Indian famine of 1899–1900

[

British Indian Empire (1909), showing the different provinces and native states. The Central Provinces and Berar, Bombay Presidency, Ajmer-Merwara, and the Hissar district of the Punjab were especially hard-hit by the"Indian famine of 1899–1900"] The Indian famine of 1899–1900 began with the failure of the summer monsoons in 1899 over west and central India and, during the next year, affected an area of 476,000 square miles and a population of 59.5 million. Harvnb|Imperial Gazetteer of India vol. III|1907|p=491] The famine was acute in the Central Provinces and Berar, the Bombay Presidency, the minor province of Ajmer-Merwara, and the Hissar District of the Punjab; it also caused great distress in the princely states of the Rajputana Agency, the Central India Agency, Hyderabad and the Kathiawar Agency. In addition, small areas of the Bengal Presidency, the Madras Presidency and the North-Western Provinces were acutely afflicted by the famine.

The population in many areas had barely recovered from the famine of 1896–1897. As in that famine, this one too was preceded by a drought. Harvnb|Imperial Gazetteer of India vol. III|1907|p=492] The Meteorological Office of India in its report of 1900, stated, "The mean average rainfall of India is 45 inches. In no previous famine year has it been in greater defect than 5 inches. But in 1899 the defect exceeded 11 inches." There were also large crop failures in the rest of India and, as a result, inter-regional trade couldn't be relied upon to stabilize food prices.Harvnb|Drèze|1995|p=75]

The resulting mortality was high. In total, between 1.25 to 10 million people were killed in the famine. Davis, Mike. Late Victorian Holocausts. 1. Verso, 2000. ISBN 1859847390 pg 173] [ [http://www.theglobalist.com/dbweb/StoryId.aspx?StoryId=5516 The global famine of 1877 and 1899]

Course

In the Central Provinces and Berar, an area that had suffered extreme distress during the famine of 1896–1897, the year 1898 had been favorable year agriculturally, as was the first half of 1899; however, after the failure of the summer monsoon of 1899, a second catastrophe began soon afterwards.Harvnb|Dyson|1991a|p=15] The year 1899 was the second dryest year in Indian history, after 1877. [ Davis, Mike. Late Victorian Holocausts. 1. Verso, 2000. ISBN 1859847390 pg 159] There was a rapid rise of prices and the autumn kharif harvest failed completely. After public criticism of the famine relief effort in the previous famine, this time an improved famine relief effort was organized; by July 1900, one-fifth of the province's population was on some form of famine relief. The summer monsoon of 1900 produced moderately abundant rainfall, and by autumn, agricultural work had begun; most famine-relief works were consequently closed by December 1900. However, George Curzon, the viceroy of India was determined to prevent famine from being used as a cause for reform; with hunger spreading through two-thirds of the sub-continent, he ordered his officials to publicly attribute the crisis strictly to drought. George Curzon warned that "any government which imperiled the financial position of India in the interests of prodigal philanthropy would be open to serious criticism; but any government which by indiscriminate alms-giving weakened the fiber and demoralized the self-reliance of the population, would be guilty of a public crime." [ Davis, Mike. Late Victorian Holocausts. 1. Verso, 2000. ISBN 1859847390 pg 162] He also cut back rations that he characterized as "dangerously high" and stiffened relief eligibility by reinstating the Temple tests. [ Davis, Mike. Late Victorian Holocausts. 1. Verso, 2000. ISBN 1859847390 pg 164] Overall, the famine of 1899–1900 was less severe in this region than the famine of two years before. In the Bombay Presidency, the reverse was the case: the famine of 1899–1900, which affected a population of 12 million, was more acute, especially so in the Kathiawar Agency.Harvnb|Dyson|1991a|p=17] The recovery from the famine in the Presidency was also very slow.

