n which righteousness is all but lost. Hindu law has conserved the
past--it exalts past observances above those of the present. Under such a
system all innovations are out of place, individual ambitions are crushed.
To resemble their ancestors is the _summum bonum_ of their life.

The inhabitants of that land are a rural people. Unlike western countries,
India has very few large towns. Nine-tenths of the whole population live
in villages of less than 5,000, four-fifths live in villages of under
1,000 inhabitants. The average village of India today contains 363
inhabitants. During the last few years the tendency has been towards
towns. But the large increase in the population is still to be seen in
rural regions. In India two-thirds of the villages have less than 200
inhabitants each, while 1,000 have from 5,000 to 10,000 inhabitants.
Notwithstanding this fact, the population, in some parts of the country,
is very dense. The whole of Bengal furnishes 360 persons to the square
mile, and in the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh the total per square
mile rises to 416.

Owing to modern methods of sanitation, to peace and to general prosperity,
the population has grown and is growing rapidly.(2) There is already one
person to every two acres of land in the country; and under the British
Government the prosperity of India is largely measured by the growth of
the population; and this in turn seriously increases the difficulty of
providing for the wants of the people. Indeed it has become one of the
hardest problems which confronts the Indian government; and the difficulty
is considerably enhanced by the religion of the country which demands that
every man and woman marry and add to the population, regardless of any
question as to health or even sanity. In India the first privilege and
duty of man and woman is supposed to be the propagation of their kind.

3. Economic Conditions.

One of the most marked characteristics of India is its poverty. The
people, as a whole, have always been extremely poor. There has been some
wealth in the land; but it has not been evenly distributed. While a few
nabobs have enjoyed immense treasures, the people, as a whole, have
grovelled in the lowest depth of penury and want. There is better
distribution of wealth today than ever before; and yet the poverty of the
masses continues to be a serious feature of the land. "Its finance lies at
the base of every difficulty connected with our Indi