258 THE INTERRUPTION OF INDUSTRY 



Behar was upon the fringe of the famine area, and 

 we, therefore, have considerable contemporary evi- 

 dence from the English officers of the severity of the 

 Chalisa in that province. But we have the word of 

 Warren Hastings that 'it raged most violently in the 

 countries most remote ' from the possessions of the 

 Company, and therefore a description of the condition 

 of Behar would give us no clue to the sufferings of 

 Upper India ; for this reason I make no extracts from 

 the records of the East India Company. 



1803-04. — The famine of 1803-04 was the first of the 

 famines in the United Provinces of which we possess 

 official records ; in the proceedings of the Sudder 

 Revenue Board we have a series of reports sufficiently 

 detailed to enable us to trace its main outlines with 

 confidence. The famine extended over Gorakhpur, 

 Rohilkhand, and the Doab. It had its origin in a 

 severe drought. On September 4 the Collector of 

 Cawnpore reported that, ' so far as he knew, not a 

 single shower had fallen throughout the Ceded 

 Provinces since August 12, and hot winds were 

 blowing just as in May and June.' By the beginning 

 of 1804 the famine was at its height. ' The Tehsildars 

 and Government officers still did their best to en- 

 courage artificial irrigation, but the people were 

 becoming disheartened and reckless. Many were 

 disposing of their cattle and their implements, while 

 those who had nothing more to sell were forsaking 

 their homesteads and emigrating.' 



Mr. Girdlestone suggests that, in addition to the 

 drought, a contributory cause of this famine was 

 the unduly heavy assessments which were made by 

 the English officers on taking over the new districts. 

 It was shown in Chapter II. that the land revenue 

 demand was very oppressive, and that the Govern- 

 ment was obliged to remit a large proportion of the 

 revenue in this year owing to the distress. Whatever 

 the cause, I consider that the scarcity of 1803-04 is 



