|
|
| Line 1: |
Line 1: |
| {{EngvarB|date=May 2014}}
| | #REDIRECT [[Indian famine of 1896–1897]] |
| {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2014}}
| | |
| {{Infobox famine
| | {{Redirect category shell| |
| | name = Indian famine of 1896–97
| | {{R from move}} |
| | country = [[British Raj|India]], the [[princely states]] of [[Rajputana]], [[Central India Agency]], and [[Hyderabad State|Hyderabad]]
| |
| | period = 1896–97
| |
| | total_deaths = ca. 1 million | |
| | death_rate =
| |
| | observations = [[drought]]
| |
| | preceded =
| |
| | succeeded =
| |
| }} | | }} |
| [[File:British Indian Empire 1909 Imperial Gazetteer of India.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Map of the [[British Indian Empire]] (1909), showing the different [[provinces of British India]] and the [[princely states]]. The [[Central Provinces and Berar]] were especially hard-hit by the famine]]
| |
|
| |
| [[File:ChicagoTribuneIndiaFamine1897withDateHeader.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Map from ''Chicago Sunday Tribune'', January 31, 1897, showing the areas in India affected by the famine.]]
| |
| The '''Indian famine of 1896–1897''' was a [[famine]] that began in [[Bundelkhand]], [[British Raj|India]], early in 1896 and spread to many parts of the country, including the [[United Provinces of Agra and Oudh|United Provinces]], the [[Central Provinces and Berar]], [[Bihar]], parts of the [[Bombay Presidency|Bombay]] and [[Madras Presidency|Madras]] presidencies, and parts of the [[Punjab region|Punjab]]; in addition, the [[princely states]] of [[Rajputana]], [[Central India Agency]], and [[Hyderabad State|Hyderabad]] were affected.<ref name="igi-III-490b">{{Harvnb|Imperial Gazetteer of India vol. III|1907|p=490}}</ref><ref name=hisarrevset1>C.A.H. Townsend, [http://revenueharyana.gov.in/Portals/0/revised_settlement_hisar.pdf Final repor of thirds revised revenue settlement of Hisar district from 1905-1910], Gazetteer of [[Department of Revenue and Disaster Management, Haryana]], point 22, page 11.</ref> All in all, during the two years, the famine affected an area of {{convert|307000|sqmi|km2}} and a population of 69.5 million.<ref name="igi-III-490b"/> Although relief was offered throughout the famine-stricken regions in accordance with the Provisional Famine Code of 1883, the mortality, both from starvation and accompanying epidemics, was very high: approximately one million people are thought to have died.<ref name="igi-III-490b"/>
| |
|
| |
| ==Course==
| |
| [[File:GraphicFamineNativesBuyingGrain1897.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Drawing, titled "Famine in India," from ''The Graphic'', February 27, 1897, showing a bazaar scene in India with shoppers, many of whom are emaciated, buying grain from a merchant's shop.]]
