Famine in India

A child suffering Marasmus, extreme starvation, in 1972.

Famine has been a recurrent feature of life in South Asia, reaching its numerically deadliest peak in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Historical and legendary evidence names some 90 famines in 2,500 years of history, two-thirds of those since 1700. There were 14 famines in India between 11th and 17th century. Famines in India resulted in more than 37 million deaths over the course of the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. The last famines were the Bihar starvation in December 1966 and a drought in Maharashtra in 1970–1973.

Indian agriculture is heavily dependent on the climate of India: a favorable southwest summer monsoon is critical in securing water for irrigating Indian crops. In the past, droughts have periodically led to major Indian famines, including the Bengal famine of 1770, the Chalisa famine, the Doji bara famine, the Great Famine of 1876–78; and the Bengal famine of 1943. Some historians, social scientists, contemporary critics, and participants have identified British government inaction and adherence to utilitarian, mercantilist, and Malthusian policies as contributing factors to the severity of famine during the time that India was under British rule. The post-1880 Indian Famine Codes, some transportation improvements, and democratic rule after independence have been identified as furthering famine relief.

Famines by period

Famines in pre-colonial South Asia

One of the earliest treatises on famine relief goes back more than 2000 years, commonly attributed to Kautilya, who recommends that the good king build new forts, water-works, share his provisions with the people or entrust the country to another king. Historically, Indian rulers have employed several methods in famine relief. Some of these were direct such as free distribution of food grains, throwing open grain stores and kitchens to the people. Other measures were monetary policies such as remission of revenue, remission of taxes, increase of pay to soldiers and payment of advances. Yet other measures included construction of public works, canals and embankments, sinking wells; even migration was encouraged. The ancient Ashokan edicts of the Mauryan age around 269 BC record the emperor Ashoka's conquest of Kalinga, roughly the modern state of Orissa. The major rock and pillar edicts mention that massive human toll of the war of about 100,000 and that an even larger number, many times of the 100,000 later perished presumably from wounds and famine. During the 1022–1033, great famines made all the provinces in India depopulated. Famine in the Deccan and Gujarat killed at least 2 million people in 1630–32.

Famines under British rule

Mike Davis – has claimed that these famines were actually 'Late Victorian Holocausts' in 1870s and 1890s. This negative image of British rule enjoys wide currency in India. The 1901 Famine Commission found that twelve famines and four "severe scarcities" took place between 1765 and 1858. The first, the Bengal famine of 1770, is estimated to have taken nearly one-third of the population of the region, about 10 million people.

The famines were a product both of uneven rainfall and British economic and administrative policies. Colonial polices implicated include rack-renting, additional levies for war, free trade policies, the expansion of export agriculture, and neglect of agricultural investment. Indian exports of opium, rice, wheat, indigo, and cotton were a key component of the economy of the British empire, generating vital foreign currency primarily from China and stabilizing low prices in the British grain market. However, export crops displaced millions of acres used for domestic subsistence, increasing the vulnerability of Indians to food crises. The Orissa famine of 1866-67 was one such famine which later spread through the Madras Presidency to Hyderabad and Mysore. Similar famines followed in western Ganges region, Rajasthan, central India (1868-70), Bengal and eastern India (1873-1874), Deccan (1876-78) and again in Ganges region, Madras, Hyderabad, Mysore, Bombay (1876-1878). These famines were typically followed by various infectious diseases such as the bubonic plague and influenza attacking and killing an already weakened population due to the starvation from famines. Famines declined in the final decades of British rule, and further with the arrival of independence.. An exception to this was the Bengal famine of 1943 reached it's peak between July and November of that year. Famine fatality statistics were unreliable and a range of between 2-4 million has been suggested. According to author John Keay, even if the lower number is accepted, the famine killed more Indians than the two world wars, the entire Indian freedom movement, and the massive death toll that followed Partition of India. The Bengal famine of 1770 had coincided with the arrival of British in India and now the British rule of India would end with the Bengal famine of 1943..

