THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 81 



beginning of the ''rains," in Northern India about the 

 first of July. If the rains fail, there is no work for the 

 farmer or for the very large number of casual landless 

 laborers. Without the rain the fodder crops can not 

 be grown, neither can the fields be prepared for the grain 

 crops which are grown in the cold season. Therefore the 

 failure of the rains means the absence of work for twelve 

 months or until the next rains, and the absence of work 

 means absence of wages and the absence of wages means 

 absence of food, therefore starvation. Indian merchants 

 are like any other merchants. They do not see why, if 

 they deal in grain and pay their money for it, they 

 should not sell it at a profit. They cannot see why they 

 should be compelled to give it away because somebody 

 else has not bought and stored it and cannot afford to 

 buy. The grain merchant gets little sympathy when a 

 bumper harvest compels him to sell at a loss the grain 

 bought and stored with so much care. 



India in general is remarkable for its generosity in 

 famine times. The poor help one another with gifts of 

 grain. Recognizing the true cause of famine, the British 

 government has drawn up a code which prescribes the 

 course to be followed in case of scarcity. A large re- 

 serve fund has been accumulated for the purpose of 

 caring for the people during the famine. Much govern- 

 ment labor, digging of canals, the building of roads, 

 railways, bridges, clearing of forests, damming of rivers, 

 putting in storage reservoirs, is all undertaken as famine 

 relief work. The policy is to pay wages lower than 

 market rates, so that as soon as conditions improve in 

 the country around about, the people will automatically 

 disappear from the famine relief works. Thus private 



