parts; the first part is India’s main source of income, the second part is India’s main source of poverty and the last part is what poverty cause to the people.
4.1.1.1. India’s Main Source of Income
India is a poor nation. The average income of the Indians during 1960s- 1970s was 80 a year. Agriculture provided nearly half of the India’s national
income. About seven of every adult Indian both men and women were farmers 1971: 106f.
India’s income really depends on agriculture. This is indicated by Lapierre’s statement which tells that five hundred or so million inhabitants of India
are farmers. One of the main characters of the novel, Hasari Pal, is also a farmer. Thus, if the harvest production is low, it will influence India’s national income and of
course it will influence all farmers’ income. Here is Lapierre’s statement about the amount of Indian people who work as a farmer:
“Yet thirty-two-year-old Hasari Pal was merely a peasant, one of the five hundred or so million inhabitants of India who were looking to the goddess
Earth for their livehood”.p.8
Not all of Indian farmers have their own land. Indian farmers who do not have farmland worked for zamindars or landlords. Some large Indian farms belong to
landlords 1971: 106f. These lands do not cultivate the farms by themselves but they pay some agricultural laborers to cultivate their farms.
Lapierre also explains that only a few Indian farmers who have their own land. These farmers without land usually work as agriculture laborers for zamindars.
He also states that most of these Indian farmers are poor. They cannot earn much money. Generally the wage from zamindar is not enough for buying food during a
month. Although some farmers have farmlands, they commonly have only small farms. Usually, the production of harvests is not enough to feed the whole family.
This condition is stated by Lapierre in chapter 1: “Such labor then earned only three rupees about thirty U.S. cents a day a
portion of puffed rice and six bidis-a very slim cigarettes made out of tobacco rolled up in leaf.” p.15
Lapierre writes in the novel that the Pals work for zamindar while they wait for the next harvest. Actually, the Pals own their own farm, but they still have to be
agricultural laborer because the harvest from their farm is not enough to feed the entire family, this conditioned described by Lapierre in chapter 3:
“While they waited for the next harvest the men would have to hire out the services to the zamindar, a very aleatory employment, which provided at best
four or five days of work per month, but most of the time only a few hours.” p.15
Besides working as agricultural laborers, farmers without land in India also
work as sharecroppers. They hire the land from zamindars, and then they share the harvest for the payment. Lapierre writes that Prodip Pal and his sons become
sharecroppers in chapter two: “To make up the deficit, Prodip Pal and his sons managed to sharecrop
another plot of land. Although some owners demanded three quarters of the harvest in payment, Prodip was able to retain half of it.”p.9
4.1.1.2. India’s Main Cause of Poverty
