India's Share in World part played by India in the world's business may be judged from the following table of exports and imports. The first noteworthy fact is that India does not supply the world with much food. If we omit tea, coffee, spices, opium and tobacco, India in 1919-1920 supplied foreign countries with only about 50 million dollars' worth of real food. Canada, with only nine million people against India's 315 million, supplied over 500 million dollars' worth of food. In other words the value of the average Canadian in supplying the rest of the world with food is about three hundred times as great as that of the average Indian.
Another noteworthy fact is India's large export of raw cotton, oil seeds (chiefly for linseed oil), and jute. But compared with the popu lation these quantities are small. Texas, with 42 million people, pro duces just about the same amount of cotton as all India. Hides and skins are a fairly abundant Indian product because India has a huge number of cattle. Nevertheless, India exports only a trifle more than Italy, not much over half as many as Argentina with its 8 million people, and less than the one small country of Belgium imports each year. The lac of India, although of relatively small value, is inter esting as a gum secreted by insects and used in varnishes.
The manufactures exported from India are practically limited to the twisted fiber and thread of jute and cotton, or to coarse fabrics made from those products. By far the larger part is destined to be further manufactured in Europe before it reaches the final consumer. Thus three-fourths of India's exports consist of cotton, jute, oil seeds, and tea, either unmanufactured or only slightly and coarsely manufactured.
As to imports, if India does not supply the rest of the world with food, she at least demands little from outsiders except sugar. Her demands for raw materials are still more modest, except in the case of metals, which means chiefly iron. The imports that India wants are clothing, chiefly cotton, but some silk; and a relatively small amount of machinery, railway equipment, and automobiles, together with from one to three cents' worth per person of paper, books, glassware, drugs, soap, and the like.
The Reasons for India's Scanty reasons why India plays so inactive a part in business may be partly racial, but they are probably much more economic and social. The tropical rice farmer described in Chapter XII represents millions of Indians, who have little energy, ambition, or education, who live so closely packed that they can scarcely get a good living from the soil no matter how competent they are, and who have practically no industry except agriculture.
The people of India, however, display great differences because derived from many immigrant stocks. The quick energy of the Sikhs in battle is famous, as is the anemic lassitude of the slender Bengali. Great business capacity and high mechanical ability are rare, although small groups are very competent, and many Bengalis, for example, are good traders. The Parsis of Bombay, a remnant of the Fire Worshippers who were driven from the towns of Persia, are uncommonly good business men. They are active in the cotton and jute industries, two of the few lines where a moderate amount of manufacturing has been started. Some of the upper caste Brahmins are intellectually of high caliber. Men like the poet Tagore command respect everywhere. Yet even in such men imagination, poetic instinct, and the power to philosophize are usually more highly developed than are the qualities of steady, labori ous work and the painstaking scrutiny of facts which are necessary, in modern science, or the power of quick decision and energetic action which are especially needed in modern business.
One of the greatest hindrances to the economic development of India is repeated famines. India depends almost wholly on the soon rains which begin anywhere from April in the south to June in thl north, and last till September or October. If the rains are delayed o do not last long enough, as happens frequently, the crops may fail Such calamities not only kill millions of people through hunger and th fevers that usually follow, but also check the accumulation of capita In the extremity of famine the poor peasants and many of the townsmc sell anything. Worse still, they acquire a hopeless spirit of resignatio which is fatal to progress. Their great idea is not so much to improve their farms and increase their working capital, as to lay aside coins and jewelry which can be sold in time of famine, but which have Hale value in stimulating industry, commerce, and other forms of business. Under the tutelage of Great Britain, India's business is indeed increasing, but the character of the people does not yet seem to be appreciably changing. It is doubtful whether it will ever change until disease, malnutrition, and anemia are eliminated and education has a chance to develop amo a people free from physical handicaps.