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FAMINE (Lat. fames, hunger)

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Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 168 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FAMINE (See also:Lat. fames, See also:hunger) , extreme and See also:general scarcity of See also:food, causing See also:distress and deaths from See also:starvation among the See also:population of a See also:district or See also:country. Famines have caused wide-spread suffering in all countries and ages. A See also:list of the See also:chief famines recorded by See also:history is given farther on. The causes of famine are partly natural and partly artificial. Among the natural causes may be classed all failures of crops due to excess or defect of rainfall and other meteorological phenomena, or to the ravages of See also:insects and See also:vermin. Among the artificial causes may be classed See also:war and economic errors in the See also:production, transport and See also:sale of food-stuffs. The natural causes of famine are still mainly outside our See also:control, though See also:science enables agriculturists to combat them more successfully, and the improvement in means of transport allows a See also:rich See also:harvest in one See also:land to supplement the defective Breaking up of See also:totemism. 'crops in another. In tropical countries drought is the commonest cause of a failure in the harvest, and where See also:great droughts are not uncommon—as in parts of See also:India and Australia—the See also:hydraulic engineer comes to the See also:rescue by devising systems of See also:water-storage and See also:irrigation. It is less easy to provide against the evils of excessive rainfall and of See also:frost, See also:hail and the like. The experience of the See also:French in See also:Algiers shows that it is possible to See also:stamp out a See also:plague of locusts, such as is the greatest danger to the See also:farmer in many parts of See also:Argentina. But the ease with which food can nowadays be transported from one See also:part of the See also:world to another minimizes the danger of famine from natural causes, as we can hardly conceive that the whole food-producing See also:area of the world should be thus affected at once.

The artificial causes of famine have mostly ceased to be operative on any large See also:

scale. Chief among them is war, which may cause a shortage of food - supplies, either by its See also:direct ravages or by depleting the See also:supply of agricultural labour. But only See also:local famines are likely to arise from this cause. Legislative interference with agricultural operations or with the See also:distribution of food-supplies, currency restrictions and failure of transport, which have all caused famines in the past, are unlikely thus to operate again; nor is it probable that the See also:modern speculators who See also:attempt to make " corners " in See also:wheat could produce the evil effects contemplated in the old statutes against forestallers and regrators. Such local famines as may occur in the 20th See also:century will probably be attributable to natural causes. It is impossible to regulate the rainfall of any district, or wholly to supply its failure by any See also:system of water-storage. Irrigation is better able to bring fertility to a naturally arid district than to avert the failure of crops in one which is naturally fertile. The true palliative of famine is to be found in the improvement of methods of transport, which make it possible rapidly to convey food from one district to another. But the efficiency of this preventive stops See also:short at the point of saving human See also:life. It cannot prevent a rise in prices, with the consequent suffering among the poor. Still, every See also:year makes it less likely that the world will see a renewal of the great famines of the past, and it is only the countries where See also:civilization is still backward that are in much danger of even a local famine. Great Famines.—Amongst the great famines of history may be named the following: B.C.

436 Famine at See also:

Rome, when thousands of starving See also:people threw themselves into the See also:Tiber. \.D.42 Great famine in See also:Egypt. 650 Famine throughout India. 879 Universal famine. 941, 1022 Great famines in India, in which entire provinces and 1033 were depopulated and See also:man was driven to See also:cannibalism. 1005 Famine in See also:England. 1016 Famine throughout See also:Europe.. 1064-1072 Seven years' famine in Egypt. 1148-1159 Eleven years' famine in India. 1162 Universal famine. 1344-1345 Great famine in India, when the See also:Mogul See also:emperor was unable to obtain the necessaries for his See also:house-hold. The famine continued for years and thousands upon thousands of people perished of want.

1396-1407 The See also:

Durga Devi famine in India, lasting twelve years. 1586 Famine in England which gave rise to the Poor See also:Law system. 1661 Famine in India, when not a drop of See also:rain See also:fell for two years. 1769-1770 Great famine in See also:Bengal, when a third of the population (to,000,000 persons) perished. 1783 The Chalisa famine in India, which extended from the eastern edge of the See also:Benares See also:province to See also:Lahore and See also:Jammu. 1790-1792 The Doji Bara, or See also:skull famine, in India, so-called because the people died in such See also:numbers that they could not be buried. According to tradition this was one of the severest famines ever known. It extended over the whole of Bombay into See also:Hyderabad and affected the See also:northern districts of See also:Madras. See also:Relief See also:works were first opened during this famine in Madras. A.D. 1838 Intense famine in See also:North-See also:West Provinces (See also:United Provinces) of India; 800,000 perished. Famine in See also:Ireland, due to the failure of the See also:potato-See also:crop.

