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Aftermath

The mortality in the famine was exceedingly high; estimates of total famine related deaths vary between 5.5 million^[1] and 8.2 million.^[2]

George Monbiot alleges the deaths to be much higher, estimating " between 12 million and 29 million people died" ^[3] .

The excessive mortality of the Great Famine and the renewed questions of "relief and protection" that were asked in its wake, led directly to the constituting of the Famine Commission of 1880 and to the eventual adoption of the Provisional Famine Code in British India.^[4] After the famine, a large number of agricultural laborers and handloom weavers in South India emigrated to British tropical colonies to work as indentured laborers in plantations.^[5] The excessive mortality in the famine also neutralized the natural population growth in the Bombay and Madras presidencies during the decade between the first and second censuses of British India in 1871 and 1881 respectively.^[6] The famine lives on in the Tamil and other literary traditions. A large number of Kummi folk songs describing this famine have been documented.^[7]

The Great Famine was to have a lasting political impact on events in India; among the British administrators in India who were unsettled by the official reactions to the famine and, in particular by the stifling of the official debate about the best form of famine relief, were William Wedderburn and A. O. Hume.^[8] Less than a decade later, they would found the Indian National Congress and, in turn, influence a generation of Indian nationalists such as Dadabhai Naoroji and Romesh Chunder Dutt for whom the Great Famine would become a cornerstone of the economic critique of the British Raj.^[8]

^ Fieldhouse 1996, p. 132 Quote: "In the later nineteenth century there was a series of disastrous crop failures in India leading not only to starvation but to epidemics. Most were regional, but the death toll could be huge. Thus, to take only some of the worst famines for which the death rate is known, some 800,000 died in the North West Provinces, Punjab, and Rajasthan in 1837–38; perhaps 2 million in the same region in 1860–61; nearly a million in different areas in 1866–67; 4.3 million in widely spread areas in 1876–78, an additional 1.2 million in the North West Provinces and Kashmir in 1877–78; and, worst of all, over 5 million in a famine that affected a large population of India in 1896–97. In 1899–1900 more than a million were thought to have died, conditions being worse because of the shortage of food following the famines only two years earlier. Thereafter the only major loss of life through famine was in 1943 under exceptional wartime conditions.(p. 132)"
^ Davis 2001, p. 7
^ George Monbiot "Colonised and coloniser, empire's poison infects us all" The Guardian, Monday 8 October 2012 "
^ Cite error: The named reference igi-III-489 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Roy 2006, p. 362
^ Roy 2006, p. 363
^ "இந்தவாரம் கலாரசிகன்". Dina Mani (in Tamil). 20 June 2010. Retrieved 17 August 2010. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); line feed character in |accessdate= at position 3 (help)
^ ^a ^b Hall-Matthews 2008, p. 24

[1] Fieldhouse 1996, p. 132 Quote: "In the later nineteenth century there was a series of disastrous crop failures in India leading not only to starvation but to epidemics. Most were regional, but the death toll could be huge. Thus, to take only some of the worst famines for which the death rate is known, some 800,000 died in the North West Provinces, Punjab, and Rajasthan in 1837–38; perhaps 2 million in the same region in 1860–61; nearly a million in different areas in 1866–67; 4.3 million in widely spread areas in 1876–78, an additional 1.2 million in the North West Provinces and Kashmir in 1877–78; and, worst of all, over 5 million in a famine that affected a large population of India in 1896–97. In 1899–1900 more than a million were thought to have died, conditions being worse because of the shortage of food following the famines only two years earlier. Thereafter the only major loss of life through famine was in 1943 under exceptional wartime conditions.(p. 132)"

[2] Davis 2001, p. 7

[3] George Monbiot "Colonised and coloniser, empire's poison infects us all" The Guardian, Monday 8 October 2012 "

[igi-III-489-4] Cite error: The named reference igi-III-489 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[5] Roy 2006, p. 362

[6] Roy 2006, p. 363

[7] "இந்தவாரம் கலாரசிகன்". Dina Mani (in Tamil). 20 June 2010. Retrieved 17 August 2010. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); line feed character in |accessdate= at position 3 (help)

