Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1874-07-15
The Food of India.

Fifty millions of our fellow-subjects
pass their lives in n chronic risk of star
vation." SAYS the author of Rural Bengal
He asserts that the people in the rice dis
tricts of Orissa are pcrpetually on the
verge of famine" These are startling
assertions; but with the fact of three fam
ines in Bengal within ten wears, none can
venture to disprove them.
British rule in India may be said to
have been inaugurated by one of the most
terrible famines the world has known
But with the country and its people we
were then comparatively uncaquainted.
The vast tmountain-chains, extensive rivers.
jungles. and businesses of India were un-
explored; even its ancient cities and teem-
inc population were but slightly known to
us Its products were traditional rather
than tangible; and that the new rulers
were unable to cope with that terrible
famine of 1879 is not surprising. At least
ten million perished. Bengal lay waste
and silent for twenty years afterward.
through utter proStration. This fact tells
its effect upon the inhabitants, and eX-
plains that expression of habitual sadness
and patient endurance seen on the face of
the native Hindoo of the poorer class,
whose normal condition is one of 90 de-
preston and dependency" And are
rice-famines inevitable? many ask who,
for several months, have read that the
present famine in India was " coming
Those acquainted with rice-culture know
the signs which foretell it: they know,
also. that at least forty million of the in
habitants of India look to the rice-crops
for their sole diet; that a good crop means
plenty; an average crop, high prices; a
failing crop, starvation.
Rice is to the intertropical nations of
the East what wheat is TO us, and oats and
and rye to the more northern countries
| To the Hindus, whose religion forbids
them flesh, it is more: it is their sacred
food and sole subsistence. Not only this,
! for out of the intricacies of their creeds
new difficulties arise. One caste refuses
| to touch food that another caste has han
| died. They would eat what they them
selves have raised; the rest is impure !:
thus, when their crops fail, many accept
death in preference to that which their
faith holds as unclean food.
Those who have lived in India are ia
miliar with the sight of a Hindu family
seated on the ground around pan of
boiled rice rs big as Il sponge-bath, help
ing themselves, and feeding with their
fingers till the "dish is empty. Two
such meals day are what the working
classes subsist on. A little salt is frequent
ly the only tiavoring. Sugar, ghee, oil,
and vegetables are luxuries in which they
do not often indulge. One pound of rice
at each of these two meals is what man
consumes on an average, though, in times
of plenty, he seems TO be able to 90 on
swallowing rice as long as any remains in
the dish. There is standing joke against
them that they never know when they
have eaten enough, until they have meas
ured themselves round the middle. A
pound of rice swells into bulk incredi-
bly, enormous for one stomach, we English
would think. Not for Hindu peasant );
he finishes his meal with good draught
of water, and if then, he has attained
satisfactory dimensions, he decides that
he has eaten enough. This is the ludi-
crous aspect of simple custom, which,
however, gives US some idea of what rice
| is in India to the many millions who eat
nothing else.
The importance of artificial irrigation
has been recognized for ages in those
countries where rice has been most un-
failing. When we think that the con-
sumption of L ce in China is at the rate
of half an acre for each person, we can
in some degree, estimate the vast tracts
| of land and immense labor bestowed on
rice culture to feed its 400 millions of
people.
In Bengal we learn that artificial irrf-