6 / அயோத்திதாசர் சிந்தனைகள்
limits what the state of the surrounding villages, outside the Municipal limits, which are peopled by this race will be, is easily imagined.
To add to their misery, two or three arrack shops or toddy shops are opened near every village peopled by this race, and the poor men are tempted to drink away their meagre earnings for which they labour hard, and to starve their wives and children. But where can they get the sense to see their own folly and aim at bettering their wretched condition? It is essentially reason that enables man to better his condition and obtain happiness. But the means of developing this greatest of human excellencies are riches, bodily health and learning, which are the 3 things that these people stand greatly in need of. With a mind doomed to ignorance they cannot think otherwise than that all the benefits of a Municipality — viz, clean metalled roads, good cemented drainage and 2 or 3 fine water pipes in every street are reserved for the high caste men, who occupy high and spacious homes, and the low caste men, who are confined to low and humble cottages, cannot claim such privileges, even though they regularly pay the taxes levied by the Municipality or other authorities.
Seventhly - Among the members of this community who live in the surrounding villages, those who till the ground for others, though they work hard under a tropical sun from early morning to dusk in the evening, can hardly get more than a rupee or two per month. This hardly suffices to keep them alive and clothe them. In consequence they are reduced to mere skeletons. Though they thus work hard and conscientiously for their masters, the caste men give them in return not even permission to draw fine drinking water from their wells. These unhappy people are forced to drink filthy rain water which collects itself into ponds and pools and to fall victims to various diseases. The rest of them, who leaving their abodes in the villages enter a town to seek a living, take up appointments as domestic servants under Europeans and receive wages from 6 to 12 rupees a month. But as they are wanted to dress cleanly and to keep themselves neat and tidy, the pay is, in majority of cases, scarce sufficient to procure them food and necessary clothing, and they can save almost nothing for future use. God only knows the hardships they and their families undergo on account of food and clothing, in the interval between quitting an appointment and getting another. In this state they continue to serve their European masters faithfully and diligently and also share their pleasures and sorrows even from the time of their arrival from Europe. They work daily from 6 in the morning to 10 or 12 in the night thus awaking for several hours every day. Sometimes they have to perform along with their masters long and tedious journeys through jungles and across mountains, and to accompany their masters even as far as England. Though in this manner they serve their masters faithfully through weal and woe, they can get nothing to support them in their old age and by continual starvation they meet death at last. Neither are they in a position to educate their children. Their masters always keep knocking about from place to place, stopping, for instance, for 6 months in Madras, 6 months at Ooty, 2 months at Cuddapah, 4 months at Salem, and so on. They (servants) are unable to leave their children behind to remain always in one place getting education, as they have no money to meet the expenses in the shape of food and clothing, school fees and books, required for their children. So they take their wives and children