[hall-matthews-2008-24-8] Hall-Matthews 2008, p. 24

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[3]

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-[[Image:British_Indian_Empire_1909_Imperial_Gazetteer_of_India.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Map of the [[British Indian Empire]] (1909), showing the different [[Provinces of British India|provinces]] and [[princely states|native states]], including those affected by the ''Great Famine of 1876&ndash;78''.]]
-The '''Great Famine of 1876–78''' (also the '''Southern India famine of 1876–78''' or the '''Madras famine of 1877''') was a [[famine]] in [[India]] that began in 1876 and affected [[South India|south]] and [[West India|southwestern India]] ([[Madras Presidency|Madras]], [[Kingdom of Mysore|Mysore]], [[Hyderabad State|Hyderabad]], and [[Bombay Presidency|Bombay]]) for a period of two years. In its second year famine also spread [[North India|north]] to some regions of the [[Central Provinces]] and the [[United Provinces of Agra and Oudh|United Provinces]], and to a small area in the [[Punjab region|Punjab]].<ref name=igi-III-488>{{Harvnb|Imperial Gazetteer of India vol. III|1907|p=488}}</ref> The famine ultimately covered an area of {{convert|257000|sqmi|km2}} and caused distress to a population totaling 58,500,000.<ref name=igi-III-488/>
-==Preceding events==
-[[File:GrainFamineMadras.jpg|thumb|right|250px| Grain destined for export stacked in Madras beaches (February 1877)]]
-In part, the ''Great Famine'' may have been caused by an intense drought resulting in crop failure in the [[Deccan Plateau]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Roy|2006|p=361}}</ref> However, the commodification of grain, and the cultivation of alternate cash crops also may have played a role,<ref>S. Guha, Environment and Ethnicity in India, 1200-1991
-. p.116</ref> as could have the export of grain by the colonial government; during the famine the viceroy, Lord Lytton, oversaw the export to England of a record 6.4 million hundredweight of wheat.<ref>Mike Davis, 2001. Late Victorian Holocausts: El Nino Famines and the Making of the Third World. Verso, London.</ref>
-The famine occurred at a time when the colonial government was attempting to reduce expenses on welfare. Earlier, in the [[Bihar famine of 1873&ndash;74]], severe mortality had been avoided by importing [[rice]] from [[Burma]].  However, the Government of [[Bengal Presidency|Bengal]] and its Lieutenant-Governor, [[Sir Richard Temple, 1st Baronet|Sir Richard Temple]], were criticized for excessive expenditure on charitable relief.<ref>{{Harvnb|Imperial Gazetteer of India vol. III|1907|p=488}}, {{Harvnb|Hall-Matthews|1996|pp=217–219}}</ref>  Sensitive to any renewed accusations of excess in 1876, Temple, who was now Famine Commissioner for the Government of India,<ref name=igi-III-488/> insisted not only on a policy of ''[[laissez faire]]'' with respect to the trade in [[grain]],<ref>{{Harvnb|Hall-Matthews|1996|p=217}}</ref> but also on stricter standards of qualification for relief and on more meager relief rations.<ref name=igi-III-488/> Two kinds of relief were offered: "relief works" for able-bodied men, women, and working children, and gratuitous (or charitable) relief for small children, the [[elderly]], and the [[indigent]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Imperial Gazetteer of India vol. III|1907|pp=477&ndash;483}}</ref>
-==Famine and relief==
-[[File:Graphic1-1877.JPG|thumb|right|250px|Engraving from ''[[The Graphic]]'', October 1877, showing two forsaken children in the [[Bellary district]] of the [[Madras Presidency]].]]
-[[File:Graphic2-1877.JPG|thumb|right|250px|Engraving from ''The Graphic'', October 1877, showing the plight of animals as well as humans in Bellary district.]]
