The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1871-09-21
Your affectionate wife,
ELLEN WILKINSON.
Tie Great Indian Famine.

The Gazette Of India has Just published
a painful but deeply interesting report
OF the tir kaL or threefold famine of grass
grain, and rain, which fell in lS6S-69
with frightful severity on 100000 square
miles of Rajpootana SURPRISING in in
tensity any which has occurred since
1872, and almost equalling that of 1161,
of which the record is preserved that
three quarters of the cattle died and that
man ate man. The visitation having
been chiefly in native States, accurate
statistics are not forthcoming; it is i'm
possible, therefore, to come to any accu-
rate conclusions as to the mortality
which the famine caused, directly or in
directly. The scanty crops which in
spite of drought struggled up, were
swept off the earth by plague Of To-
Gusts; cholera fastened on the starved
people, and a terrible fever followed,
striking down the entire population.
The deaths from this latter cause alone
are put down at 90 per cent. of the in
habitants, while in some Of the Marwa-
rec districts they rose as high as one
third. Taking the most moderate of the
statistics furnished, the local authorities
calculate that in Msrwar and Aimere
and the other districts, no less than one
and quarter million of human beings
died of disease and starvation. What
could be done to alleviate suffering was
done; but it was very little, for the
stricken districts were cut off from the
possibility of adequate aid How this
happened Is explained in the report,
which says that the Rajpootsna famine
bore strong resemblance to the Orissa
famine in one particular that for some
months, though for a different cause,
Rajpootana, like Orissa, was shut off
from the receipt of supplies at the most
critical period of the year. In Orissa
this arose from the impossibility Of ships
approaching the coast to unload during
the monsoon months. In Raipootana
the same result was produced by the ut
ter failure of forage, the price of which
was in many cases dearer than grain, so
that no carts could travel, nor could the
pack-bullocks of the Bunjaras, of which
there are hundreds of thousands in Raj
pootana and Central India, traverse the
country. The result was the same. The
sea in one case, and the want of grass in
the other, isolated the famine tract from
the rest of India. 1t must be admitted
that great efforts were made to relieve
the sufferers. The chiefs of Oodeybore
and Jeybore set noble example, which
was followed by almost every other chief
whose States were stricken, and by many
who were beyond the famine. Famine
relief works were started and maintained
at comparatively enormous expense du-
ring the whole of the visitation the
United Presbyterian Mission, which has
made RajpootanG its field for missionary
enterprise, labored both in purse and
person; the Marwarees IN Bombay, act
ing with the Bombay Government and
the Chamber of Commerce, sent liberal
contribution and the government of
India expended in relief works for the
426 900 inhabitants of its own province
OF Ajmere, fifteen and quarter lakhs of
rupees, or nearly three years gross reve-
nue. of the country. 1t is perhaps, u
pity that, in justice to itself, the Govern
ment did not publish the report earlier,
as till now, while many have seen
the suffering, but few knew what
had been done to alleviate it. The moral
to be drawn from the history of this and
other famines is that though scarcity
may prevail, actual famine is preventa-
BILE by the two great measures to which
Lord Mayo and his government have so
steadily addressed themselves, namely,
railroads and works of irrigation rail-
ways to convey grain to the great CEN
tres of population, reservoirs to store the
rain supply and canals to direct it. The
famines or periods of unusual scarcity
which affiict Rajpootana, have hitherto
required at intervals of some ten or
twelve years. Long therefore before an
other visitation may be looked for, the
railroad from Agra to Ajmere, which is
the heart of the country, will have been
completed, and reservoirs, of which
there are even now some magnificent
examples, will have been constructed
wherever the greatest need for them has
been shown.