Madras  Famine,  1876-­‐77  

Famine  in  Western  India,  1899-­‐1900  

Features of Famine in late Nineteenth Century India

1.  Rain failure.

2.  Hoarding by traders and urban moneylenders.

3.  Attacks on grain shops and stores. Upsurge in robberies.

4.  Government demands tax at normal harvest time. Many refuse to pay. Tax officials apply coercion, forcing richer peasants to pay up. Poorer peasants have land confiscated, or mortgage or sell property - jewellery, farm implements, land - to moneylenders to pay taxes. Richest peasants and moneylenders enlarge their holdings.

5.  Government establishes relief works, to which poorest peasants go. Middling peasants starve.

6.  Destitute start to wander in search of food. Some receive charitable relief in towns.

7.  Suicides, parents sell or kill children. Disease and malnourishment causes death.

Monsoon July-Sept

Major Famines in India 1860-1900

1860-61 - western United Provinces.

1865-66 - Bengal, Bihar, Orissa. Orissa worst hit.

1876-77 - Maharashtra and South India.

1896-97 - Maharashtra and South India

1899-1900 - Gujarat and Rajasthan

British policy towards famine

•  Commitment to free trade, following economic theory of Adam Smith.

•  Belief that famine corrected over-population, following theory of Thomas Malthus.

•  Belief that free relief promotes idleness and saps initiative, following doctrines of the Utilitarians. People must labour for their subsistence.

•  ‘Famine-proofing’ through building of irrigation canals

•  Famine Codes – drawn up in 1880, but only implemented effectively after 1900.

2. Population theory – Thomas Malthus

Famine relief works

The Ganges Canal at Rookee, 1863

Bengal famine 1943

Bengal Famine, street in Calcutta, 1943