-[[File:Famine in India Natives Waiting for Relief in Bangalore.jpg|thumb|250px|People waiting for famine relief in [[Bangalore]] From the [[Illustrated London News]] (October 20, 1877)]]
-[[File:Madras famine 1877.jpg|thumb|right|250px| A contemporary print showing the distribution of relief in [[Bellary]], [[Madras Presidency]]. From the [[Illustrated London News]] (1877)]]
-The insistence on more rigorous tests for qualification, however, led to strikes by "relief workers" in the [[Bombay Presidency|Bombay presidency]].<ref name=igi-III-488/>
-Furthermore, in January 1877, Temple reduced the wage for a day's hard work in the relief camps in [[Madras Presidency|Madras]] and Bombay<ref name=hall-mathews2008-5>{{Harvnb|Hall-Matthews|2008|p=5}}</ref>-- this ''Temple wage'' consisted of {{convert|1|lb|kg|2}} of grain plus one [[Indian anna|anna]] for a man, and a slightly reduced amount for a woman or working child,<ref>{{Harvnb|Washbrook|1994|p=145}}, {{Harvnb|Imperial Gazetteer of India vol. III|1907|p=489}}</ref> for a "long day of hard labour without shade or rest."<ref name = hall-matthews-1996-219>{{Harvnb|Hall-Matthews|1996|p=219}}</ref> The rationale behind the reduced wage, which was in keeping with a prevailing belief of the time, was that any excessive payment might create ''[[Dependent personality disorder|dependency]]'' (or "demoralization" in contemporaneous usage) among the famine-afflicted population.<ref name=hall-mathews2008-5/>
-Temple's recommendations were opposed by a number of officials, including William Digby and the physician [[W. R. Cornish]], Sanitary Commissioner for the [[Madras Presidency]]. <ref name=arnold-1994-7-8>{{Harvnb|Arnold|1994|pp=7–8}}</ref>  Cornish argued for a minimum of {{convert|1.5|lb|kg|2}} of grain and, in addition, supplements in the form of vegetables and protein, especially if, the individuals were performing strenuous labor in the relief works.<ref name=arnold-1994-7-8/> However, Lytton supported Temple, who argued that "everything must be subordinated to the financial consideration of disbursing the smallest sum of money... "<ref name=davis>Mike Davis, Late Victorian Holocausts, El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World, Verso, 2001; calories for Buchenwald diet: 1750; Temple wage: 1627. Both involved hard labour (p.39); Temple's remark on financial considerations p.40</ref>
-Eventually, in March 1877, the provincial government of Madras, increased the ration halfway towards Cornish's recommendations, to {{convert|1.25|lb|kg|2}} of grain and {{convert|1.5|oz|g|0|lk=on}} of protein in the form of ''[[daal]]'' ([[pulse (legume)|pulse]]s).<ref name=arnold-1994-7-8/> Meanwhile, many more people had succumbed to the famine.<ref name=igi-III-489/> In other parts of India, such as the [[United Provinces of Agra and Oudh|United Provinces]], where relief was meager, the resulting mortality was high.<ref name=igi-III-489>{{Harvnb|Imperial Gazetteer of India vol. III|1907|p=489}}</ref> In the autumn and winter of 1878, an epidemic of [[malaria]] killed many more who were already weakened by malnutrition.<ref name=igi-III-489/>
-By early 1877, Temple proclaimed that he had put "the famine under control". Digby noted that "a famine can scarcely be said to be adequately controlled which leaves one-fourth of the people dead.<ref name=davis/>
-All in all, the Government of India spent Rs. 8 1/3 [[crore]]s in relieving 700 million units (1 unit = relief for 1 person for 1 day) in British India and, in addition, another Rs. 72 [[lakh]]s in relieving 72 million units in the [[princely states]] of [[Kingdom of Mysore|Mysore]] and [[Hyderabad State|Hyderabad]].<ref name=igi-III-489/> Revenue (tax) payments to the amount of Rs. 60 [[lakh]]s were either not enforced or postponed until the following year, and charitable donations from [[Great Britain]] and the [[British Empire|colonies]] totaled Rs. 84 [[lakh]]s.<ref name=igi-III-489/> However, this cost was minuscule ''[[per capita]]''; for example, the expenditure incurred in the [[Bombay Presidency]] was less than one-fifth of that in the [[Bihar famine of 1873&ndash;74]], which affected a smaller area and did not last as long.<ref name = hall-matthews-1996-219/>