Major famines in India

Before British rule (1000–1745) Century Number of famines Location 11th 2 local 13th 1 Around Delhi 14th 3 local 15th 2 local 16th 3 All local 17th 3 Area not defined 18th (1745) 4 Northwestern provinces, Delhi, Sindh (twice), local Total 18 -

Under British rule (1800–1900) Years Number of famines Deaths estimates (millions) 1800 - 1825 5 1 1835–1850 2 5 1850–1875 6 5 1875–1900 18 26 Total estimate 31 37

British response

The first major famine that took place under British rule was the Bengal Famine of 1770. About a quarter to a third of the population of Bengal starved to death in about a ten month period. East India Company's raising of taxes disastrously coincided with this famine and exacerbated it even if the famine was not caused by the British regime. Following this famine "Successive British governments were anxious not to add to the burden of taxation." In 1866 the rains failed again in Bengal and Orissa. Food was rushed into the famine stricken zones. The result of which was that the famine was alleviated in Bengal although a Monsoon in Orissa forced the closure of the harbor. As a result food could not be imported into Orissa as easily as Bengal. In 1865–66, severe drought struck Orissa and was met by British official inaction. The British Secretary of State for India Lord Salisbury did nothing for two months by which time a million people had died. The lack of taking any precautions whatsoever caused Salisbury to never feel free from the blame. Some British citizens such as William Digby agitated for policy reforms and famine relief, but Lord Lytton, the governing British viceroy in India, opposed such changes in the belief that they would stimulate shirking by Indian workers. Reacting against calls for relief during the 1877–79 famine, Lytton replied, "Let the British public foot the bill for its 'cheap sentiment,' if it wished to save life at a cost that would bankrupt India," substantively ordering "there is to be no interference of any kind on the part of Government with the object of reducing the price of food," and instructing district officers to "discourage relief works in every possible way.... Mere distress is not a sufficient reason for opening a relief work." In 1874 the response from the British authorities was better. Famine was completely averted. Then in 1876 a huge famine broke out in Madras. Lord Lytton's administration believed that 'market forces alone would suffice to feed the starving Indians.'

The results of such thinking proved fatal (some 5.5 million starved and so such a policy was abandoned. Lord Lytton established the Famine Insurance Grant, a system in which, in times of financial surplus, ₹ 1,500,000 would be applied to famine relief works. The results of this were that the British prematurely assumed that the problem of famine had been solved forever which made future British viceroys complacent and this proved disastrous in 1896. Lord Curzon tried to alleviate the famine, he spent ₹ 68,000,000 (about £10,000,000) to try and reduce the effects of the famine and, at its peak, 4.5 million people were on famine relief. However, Curzon stated that such philanthropy would be criticized and not doing so would be a crime. He also cut back rations that he characterized as "dangerously high" and stiffened relief eligibility by reinstating the Temple tests. In total, between 1.25 to 10 million people were killed in the famine. The Famine during World War II lead to the development of the Bengal Famine Mixture this would later save tens of thousands of lives at the liberated concentration camps such as Belsen.

Famine Codes

See also: Indian Famine Codes

The Famine Commission of 1880 observed that each province in British India, including Burma, had a surplus of food grains, and the annual surplus amounted to 5.16 million tons (Bhatia, 1970). The product of the Famine Commission were a series of government guidelines and regulations on how to respond to famines and food shortages. These had to wait until the exit of the viceroy Edward Robert Bulwer-Lytton, Lord Lytton and were finally passed in 1883 under a liberal British viceroy, George Fredrick Samuel Robinson, Lord Ripon and were called the Famine code. They presented an early-warning system to detect and respond to food shortages. At that time, annual export of rice and other grains from India was approximately one million tons. At about the same time the British engaged themselves in a series of canal building and irrigation improvements. Development economist Jean Drèze evaluates the conditions before and after Famine Commission policy changes: "a contrast between the earlier period of frequently recurring catastrophes, and the latter period when long stretches of tranquility were disturbed by a few large scale famines" in 1896–97, 1899–1900, and 1943–44. Drèze explains these "intermittent failures" by four factors—failure to declare a famine (particularly in 1943), the "excessively punitive character" of famine restrictions such as wages for public works, the "policy of strict non-interference with private trade," and the natural severity of the food crises. In 1907 and in 1874 the response from the British was better: in both cases rice was imported abroad and famine was averted.