Epidemics

Both 1896 and 1899 were El Niño years—years in which the monsoon rainfall was considerably less than average.Harvnb|Bouma|van der Kay|1996|p=90] The year following the El Niño, also called a Niño+1 year, has been historically recorded to have not only higher than average rainfall, but also a much higher probability of malaria epidemics. For example in the Punjab province of British India, of the 77 years from 1867 to 1943, there were 21 El Niño years, 11 of whose Niño+1 years produced malaria epidemics; in contrast, there were only 6 malaria epidemics in the remaining 56 non-El Niño years. "Fever years follow famine years" had become a popular saying in the Punjab long before Sir Ronald Ross, working in the Presidency General Hospital in Calcutta, showed in 1898 that the malaria parasite, "Plasmodium falciparum", is transmitted by mosquitoes.Harvnb|Bouma|van der Kay|1996|p=93] It had also been noted, by R. Christophers in 1911, that years in which the monsoon was abundant, but which had not been preceded by famine years, were not likely to be epidemic years. [ Christophers, R. (1911) "Malaria in the Punjab" in "Scientific memoirs by officers of the medical and sanitary departments". Government of India, Superintendent Government Printing, Calcutta., quoted in Harvnb|Bouma|van der Kay|1996|p=93] These observations had prompted some scholars to theorize that the increased malaria mortality in a post-famine year was the result of lowered resistance to malaria caused by the malnutrition. However, it is now thought likely that the dry famine years decreased human exposure to mosquitoes, which thrive in stagnant water, and consequently to "Plasmodium falciparum"; the decreased exposure resulted in lowered immunity among the population, thereby making subsequent exposures all the more devastating.

In 1900, a Niño+1 year, malaria epidemics, occurred in the Punjab, Central Provinces and Berar, and the Bombay Presidency, with devastating results. In the Central Provinces and Berar, the death rates were initially quite low. The "Report on the Famine in the Central Provinces in 1899–1900" noted the "extreme healthiness of the first four months of the famine, September to December 1899." [ "Report on the Famine in the Central Provinces in 1899–1900", volume 1, Nagpur (1901)., quoted in Harvnb|Dyson|1991a|p=16] The low mortality indicated the absence of malaria in 1899; however, by the summer of 1900, an epidemic of cholera had begun, and soon the monsoon rains of 1900 brought on the malaria epidemic.Harvnb|Dyson|1991a|p=16] Consequently, the death rate peaked between August and September 1900, a full year after the famine began. In the Bombay Presidency, the same pattern of pre-monsoon cholera followed by post-monsoon malaria in 1900 was repeated. The "Report on the Famine in the Bombay Presidency, 1899–1902" pronounced the epidemic to be "unprecedented," noting that "It attacked all classes and was by no means confined to the people who had been on relief works ..." ["Report on the Famine in the Bombay Presidency, 1899–1902", volume 1, Bombay (1903)., quoted in Harvnb|Dyson|1991a|p=17]

Usury

The British had established control over Western India in the early decades of the 19th Century; this consisted of direct administration of the conquered territories in the expanded Bombay Presidency as well as in the British outpost of Ajmer-Merwara farther north.Harvnb|Hardiman|1996|p=125] The middle decades of the 19th century saw not only the implementation of a new system of land revenue and land rights in these areas, but also the establishment of new civil law. Under the new land rights system, peasants could be dispossessed of their land if they failed to pay the land-revenue (or land-tax) in a timely fashion. The British, however, continued to rely on local "Baniya" usurers, or "Sahukars", to supply credit to the peasants.Harvnb|Hardiman|1996|p=126] The imposition of the new system of civil law, however, meant that the peasants could be exploited by the "sahukars", who were often able, through the new civil courts, to acquire title-deeds to a peasant's land for non-payment of debt.

The mid-19th century was also a time of predominance of the economic theories of Adam Smith and David Ricardo, and the principle of "laissez-faire" was subscribed to by many colonial administrators; the British, consequently, declined to interfere in the markets. This meant that the "Baniya" "sahukars" could resort to hoarding during times of scarcity, driving up the price of food grain, and profiteering in the aftermath. All this occurred in Western India during the famine of 1899–1900.

In Khaira District in present-day Gujarat, many peasants were forced to hand over their lands to the "sahukars" as security for meager loans that not only didn't granted them much relief, but that they later couldn't repay on account of exorbitant interest.Harvnb|Hardiman|1996|pp=133-134] The "sahukars" were to foreclose on these loans in the years after the famine; in the princely state of Baroda, for example, the recorded land-transfers were to jump from an average of 13,000 per year during the decade of the 1890s, to over 65,000 during the year 1902–1903.