| |
| The [[Bundelkhand]] district of [[United Provinces of Agra and Oudh|Agra Province]] experienced drought in the autumn of 1895 as a result of poor summer [[monsoon]] rains.<ref name="igi-III-490b"/> When the winter monsoon failed as well, the provincial government declared a famine early in 1896 and began to organise relief.<ref name="igi-III-490b"/> However, the summer monsoon of 1896 brought only scanty rains, and soon the famine had spread to the [[United Provinces of Agra and Oudh|United Provinces]], [[Central Provinces and Berar]], portions of the presidencies of [[Bombay Presidency|Bombay]] and [[Madras Presidency|Madras]], and of the provinces of [[Bengal Presidency|Bengal]], [[Punjab region|Punjab]], and even [[Upper Burma]].<ref name="igi-III-490b"/> The [[native states]] affected were [[Rajputana]], [[Central India Agency]], and [[Hyderabad State|Hyderabad]].<ref name="igi-III-490b"/> The famine affected mostly [[British India]]: of the total area of {{convert|307000|sqmi|km2}} affected, {{convert|225000|sqmi|km2}} lay in British territory; similarly, of the total famine-afflicted population of 67.5 million, 62.5 million lived in British territory.<ref name="igi-III-490b"/>
| |
|
| |
| The summer monsoon rains of 1897, however, were abundant, as was the following harvest which ended the famine in Autumn 1897.<ref name="igi-III-491c">{{Harvnb|Imperial Gazetteer of India vol. III|1907|p=491}}</ref> However, the rains, which were particularly heavy in some regions set off a [[malaria]] epidemic which killed many people; soon thereafter, an epidemic of the [[bubonic plague]] began in the [[Bombay Presidency]], which although not very lethal during the famine year, would, in the next decade, become more virulent and spread to the rest of India.<ref name="igi-III-491c"/>
| |
|
| |
| ==Famine relief==
| |
| [[File:TheGraphicFamineReliefDeoriPanagar1897.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Famine relief at the Zenana Mission at Deori Panagar, near Jabalpur, India, March 1897]]
| |
| A decade earlier, in 1883, the Provisional Famine Code had been promulgated soon after the report of the first Indian Famine Commission was submitted in 1880.<ref name="igi-III-490b"/> Now, guided by the Code, relief was organised for 821 million units<ref>1 unit = relief for one individual for one day</ref> at a cost of [[Rs.]] 72.5 million (then approx. [[Pound sterling|£]]4,833,500).<ref name = igi-III-490b/> Revenue (tax) was remitted to the tune of Rs. 12.5 million (£833,350) and credit totalling Rs. 17.5 million (£1,166,500) was given.<ref name = igi-III-490b/> A charitable relief fund collected a total of Rs. 17.5 million (£1,166,500) of which Rs. 1.25 were collected in Great Britain.<ref name = igi-III-490b/>
| |
|
| |
| Even so, the mortality resulting from the famine was great; it is thought that in the British territory alone, between 750,000 and 1 million people died of starvation.<ref name="igi-III-491c"/> Although the famine relief was reasonably effective in the [[United Provinces of Agra and Oudh|United Provinces]], it failed in the [[Central Provinces]], especially among tribal groups, who were reluctant to perform labour in public works to earn food rations, and who, according to Famine Code guidelines, did not qualify for "charitable relief."<ref name="igi-III-491c"/>
| |
|
| |
| ==Weavers in the Bombay Presidency==
| |
| The Famine Commission of 1880 had made special provisions for the relief of weavers, who practised the only trade other than agriculture that employed rural Indians.<ref name=muller-1897-285-86>{{Harvnb|Muller|1897|pp=285–286}}</ref> The commission had recommended that weavers be given relief by offering them monetary advances for weaving coarse cloth or wool that could then be used in poor-houses or hospitals.<ref name=muller-1897-285-86/> This was preferable, it was felt, to having them produce the finer cloth of their trade, such as silk, for which there was no demand during a famine.<ref name=muller-1897-285-86/>
| |
|
| |