There was the threat of famine but after 1902 there was no major famine in India until the Bengal famine of 1943 which was the most devastating, killing between 2.5 and 3 million during World War II. In India as a whole, the food supply was rarely inadequate even in times of droughts and the Famine Commission of 1880 identified that the loss of wages from lack of employment of agricultural laborers and artisans was the cause of famines. The Famine Codes applied a strategy of generating employment for these sections of the population and relied on open ended public works for doing so.. Many of these Famine Codes have been updated in independent India and have been renamed "Scarcity Manuals"; in some parts of the country, the Famine Codes are no longer used but that is primarily because the rules embodied in them have become routine procedure in famine relief strategy.

Impact of rail transport

See also: History of rail transport in India

During the famines of the 1870s, the failure to provide food to the millions who were hungry has been blamed both on the absence of adequate rail infrastructure and the incorporation of grain into the world market through rail and telegraph. Davis notes that, "The newly constructed railroads, lauded as institutional safeguards against famine, were instead used by merchants to ship grain inventories from outlying drought-stricken districts to central depots for hoarding (as well as protection from rioters)" and that telegraphs served to coordinate a rise in prices so that "food prices soared out of the reach of outcaste laborers, displaced weavers, sharecroppers and poor peasants." Members of the British administrative apparatus were also concerned that the larger market created by railway transport encouraged poor peasants to sell of their reserve stocks of grain.

However, rail transport also played an essential role in supplying grain from food-surplus regions to famine-stricken ones. The 1880 Famine Codes urged a restructuring and massive expansion of railways, with an emphasis on intra-Indian lines, as opposed to the existing port-centered system. These new lines, extended the existing network to allow food to flow to famine-afflicted regions. Jean Drèze (1991) also finds that the necessary economic conditions were present for a national market in food to reduce scarcity by the end of the 19th century, but that export of food continued to result from that market even during times of relative scarcity. The effectiveness of this system, however, relied on government provision of famine relief: "Railroads could perform the crucial task of moving grain from one part of India to another, but they could not assure that hungry people would have the money to buy that grain".

Railways also had a separate impact on reducing famine mortality: by generating broader areas of labor migration, and facilitating the massive emigration of Indians during the late 19th century, they provided famine-afflicted people the option to leave to other parts of the country and the world. By the 1912-13 scarcity crisis, migration and relief supply were able to absorb the impact of a medium-scale shortage of food. Drèze concludes, "In sum, and with a major reservation applying to international trade, it is plausible that the improvement in communication toward the end of the nineteenth century did make a major contribution to the alleviation of distress during famines. However, it is also easy to see that this factor alone could hardly account for the very sharp reduction in the incidence of famines in the twentieth century".

Famines since independence

Indian Independence in 1947 did not stop damage to crops nor lack of rain; the threat of famines did not go away. The loss of life did not meet the scale of the 1943 Bengal or earlier famines but continued to be a problem. Jean Drèze finds that the post-Independence Indian government "largely remedied" the causes of the three major failures of 1880–1948 British famine policy, "an event which must count as marking the second great turning-point in the history of famine relief in India over the past two centuries". On a number of occasions the Indian-government sought food and grain from the United States to provide replacement for damaged crops. In 1966 a large scale famine in Bihar was adverted with the import of foreign food, although livestock and crops were destroyed. The drought of 1966–67 gave impetus to further changes in agricultural policy and this resulted in the Green Revolution. In 1972 the United States stopped supplying food aid and shortages of fertilizer due to a lack of foreign currency did not help. After several years of good monsoons and a good crop in the early 1970s India considered exporting food and being self-sufficient. But they did not foresee the drought in 1972 and in January 1973 it was reported that hundreds of thousands of people had died and some 25 million needed help, the worst hit area being Maharashtra. This help was provided in the form of large scale employment to the deprived sections of Maharashtrian society which attracted considerable amounts of food to Maharashtra. Although large scale famines have disappeared from India after independence, mass poverty and hunger are persistent problems. The relief measures had proved to be effective and they limited the impact of the devastating drought causing relatively little damage in terms of excess mortality, nutritional deficits and asset depletion.

