Famines in India during British Raj.

Famine is a condition of acute scarcity of food. It can be caused due to multitudes of factors, major ones being; crop failure, population imbalance and policy failure. Every nation in its history has gone through phases of famine, but in Indian context, there was a human orchestrated spike in number and toll of famines between late eighteenth and mid twentieth century. Following is a brief summary of the role played by a foreign colonising power in causing one of the worst human catastrophes in an erstwhile stable civilization.

In India agriculture has traditionally dependent upon monsoon, upon the failure of which famine like conditions have often resulted. Other calamities like cyclones and Tsunamis have also trigerred them. These have been major historical events and records mention 90 famines in the 2500 years of history of India. This puts the number at roughly one famine in some part of India every 30 years. However between 11^th and 17^th century there were only 14 recorded famines averaging around one every 50 years.

Indus valley civilization is thought to have died of one such famine erupting out of failure of monsoons for as long as 40 years. In time there were procedures standardised and preparations made both and individual and state level to tackle this. The oldest mention of such efforts comes from Kautilya. At times of famines, rulers often distributed food amongst the people and/or public works was commissioned to help the people in need. Umaid Bhawan palace is example of one such construction.

However the frequency of such famines increased during the British Raj. Conservative estimates put the deaths at 60 million while it could be as high as twice that number. To put this into perspective, an estimated 75 million people died in WW2.

Agreeing on the part played by nature in this destruction, the biggest part in it was indeed played by the British Government. More famines occurred in the 200 years of British rule (25) than in all of the seven hundred years before them (14). Not to forget the scale of these mass deaths; the largest catastrophe before British was 2 million deaths in famine of Gujarat and Deccan famine of 1630-32, both 1772 famine of Bengal and 1876 famine of Sothern India took over 10 million and 6 million lives respectively.

With these numbers in mind it looks more like a genocide perpetrated under the calls which some British made, 'of eradicating the Indian race'. While people accuse Subhash or amazingly even Gandhi of sympathising with Hitler, these numbers suggest he was a saint compared to the British. For many who say that British gave us so many things and created the modern India, these tolls should make them understand otherwise. The British treatment was severely inhumane and nothing short of Holocaust comes close in comparison.

Let us look at the causes for such destruction and mass deaths-

1)      British ignorance and disregard to the local systems and conditions.

a)      Indian society had adapted to the frequent drought conditions. The crops grown and the amount of land under each crop were regulated by these concerns. British pushed them to grow commercial crops like indigo and cotton. These reduced the surplus grains which were stored for lean years making people helpless in years of low yield.

b)      The flood plains were prone to change and based on the state of changing course of rivers, people had to be mobile to accommodate the conditions. However this was harmful for the revenue of the Company which wanted to have stable land records. Adding to this the road and railways constructed embankments were forces that led to dying out of older mobile ways of the people. This made the frequency of famines lesser but more potent.

2)      Unhinging faith in Free market Capitalism.

a)      While masses were starving, because they couldn’t pay for the food, it was exported mainly to Britain where people had the power to purchase. No relief works were commission in early years of British rule in the belief that market forces should be allowed to take their course.

b)      People were forced to grow cash crops like indigo and cotton but their prices were volatile. In the years of negative volatility there were no provisions of support prices or aid to the farmers which led to destitution.

3)      Apathy and low regard in part of British for Indian masses.

a)      During the Madras famine of 1876 there was a belief in the British administrators that the population of the locals was too much and it needed to be controlled by famines. There was outright refusal to provide food aids and people were left to die.

b)      India was run like a machine with main motive being profit with utter disregard for the inhabitants. During the height of 1770 famine, the tax rates were actually raised. While normal practice in such conditions was to forego these, the British forcefully collected the taxes, leaving the people to die. That year the Company actually recorded an increment in its profits.

c)       During the Famine of 1943, the main focus of British was to preserve its Empire and despite bad harvest, past few years, the policy of scorched earth was followed in east Bengal. There was refusal to ship food from other stated out of fear of these getting in hands of Japanese.  The death toll at 4 million was comparable to that of Jews in Europe (6 million).

1)      Previous disastrous policies carried out by British.

a)      The economic sanctions had broken the back of Artisans. Indian textile industry which was more advanced than their contemporary British ones had been reduced to rubble and most of the workers had been absorbed back in agriculture which increased hidden unemployment and pressure on land.

b)      Traditionally there was a tradition to forego taxes at times of drought. But under zamindari and other land revenue systems implemented by British were unbending and tax was collected violently.

c)       Under earlier system a part of the produce was shared with artisans and other labourers of the village. By monetising taxes, this was foreclosed. Most deaths during famines were these artisans and landless labourers who couldn’t afford food.

The loss of life on such a scale was unseen before. The modern technologies and institutions credited to British like the railroad actually aided the effort. The grains available were moved from deep interiors of India for export. Police and military were utilised to keep the hungry masses from attacking the ports while these were laden.

For timeline of the same :- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_major_famines_in_India_during_British_rule

For the argument that we were not capable of governing ourselves, the outcome if visible, but in this context it’s even more amazing. While just four years before Independence 4 million lives were lost to famine, after independence, it has almost lost its mighty stature. Within thirty years the necessary investment, infrastructure and institutional changes were made and India is today self-sufficient in food grain. This points out clearly the unwillingness on part of British to do enough to prevent these disastrous calamities and brings out the real motive of their presence in India; not the white man’s burden but his insatiable greed.