| However, by 1896, the rural weavers in the [[Bombay Presidency]], who were now having to compete with the increasing number of local cotton mills, were already in dire economic straits.<ref name=muller-1897-287-88>{{Harvnb|Muller|1897|pp=287–288}}</ref> Consequently, when the famine began, not only were they the first to apply for relief, but also did so in numbers that were much larger than had been anticipated.<ref name=muller-1897-287-88/>
| |
| Since the government could now offer only limited relief to them in their own trade because of the large capital required, the majority of weavers—either of their own accord or as a result of official dictate—sought the conventional "relief works," which included earth-works and the breaking of rock and metal for building roads.<ref name=muller-1897-287-88/>
| |
|
| |
| ==Tribal groups in Chota Nagpur==
| |
| In [[Chota Nagpur Plateau|Chota Nagpur]], [[East India]], awareness of the famine came late in 1896 when it was discovered that the rice crop in the highlands of [[Manbhum]] district had failed entirely on account of very little rain the previous summer.<ref name=damodaran-169>{{Harvnb|Damodaran|2007|p=169}}</ref> The rice, grown on small terraces cut into the hillsides and forming staggered step-like patterns, was completely dependent on the monsoon: the only means of irrigation being water from the summer rains which flooded these terraces and which was then allowed to stand until mid-autumn when the crop ripened.<ref name=damodaran-169/> The region also had a large proportion of [[adivasi|tribal groups]] including [[Santal]]s and [[Munda people|Mundas]] who had traditionally relied on [[forest produce]] for some of their food intake.<ref name=damodaran-169/>
| |
|
| |
| As the local government began to plan relief measures for the famine, they included, in the list of food resources available, forest produce for the tribal groups; the planned government-sponsored relief for these groups was accordingly reduced.<ref name=damodaran-169/> The previous decades, however, had seen large-scale deforestation in the area, and what forest that remained was either in private hands or in reserves.<ref name=damodaran-170>{{Harvnb|Damodaran|2007|p=170}}</ref> The tribal groups, whose accessible forests were now few and far between, consequently, first endured malnutrition and later, in their weakened state, fell prey to a cholera epidemic which killed 21 people per thousand.<ref name=damodaran-170/>
| |
|
| |
| ==Food exports in Madras Presidency==
| |
| Although the famine in the [[Madras Presidency]] was preceded by a natural calamity in the form of a drought, it was made more acute by the government's policy of ''[[laissez faire]]'' in the trade of grain.<ref name=ghose-380>{{Harvnb|Ghose|1982|p=380}}</ref> For example, two of the worst famine-afflicted areas in the Madras Presidency, the districts of [[Ganjam]] and [[Vizagapatam]], continued to export grains throughout the famine.<ref name=ghose-380/> The table below shows exports and imports for the two districts during a five-year period beginning in 1892.<ref name=ghose-380/>
| |
|
| |
| {| cellspacing="4"
| |
| | valign="top" |
| |
| {| cellpadding="3" border="1" class="wikitable"
| |
| ! bgcolor="#DDDDDD" colspan="4" | Foodgrain export from districts in [[Madras Presidency]] affected by Indian famine of 1896–97<ref name=ghose-380/>
| |
| |-
| |
| ! !! colspan="2" | Sea-borne Trade !! Rail-borne Trade
| |
| |-
| |
| ! Year !! [[Ganjam]] !! [[Vizagapatam]] !! Ganjam & Vizagapatam
| |
| |-
| |
| | align="center" | 1892–93 || align="center" | 13,508 tons exported || align="center" | 7,585 tons imported ||
| |
| |-
| |
| | align="center" | 1893–94 || align="center" | 17,817 tons exported || align="center" | 742 tons imported || align="center" | 79 tons imported into V.
| |
| |-
| |
| | align="center" | 1894–95 || align="center" | 12,334 tons exported || align="center" | 89 tons exported || align="center" | 7,683 tons imported into V.
| |
| |-
| |
| | align="center" | 1895–96 || align="center" | 31,559 tons exported || align="center" | 4 tons exported || align="center" | 5,751 tons exported
| |
| |-
| |