Further lessons were learned from the droughts of 1972 and 1979 which led to the Desert Development Program and the Drought Prone Area Program. The motivation of these programs was to reduce the negative effects of droughts by applying eco-friendly land use practices and also by conserving water. Major schemes in improving rural infrastructure, extend area under irrigation and diversifying agriculture were also launched. The learning from the 1987 drought brought to light the need for employment generation, watershed planning, and ecologically integrated development.

Malnutrution

Main article: Malnutrition in India

Deaths from malnutrition on a large scale have continued across India into modern times. In Maharashtra alone, for example, there were around 45,000 childhood deaths due to mild or severe malnutrition in 2009, according to the Times of India. Another Times of India report in 2010 has stated that 50% of childhood deaths in India are attributable to malnutrition. Around 7.5 million people a year die of malnutrition in modern India, the largest death rate of any country on earth for this cause of death.

Infrastructure development after independence

Deaths from starvation were reduced by improvements to famine relief mechanisms after the British left. In independent India, policy changes aimed to make people self reliant to earn their livelihood and by providing food through the public distribution system at discounted rates. Between 1947–64 the initial agricultural infrastructure was laid by the founding of organizations such as Central Rice Institute in Cuttack, the Central Potato Research Institute in Shimla, and universities such as the Pant Nagar University. The population of India was growing at 3% a year and food imports were required despite the improvements from the new infrastructure . At it's peak 10 million tonnes of food was imported from the United States. In the twenty year period between 1965–1985 gaps in infrastructure were bridged by the establishment of The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development. High yielding varieties of wheat and rice were introduced. Steps taken in this phase resulted in the Green Revolution which led to a mood of self confidence in India's agricultural capability. The Green Revolution in India was initially hailed as a success but has recently been 'downgraded' to a 'qualified success' not because of a lack of increased food production but because the increase in food production has slowed down and has not been able to keep pace with population growth. Between 1985–2000 emphasis was laid on production of pulses and oilseed as well as vegetables and fruits and milk. A wasteland development board was setup and rain fed areas were given more attention but public investment in irrigation and infrastructure declined. The period also saw a gradual collapse of the cooperative credit system. Between 2000 and present day land use for food or fuel has become a competing issue due to a demand for ethanol.

Famines are easy to prevent if there is a serious effort to prevent them, and a government of a democratic country-facing elections, criticisms from opposition parties and independent newspapers-cannot but make a serious effort to prevent famines. Not surprisingly, while India continued to have famines under British rule right up to independence (the last famine was in 1943, four years before independence, which I witnessed as a child), they disappeared suddenly, after independence, with the establishment of a multi-part democracy with a free press.

— Amartya Sen

It is to the credit of Independent India that famines of this kind have not been allowed to occur, although our population has grown from 350 million in 1947 to 1,100 million now.

— M. S. Swaminathan

In 1963 the government of the state of Maharashtra asserted that the agricultural situation in the state was constantly being watched and relief measures were taken as soon as any scarcity was detected. On the basis of this and asserting that the word 'famine' had now become obsolete in this context, the government passed the ‘The Maharashtra Deletion Of The Term “Famine” Act, 1963”

Farmer suicides

Main article: Farmers' suicides in India

The period from 1995 onwards has been called one of "policy fatigue" with farmers committing suicide and about 40% wanting to quit the profession. Between 1995 and 2005, 150,000 farmers committed suicides in India of which 29,000 were in the state of Maharashtra, the next highest states with farmer suicides being Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh. There were 17,060 farmers suicides in the year 2006, a quarter of which happened in the state of Maharashtra. In 2005, a report by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences concluded that unless the state and central governments admit that there is an agrarian crisis in Maharashtra and take appropriate steps, the tragic trend of farmers suicides is likely to continue. The report adds that the federal government needs to makes long term policy changes to support marginal and small farmers by helping them stick to their jobs. While the suicide epidemic is not confined to one district, state or crop, the epicenter is said to have been in Yavatmal district of Maharashtra. Suicides in this district are 300% more than those in an urban city like Mumbai. Most victims are men between 30–50 years, married, educated but unable to repay agricultural loans.

