Town Life and Country Life
The contrast between town life and country life is well expressed in the familiar proverb, ‘God made the country’ man made the town’. The chief difference between town and village life, intended to be brought out in this proverb, is that in the country the scenery is arranged everywhere by the hand of nature, whereas in a town everything is ordered by the hand of man. The distinctive features of village scenery are shady groves of trees, extensive cornfields, thatched houses, herds of cattle grazing over pastures, muddy lanes, and stinking ponds; the characteristic features of urban scenery are broad metaled roads bordered by tall houses on both sides, palatial buildings rising prominently from above their level line of roofs, a continuous stream of passers-by moving to and fro along every street and thoroughfare, and vehicular traffic of all kinds mingling with the moving mass of humanity.
If the question be, which kind of life is superior to the other, it is impossible to give a decided preference to either for both kinds of life have charms of their own to people who like them. The desire for leading a town life or a country life is conditioned by the habits and circumstances of each individual. A town-man finds nothing of interest in the country; to him the din and bustle of busy life is not only quite acceptable, but something indispensable for his very happiness. He finds difficulty in going about from place to place, for he must either trudge it out or keep at home; there are no cars in a village; even the ubiquitous ekka is a rarity. He finds greater difficulty in his meals; he can get only the plainest food, —none of those luxuries to which he has accustomed his palate by long residence in cities. He finds difficulty even in getting companions to talk to; for the village people cannot understand city topics, nor can be himself converse on matters of interest to them. Even the dialect is different, the language of the city being a pure, more refined language than the vulgar slang current in rural society. Similar kinds of difficulty are experienced by the country-man in town. The noise of traffic overawes him; the sight of the crowds that pass along the streets perplexes him, and he actually feels more lonely in a crowd than among the quiet nooks of his village home. The predominant feeling in the mind of a country-man when he comes to a large city for the first time, is one of wonder; everything he sees surprises him. He is specially attracted by the shops; the tempting display of goods acts powerfully on his mind, and his first instinct is that of buying as much city finery as he can afford out of his purse. But still he does not feel satisfied with the cramped life he has to lead in a city, and all the time he pines for the freedom of his country home. The villager is just as much out of his element in a city as a town man is in a village ; and this is the effect of habit and custom, of taste and aptitude.
The town-man and the country-man represent two distinct types of character. This is so at least in India, where the long absence of facilities for travelling, the strictly conservative habits of the people, and other causes have prevented that free intercourse between town and country which would have tended to merge the two types into one. It is a matter of common observation that while the city-folk as a class are clever, intelligent and active, the village people are as a rule simple, thick-witted, and lazily-inclined. This difference is of course due to a difference in the surroundings of the two. In a city a man’s wits are quickly sharpened by constant contact with men of different characters and callings, and by observation of sights and scenes of various hues and textures; while in a village, people see “the same old rut deepening year by year,” and their minds therefore have no opportunities of expansion. Again, in a city a man must keep on the alert when passing along the streets, if only to save himself from being run over by a passing vehicle or knocked down by a hurrying foot-passenger. The greater keenness of competition among all classes also tends to make for greater activity in the life of city folk. The city offers a better market for labourers on the lookout for employment, and hence all classes of labourers flock there to earn a livelihood. There is thus a plentiful supply of labour from which the employer, whose aim of course is to take as much work he can out of his workmen, can pick and select the most efficient class of workmen, those, namely, who would turn out the best work, both in quantity and in quality, for the same amount of wages.
In point of intelligence and industrial efficiency the city-man beats his country brother; but in respect of certain moral qualities, such as honesty, thrift, temperance and purity, he stands on a distinctly lower level. It is the big city, not the small village, which is the home of pick-pockets, swindlers, spendthrifts, drunkards, and rascals of all kinds. The city shop-keeper is proverbial for his dishonest tricks; the city artisan is as renowned for his skill as for his intemperate habits; the city man is well-known for his luxurious living. These evils are seldom witnessed anywhere in a village, unless they happen to be “imported cases.”
There is one more respect in which village life is or can be superior to town life, —namely, in respect of health. The free air of the country makes people lead a healthier life than they can in the narrow, and often dirty, lanes of a city. With all its sanitary arrangements, a city is the breeding ground of various forms of disease, and is seldom totally free from sickness. The ravages of epidemics are witnessed more in the slums of cities than in the alleys of villages. It is true that a city offers much greater facilities both for the prevention and the cure of disease; there are physicians and surgeons in any number in every big city and town of India now; there are hospitals and dispensaries and asylums : but this is really another question altogether. Hospitals are no more conducive to the general health of the people than their absence can be a cause of sickness. With all the filth and squalor that marks the Indian village, it is undeniable that the country is a healthier place to live in than the town.
In the matter of health and physique everything is in favour of the country. But in the case of educated and cultured people, health itself loses much of its charm, if they are doomed to a life absolutely devoid of intellectual pursuits. It is in the city that they can find good libraries, or listen to interesting lectures, or visit museums and picture galleries; the Indian village offers no such opportunities of intellectual culture. You cannot read new books; you cannot obtain fresh newspapers; you cannot listen to lectures; there are no clubs where you may pass the evening in social pleasures; there are no theatres where you can witness a play acted. The only recreation you can get is from the talk of illiterate or ill-educated people who can only speak of matters connected with agriculture, of which subject you yourself are probably quite ignorant, having been born and brought up in a city. Hence it is that country life is so unprogressive, and country folk so blindly conservative in their likes and dislikes.
We see then that each of these two kinds of life has advantages and disadvantages of its own. Against the dullness of country life you may set off its salubrious climate; against its backwardness in intellectual pursuits, you may balance the honesty and straightforwardness of its inhabitants. The consideration of the question whether town life is superior to country life or vice versa, serves only to give us one more proof of the fact that there is no unmixed blessing in the world, and that everything has its bright and its dark side. The most practical way of deciding the question is that the best kind of life is neither the one nor the other, but a due alternation of both. After a few months’ residence in the city it is a welcome relief to turn to the country for a change, and in the free pure air to shake “the dust and din and steam of town”; and then, just as the dull inactivity of the village begins to be felt as tedious, to come back to the city and join its busy life with redoubled health and energy.