| | align="center" | 1896–97 || align="center" | 34,371 tons exported || align="center" | 414 tons exported || align="center" | 7,997 tons exported
| |
| |}
| |
| |}
| |
|
| |
| ==Cattle in the Deccan==
| |
| Farming in the dry [[Deccan Plateau|Deccan]] region of the [[Bombay Presidency]] required more farm animals—typically [[Cattle|bullocks]] to pull the heavier ploughs—than were needed in other, wetter, regions of India; often, up to six bullocks were needed for ploughing.<ref name=tomlinson-82-83>{{Harvnb|Tomlinson|1993|pp=82–83}}</ref> For most of the first half of the 19th century, farmers in the [[Deccan Plateau|Deccan]] did not own enough bullocks to farm effectively.<ref name=tomlinson-82-83/> Consequently, many plots were ploughed only once every three or four years.<ref name=tomlinson-82-83/>
| |
|
| |
| In the second half of the 19th century, cattle numbers per farmer did increase; however, the cattle remained vulnerable to famines.<ref name=tomlinson-82-83/> When the crops failed, people were driven to change their diets and eat seeds and fodder.<ref>{{Harvnb|Roy|2006|p=363}}</ref> Consequently, many farm animals, especially bullocks, slowly starved.<ref name=tomlinson-82-83/> The famine of 1896–97 proved particularly devastating for bullocks; in some areas of the Bombay Presidency, their numbers had not recovered some 30 years later.<ref name=tomlinson-82-83/>
| |
|
| |
| ==Epidemics==
| |
| Epidemics of many diseases, especially [[cholera]] and [[malaria]], usually accompanied famines.<ref name=dyson-1991a-15>{{Harvnb|Dyson|1991a|p=15}}</ref> In 1897, an epidemic of the [[bubonic plague]] broke out as well in the [[Bombay Presidency]] and, in the next decade, would spread to many parts of the country.<ref name=dyson-1991a-16>{{Harvnb|Dyson|1991a|p=16}}</ref> However, other diseases took a bigger toll during the famine of 1896–97.<ref name=dyson-1991a-16/>
| |
|
| |
| Typically, deaths from cholera and dysentery and diarrhoea peaked ''before'' the rains as large groups of people collected on a daily basis to receive famine relief.<ref name=dyson-1991a-15/> Malaria epidemics, on the other hand, usually began ''after'' the first rains when the famine-afflicted population left the relief-camps for their villages; there, new pools of standing water attracted the mosquito-borne virus to which their already enfeebled condition offered little resistance.<ref name=dyson-1991a-15/> The following table compares the number of deaths due to different diseases occurring in the famine year with the average number occurring in the five years preceding the famine in the [[Central Provinces and Berar]] and the [[Bombay Presidency]].<ref name=dyson-1991a-16/> In each case, the mortality had increased during the famine year; this included the small number of officially registered suicides included in the "injuries" category below.<ref name=dyson-1991a-16/>
| |
| {| cellspacing="4"
| |
| | valign="top" |
| |
| {| cellpadding="3" border="1" class="wikitable"
| |
| ! bgcolor="#DDDDDD" colspan="5" | Death rates (per thousand) from different causes during the Indian famine of 1896–97<ref name="ghose-380"/>
| |
| |-
| |
| ! !! colspan="2" | [[Central Provinces and Berar]] !! colspan="2" | [[Bombay Presidency]]
| |
| |-
| |
| ! Cause of death!! 1891–95 <br> Pre-famine years (average) !! 1897 <br> Famine year !! 1891–95 <br> Pre-famine years (average) !! 1897 <br> Famine year
| |
| |-
| |
| | align="center" | [[Cholera]] || align="center" | 1.79 || align="center" | 6.01 || align="center" | 1.30 || align="center" | 3.03
| |
| |-
| |
| | align="center" | [[Smallpox]] || align="center" | 0.24 || align="center" | 0.38 || align="center" | 0.14 || align="center" | 0.20
| |
| |-
| |
| | align="center" | [[Fevers#Causes|Fevers]] (especially [[Malaria]]) || align="center" | 21.28 || align="center" | 40.98 || align="center" | 21.12 || align="center" | 24.59
| |
| |-
| |
| | align="center" | [[Dysentery]]/[[Diarrhea]] || align="center" | 1.85 || align="center" | 8.53 || align="center" | 1.87 || align="center" | 4.57
| |
| |-
| |