 ==Aftermath==
 The mortality in the famine was exceedingly high; estimates of total famine related deaths vary between 5.5 million<ref>{{Harvnb|Fieldhouse|1996|p=132}} Quote: "In the later nineteenth century there was a series of disastrous crop failures in India leading not only to starvation but to epidemics. Most were regional, but the death toll could be huge. Thus, to take only some of the worst famines for which the death rate is known, some 800,000 died in the North West Provinces, Punjab, and Rajasthan in 1837&ndash;38; perhaps 2 million in the same region in 1860&ndash;61; nearly a million in different areas in 1866&ndash;67; 4.3 million in widely spread areas in 1876&ndash;78, an additional 1.2 million in the North West Provinces and Kashmir in 1877&ndash;78; and, worst of all, over 5 million in a famine that affected a large population of India in 1896&ndash;97. In 1899&ndash;1900 more than a million were thought to have died, conditions being worse because of the shortage of food following the famines only two years earlier. Thereafter the only major loss of life through famine was in 1943 under exceptional wartime conditions.(p. 132)"</ref> and 8.2 million.<ref>{{Harvnb|Davis|2001|p=7}}</ref>
+George Monbiot alleges the deaths to be much higher, estimating " between 12 million and 29 million people died"  <ref> George Monbiot [http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/08/empire-torture-kenya-catastrophe-europe/print "Colonised and coloniser, empire's poison infects us all"] The Guardian, Monday 8 October 2012 "</ref> .
 The excessive mortality of the ''Great Famine'' and the renewed questions of "relief and protection" that were asked in its wake, led directly to the constituting of the Famine Commission of 1880 and to the eventual adoption of the Provisional Famine Code in British India.<ref name=igi-III-489/> After the famine, a large number of agricultural laborers and [[handloom weaver]]s in [[South India]] emigrated to British tropical colonies to work as [[Indentured servant|indentured laborers]] in plantations.<ref>{{Harvnb|Roy|2006|p=362}}</ref> The excessive mortality in the famine also neutralized the natural population growth in the Bombay and Madras presidencies during the decade between the first and second censuses of British India in 1871 and 1881 respectively.<ref>{{Harvnb|Roy|2006|p=363}}</ref> The famine lives on in the Tamil and other literary traditions. A large number of ''[[Kummi]]'' folk songs describing this famine have been documented.<ref>{{cite news|title= இந்தவாரம் கலாரசிகன் |url=http://www.dinamani.com/edition/story.aspx?SectionName=Tamil%20Mani&artid=259447&SectionID=179&MainSectionID=179&SEO=&Title=%E0%AE%87%E0%AE%A8%E0%AF%8D%E0%AE%A4%E0%AE%B5%E0%AE%BE%E0%AE%B0%E0%AE%AE%E0%AF%8D%20%E0%AE%95%E0%AE%B2%E0%AE%BE%E0%AE%B0%E0%AE%9A%E0%AE%BF%E0%AE%95%E0%AE%A9%E0%AF%8D|accessdate=17
@@ Line 32: / Line 8: @@
 The ''Great Famine'' was to have a lasting political impact on events in India; among the British administrators in India who were unsettled by the official reactions to the famine and, in particular by the stifling of the official debate about the best form of famine relief, were [[William Wedderburn]] and [[A. O. Hume]].<ref name=hall-matthews-2008-24>{{Harvnb|Hall-Matthews|2008|p=24}}</ref> Less than a decade later, they would found the [[Indian National Congress]] and, in turn, influence a generation of [[Indian nationalist]]s such as [[Dadabhai Naoroji]] and [[Romesh Chunder Dutt]] for whom the ''Great Famine'' would become a cornerstone of the economic critique of the [[British Raj]].<ref name=hall-matthews-2008-24/>