Grants were made by See also:

parliament amounting to £10,000,000. 1861 Famine in North-West India. 1866 Famine in Bengal and See also:Orissa; one million perished. 1869 Intense famine in See also:Rajputana; one million and a See also:half perished. The See also:government initiated the policy of saving life. 1874 Famine in See also:Behar, India. Government relief ir' excess of the needs of the people. 1876-1878 Famine in Bombay, Madras and See also:Mysore; five millions perish. Relief insufficient. 1877-1878 Severe famine in north See also:China. Nine and a half millions said to have perished. 1887-1889 Famine in China.

1891-1892 Famine in See also:

Russia. 1897 Famine in India. Government policy of saving life successful. See also:Mansion House fund £550,000. 1899-1901 Famine in India. One million people perished. Estimated loss to India £50,000,000. The government spent £10,000,000 on relief, and at one See also:time there were 4,500,000 people on the relief works. 1905 Famine in Russia. Famines in India.—Owing to its tropical situation and its almost entire dependence upon the See also:monsoon rains, India is more liable than any other country in the world to crop failures, which upon occasion deepen into famine. Every year sufficient rain falls in India to secure an abundant harvest if it were evenly distributed over the whole country; but as a See also:matter of fact the distribution is so uneven and so uncertain that every year some district suffers from insufficient rainfall. In fact, famine is, to all intents and purposes, endemic in India, and is a problem to reckon with every year in some portion of that vast area.

The people depend so entirely upon See also:

agriculture, and the harvest is so entirely destroyed by a single monsoon failure, that wherever a See also:total failure occurs the landless labourer is immediately thrown out of See also:work and remains out of work for the whole year. The question is thus one of lack of employment, rather than lack of food. The food is there, perhaps at a slightly enhanced See also:price, but the unemployed labourer has no See also:money to buy it. The problem is very much the same as that met by the See also:British Poor Law system. Every year in England a poor See also:rate of some £22,000,000 is expended for a population of 40 millions; while it is only in an exceptional year in India that £10,000,000 are spent on a population of 300 millions. Famines seem to recur in India at periodical intervals, which have been held to be in some way dependent on the See also:sun-spot See also:period. Every five or ten years the See also:annual scarcity widens its area and becomes a recognized famine; every fifty or a See also:hundred years whole provinces are involved, loss of life becomes widespread, and a great famine is recorded. In the 140 years since See also:Warren See also:Hastings initiated British See also:rule in India, there have been nineteen famines and five severe scarcities. For the period preceding British rule the records have not been so well pre-served, but there is ample See also:evidence to show that famine was just as frequent in its incidence and infinitely more deadly in its effects under the native rulers of India. In the great Bengal famine of 1769-1770, which occurred shortly after the See also:foundation of British rule, but while the native officials were still in See also:power, a third of the population, or ten millions out of See also:thirty millions, perished. From this it may be guessed what occurred in the centuries under Mogul rule, when for years there was no rain, when famine lasted for three, four or twelve years, and entire cities were See also:left without an inhabitant. In the famine of 1901, the worst of See also:recent years, the loss of life in British districts was 3% of the population affected, as against 33% in the Bengal famine of 1770.

The native rulers of India seem to have made no effort to relieve the sufferings of their subjects in times of famine; and even down to 1866 the British government had no settled famine policy. In that year the Orissa famine awakened the public See also:

conscience, and the See also:commission presided over by See also:Sir See also:George See also:Campbell laid down the lines upon which subsequent famine-relief was organized. In the Rajputana famine of 1869 the humane principle of saving every possible life was first 1846-1847 enunciated. In the Behar famine of 1874 this principle was even carried to an extreme, the cost was enormous, and the people were in danger of being pauperized. The resulting reaction caused a regrettable loss of life in the M,adras and Bombay famine of 1876–1878; and the Famine Commission of 188o, followed by those of 1898 and 1901, laid down the principle that every possible life must be saved, but that the See also:wages on relief works must be so regulated in relation to the See also:market rate of wages as not to undermine the See also:independence of the people. The experience gained in the great famines of 1898 and 1901 has been garnered by these commissions, and stored up in the " famine codes " of each See also:separate province, where rules are provided for the treatment of famine directly a crop failure is seen to be probable. The first step is to open test works; and directly they show the See also:necessity, See also:regular relief works are established, in which the people may See also:earn enough to keep them from starvation, until-the time comes to sow the next crop. As a result of the severe famine of 1878–1879, See also:Lord See also:Lytton's government instituted a See also:form of See also:insurance against famine known as the Famine Insurance See also:Grant. A sum of Rs. 1,500,000 was to be yearly set aside for purposes of famine relief. This See also:scheme has been widely misunderstood; it has been assumed that an entirely separate fund was created, and that in years when the specified sum was not paid into this fund, the purpose of the government was not carried out. But Sir See also:John See also:Strachey, the author of the scheme, explains in his See also:book on India that the See also:original intention was nothing more than the annual application of surplus See also:revenue, of the indicated amount, to purposes of famine relief; and that when the country was See also:free from famine, this sum should be regularly devoted to the See also:discharge of See also:debt, or to the prevention of debt which would otherwise have been incurred for the construction of See also:railways and canals.

