objections, take Rose home with me.”
“I shall be only too glad to have you, for my part.” Miss Eudora’s
tone was fervent. “After what has happened I don’t feel that I could
endure her in the house another day.”
“And of course I shall consider you responsible for her
safekeeping,” added Mr. Nathan. “She admits that she ran away
once; she may do so again.”
“No, I won’t, you need not be afraid.” Rose’s voice was trembling,
but she held it firm.
“For you understand,” with emphasis, “that I am not dropping the
matter of the missing money, but only, at your request, passing it
over for the present. I will repeat, however, that if Rose will confess
and return the money, no one but ourselves shall ever know of it. If
she does not I shall feel myself constrained, much as I may regret
the necessity, to resort to more severe measures,” and he blew his
nose with a great flourish of his red silk handkerchief by way of
emphasis.
 CHAPTER XVII
SUNSHINE AGAIN

So absorbed was Rose in her trouble that she took little or no

interest in the attempt to discover her family, or the discussions that
took place in the Blossom household as to its probable result. “I don’t
believe I have any relatives,” she said indifferently, “or they would
have looked after me when my mother and father died. And even if I
have they wouldn’t want to own any one accused of stealing.”
That was the burden of all her thoughts; she woke in the morning
to a sense of overwhelming calamity, and went to sleep at night with
its pressure heavy on her heart. When Grandmother Sweet had
mildly questioned if in the discovery of the marriage certificate she
did not see the hand of Providence, she had replied, with the
irritability of suffering, that she didn’t believe in Providence at all. “I
might,” she had added, “if that money could be found; I sha’n’t till
then.”
For to Rose the executioner’s sword had not been lifted, only
stayed for the time. Visions of arrest and imprisonment were
constantly before her, all the more terrifying that the vagueness of
her knowledge as to their realities left ample room for her
imagination. “How can I tell where the money is when I don’t know?”
was the question she repeated over and over. “And you know what
he said he would do if I didn’t tell?”
She refused to go to school for fear her schoolmates had heard of
her disgrace. She cried till she was nearly blind, and fretted herself
into a fever, till Mrs. Blossom, fearing she would make herself really
sick, talked to her seriously on the selfishness as well as the harm of
self-indulgence, even in grief, and the duty as well as the need of
self-control.
Rose had never thought of her conduct in that light before, and left
alone she lay for a long time, now thoroughly aroused from her
morbid self-absorption, and looking herself, as it were, fully in the
face. The fire crackled cheerily in the little stove, the sunshine came
in at the window of the pleasant, low chamber, on the stand by her
bed were a cup of sage tea Grandmother Sweet had made for her, a
glass of aconite Mrs. Patience had prepared, and a dainty china
bowl of lemon jelly Miss Silence had brought to tempt if possible her
appetite. Mute evidence, each and all of kindly affection, that
touched Rose and filled her with a sense of shame that she had
made such poor return for all that had been done for her.
Rising with a sudden impulse, she went to the little glass, pushed
back the tumbled hair from her tear-swollen face, and sternly took
herself to task. “I’m ashamed of you, I am indeed, that after you have
been taken into this home, and cared for, you should be so
ungrateful as to make every one in it uncomfortable now, because
you happen to be in trouble; and should have shown yourself as
disagreeable, and selfish, and thoughtless as you have. Not one of
them would have done so, you may be sure; and if you ever expect
to grow into a woman that people will respect and love as they do
Grandmother Sweet, or Mrs. Blossom, or Miss Silence, or Mrs.
Patience, you must learn to control yourself. And now, to begin, you
must brush your hair, bathe your eyes, go downstairs and do as you
ought to do. I know it will be pretty hard, but you must do it.”
