Why was there a sudden spurt in famines in colonial India since the mid-eighteenth century? Give reasons.

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Ghissu Editorial · Accepted Answer

Famines multiplied in colonial India because high cash land revenue, cash crops, ruined crafts, grain exports, the drain and laissez-faire relief stripped peasants of any buffer, so droughts became mass death. In 1770 the Company kept collecting revenue while a third of Bengal's people perished.

**Introduction**

Amartya Sen showed that colonial famines, such as Bengal 1943, struck when people lost the means to buy food, not only when food ran short. From Bengal 1770 to the Great Famine of 1876-78, drought was the trigger, but policy turned scarcity into mass death.

**Policy Roots of Peasant Vulnerability**

1. **Rigid land revenue**: The Permanent Settlement, Ryotwari and Mahalwari collected high cash demands even in drought, and in 1770 collections continued while, by Warren Hastings' estimate, a third of Bengal perished.
2. **Cash crops**: Indigo, cotton, jute and opium displaced foodgrains and household grain stocks.
3. **Ruined crafts and debt**: The loss of craft income removed the cushion against bad harvests, and court-backed moneylenders seized land and grain.
4. **Drain of wealth**: Naoroji and R.C. Dutt showed that Home Charges carried away the surplus needed for storage and relief.

**Why Droughts Turned Into Mass Death**

SKETCH: flow | How Drought Became Famine
- Monsoon failure
- Crop loss
- Revenue still due
- Wages collapse
- Grain moves out
- Mass deaths

1. **Exports during scarcity**: Railways moved grain out of famine districts, and Lytton refused to halt exports in 1876-78.
2. **Laissez-faire relief**: Richard Temple's 1877 ration of one pound of grain a day for heavy labour left relief workers starving.
3. **Neglected irrigation**: Railways got the funds while tanks decayed, until the Famine Commission of 1880 urged protective works.
4. **Climatic triggers**: El Nino droughts in 1876-78 and 1896-1900 hit this weakened system, Mike Davis's "late Victorian holocausts".

**Conclusion**

Colonial policy stripped peasants of food stocks, income and relief, so every drought became a famine. The Famine Codes softened later crises, but only independent, democratic India ended famine altogether.

Why was there a sudden spurt in famines in colonial India since the mid-eighteenth century? Give reasons.

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