The sum of zi crores is regularly set aside for this purpose, and is devoted as a rule to the construction of protective irrigation works, and for investigating and preparing new projects falling under the See also:

head of protective works. The See also:measures by which the government of India chiefly endeavours to reduce the liability of the country to famine are the promotion of railways; the See also:extension of See also:canal and well irrigation; the reclamation of See also:waste lands, with the See also:establishment of See also:fuel and See also:fodder reserves; the introduction of agricultural improvements; the multiplication of See also:industries; See also:emigration; and finally the improvement where necessary of the revenue and See also:rent systems. In times of famine the See also:function of the railways in distributing the See also:grain is just as important as the function of the irrigation-canals in increasing the amount grown. There is always enough grain within the boundaries of India for the needs of the people; the only difficulty is to transport it to the See also:tract where it is required at a particular moment. Owing to the ex-tension of railways, in the famines of 1898 and 1901 there was never any dearth of food in any famine-stricken tract; and the only difficulty was to find enough See also:rolling-stock to See also:cope with the demand. Irrigation protects large tracts against famine, and has immensely increased the wheat output of the See also:Punjab; the Irrigation Commission of 1903 recommended the addition of 62 million acres to the irrigated area of India, and that recommendation is being carried out at an annual cost of r i millions See also:sterling for twenty years, but at the end of that time the list of works that will return a lucrative See also:interest on See also:capital will be practically exhausted. Local conditions do not make irrigation everywhere possible. As five-sixths of the whole population of India are dependent upon the land, any failure, of agriculture becomes a See also:national calamity. If there were more industries and manufactures in India, the dependence on the land would not be so great and the liability to lack of occupation would not be so See also:uniform in any particular district. The remedy for this is the extension of factories and See also:home industries; but See also:European capital is difficult to obtain in India, and the native capitalist prefers to hoard his rupees. The extension of industries, therefore, is a work of time. It is sometimes alleged by native See also:Indian politicians that famines are growing worse under British rule, because India is becomingexhausted by an excessive land revenue, a See also:civil service too expensive for her needs, military See also:expenditure on imperial See also:objects, and the annual drain of some £15,000,000 for " home charges." The reply to this See also:indictment is that the British land revenue is £z6,000,00p annually, whereas See also:Aurangzeb's over a smaller area, allowing for the difference in the value of the See also:rupee, was £11o,000,000; though the Indian Civil Service is expensive, its cost is more than covered by the fact that India, under British See also:guarantee, obtains her loans at 31- % as against 10% or more paid by native rulers; though India has a heavy military See also:burden, she pays no contribution to the British See also:navy, which protects her seaboard from invasion; the drain of the home charges cannot be very great, as India annually absorbs 6 millions sterling of the See also:precious metals; in 5899–5900, a year of famine, the See also:net imports of See also:gold and, See also:silver were 130 millions.

Finally, it is estimated by the See also:

census commissioners that in the famine of 1901 three million people died in the native states and only one million in British territory. See See also:Cornelius Walford, " On the Famines of the World, Past and See also:Present " (See also:Journal of the Statistical Society, 1878–1879) ; Romesh C. See also:Dutt, Famines in India (19oo) ; See also:Robert See also:Wallace, Famine in India (1900) ; George Campbell, Famines in India (1769–1788) ; See also:Chronological List of Famines for all India (Madras See also:Administration See also:Report, 1885) ; J. C. See also:Geddes, Administrative Experience in Former Famines (874) ; Statistical See also:Atlas of India (1895)); F. H. S. Merewether, Through the Famine Districts of India (1898) ; G. W. See also:Forrest, The Famine in India (1898) ; E. A. B.

Hodgetts, In the Track of the See also:

Russian Famine (1892); W. B. Steveni, Through Famine-stricken Russia (1892); See also:Vaughan See also:Nash, The Great Famine (1900); See also:Lady See also:Hope, Sir See also:Arthur See also:Cotton (1900) ; Lord Curzon in India (19o5); T. W. Holderness, Narrative of the Famine of 1896–1857 (c. 8812 of 1898); the Indian Famine Commission reports of 188o, 1898 and 1900; report of the Indian Irrigation Commission (1901–1903); C. W. McMinn, Famine Truths, Half-Truths, Untruths (1902) See also:Theodore See also:Morison, Indian See also:Industrial Organization (1906).

End of Article: FAMINE (Lat. fames, hunger)

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