| | align="center" | Injuries || align="center" | 0.56 || align="center" | 0.79 || align="center" | 0.31 || align="center" | 0.37
| |
| |-
| |
| | align="center" | All others and unknown|| align="center" | 8.14 || align="center" | 12.64 || align="center" | 4.84 || align="center" | 7.08
| |
| |-
| |
| | align="center" | Combined Death Rate|| align="center" | 33.86 || align="center" | 69.34 || align="center" | 29.58 || align="center" | 39.84
| |
| |}
| |
| |}
| |
|
| |
| ==Mortality==
| |
| Estimates of the total famine related deaths during this period vary. The following table gives the varying estimates of total famine related deaths between 1896 and 1902 (including both the [[Indian famine of 1899–1900|1899–1900]] famine and the famine of 1896–1897).<ref>{{Harvnb|Davis|2001|p=7}}</ref>
| |
| {| class="wikitable"
| |
| |-
| |
| ! Estimate (in millions)
| |
| ! Done by
| |
| ! Publication
| |
| |-
| |
| | align="center"|8.4
| |
| | Arup Maharatna <br /> Ronald E. Seavoy
| |
| | The Demography of Famines: An Indian Historical Perspective, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1996 <br />Famine in Peasant Societies (Contributions in Economics and Economic History), New York: Greenwood Press, 1986
| |
| |-
| |
| | align="center"|6.1
| |
| | Cambridge Economic History of India
| |
| | The Cambridge Economic History of India, Volume 2, Cambridge University Press, 1983
| |
| |}
| |
|
| |
| ==Aftermath==
| |
| Both the famine and the relief efforts were painstakingly analysed by the Famine Commission of 1898 presided by Sir [[James Broadwood Lyall]], the former Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab. The Commission affirmed the broad principles of famine relief enunciated by the first Famine Commission of 1880, but made a number of changes in implementation. They recommended increasing the minimum wage in the "relief works," and extending gratuitous (or charitable) relief during the rainy season. They also defined new rules for relief of "[[Adivasi|aboriginal and hill tribes]]" who had been found difficult to reach in 1896–97; in addition, they stressed generous remissions of land revenue. The recommendations were soon to be tested in the Indian famine of 1899–1900.<ref name="igi-III-491c"/>
| |
|
| |
| ==See also==
| |
| *[[Indian famine of 1899–1900]]
| |
| *[[Famines, Epidemics, and Public Health in the British Raj]]
| |
| *[[Timeline of major famines in India during British rule (1765 to 1947)]]
| |
| *[[Company rule in India]]
| |
| *[[Famine in India]]
| |
| *[[Drought in India]]
| |
|
| |
| ==Notes==
| |
| {{reflist|2}}
| |
|
| |
| ==References==
| |
| {{Refbegin|40em}}
| |
| *{{Citation | last = Damodaran | first = Vinita | title = Famine in Bengal: A Comparison of the 1770 Famine in Bengal and the 1897 Famine in Chotanagpur | year = 2007 | journal = The Medieval History Journal | volume = 10 | issue = 1&2 | pages = 143–181 | doi = 10.1177/097194580701000206}}
| |
| *{{Citation | last = Davis| first = Mike | title = Late Victorian Holocausts|author-link=Mike Davis (scholar) | year = 2001|publisher=Verso Books. Pp. 400| isbn = 978-1-85984-739-8|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=3IrKEzgkQkMC&pg=PA7}}
| |
| *{{Citation | last = Dyson | first = Tim | year = 1991a | title = On the Demography of South Asian Famines: Part I | journal = Population Studies | volume = 45 | issue = 1 | pages = 5–25 | jstor = 2174991 | doi=10.1080/0032472031000145056 }}
| |
| *{{Citation | last = Ghose | first = Ajit Kumar | title = Food Supply and Starvation: A Study of Famines with Reference to the Indian Subcontinent | year = 1982 | journal = Oxford Economic Papers |series=New Series | volume = 34 | issue = 2 | pages = 368–389| doi = 10.1093/oxfordjournals.oep.a041557 | pmid = 11620403 }}
| |
| *{{Citation | last = Imperial Gazetteer of India vol. III | title = The Indian Empire, Economic (Chapter X: Famine, pp. 475–502) | publisher = Published under the authority of His Majesty's Secretary of State for India in Council, Oxford at the Clarendon Press. Pp. xxx, 1 map, 552. | year = 1907}}
| |