The "sahukars", in their effort to drive up prices, were even able to export grain "out" of areas of scarcity using the faster means of transport that came in with British rule. Here again the colonial administrators declined to intervene, even though they themselves often disapproved of the practice. This happened, for example, in the Panchmahals—one of the worst famine-afflicted areas in 1900—where a railway line had been built in the 1890s. A British deputy district collector recorded in his report, "The merchants first cleared large profits by exporting their surplus stocks of grain at the commencement of the famine, and, later on by importing maize from Cawnpore and Bombay and rice from Calcutta and Rangoon." [Quoted in Harvnb|Hardiman|1996|p=133] He went on to record that the "sahukars" were building new houses for themselves from these windfall profits. The blatant profiteering, however, led to grain riots in the Panchmahals by Bhil tribals, and grain riots became a feature of other British-ruled areas during times of famine.Harvnb|Hardiman|1996|pp=145-146] This contrasted markedly with the princely states, where the authorities often did intervene. For example, in Jodhpur State, a famine-stricken area in Rajputana, in August 1899, the state officials set up a shop to sell grain at cost price, forcing the "Baniya" merchants to eventually bring down their prices.

Economic changes

The Indian famine of 1899–1900 was the last of the all-India famines.Harvnb|McAlpin|1979|p=157] (The war-time Bengal famine of 1943 was confined mainly to Bengal and some neighboring regions.) The famine proved to be a watershed between the overwhelmingly subsistence agriculture economy of 19th century India and a more diversified economy of the 20th century, which, by offering other forms of employment, created less agricultural disruption (and, consequently, less mortality) during times of scarcity.

The construction of Indian railways between 1860 and 1920, and the opportunities thereby offered for greater profit in other markets, allowed farmers to accumulate assets that could then be drawn upon during times of scarcity.Harvnb|McAlpin|1979|pp=153-155] By the early 20th century, many farmers in the Bombay presidency were growing a portion of their crop for export. Wheat, both food and cash crop, saw increased production and export during this time; in addition, cotton and oil-seeds were also exported. The railways also brought in food, whenever expected scarcities began to drive up food prices.

There were other changes in the economy as well: a construction boom in the Bombay presidency, in both the private and public sectors, during the first two decades of the 20th century, created a demand for unskilled labor. There was greater demand for agricultural labor as well, brought on both by the planting of more labor-intensive crops and the expansion of the cropped area in the presidency. Real agricultural wages, for example, increased sharply after 1900. [ Findlay-Shirras, G. (1924) "Report on an Enquiry into Agricultural Wages in the Bombay Presidency", Government of Bombay, Labour Office, pp. 64-66. quoted in Harvnb|Mcalpin|1979|p=156] All these provided farmers with greater insurance against famine.Harvnb|McAlpin|1979|p=156] During times of drought, they could now seek seasonal non-agricultural employment; alternatively, they could temporarily move to areas where there was no drought and work as agricultural wage laborers.

According to Harv|McAlpin|1979|p=156, "Famines in the nineteenth century tended to be characterized by some degree of aimless wandering of agriculturalists after their own supplies of food had run out." Since these migrations caused further depletion among individuals who were already malnourished and since new areas exposed them to unfamiliar disease pathogens, the attendant mortality was high. In the 20th century, however, these temporary migrations became more purposive, especially from regions (in the Bombay Presidency) that were highly drought prone. A greater availability of jobs throughout the presidency and a better organized system of famine relief offered by the provincial government allowed most men in afflicted villages to migrate elsewhere as soon as their own meager harvest had been collected. McAlpin further notes:

"Villages are reported to have housed only women and children, and old men in some years of crop failure. Those left behind could tend the livestock, live off the short harvest, and expect that the government would step in to provide relief—including grain sales or gratuitous relief—if necessary. With the beginning of the next agricultural season the men would return to the village with some earnings from their outside employment which could be used to resume agricultural operations. In most cases, the livestock would also have been preserved through the actions of women and children."

Mortality

In total, between 1.25 to 10 million people were killed in the famine. Davis, Mike. Late Victorian Holocausts. 1. Verso, 2000. ISBN 1859847390 pg 173] [ [http://www.theglobalist.com/dbweb/StoryId.aspx?StoryId=5516 The global famine of 1877 and 1899] In the Deccan, an estimated 166,000 people died, and in the entire Bombay Presidency a total of 462,000. [Harvnb|Attwood|2005|p=2072] In the Presidency, the famine of 1899–1900 had the highest mortality—at 37.9 deaths per 1000—among all famines and scarcities there between 1876–77 and 1918–19. [Harvnb|McAlpin|1979|p=146] Overall, in British areas alone, approximately 1,000,000 individuals died of starvation or accompanying disease; in addition, as a result of acute shortage of fodder, cattle in the millions perished in the famine.