It was hard. With a morbid self-consciousness that every one
could not but know of her trouble she had hidden, shrinking from the
village folk who so often came in; she was so weak that as she
crossed the room she had to put her hand against the wall to steady
her steps; and now that she was making the effort to rouse herself
she began to see the luxury it had been to be perfectly wretched. But
Rose resisted the temptation to throw herself again on the bed; she
crept steadily, if somewhat weakly, downstairs, and made a brave
attempt at smiling. With a guilty sense of all the opportunities for
making herself useful she had neglected, she took up a stitch in her
knitting Grandmother Sweet had dropped; overcast some velvet for
Mrs. Patience, who was in a hurry with a bonnet; and that done
helped Miss Silence set the table and make supper ready.
 They all saw the struggle Rose was making and helped her by
keeping her mind as much as possible off from herself. And though
that missing money still hung its dark shadow over her, and she
started at every step outside with the sinking fear that it might be
some one coming to arrest her, when she went to her room that night
Grandmother Sweet patted her cheek as she kissed her good-night
and whispered, “Thee has done bravely, Rose,” an unspoken
approval she read in the manner of the others. More than that, she
was surprised to find her heart lighter than she would have thought
possible a few hours before.
To keep steadily on in the way she had marked out for herself was
anything but easy during those days of suspense and anxiety. To
hold back the lump that was always threatening to rise in her throat,
the tears from springing to her eyes; to keep a cheerful face when
her heart would be sinking down, down; to feel an interest in the
concerns of others when her own seemed to swallow up everything
else. But it was her first step in a habit of conscious self-discipline
that she never forgot, and that helped her to meet many an after
hour of trial.
So something over a week went by, for though Mrs. Blossom had
seen Mr. Nathan Fifield several times the mystery was as much of a
mystery as the first day, and in spite of all Mrs. Blossom could urge
both he and Miss Eudora seemed to grow the more bitter toward
Rose. Nor had there come any answer to the letters of inquiry sent to
Fredonia. Every possible theory having been exhausted in both
cases, the subjects had come to be avoided by a tacit consent.
While as to the matter of the marriage certificate, that had made so
little impression on Rose’s mind that she was less disappointed than
the others in regard to it. Mrs. Blossom did not fail to pray daily at
family devotions that the truth they were seeking might be revealed,
and innocence established, and she moved around with the serene
manner of one who has given over all care to a higher power. But
though Rose was unconsciously sustained by a reliance on that
strong faith she did not pray for herself. A hopeless apathy chilled
her. There might be a God, it didn’t matter much to her, for if there
was she was an alien to His love, and she knew she was that for all
the rest might say.
But one afternoon Rose saw a little procession—Mr. Nathan Fifield
and his two sisters, in single file, crossing the now snow-covered
common in the direction of Mrs. Blossom’s. All her fears revived at
the sight. She sprang up, her eyes dilated, her face flushing and
paling. “There they come!” she cried. “I knew they would. They are
going to put me in prison, I know they are! Oh, don’t let them take
me away! Don’t let them!” and she threw herself down beside Miss
Silence and hid her face in her lap as if for safety.
Silence put her strong arms about the trembling form. “Sit up,
Rose,” she said in a matter-of-fact tone, “and wait till you see what
there is to be afraid of.”
By the time Rose had struggled back to outward calmness the
visitors had entered; Mr. Nathan, his face almost as red as the red
silk handkerchief he waved in his hand; Miss Eudora dissolved in
tears; and Miss Fifield with an expression of mingled vexation and
crestfallen humility.
There was a moment’s awkward silence, broken by Mr. Nathan in
an abrupt and aggravated tone. “I’ve come to explain a mistake I
have been led into by women’s meddling and—”
“You needn’t include me,” interrupted Miss Eudora. “You know I
wouldn’t have said what I did if you hadn’t made me feel that we
were in danger of being murdered in our beds, and I hadn’t thought
Jane would be always blaming me if I didn’t use decision. Nobody
can tell how painful it has been for me to do what I have. I don’t
know when my nerves will recover from the strain, and I’ve lost flesh
till my dresses are so loose they will hardly hang on me. I’m sure I
never dreamed that Jane—”
“Oh, yes, lay all the blame you can on Jane,” rejoined that lady
grimly. “It isn’t often you get the chance, so both of you make the
best of it. I’m sure when I went away I never dreamed that you were
going to get in a panic and act like a pair of lunatics, particularly a
strong-minded man like Nathan. I never was so astonished as when
I reached home on the stage to-day and found out what had
happened. Eudora says she wrote me about it, but if she did she
must have forgotten to put the State on; she always does, and the
letter may be making the round of the Romes of the whole country;
or else Nathan is carrying it in his pocket yet—he never does
remember to mail a letter.”
