‘The Most Horrible of Evils’: Social Responses to Drought and Famine in the Bombay Presidency, 1782–1857

Abstract

Western peninsular India is subject to regular climate-related natural disasters, being highly sensitive to periodic droughts and flooding. This chapter draws on new reconstructions of monsoon rainfall intensity for the nineteenth century to explore social responses to drought in western India between 1782 and 1857. The analysis reveals a heavy mortality amongst pastoralist and peasant-farming communities, although this apparently diminished towards the middle of the nineteenth century. Measures adopted by vulnerable individuals to buffer against drought included crop rotation, rogation and recourse to loans from local moneylenders, with migration into urban areas and consumption of ‘famine crops’ reported during exceptionally strong droughts. Wealthy merchants and rulers apparently played a role in providing charitable support. However, traditional support structures were challenged with a move from indigenous to colonial governance in 1817, and the introduction of market-driven, laissez-faire drought policy.