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sardar, who thus, if he wishes to exercise them, has all
the privileges of a money-lender. Again, if for any reason
such as sickness the coolie does not work, though he
may still draw his living allowance, his debt to the sardar
remains or increases and payment is correspondingly delay-
ed. As a result many coolies remain for years drawing
merely a "living allowance" instead of their pay.
(4) Under existing conditions "sickness" is not a mere occa-
sional occurrence, but a condition to which the non-
immune coolie is almost necessarily liable. Whilst sick
the coolie is "provided for by his sardar" and since
his sardar draws commission for his work and gains by his
pay, it may be presumed that the sardar desires the man's
recovery; but it is by no means probable that the sardar
understands the necessity of a physiologically adequate
diet or the value of proper treatment for sickness. Again
no doubt a man draws his living allowance more or less as
usual when first sick, but if his disability is frequent or ha
does not rapidly recover, his sardar must eventually reduce
his allowance. The man is perhaps a loss to the sardar,
he is anĉmic, apathetic, useless, so the sardar has to de-
cide whether he is worth keeping or not. Under the pre-
sent system there is nothing to prevent the sardar definite-
ly cutting such a man adrift, a case not imaginary though
of course representing the worst that may happen. In
ordinary cases the train of events ends in a semi-apathetic
state of the labourer and his loss to the garden as an active
worker.
(5) The coolie is not always endowed with the foresight neces-
sary to make him endeavour energetically to work off his
advance against perhaps his own physical disinclination.
And once he realizes that his indebtedness is indefinitely
bound upon him, his object becomes to do sufficient work
to satisfy his sardar and earn just a little more than his
living allowance, for if he earns more than this it is not he
who benefits but the sardar.