“If I were you I wouldn’t say anything about remembering, now or
for some time to come,” snapped her brother.
“Friends,” Grandmother Sweet’s voice was serenely calm, “if thee
will refrain from thy bickering and explain what thee means, it will be
clear to our minds what doubtless thee wishes us to know.”
While Rose, unable longer to restrain her impatience, exclaimed,
“Oh, tell us, have you found who stole the money?”
“That is just what I want to do if I can have a chance,” and Mr.
Fifield glared at Jane and Eudora. Then to Rose, “No, we haven’t
found who stole the money,” and as her face paled he hastened to
add, “because, in fact, the money was not stolen at all.”
“Where—what—” cried his eager listeners, while Rose drew a long
breath of infinite relief and sank back in her chair trembling, almost
faint with the joyful relaxation after the long strain of anxiety.
“Jane,” Mr. Nathan continued, rubbing his head till every hair stood
up, “simply saw fit to remove the money from the place where she
knew I was in the habit of keeping it, without even letting me know
what she had done.”
“You see,” explained Miss Fifield, feeling herself placed on the
defensive and determined to maintain it boldly, “I had just read of a
man who kept his money in a stove, and one day some one built a
fire and burned it all up, so I felt a stove was not a very safe hiding-
place.”
“Well,” snorted Mr. Nathan, “as there hasn’t to my certain
knowledge been a fire in that parlor stove for the last four years, I
don’t think there was much danger, to say nothing of the fact that
gold will not burn.”
 “But it will melt,” triumphantly. “Besides, I have been told that when
burglars go into a house under carpets and in stoves are among the
first places they look. For these reasons I changed it to a trunk under
a pile of papers in the store-room. I intended to have told Nathan
what I had done, but in the hurry of getting away I did forget. But I
should have thought that before accusing any one they would have
waited to see what I knew about the matter.”
“You say so much about my being forgetful that I didn’t suppose
you ever did such a thing as to forget,” growled Mr. Nathan. And
Eudora added, “And her mind’s always on what she is doing. She
has so little patience with mistakes I never thought of her being the
one to blame.”
“At any rate,” retorted Miss Fifield, “I don’t lose my glasses a
dozen times a day. And I don’t put things in the oven to bake and get
to mooning and let them burn up. I admit I was in fault about this,
and I am as sorry as I can be for the trouble it has made, and most
of all for the unjust suspicion it has brought on Rose; but, fortunately,
no one but ourselves is aware of this, and I don’t know as it will
make matters any better to harp on it forever.”
In fact, it needed no words to tell that the Fifields were not only
heartily sorry for what had happened, but decidedly ashamed. For
every one had been touched in the way to be felt most keenly;
Squire Fifield in that he had been proven unjust and mistaken in his
opinion, Miss Eudora that she had been hard-hearted, and Miss
Fifield that she had failed in memory and laid herself open to blame.
This blow at the especial pride of each, made them, while really glad
that Rose had been proved innocent, for the moment almost wish
that she or some one could at least have been guilty enough to have
saved them the present irritation of chagrin and humiliation.
Perhaps unconsciously something of this showed itself in Mr.
Nathan’s manner as he said: “Yes, Rose, we deeply regret that we
have wrongfully accused you—though I must still say that under the
circumstances we seemed justified in doing so, and I hope you will
accept this as a compensation for the trouble it has made you,” and
he dropped a couple of gold eagles in her lap.
