Indian famine of 1896–1897

The Indian famine of 1896–1897 was a famine that began in Bundelkhand, India, early in 1896 and spread to many parts of the country, including the United Provinces, the Central Provinces and Berar, Bihar, parts of the Bombay and Madras presidencies, and parts of the Punjab; in addition, the princely states of Rajputana, Central India Agency and Hyderabad were affected. During the two years, the famine affected an area of 307,000 square miles (800,000 km2) and a population of 69.5 million. Although some 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. Contemporary colonial estimates placed the death toll at around one million, but later demographic research suggests that between 4.5 and 5 million people may have died as a result of famine and disease. Historians have linked the severity of the famine not only to rainfall failure but also to colonial economic policies, particularly grain export practices and restrictions on relief under the prevailing famine codes.

Course

The Bundelkhand district of Agra Province experienced drought in the autumn of 1895 as a result of poor summer monsoon rains. 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. ==Famine relief==

Famine relief

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. at a cost of Rs. 72.5 million (then approx. £4,833,500). Mike Davis similarly stresses that mortality was far higher than official figures suggest, describing the famine as part of the wider wave of "Late Victorian famines" in which colonial trade policies and limited relief intensified vulnerability. Although the famine relief was reasonably effective in the 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." ==Weavers in the Bombay Presidency==

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. 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. 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. 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. ==Tribal groups in Chota Nagpur==

Tribal groups in Chota Nagpur

In 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. 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. 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. ==Food exports in Madras Presidency==

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. 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. The table below shows exports and imports for the two districts during a five-year period beginning in 1892. ==Cattle in the Deccan==

Cattle in the Deccan

Farming in the dry Deccan region of the Bombay Presidency required more farm animals—typically bullocks to pull the heavier ploughs—than were needed in other, wetter, regions of India; often, up to six bullocks were needed for ploughing. For most of the first half of the 19th century, farmers in the Deccan did not own enough bullocks to farm effectively. Consequently, many farm animals, especially bullocks, slowly starved. 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. ==Epidemics==

Epidemics

Epidemics of many diseases, especially cholera and malaria, usually accompanied famines. 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. However, other diseases took a bigger toll during the famine of 1896–97. 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. 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. 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. 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. ==Mortality==

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 1899–1900 famine and the famine of 1896–1897). ==Aftermath==

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 "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. ==See also==

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