Darkest India: A Supplement to General Booth's "In Darkest England, and the Way Out"Booth-Tucker, Frederick St. George De Lautour
History
Darkest India: A Supplement to General Booth's "In Darkest England, and the Way Out"
Booth-Tucker, Frederick St. George De Lautour
India -- Social conditions; Poor -- India
It may be objected that if we undertake to sell food at lower than the
ordinary market rates, we shall interfere with the legitimate operations
of trade. But to this we would answer that the same objection would be
still more true in regard to charitable doles, which are given for
nothing. And further, we shall fix our prices with a view to covering
the actual cost of the food, so that there will not be any probability
of our interfering with ordinary market rates. Besides, should there be
any very serious difficulty of the kind, we could always make a rule
limiting the food sold at these depôts to those who came under the
operation of the other branches of our social reform.
At the outset it would probably be wisest to avoid all caste
complications by confining ourselves entirely to uncooked food, leaving
the people to do their own cooking, but it is very probable that before
long we should be forced to undertake the preparation of cooked food. We
should of course pay due regard in this respect to the customs of the
various castes, religions and nationalities concerned. To a Hindoo for
instance it would be extremely disagreeable to eat out Of the same dish
as others, while Mahommedans, as one said to me the other day, only
enjoy the meal the more, when others are sitting round the platter.
These, however, are subordinate details which would largely settle
themselves as we went along. Food in some shape or form, the destitute
must have, good in quality and sufficient in quantity, and if they
prefer it uncooked this will save us trouble, whereas if cooking becomes
necessary we shall have another industry for the employment of many
hands. Meanwhile the fact that nearly every native of the poorer castes,
be it man, woman, or even child, knows how to cook their own food, is
likely to be of no little help in settling the question of the food
supply.
CHAPTER VI.
WORK FOR ALL, OR THE LABOUR YARD.
But it may next be asked, what we shall do in the case of those who have
no money with which to buy their food, even at the reduced rates we
would propose? To this we would reply that such will be expected to
perform a reasonable amount of work, in return for which they will be
given tickets entitling them to obtain food from the depôts just
referred to.
In order to do this we shall establish labour yards, where we shall
provide work of a suitable character for the destitute. This will
involve very little expense, as sheds of a cheap description will answer
our purpose, there being no necessity for providing against the
inclement weather which adds so greatly to the expense and difficulty of
carrying on such operations in England.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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