FAMINES 241 



thrown out of work by the suspension of the staple 

 industry. 



The second fact which is specially characteristic of 

 India is the almost exclusive dependence of the people 

 upon one form of industry — that is, upon agriculture. 

 It follows from this fact that the suspension of the 

 agricultural industry throws the great bulk of the 

 population out of work. The subsidiary industries, 

 which owe their existence to agriculture, of necessity 

 suffer immediately and directly in proportion to the 

 unemployment in the staple industry, and therefore 

 the whole community is involved in one economic 

 calamity. Such a result would inevitably follow in 

 any country in which so large a proportion of the 

 people depended upon one industry. It does not 

 happen in England or France, because the population 

 in those countries is distributed with more evenness 

 among a variety of occupations, and an economic 

 calamity falling upon a particular group of workers 

 involves only a small proportion of the whole popula- 

 tion. 



It is usual in India to speak of suspensions of the 

 agricultural industry as famines. This term is un- 

 scientific and inaccurate ; it directs attention to a 

 possible consequence of unemployment, but does not 

 give it its proper classification among economic 

 phenomena. It is, moreover, inexact. Now that the 

 relief of the unemployed is undertaken by Govern- 

 ment, it is not a fact that any considerable proportion 

 of the people die of hunger when the agricultural 

 industry is interrupted. The word ' famine,' however, 

 is so firmly established in popular usage that it is 

 vain to attempt to get rid of it. As happens in so 

 many other cases of economic terminology, we must 

 be content to make the best we can of a popular word, 

 avoiding misapprehension by the use of a formal 

 interpretation clause. For the future I propose to 

 use the word ' famine ' in its modern popular sense — 



16 



