FREQUENCY OF FAMINES 243 



newspaper reader, on learning of a famine first in 

 Orissa, then in Sind, and lastly in Haidarabad within 

 the space of ten years, immediately exclaims, ' How 

 terribly frequent famines are becoming ! India has 

 suffered from three famines in a decade.' Such know- 

 ledge of the misfortunes of the distant provinces was 

 impossible in early days, and men, in computing the 

 frequency of famine, would only reckon the famines 

 which had occurred in their own neighbourhood — that 

 is to say, they reckoned the number of times which 

 famine had fallen upon a particular area. Theirs was 

 really the more scientific computation. The important 

 thing to find out is how often in a decade or a genera- 

 tion the agricultural industry is suspended, and in 

 order to ascertain that we must concentrate attention 

 upon the history of one particular area. 



The second reason why the famines of the past are 

 not recalled prominently to our minds is to be found 

 in the way in which history is written. To the great 

 majority of historians history means political history, 

 and economic events find no place in their scheme of 

 narrative. English and Indian historians are equal 

 sinners in this respect. I have looked through three 

 text-books in use in Indian High Schools and Colleges 

 without finding a single reference to any famine pre- 

 vious to 1876. The more pretentious historians are 

 no better in this respect. Mill and Thornton do not 

 say a single word about the famine of 1803-04, although 

 they describe in minute detail the military operations 

 against Holkar and Sindiah which took place over 

 almost the same area. The extract from the * Seir 

 Mutaqherin ' given below illustrates the summary 

 manner in which famines were disposed of by Indian 

 historians. Such information as we have about the 

 famines of the past is chiefly the fruit of the investiga- 

 tions of officials of the British Government. To them 

 famine was an administrative problem ; it was studied 

 with minute attention, and all relevant evidence about 



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