page_title: Famine in India
section_title: British rule
hierarchical_section_title: Famine in India / British rule
caption_attribution_description: English: The Famine in India: Natives Waiting for Relief at Bangalore (original caption). Scan of image from The Illustrated London News (no artist given), Saturday, October 20, 1877. This is the complete image. The famine the image depicts is the Great Famine of 1876–78 Français&#160;: Traduction de la légende originale&#160;: «&#160;La famine en Inde&#160;: Des indigènes attendent de l'aide à Bangalore.&#160;». Image numérisée depuis une page de l'Illustrated London News daté du samedi 20 octobre 1877. தமிழ்: சென்னை மாகாணப் பெரும் பஞ்சம், 1876-78
context_page_description: Famine had been a recurrent feature of life the Indian sub-continental countries of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, most notoriously during British rule. Famines in India resulted in more than 60 million deaths over the course of the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. Famines in British India were severe enough to have a substantial impact on the long-term population growth of the country in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
  Indian agriculture is heavily dependent on climate: a favorable southwest summer monsoon is critical in securing water for irrigating crops. Droughts, combined with policy failures, have periodically led to major Indian famines, including the Bengal famine of 1770, the Chalisa famine, the Doji bara famine, the Great Famine of 1876–1878, and the 1943 Bengal famine. Some commentators have identified British government inaction as a contributing factor to the severity of famines during the time India was under British rule. Famine largely ended by the start of 20th century with the 1943 Bengal famine being an exception related to complications during World War II.
context_section_description: The late 18th and 19th centuries saw increase in the incidence of severe famine. Millions died from 1850 to 1899 in 24 major famines; more than in any other 50-year period. These famines in British India were bad enough to have a remarkable impact on the long term population growth of the country, especially in the half century between 1871–1921. The first, the Bengal famine of 1770, is estimated to have taken the lives of nearly one-third of the population of the region—about 10 million people, although recent estimates suggest the figure is closer to 2 million  The impact of the famine caused East India Company revenues from Bengal to decline to £174,300 in 1770–71. The stock price of the East India Company fell sharply as a result. The company was forced to obtain a loan of £1 million from the Bank of England to fund the annual military budget of between £60,000–1 million. Attempts were later made to show that net revenue was unaffected by the famine, but this was possible only because the collection had been "violently kept up to its former standard". The 1901 Famine Commission found that twelve famines and four "severe scarcities" took place between 1765 and 1858.
  Researcher Brian Murton states that the famines recorded after the arrival of the English, but before the establishment of the Indian Famine Codes of the 1880s, bear a cultural bias regarding the stated causes of the famine because they "reflect the view of a handful of Englishmen." These sources, however, contain accurate recordings of weather and crop conditions. Florence Nightingale made efforts to educate British subjects about India's famines through a series of publications in the 1870s and beyond. Evidence suggests that there may have been large famines in south India every forty years in pre-colonial India, and that the frequency might have been higher after the 12th century. These famines still did not approach the incidence of famines of the 18th and 19th centuries under British rule.
caption: People waiting for famine relief in Bangalore. From the Illustrated London News, (20 October 1877)
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