Life In The Village

Milton, in his L’Allegro, gives us a pleasant picture of life in a village. Though he speaks of England, his description with minor changes is true of villages all over the world. A man in the village gets up early in the morning with the welcoming song of birds. He greets the sun as it rises in the state on the eastern horizon. He listens to the song of the peasant and watches the cow-herd drive his herds to pasture. In the afternoon, the ‘neat-handed’ farmer’s wife serves her husband with a simple meal she herself has cooked.

“He sits him down, the monarch of a shed;

While his loved partner, boastful of her hoard,

Displays her cleanly platter on the board”.

In the evening, the children and younger people play in the open fields, while their fathers and grandfathers look on with lively admiration. Then at the close of day they sit and talk and tell stories, and after a frugal diet retire early to bed and to a peaceful slumber. And all through the day, one feels the fresh breeze and the fragrant flowers and the sweet tunes that hover in the air. Quiet and peaceful such a life undoubtedly is. It is almost an ideal life for many. It calls the dreamy poet to quietness; it serves the thoughtful mood of the philosopher. Indeed “to one who has been long in city pent,” said Keats, “tis very sweet to look into the fair and open face of heaven.” The loveliness of nature is a poem in itself that one may read without tiring. There are some also who may hate the vulgar rusticity of the country, but none the less they love its silence and quietude and restful calm. Above all, the lover of Nature will like nothing better than to vegetate in a world of vegetation. “When I am in the country,” says Hazlitt, “I wish to vegetate like the country.” All this is true, and for a change from the busy hum of towns, nothing can be sweeter or more inviting than the quiet repose of rural life. Yet few who have tasted the life of the city will feel inclined to go back to the village in spite of all its healthy and healthful attractions. For one thing, life in the village is too monotonous and unexciting. A man slips into a familiar groove and forgets to be bold and adventurous. “His face,” said Sydney Smith, “is perpetually turned towards the fountain of orthodoxy.” His attitude to life is conservative and unprogressive. He begins to dislike change, and he thinks it a virtue to stick to the ways of his fathers. The range of his mind is bound by routine and limited by tradition. He cultivates fixed habits, clings to old traditions. Perhaps that is the reason why a village society is so easily and so often a victim of petty bickerings, of narrow-minded jealousies, Johnson said that in a village “every human being is a spy,” which is capped by Hazlitt’s remark: “All country people hate each other.” All who have read Saratchandra’s Palli Samaj know how true this is. In modern times, many are trying to reconcile the best elements of the village and the town. “The country is a lyric, the town is dramatic. When mingled they make a perfect musical drama.” Longfellow means by these words that the country ministers to our feelings, but the town excites our passions. To combine the two we need a town in a rural setting. It must not be too crowded with men; the houses must be plenty of open spaces – parks and playgrounds and swimming pools. And whenever one wishes, one can wander away from the city and be in a moment in the heart of open cornfields, and gardens, and orchards. Thus to Nature’s amenities of space and light and fresh air will be added electricity, gas, and the various municipal amenities offered by a modern city. These are called ‘garden cities’, and they aim at a fruitful synthesis of town and country. Of course, the charm of villages will increase with their modernization. We have to carry to the village the attractions of the town. There must be mechanical aids to make life easy. There must be provisions for a free and full cultural life. There must be close coordination between the town and the village so that each will be complementary to the other. The lazy atmosphere of a village is as intolerable as the hectic life of the town.