| *{{Citation | last = Muller | first = W. | title = Notes on the Distress Amongst the Hand-Weavers in the Bombay Presidency During the Famine of 1896–97 | year = 1897 | journal = The Economic Journal | volume = 7 | issue = 26 | pages = 285–288 | jstor = 2957261 | doi=10.2307/2957261| url = https://zenodo.org/record/1449669 }}
| |
| *{{Citation | last = Roy | first = Tirthankar | title = The Economic History of India, 1857–1947, 2nd edition | year = 2006 | publisher = New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Pp. xvi, 385 | isbn = 0-19-568430-3}}
| |
| *{{Citation | last1=Tomlinson | first1=B. R. | year=1993| title=The Economy of Modern India, 1860–1970 (The New Cambridge History of India, III.3)| publisher=Cambridge and London: Cambridge University Press. | isbn= 0-521-58939-8}}
| |
| {{Refend}}
| |
|
| |
| ==Further reading==
| |
| {{Refbegin|40em}}
| |
| *{{Citation | last = Ambirajan | first = S. | title = Malthusian Population Theory and Indian Famine Policy in the Nineteenth Century | year = 1976 | journal = Population Studies | volume = 30 | issue = 1 | pages = 5–14 | doi=10.2307/2173660| jstor = 2173660 | pmid = 11630514 }}
| |
| *{{Citation | last1 = Arnold | first1 = David | last2 = Moore | first2 = R. I. | title = Famine: Social Crisis and Historical Change (New Perspectives on the Past) | year = 1991 | publisher = Wiley-Blackwell. Pp. 164 | isbn = 0-631-15119-2}}
| |
| *{{Citation | last = Bhatia | first = B. M. | title = Famines in India: A Study in Some Aspects of the Economic History of India With Special Reference to Food Problem, 1860–1990 | year = 1991 | publisher = Stosius Inc/Advent Books Division. Pp. 383 | isbn = 81-220-0211-0}}
| |
| *{{Citation | last = Chakrabarti | first = Malabika | title = The Famine of 1896–1897 in Bengal: Availability Or Entitlement | year = 2004 | publisher = New Delhi: Orient Longmans. Pp. 541 | isbn = 81-250-2389-5 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=hQtC3e2gPugC&dq}}
| |
| *{{Citation | last = Dutt | first = Romesh Chunder | title = Open Letters to Lord Curzon on Famines and Land Assessments in India | orig-year = 1900| year = 2005 | publisher = London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. Ltd (reprinted by Adamant Media Corporation) | isbn = 1-4021-5115-2}}
| |
| *{{Citation | last = Dyson | first = Tim | year = 1991b | title = On the Demography of South Asian Famines: Part II | journal = Population Studies | volume = 45 | issue = 2 | pages = 279–297 | jstor = 2174784 | doi=10.1080/0032472031000145446 | pmid = 11622922}}
| |
| *{{Citation | last = Famine Commission | year = 1880 | title = Report of the Indian Famine Commission, Part I | publisher = Calcutta}}
| |
| *{{Citation | last = Hall-Matthews | first = David | title = Inaccurate Conceptions: Disputed Measures of Nutritional Needs and Famine Deaths in Colonial India | journal = Modern Asian Studies | year = 2008 | volume = 42 | issue = 1 | pages = 1–24 | doi = 10.1017/S0026749X07002892}}
| |
| *{{Citation | last = Klein | first = Ira | title = Death in India, 1871–1921 | journal = The Journal of Asian Studies | volume = 32 | issue = 4 | year = 1973 | pages = 639–659 | jstor = 2052814 | doi=10.2307/2052814}}
| |
| *{{Citation | last = McAlpin | first = Michelle B. | title = Famines, Epidemics, and Population Growth: The Case of India | year = 1983 | journal = Journal of Interdisciplinary History | volume = 14 | issue = 2 | pages = 351–366 | doi=10.2307/203709| jstor = 203709 }}
| |
| *{{Citation | last = Washbrook | first = David | title = The Commercialization of Agriculture in Colonial India: Production, Subsistence and Reproduction in the 'Dry South', c. 1870–1930 | year = 1994 | journal = Modern Asian Studies | volume = 28 | issue = 1 | pages = 129–164 | jstor = 312924 | doi=10.1017/s0026749x00011720}}
| |
| {{Refend}}
| |
|
| |
| {{DEFAULTSORT:Indian Famine Of 1896-1897}}
| |
| [[Category:Famines in British India]]
| |
| [[Category:Famines in India]]
| |
| [[Category:1896 in India]]
| |
| [[Category:1897 in India]]
| |
| [[Category:19th-century famines]]
| |
This page is a redirect. The following categories are used to track and monitor this redirect: