Indian Famine Research Articles

Indian famines and peasant victims: the case of Bengal in 1943-44.

What, in detail, do Indian peasants do when famine looms? How do they defend themselves, who succumbs and who survives? Recently several talented economic historians have given these questions a vigorous airing. Morris D. Morris in particular set off the discussion by suggesting that South Asian peasants are well prepared for periodic drought famines. He argues (I compress him almost to parody) that long experience with the monsoon's periodic failures has taught the Indian cultivator prudence: when crops begin to fail the cultivator draws upon previously stored substances—his wife's jewelry, grain, cattle, etc.—and sells them or barters them to keep up his usual level of food consumption. Thus, while his assets are cyclically depleted and replenished, he can usually stave off the most feared effect of drought, which is starvation. N. S. Jodha, however, has partially contradicted Morris by adducing evidence from Rajasthan and elsewhere which shows the peasant cultivator to be more likely to cut back his current food intake rather than risk a loss of future production by depleting his capital assets. Like Morris, Jodha sees that farmers are rational and plan for the future, the disagreement being whether they plan for crop failures in the midst of good harvests or plan for good harvests in the midst of crop failures In fact these two views, suitably softened, are not incompatible, and one can imagine both operating at different phases of a worsening episode of drought.

The Indian Famine, 1967: A Study of Crisis and Change. By K. Suresh Singh. New Delhi: People's Publishing House, 1975. xiii, 312 pp. Appendix, Glossary, Bibliography, Map. Rs. 45

The Indian Famine, 1967: A Study of Crisis and Change. By K. Suresh Singh. New Delhi: People's Publishing House, 1975. xiii, 312 pp. Appendix, Glossary, Bibliography, Map. Rs. 45

Malthusian population theory and Indian famine policy in the nineteenth century

Summary Given the fact that almost all members of the Indian civil service in the nineteenth century were trained in Britain and consequently liable to be influenced by views prevailing there, this paper examines the role of Malthusian population theory in forming the principles behind British famine policy in India. The conclusion is that not only did Malthusian population theory provide the intellectual basis for the Indian administration’s long-run perspective about Indian famines, but also buttressed its largely negative approach to famine relief in the short run.

Political economy and Indian famines

(1971). Political economy and Indian famines. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies: Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 20-28.

Famines in India. A Study in Some Aspects of the Economic History of India (1860-1965).

Journal Article Bhatia (B. M.). Famines in IndiaRungta (R. S.). Rise of Business Corporations in India 1851-1900M. Mukherjee. National Income of India: Trends and Structure Get access Famines in India. A Study in Some Aspects of the Economic History of India (1860-1965). By B. M. Bhatia. (London: Asia Publishing House, 1968. Pp. xii + 389. £2.75.)Rise of Business Corporations in India 1851-1900. By R. S. Rungta. (London: Cambridge University Press, 1970. Pp. xviii + 332. £5.00.)National Income of India: Trends and Structure. By M. Mukherjee. (Calcutta: Statistical Publishing Society, 1969. Pp. xvii + 521. $12.50.) W. J. MacPherson W. J. MacPherson Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Economic Journal, Volume 81, Issue 321, 1 March 1971, Pages 155–160, https://doi.org/10.2307/2229774 Published: 01 March 1971

Indian Famines in Retrospect—A Challenge to Administrative Leadership

Indian Famines in Retrospect—A Challenge to Administrative Leadership

Book Reviews : B. M. BHATIA : Famines in India—A study in some aspects of the economic history of India 1860-1945—Asia Publish ing House Price : Rs. 20/—pp. 367

Book Reviews : B. M. BHATIA : Famines in India—A study in some aspects of the economic history of India 1860-1945—Asia Publish ing House Price : Rs. 20/—pp. 367

Famines in India: A Study in some Aspects of the Economic History of India (1860–1945), Problems of Economic Planning in India and India at Midpassage

Famines in India: A Study in some Aspects of the Economic History of India (1860–1945), Problems of Economic Planning in India and India at Midpassage

Emergency Health Aid to Indian Famine Areas

Emergency Health Aid to Indian Famine Areas

FAMINE IN INDIA AN HISTORICAL SURVEY

FAMINE IN INDIA AN HISTORICAL SURVEY

The Agrarian Problem in Burma

lHE i6 million people of prewar Burma enjoyed a higher standard of living than did their neighbors in India and China. The chief reasons for this advantage were the favorable soil and climate of Burma, together with the absence of overpopulation, factors which enabled Burma to export more than one-third of the rice entering world trade.' As the sudden cessation of Burman rice exports after the Japanese invasion of I942 was a main factor in causing the I943 Bengal famine in India, so Burma's present inability to export rice in sizeable quantities greatly aggravates the world food shortage. Agrarian distress in Burma today is due in the main to the fact that much of the country was fought over in I942 and in I944-45 and was subjected to constant bombing throughout the Pacific war. Loss of an export market and the Japanese army's insatiable demands for men and cattle caused millions of Burmans to give up farming. A subsidiary cause of the distress lies in certain deep-seated troubles which have existed for many years. The present paper attempts to state the chief agrarian problems, and to review some of the means already suggested for their solution. In I940-4I, of a total cultivated area of nearly 20 million acres,2 more than I2.5 million acres were sown to rice. Four-fifths of this paddy area was concentrated in the Irrawaddy Delta and the near-by areas of Lower Burma, where a monsoon rainfall of between 8o and 200 inches per year is usual and irrigation is unnecessary. The Dry Zone of Central Burma has ordinarily produced a little less rice than it has consumed, and it has depended chiefly on irrigation for its rice crop. Other important Dry Zone crops are sesamum, groundnuts, cotton, beans, millet and sugar cane. Northern Burma is mountainous and largely undeveloped. The

The History and Economics of Indian Famines

The History and Economics of Indian Famines

The History and Economics of Indian Famines

The History and Economics of Indian Famines

THE INDIAN FAMINE.

THE INDIAN FAMINE.

THE INDIAN FAMINE.

THE INDIAN FAMINE.

Fish and Famine in India

Fish and Famine in India

The Indian Famine Commission

THE recently issued Report of the Government Commission appointed some time ago to inquire into Indian Famines is of great practical value and full of suggestiveness as to the lines which further inquiry-should pursue. This first part of the Report relates to Famine Relief, and bears evidence that, the Commission have done their work with great thoroughness and breadth of view, and the results are recorded with clearness and method. On the question as to what measures of relief would be the most effectual to adopt, we need not touch here; no doubt they will receive attention in the proper quarter. The discussion of the various questions involved is prefaced by an excellent concise sketch of the geography, population, and climate of British India. Here also some important information is given as to the degree in which each part of the country is exposed to famine. This is followed by a statement of the measures which, in the opinion of the Commission, it would be advisable to adopt for famine relief, and a very complete and instructive review of past famines and the measures adopted to meet them. The immensity of the problem with which the Commission had to deal may be learned from the fact that the total area of British India is about one and a half million square miles with a population of 240 millions. Of this, 900,000 square miles, with a population of 190 millions, is under direct British rule, the remainder belonging to the native States. The great bulk of this population belongs to the classes on whom the dire effects of famine are sure to fall, so that the responsibility of our government in the matter cannot be magnified; they are bound to leave no means untried either to prevent the recurrence of famines or to meet them effectually if they do occur. The Commission, of course, could not but come to the conclusion that the devastating famines to which the provinces of India have from time to time been liable are in all cases to be traced to the occurrence of seasons of unusual drought, the failure of the customary rainfall leading to the failure of the food crops on which the subsistence of the population depends. The Commission have therefore justly conceived it to be an important part of their inquiry to ascertain what can be known as to the, periodicity of rainfall throughout the, year, and over periods of greater extent if possible. The yearly periodicity of rainfall in India and other tropical countries is well known. In India a strongly marked yearly periodicity is everywhere observed, the chief fall occurring, with few exceptions, in the summer months, between May and October, in the season commonly known as the south-west monsoon. On a part of the Madras coast, on this east of the peninsula, heavy rain falls after the cessation of these summer rains, in the months of November and December, at the beginning of what is termed the season of the north-east monsoon. In the more northern provinces, again, a well-marked season of winter rain occurs, commencing about Christmas and extending to February, but its effects hardly reach south of the tropic, and it has no sensible influence on the agriculture of Southern India. The main agricultural operations of the country correspond with these principal seasons of rain, and their relative importance is in a great degree dependent on. the local distribution of the rainfall at the various seasons of the year, as the period and amount of rain differ much in the several provinces of India.

Sun-Spots and Rainfall

THE paper which we print from Mr. Meldrum this week, appearing as it does within a few days of the debate in the House of Commons on the Indian Famine expenditure, is one which should be interesting to many besides professed meteorologists. It will, for one thing, enable even the most unscientific among us to see the manner in which men of science are striving to arrive at the truths of nature the while the average Member of Parliament only refers to their labours in order to sneer at them even when their results may elucidate a question of high national importance.

THE INDIAN FAMINE.

THE INDIAN FAMINE.

Meteorology and the Indian Famine

THE following letter appeared in the Times of Saturday last:—