The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-01-25
THE FAMINE IN INDIA
AND THE EFFECT IT IS H1TING ON
 THE PEOPLE.
Waterw0rks ms Permanent Relief Bft-
 ter Than Charity.

few weeks that the fate of agriculture
 India hangs. If there is rain 1t vii
 still be possible to expect some smal
 return, sufficient to slave off absolute
 famine, from the winter crops. Blu
 should the winter rain, no sign Of Whicf
 is at present forthcoming, fail, as die
 the monsoon showers, then the winter
 crops on unirrigated land will be ire
 trievably lost, and famine of the most
 acute description will be in the land
 Already the people are becoming list
 less and giving up all hope. Fatalists,
 as nearly all Orientals are, they comfort
 themselves with such maXims as If we
 are to die of hunger it is Gods will;
 what is the use of our trying to struggle
 against it?" I explained in my last let
 ter that they will refuse to some to
 they have nothing whatever themselves.
 They will even eat up the seed corn, put | by for the next sowings, rather than come to work until they are compelled to do so by the bangs of hunger. In certain parts of the country impending | famine has other effects In the north
 ern Punjab for instance, the people are
 rapidly becoming lawess and desperate. Gangs of dozen or twenty men roam ! about the country, no doubt satisfying the local police with share of the plum
 der, robbing, waylaying and beating all
 they come across. Few of these eases
 ever come to light in the newspapers.
 Few are brought into court at all The
 system of terrorism which is part and
 parcel of the methodr of these lawless
 gangs Is such that the peasant who
 would complain of their dolngs, even
 though he has lost his all, would be
 bold man, indeed.
 The rural police-so corrupt are they
 are suspected of receiving a share of the profits as a condition of keeping quiet One such case was reported from Rawal Pindi district a few days since, when gang of men entered the house of fairly well-to-do native, and having robbed and beaten him, left him for dead. In the Sialkot district simi- lar gangs ode now at work, while in the Gujar Khan portion of Rawal Pindi dis trict gangs of lawless ruffians, all of whom are perfectly well known to the inhabitants, openly and in light of day, loot whole villages assault women, beat men and threaten with death all who should venture to think of appeal ing for justice. The fact is, that out of the reach of the white mans eyesight there is no such thing as justice in In- dia during troublous times. Then the good old rule of let him take who has the power holds good The weakest must go to the wall The native local official, be he Tehsildar or police inspec- tor, is as rule to be bought over for quite trif1ing sum, and if he has been squared" in this manner 1t would be quite useless for any one to complain of having been robbed or assaulted. Thus, on the mere warning of famine-for there is no official famine in the northern Punjab yet-all the riff-raff of the community are let loose to exploit the law-abiding people, and there is no redress. Is it strange if these simple peasants wonder if there be really Sirkar after all, and, if so, why such things should be allowed in the Great Queens raj. Further down country it is reported that the water in the wells is rapidly drying up, and that unless rain comes before Christmas there wiM be none left even for men to drink, the cattle being already dead or dying of thirst and starvation.
 As to the relief measures which have l nd rpa i- tp be regretted that in So many instances they should be of an evanescent and | ephemeral character. The ordinary re- | lief work is the making of kuchha, or road. This is simply a track of earth a foot or so higher than the surrounding fields, and perhaps fif- teen or twenty feet wide. If the wealth ar continues dry the earth so collected | soon crumbles to dust, and is in time 'll blown away, whereas if rain should come soon, all the earth is washed away The result in either case is the same. A work on which possibly many | thousands of rupees have been spent is If no permanent utility to the people or he country. It has to a certain extent served it's turn, inasmuch as employ nent on it has saved certain number ,f people from starvation But if the same money had been spent in the same district on undertakings of more last ng character permanent benefit would result to the country and the in- 1abitants. The weak point of famine elief works as rule, is undoubtedly heir more or less useless character. There does not seem to exist in the country any real organization to cope with difficulties of this sort when they lrrive. A period of scarcity comes on, nd the inhabitants of the affected part re at once hustled on to some utterly seless and unproductive work, which ix months later can hardly be recog- ized.
 What is really wanted in India as a preventive of famines is more irriga . ion Of this there can beno possible oubt. One may pass in the course of
 few hours railway journey in the 'unjab from an irrigated to an unirri- ated tract. It is difficult to find words 0 describe the difference between' the wo at the present moment. In the irri- ated portions the people are smiling nd well-to-do, the crope are promising, nd there is not shade of anxiety be- i lre the cultivator. In the unirrigated ortions, on the other hand, the outlook
 as bad as bad can be. And it should e remembered that big irrigation un- ertakingS are as q general rule, high