-==See also==
-*[[Famines, Epidemics, and Public Health in the British Raj]]
-*[[Timeline of major famines in India during British rule (1765 to 1947)]]
-*[[Company rule in India]]
-*[[Famine in India]]
-*[[Drought in India]]
-*[[El Niño-Southern Oscillation]]
-*[[William Digby (writer)|William Digby]]
-==Notes==
-{{reflist|2}}
-==References==
-*{{Citation | last = Arnold | first = David | title = The 'discovery' of malnutrition and diet in colonial India | year = 1994 | journal = Indian Economic and Social History Review | volume = 31 | issue = 1 | pages = 1–26}}
-*{{Citation | last = Davis| first = Mike | title = Late Victorian Holocausts|authorlink=Mike Davis (scholar) | year = 2001| pages =|publisher=Verso Books.  Pp. 400| isbn = 978-1-85984-739-8|url = http://books.google.com/books?id=3IrKEzgkQkMC&pg=PA7}}
-*{{Citation| last = Fieldhouse | first = David | chapter = For Richer, for Poorer? |editor-last = Marshall |editor-first = P. J. | title = The Cambridge Illustrated History of the British Empire|pages = 108–146|publisher=Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 400| year = 1996| isbn = 0-521-00254-0|url = http://books.google.com/books?id=S2EXN8JTwAEC&pg=PA132&dq=famine+british+empire+india&as_brr=3#PPA132,M1}}
-*{{Citation | last = Hall-Matthews | first = David | title = Historical Roots of Famine Relief Paradigms: Ideas on Dependency and Free Trade in India in the 1870s | journal = Disasters | year = 1996 | volume = 20 | issue = 3 | pages = 216–230 | doi = 10.1111/j.1467-7717.1996.tb01035.x}}
-*{{Citation | last = Hall-Matthews | first = David | title = Inaccurate Conceptions: Disputed Measures of Nutritional Needs and Famine Deaths in Colonial India | journal = Modern Asian Studies | year = 2008 | volume = 42 | issue = 1 | pages = 1–24 | doi = 10.1017/S0026749X07002892}}
-*{{Citation | last = Imperial Gazetteer of India vol. III | first =
- | title = The Indian Empire, Economic (Chapter X: Famine, pp. 475&ndash;502 | publisher = Published under the authority of His Majesty's Secretary of State for India in Council, Oxford at the Clarendon Press. Pp. xxx, 1 map, 552. | year = 1907}}
-*{{Citation | last = Roy | first = Tirthankar | title = The Economic History of India, 1857&ndash;1947, 2nd edition | year = 2006 | publisher = New Delhi: Oxford University Press.  Pp. xvi, 385 | isbn = 0-19-568430-3}}
-*{{Citation | last = Washbrook | first = David | title = The Commercialization of Agriculture in Colonial India: Production, Subsistence and Reproduction in the 'Dry South', c. 1870&ndash;1930 | year = 1994 | journal = Modern Asian Studies | volume = 28 | issue = 1 | pages = 129–164 | jstor = 312924}}
-==Further reading==
-*{{Citation | last = Ambirajan | first = S. | title = Malthusian Population Theory and Indian Famine Policy in the Nineteenth Century | year = 1976 | journal = Population Studies | volume = 30 | issue = 1 | pages = 5–14 | doi=10.2307/2173660}}
-*{{Citation | last = Bhatia | first = B. M. | title = Famines in India: A Study in Some Aspects of the Economic History of India With Special Reference to Food Problem, 1860&ndash;1990 | year = 1991 | publisher = Stosius Inc/Advent Books Division. Pp. 383 | isbn = 81-220-0211-0}}
-*{{Citation | last = Davis| first = Mike|authorlink=Mike Davis (scholar)| title = [[Late Victorian Holocausts]]: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World | year = 2001 | publisher = Verso.  Pp. 464 | isbn = 1-85984-739-0}}
-*{{Citation | last = Digby| first = William | authorlink = William Digby (writer)| year = 1878 | title = The Famine Campaign in Southern India: Madras and Bombay Presidencies and province of Mysore, 1876-1878, Volume 1 | publisher = London: Longmans, Green and Co | url = http://www.archive.org/details/faminecampaignin01digbuoft}}
