256 THE INTERRUPTION OF INDUSTRY 



popular history in the same way as in the next 

 century did — first — the famine of 1837-38, and after- 

 wards the Mutiny, from which at the time of writing 

 old men still compute time. 



The districts most affected were not in those days 

 under British rule, and we are therefore compelled 

 to depend largely upon tradition. Mr. Girdlestone* 

 summarized the evidence of this kind which he had 

 been able to collect as follows : ' The first sound of 

 alarm came from the neighbourhood of Agra, and 

 from this centre distress seems to have diverged both 

 to the East and the West. The prices of grain for 

 many months previously are said to have indicated 

 much disturbance of the ordinary seasons. In the 

 upper part of Hindustan, indeed, an extraordinary 

 drought had prevailed for two years. During the 

 spring and summer of 1783 the inhabitants of Delhi 

 and its vicinity had experienced great difficulty in pro- 

 viding for their own wants, and the gravest apprehen- 

 sions were entertained for the cold-weather crop, 

 owing to the continued absence of rain. The dwellers 

 beyond the Jumna were emigrating in the direction of 

 Lucknow as early as October, and death left its mark 

 freely along the road. Such was the general apathy 

 that the bodies were not removed from the spot where 

 they lay, even in towns or villages. No relief was held 

 out to the sick or dying. Every man's hand was 

 against his neighbour, and the strong ruthlessly seized 

 the portion of the weak, for the struggle to maintain 

 life overcame all scruples. In this solitary instance 

 the drought affected Oudh also, though in a less degree 

 than the surrounding country.' 



Nowhere was the famine more intense than in the 

 Hissar Division, the country then known as Hariana. 

 Lieutenant Cunningham, in his history of the Sikhs 

 (p. 124), writes: 'A famine desolated Hariana; the 



* ' Report on the Past Famines in the North-Western Provinces,' 

 1868. 