 Rose’s cheeks crimsoned. “I don’t want any such money,” she
cried hotly, flinging the gold coins to the floor. “Because I was poor
and hadn’t any home or friends you thought I must be a liar and a
thief. If you had said as though you’d meant it that you were sorry for
the way you had treated me it would have been all I asked. I don’t
ask to be paid for being honest. It’s an insult for you to offer to, and
I’d beg before I’d touch it, I would!”
“Rose, Rose!” reproved Mrs. Blossom, who had been unable to
check the indignant torrent. “I trust you will overlook the way Rose
has spoken,” she hastened to say. “This last week has been a great
strain on her, and her nerves are in a condition that she is hardly
responsible.” As she spoke she gave a warning glance at Silence,
from the expression of whose face she knew that she approved of
Rose’s action, and was fearful would endorse it in words; at the
same time Mrs. Patience looked at Rose in amazement that she
should dare thus to provoke Nathan Fifield’s well-known irascible
temper, and all present waited for the explosion they expected would
follow.
But contrary to their expectation after a moment’s amazement he
began to laugh. “She’ll do,” he said to Mrs. Blossom with a nod of
approval. “Grit like that will pull through every time, and she’s got it
about right, too. Upon my word,” rubbing his hands as if at a sudden
idea, “if no one else puts in a claim I will be tempted to adopt her
myself. I believe an education wouldn’t be wasted, and with her
spunk I’d like to see what she would make.”
One good thing about Rose’s temper was that though fiery its
flame was quickly spent, and penitence was almost sure to swiftly
follow wrath. It was so in this case; hardly had he ceased speaking
when a meek little voice was heard, “I didn’t do right at all, Mr. Fifield,
to talk to you as I did, and I hope you’ll forgive me?”
“Well, my dear,” was the answer, “I didn’t do right either in being so
ready to think evil of you, in being on the lookout for something
wrong, as I was, and I hope you’ll forgive me?”
“And me, too,” sobbed Miss Eudora. “I never was hard on anybody
before in my life, and I’m sure I never will be again.”
 “And now,” observed Miss Fifield drily, “I suppose I ought to ask to
be forgiven for being the guilty one.”
“Oh, Miss Fifield,” and Rose caught her hand, “we all forget things;
I know I tried you lots of times by forgetting. It wasn’t—I suppose—
strange they should have thought as they did, but it’s all right now.
And please promise me, Mr. Fifield and Miss Eudora, that you will let
it all go, and never say anything unpleasant to Miss Fifield about it.”
“Why, child!” cried Mr. Nathan, as if astonished at the idea, “I
wouldn’t say anything unpleasant to my sisters, I never do. Of course
I have to hold them level now and then, but I don’t know as I ever
spoke a really unpleasant word to them in my life.”
“Yes,” Miss Fifield’s tone was complacent, “that is one of the things
I have always been thankful for, that we were a perfectly harmonious
family. I don’t deny that I am tried sometimes with Nathan and
Eudora, but I never let them know it.”
“I have my trials, too,” added Miss Eudora with a pensive shake of
her little grey curls, “but I bear them in silence. Family squabbles are
so disgraceful that I don’t see how a person of refinement could ever
take part in one.”
Rose stared round-eyed from one to another speaker, and Silence
Blossom turned her face away for a moment; but Grandmother
Sweet smiled gently, for she had long ago learned how seldom it is
that people know their own faults, or see themselves as others see
them.
As they were leaving Miss Fifield turned to Rose. “Of course we
shall want you to come back to us. When will that be?”
“Not just at present,” Mrs. Blossom hastened to answer. “First of
all she must have time to rest and get back to her usual self.” Rose
lifted grateful eyes, for at that moment it didn’t seem to her that she
could enter the Fifield house again.
At the door Miss Eudora paused. “And you haven’t heard anything
yet about her people? Finding the marriage certificate in the locket
was just like a story. And if she should prove to be an heiress how