The Indian Society of Agricultural Economics. Proceedings of the First Conference Held at Delhi February 24th and 25th 1940

it is impossible to deal with the question of livestock improvment in this country without taking note of the essential fact that the cow is sacred to the Hindus and the pig is an unclean animal for another very important section of the people We are also familiar with the prejudices about the rearing of poultry. [...] Even in the past when the peasant was much less concerned with his rights than he is today the volcano has not always slumbered—witness the Moplah rebellion in the south and the Red Shirt movement in the north and the no-rent campaigns in Oudh and Bihar. [...] Some Governments have already taken steps to revive the panchayat and the results achieved in the Punjab in the north and in Mysore in the south to take but two examples encourage the hope that with patience and sympathy the panchayat may in time become a valuable bulwark to the village. [...] In Orissa the excessive fragmentation of proprietory interests is considered serious in some districts but the law of succession the complex and varying character of rights in lands and the difference in the productive capacity of the soils are held to militate against the consolidation of holdings. [...] The discussion of the subject is very often confused by a reference to the size of the total holdings and the arguments which are urged regarding the operation of the law of inheritance and the pressure of population on land really relate to the problem of economic holding and not fragmentation.