Notes

References

*Harvard reference | 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
*Harvard reference | last1 = Arnold | first1 = David | last2 = Moore | first2 = R. I. | title = Famine: Social Crisis and Historical Change (New Perspectives on the Past) | year = 1991 | publisher = Wiley-Blackwell. Pp. 164 | isbn = 0631151192
*Harvard reference | last = Attwood | first = Donald W. | title = Big Is Ugly? How Large-scale Institutions Prevent Famines in Western India | journal = World Development | volume = 33 | issue = 12 | year = 2005 | pages = 2067-2083
*Harvard reference | last = Baker | first = David | title = State policy, the market economy, and tribal decline: The Central Provinces, 1861–1920 | journal = Indian Economic and Social History Review | volume = 28 | pages = 341-370 | url = http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/001946469102800401
*Harvard reference | 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, 1860–1990 | year = 1991 | publisher = Stosius Inc/Advent Books Division. Pp. 383 | isbn = 8122002110
*Harvard reference | last1 = Bouma | first1 = Menno J. | last2 = van der Kay | first2 = Hugo J. | title = The El Niño Southern Oscillation and the historic malaria epidemics on the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka: an early warning system for future epidemics | journal = Tropical Medicine and International Health | volume = 1 | issue = 1 | pages = 86-96 | year = 1996
*Harvard reference | last = Drèze | first = Jean | chapter = Famine prevention in India | year = 1995 | editor1-last = Drèze | editor1-first = Jean |editor2-last = Sen |editor2-first = Amartya |editor3-last = Hussain | editor3-first = Althar | title = The political economy of hunger: Selected essays | publisher = Oxford: Clarendon Press. Pp. 644 | isbn = 0198288832
*Harvard reference | 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 = 1402151152
*Harvard reference | last = Dyson | first = Tim | year = 1991a | 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
*Harvard reference | last = Dyson | first = Tim | year = 1991b | 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
*Harvard reference | 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
*Harvard reference | 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 | url = http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X07002892
*Harvard reference | last = Hardiman | first = David | title = Usuary, Dearth and Famine in Western India | year = 1996 | journal = Past and Present | issue = 152 | pages = 113-156
*Harvard reference | 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
*Harvard reference | last = Imperial Gazetteer of India vol. III | first =
title = The Indian Empire, Economic (Chapter X: Famine, pp. 475–502 | 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
*Harvard reference | last = Klein | first = Ira | title = Death in India, 1871-1921 | journal = The Journal of Asian Studies | volume = 32 | issue = 4 | year = 1973 | page = 639-659 | url = http://www.jstor.org/stable/2052814
*Harvard reference | last = Klein | first = Ira | title = When the rains failed: famines, relief, and mortality in British India | journal = Indian Economic and Social History Review | volume = 21 | year = 1984 | pages = 185-214 | url = http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/001946468402100203
*Harvard reference | 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
*Harvard reference | last = McAlpin | first = Michelle B. | title = Dearth, Famine, and Risk: The Changing Impact of Crop Failures in Western India, 1870–1920 | year = 1979 | journal = The Journal of Economic History | volume = 39 | issue = 1 | pages = 143-157 | url = http://www.jstor.org/stable/2118916
*Harvard reference | last = Roy | first = Tirthankar | title = The Economic History of India, 1857–1947, 2nd edition | year = 2006 | publisher = New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Pp. xvi, 385 | isbn = 0195684303
*Harvard reference | last = Sen | first = A. K. | title = Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation | publisher = Oxford: Clarendon Press. Pp. ix, 257 | year = 1982 | isbn = 0198284632
*Harvard reference | last1=Tomlinson | first1=B. R. | year=1993
title=The Economy of Modern India, 1860-1970 (The New Cambridge History of India, III.3)
publisher=Cambridge and London: Cambridge University Press.
isbn= 0521589398
*Harvard reference | last = Washbrook | first = David | title = The Commercialization of Agriculture in Colonial India: Production, Subsistence and Reproduction in the 'Dry South', c. 1870–1930 | year = 1994 | journal = Modern Asian Studies | volume = 28 | issue = 1 | pages = 129-164 | url = http://www.jstor.org/stable/312924?origin=JSTOR-pdf

ee also

*Indian famine of 1896–1897
*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