-*{{Citation | last = Digby| first = William | authorlink = William Digby (writer)| year = 1878 | title = The Famine Campaign in Southern India: Madras and Bombay Presidencies and province of Mysore, 1876-1878, Volume 2 | publisher = London: Longmans, Green and Co | url = http://www.archive.org/details/faminecampaigni00digbgoog}}
-*{{Citation | last = Dutt | first = Romesh Chunder | title = Open Letters to Lord Curzon on Famines and Land Assessments in India | year = 1900 (reprinted 2005) | publisher = London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. Ltd (reprinted by Adamant Media Corporation) | isbn = 1-4021-5115-2}}
-*{{Citation | last = Dyson | first = Tim | year = 1991 | title = On the Demography of South Asian Famines: Part I | journal = Population Studies | volume = 45 | issue = 1 | pages = 5–25 | url = http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0032-4728%28199103%2945%3A1%3C5%3AOTDOSA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-V
- }}
-*{{Citation | last = Dyson | first = Tim | year = 1991 | title = On the Demography of South Asian Famines: Part II | journal = Population Studies | volume = 45 | issue = 2 | pages = 279–297 | url = http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0032-4728%28199107%2945%3A2%3C279%3AOTDOSA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-S
-}}
-*{{Citation | last = Famine Commission | first = | year = 1880 | title = Report of the Indian Famine Commission, Part I | publisher = Calcutta}}
-*{{Citation | last = Ghose | first = Ajit Kumar | title = Food Supply and Starvation: A Study of Famines with Reference to the Indian Subcontinent | year = 1982 | journal = Oxford Economic Papers, New Series | volume = 34 | issue = 2 | pages = 368–389}}
-*{{Citation | last = Government of India | first = | year = 1867 | title = Report of the Commissioners Appointed to Enquire into the Famine in Bengal and Orissa in 1866, Volumes I, II | publisher = Calcutta}}
-*{{Citation | last = Hardiman | first = David | title = Usuary, Dearth and Famine in Western India | year = 1996 | journal = Past and Present | issue = 152 | pages = 113–156}}
-*{{Citation | last = Hill | first = Christopher V. | title = Philosophy and Reality in Riparian South Asia: British Famine Policy and Migration in Colonial North India | journal = Modern Asian Studies | volume = 25 | issue = 2 | year = 1991 | pages = 263–279}}
-*{{Citation | last = Klein | first = Ira | title = Death in India, 1871-1921 | journal = The Journal of Asian Studies | volume = 32 | issue = 4 | year = 1973 | pages = 639–659}}
-*{{Citation | last = McAlpin | first = Michelle B. | title = Famines, Epidemics, and Population Growth: The Case of India | year = 1983 | journal = Journal of Interdisciplinary History | volume = 14 | issue = 2 | pages = 351–366}}
-*{{Citation | last = McAlpin | first = Michelle B. | title = Dearth, Famine, and Risk: The Changing Impact of Crop Failures in Western India, 1870&ndash;1920 | year = 1979 | journal = The Journal of Economic History | volume = 39 | issue = 1 | pages = 143–157 | doi=10.1017/S0022050700096352}}
-*{{Citation | last = Temple | first = Sir Richard | authorlink = Sir Richard Temple, 1st Baronet| year = 1882 | title = Men and events of my time in India | publisher = London: John Murray. Pp. xvii, 526 | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=cHsBAAAAQAAJ}}
-{{coord missing|India}}
-[[Category:Famines in British India]]
-[[Category:Famines in India]]
-[[Category:1876 in India]]
-[[Category:1876 natural disasters]]
-[[Category:1877 natural disasters]]
-[[Category:1878 natural disasters]]
-[[Category:History of Andhra Pradesh]]
-[[Category:History of Karnataka]]
-[[Category:History of Tamil Nadu]]
-[[Category:History of Maharashtra]]
-[[pl:Wielki głód w Indiach (1876–1878)]]
-[[ta:சென்னை மாகாணப் பெரும் பஞ்சம், 1876-78]]