Warnings

Growing export prices, the melting of the Himalayan glaciers due to global warming, changes in rainfall and temperatures are the primary issues. If agricultural production does not remain above the population growth rate, there are indications that a return to the pre-independence famine days is a likelihood. People from various walks of life, such as social activist Vandana Shiva and researcher Dan Banik agree about the elimination of famines and the resulting large scale loss of life from starvation after Indian independence in 1947. However Shiva warned in 2002 that if further action wasn't taken, famines, would make a comeback to the scale seen in the Horn of Africa in three or four years.

Major famines

See also: Timeline of major famines in India during British rule (1765 to 1947)

• 650: Famine throughout India
• 1022,1033: Great famines, entire provinces were depopulated
• 1344–1345: Great famine
• 1396–1407: The Durga Devi famine
• 1630–1631: There was a famine in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
• 1630–1632: Deccan famine in India kills 2 million (Note: There was a corresponding famine in northwestern China, eventually causing the Ming dynasty to collapse in 1641.)
• 1661: famine, when not a drop of rain fell for two years
• 1702–1704: 2 million died of famine in Deccan
• 1770: Territory ruled by the British East India Company experienced the first Bengal famine of 1770. An estimated 10 million people died.
• 1783–84: Up to 11 million died in the Chalisa famine in the regions of present-day Uttar Pradesh, Delhi region, Rajputana, eastern Punjab region and Kashmir.
• 1788–92: Another 11 million may have died in the Doji bara famine or Skull famine in Hyderabad State, Southern Maratha country, Gujarat and Marwar.
• 1800–1825: 1 million Indians died of famine
• 1850–1875: 2.5 millions died in Orissa famine of 1866, Rajputana famine of 1869; due to a generous relief effort, however, there was no mortality in the Bihar famine of 1873–74.
• 1875–1902: 7–8 million Indians died of famine (Great Famine of 1876–78 5.25 millions).
• 1943: India experienced the second Bengal famine of 1943. Over 3 million people died.
• 1966: There was a famine in Bihar. The USA allocated 900,000 tons of grain to fight the famine that caused 1.5 million deaths.
• 1970-73: A further famine occurred due to drought in Maharashtra.

Theories of famines

See also: Theories of famines

According to Michael Massing writing in the New York Times in 2003, Amartya Sen advances the theory that lack of democracy and famines are inter-related. Citing the example of the 1943 Bengal famine, he has stated that it was made viable only because of the lack of democracy in India under British rule. Olivier Rubin's review of the evidence disagrees with Sen; after examining the cases of post-Independence India, Niger, and Malawi, he finds that "democracy is no panacea against famine." Rubin's analysis questions whether democracy and a free press were sufficient to truly avert famine in 1967 and 1973 (the Maharashtra famine involved some 130,000 deaths), and notes that some dynamics of electoral democracy complicate rather than bring about famine relief efforts. Rubin does not address colonial period famines. On the other hand, Andrew Banik's study Starvation and India's democracy affirms Sen's thesis, but indicates that while democracy has been able to prevent famines in India, it has not been sufficient to avoid severe under-nutrition and starvation deaths, which Banik calls a 'silent emergency' in the country.

See also

• Great Irish famine
• List of famines
• Drought in India
• Famines, Epidemics, and Public Health in the British Raj
• 1865–1866

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Further reading

• Dutt, Romesh C (1900), Economic History of India, ISBN 8185418012
• Sharma, Sanjay (2001), Famine,Philanthropy and the Colonial State: North India in the early Nineteenth Century, Delhi: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0195653866