Evening star., 1943-11-01
Four Horsemen Over India

WI ''S' SS'tSu WV IIOIu
The situation in India grows rap
Idly more serious. Already troubled
by political dissension and strained
by the war effort, it is now afflicted
with widespread famine and the
epidemic diseases which follow in
hunger'S wake. The combined effects
of these four ills may gravely COM
pllcate plans for large scale often
slve against the Japanese in Burma
and Malaga which Lord Mountbat-
ten has been preparing and which
becomes strategically possible with
the end of the monsoon season.
Famine is no stranger to India.
From time immemorial it has peri
odlcally swept land where a reck-
lesSly prolific people eternally presses
upon the limits of subsistence. 1t is
not surprising that the famine center
is Bengal, a province whose 55,000,-
600 people occupy an area no larger
than the State of Nebraska. Inten-
SiVe cultivation of a fertile soil en-
ableS Bengal normally to be 83 per
cent Insufficient in fOodStuffS. the
balance having formerly been made
up from the excess rice harvest of
neighboring Burma. The loss of
Burma by japanese conquest COIN
cided with subnormal harvest in
Bengal and other parts Of India last
year. The result has been increas-
ing Stringency that has now reached
relieved locally until the new har-
vests begin to reach the market early
next year People are dying whole
sale, not only in the cities but in the
villages as well. Indeed Calcutta is
5Warmlng with starving peasants
who have left their farms and come
to the towns, hoping for food distri-
button. Current estimates place the
weekly death toll from starvation in
Bengal Province as high as 100000
weekly, with the probability of a
steady rise till the end of the year.
Furthermore, deaths from sheer
starvation are being rapidly swelled
by deaths from epidemic disease.
Cholera, dySentary and other filth
diseases are always present in India,
owing to the congeSted, unSanitarv
living conditions of its people When
famine lowers their resistance and
OVertaXeS sanitary measures, these
endemic maladieS spread like wild
fire. The dread possibilities can be
gauged by the fact that the last
great epidemic in Bengal, a genera
ton ago, took toll of several million
lives.
Such visitatiOnS are probably
harder to control now than they
were when British authority was
more immediate and absolute. In
Kipling's day the responsible officials
were nearly all British and had vir-
tually autocratic powers in an emer-
gency, During the past two decades,
the Inflammation of the civil service
has gone SO far that only the top
posts are in British hands. and ma
tive officials not only average less
efficient but are also more apt to be
SWayed by local Influences There can
be no doubt that great deal of food
has been boarded by native specula-
tors in anticipation of the famine
and with intent to profteer by the
crisis, but the British Government
does not seem to have used its legal
powers to commander such supplies
to the same extent as has occurred
in some Of the selfgoverning native
states. The south Indian state of
TraVancOre, for instance, where
famine likewise impended, imposed
drastic ratiOning and price control
months ago and has thereby averted
widespread starvation.
The reluctance of the British gov
ernment Of India to use emergency
powers which would undoubtedly
offend powerful native interests and
increase political agitation is under
Standable. but the crisis has become
thereby all the more serious, and
relief from distant lands is compli-
Gated by the shipping shortage and
wartime priOrities. Meanwhile the
famine is notable talking point for
recently set up a provisional gov
eminent of India in Singapore,
headed by the notorious agitator,
SubhaS Chandra Bose, and other
Nationalist eXiles. The British Raj
is certainly having its troubles, these
days.