The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1877-08-17
The Famine in British India.

causes and possible prcvcntivcs OF those
| famincs which at variable intervals dcci-
mate the population Of the peninsula. Some
| light is thrown upon this subject by the
| documents and statistics collected In the
British Blue Book" lately presented to
Parliament
On the perodicty Of its rains depend the
crops of India and the existence of its pco-
pie, but the rainfall Is 10y no means equally
distributed over the whole country. when.
for example the lower valley of the Gauges
secures from sixty to scvcnty-iivc inches of
rain water, the upper valley Of this river, as
well as the central plateau and east coast Of
the peninsula, receives only thirty to sixty.
For the extreme south, in the same year, this
quantity would be still further lowered, while
throughout Scindc and in part of the Pun
iaub IL would sink below fifteen inches. II,
now, these rains, quite insufficient, even in
the most favored basins, happen to fall short,
or fall Mt the wrong season, those provinces
unprovdcd with artificial irrigation are
forthwith mcnaccd with famine. Sometimes,
a. in 1883, il is the Punjaub which Is laid desc
late; sometimes, as in 1919, 1919. 1888, and
1889, il Is the whole northwest. Then, again,
as in 1860, 1865, and 1874, the scourgc will dc
vastatc Bengal. which, however, under nor
NAL conditions, is the richest and most fer
tile region. Indeed. the most terrible famine
known to history smote Bengal in ITO,
when. accoidingtc the statement Of WARREN
HASTINGS, the number of its victims reached
ten millions
In the latest crisis that Of last summer
Bengal proper was spared the curse of
drought, which, moreover, affected but
slightly the Presidency Of that name, only
touching it in nine districts of Mysorc,
which contain but five millions of inhabi-
tants in a total Of sixty Millions On this
occasion the weight of disaster fell ON the
Presidcncics of Bombay and Madras, the
area of its action embracing In the one case
about ten millions, and III the other twenty
millions Of human beings In other words,
| moro than an eighth of the population.
which in the best of times finds mcagre
sustenance on the overc'owdcd soil Of Hin
dustan, nov secs food quite beyond its reach.
The rains which fell In the month Of
March of the present year gave some hope
of amcliOration and certain change for
the better had begun to appear in the Bonn
| bay Presidency when the cholera came in
its turn to ravagc several districts in that
quarter As to the Madras region the rain
having ceased toward the middle of April,
| public distress there reached its height, so
| that to meet most urgent necessities, the
Viccroy was compelled to order by telegraph
the immediate doubling Of the railway
track 10y which supplies are mainly for
warlcd How great a sacrifice of human
life has All, ddy been cntailed by the calam-
! ity il not precisely asccrtaincd, but the de-
| II inn l.. "a. at fu nod
tions which in any European country would
| provoke panic Of CONSERVATION, and pro-
foundly dislocatc the conditions of labor.
With n patience however, bcgotten Of i'm
memorial hardships. the natives Of India,
and especially those belonging to the higher
castles, far from parading their aiiliction.
strive to hide it. According to the we'll
known Indian administrator, Sir RICHARD
| TEMPLE, only the image Of proud ship
| "ttt.fs. rtr "a Nor Iuit tdu
represent the poignant spectacle Of these
hungcr-torturcd accomplishing men lying
down to die amid the efforts organized on
every hand for their relief.
In the time Of the East India Company this
sombrc fatalism was sufficiently justified
During the great dearth Of l77O the "old
lady Of London" AZ the Hindoos called the
| Company, after presenting the famishcd
millions with n grntuityof twenty-five thou
sand dollars and fotliddng the expectation
of rice, complacently folded her arms. With
such n policy it is no wonder that trading
corporations should be branded as the worst
of masters, and we can measure, in crises
| like the present how enormously India has
gained by passing under the direct do
minion of the crown. 1t was not
until the middle Of last September
that serious consequences began to bc
apprchcndcd from the diminished rainfall
III the region Of Bombay. A month or two
elapsed before a sensible rise in the price Of
grain seemed TO call for official Intervention
on behalf Of that vast body Of native labor
crs to whom the difference of "A few cents on
| a pound OF Hour means starvation. As
early as the 10Th Of October the Lieutenant
Governor of Bombay was directed to open
| public workshops and to begin work forth
with on the railway planned To connect the
southeast and northeast branches Of the
great Indian Peninsula line. Two months
later the situation looked darker, and more
comprehensive schemes of succOr were UNI
dertakcn. In December the Bombay author
tiles rcckoned at about five millions the
number of persons in their Presidency who
would need assistance up to september,
1871. At the same date there were not less
than $1,000 natives employed in the Gov
crnment workshops Of the Madras circuit
Six months ago the pccuniary sacrifice oc-
casioncd by the measures Of relief and by
the diminution Of the public revenue was
computed at twenty-five million dollars, and
it is now affirmed that this estimate will
prove to be Tar below the fact. Obviously
times hav" changed for India since the
| epoch when the magnatcs Of Calcutta min
isteled to the hunger of a nation with the
gift of twenty-five thousand dollars.
Wecolne now TO the question by what
means and to what extent this traditional
scourgc OF HindOstan can bc avcrtcd, or at
all events, fOrescen We need not dwell on
the suggestion Of the H,iidn Economist that
| the cXpcdiont ascrihcd TO JOSEPH in Egypt
should be adopted and public granarlcs ere
atod, since seasons Of extreme drought are