Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1951-03-11
Ever-Hungry Indio
U. S. Con Fill Those Empty Grain Bins Now,
But Her Appetite Moy Become InsotiobIe
By RondoIph Leigh

py Nono
Congress must soon make g
momentous guess on India. 1t viii
almost certainly give a requested
2 million tons of grain in the
hopes of averting famine and in
directly aiding the democratic
cause Yet it is possible that
20 or even 10 years from now oul
nobly-intended aid may prove tc
have been the breeder of a larger
famine.
This issue slips up on Us IN
nocently enough. 1t was Nautilus
who won for Economics the title
1.-The dismal SCIENCE" by showing
that mans progress is locked
within the iron ring of his food
supply, which he said would be
increasingly overconsumed with
growth of population. His only
correctives are war, pestilence and
famine, with emphasis or famine
That was nearly 200 years ago
and he got his idea from India
though he worked it out in terms
of England. He was supposed to
' have been refuted by develop
ments of the next 100 years. To-
day he seems justified, unless we
assume that America is really
capable of meeting indefinitely the
food deficits of three continents
This is certain: There is famine
in India today. Unless food is
sent there over a long period of
time and in larger quantities than
now asked, hundreds of thousands
Of persons will starve.
Lives on Borrowed Land
India proper is the worlds
largest theoretically free nation,
with the most perilously uncertain
food supply and the least expert
ence in self-rule. Its food supply
never adequate in modern times
Is uncertain because third of it
comes from irrigation, which in
turn depends on the most capri
cious climate on earth. Its demo-
cratic strength is in nearly $50
million inhabitants, of whom less
than a fifth are literate and scarce
ly a tenth of whom have had any
experience in practical politics.
Governmentally it is an interim
coalition of the elite of several
creeds, rather than political
groups. This is shown by the fact
that the break with PakiStan was
on strictly religious lines. The
interim Congress Party regime will
probably give place to a govern
ment elected by as broad a suf-
frage as possible within a year or
SO. Such an election was planned
for 1850 but proved to be imprac-
tical. The religious rather than
political naturalization Of India
is reflected in the fact that the
cabinet. overwhelmingly Hindu, is
proportioned by creeds. The gov
eminent legislates directly on
theological questions-one Of the
top issues now being the revision
Of the Hindu code covering mar
riage and divorce.
India's national wealth is less
than that of France, though India
has seven times Frances popula-
ton. To a marked degree India
is a state trained to socialism.
That is, about 30 per cent Of her
wealth is in land, and an enor-
nous part Of the land is the direct
property Of the state. In the great
state Of Madras this form of land
tenure. known as ryotwari, goes
back for centuries. For most of
the historic period workers on
those state lands could not quit,
whether they proposed or not.
Now there is a slow process Of
turning these lands over to peas
ants, but there are strict controls
on what they do with them. In
addition they can still starve there
If the monsoons are tickle. I'm
fortunately, for the last five years
the monsoons have failed, hence
the ruin in Madras and elsewhere.
There is another factor. India,
greatest of irrigation lands, has
lived on borrowed acres for years,
and the accounting is now at
hand. Some economists say that
this net loss in productive acreage
is what drove the British out of
India, rather than the tactics of
the revolutionists, heroic though
the latter were. India has a net
loss of a million acres of land
a year to erosion. aridity. water
logging, salinity, silt and the de-
sertion of farms due to the ravages
of malaria. Britain, having lost
in European power politics most
of the billions which she had
siphoned of as a colonial power
could not supply the capital
needed to keep India abreast OF
her food needs. Indeed the capital
required would run to astronom-
ical figures for apparently the net
loss per year in productive land
in relationship to population
growth might run as high as two
million acres.
Factors Involved
In addition to the usual refer
ence sources on India, there are
three up-to-date sources of infor-
nation which throw new light or
the present problem. These are
the Indian newspapers, of which
several-score arrive regularly al
the Library Of Congress; the In.
dian Embassy and the United
States Bureau of Reclamation.
The newspapers tell a story
which can be put in rough
composite form thus: India mus
face an annual shortage of al
least 6 million tons Of grain nov
and for some years to come. Foot
control lacks the needed central.