Photograph from Paul Thompson 



SOMEWHERE ON THE ROAD "SOMEWHERE IN FRANCE" 



Before the war these refugees were "a bold peasantry, their country's pride," adding to 

 the nation's wealth and a people's plenty by the cultivation of rich fields. Today they are 

 homeless, a drain upon the world's food resources rather than a productive element, America 

 must make arood the loss of their labor. 



peasants are among the most frugal in 

 the world and its valleys are among the 

 most fertile ; but it has suffered more 

 from lack of food than any other nation 

 on the face of the earth, not even except- 

 ing China. 



And yet, if so intelligent and discrimi- 

 nating a chronicler as Megasthenes, am- 

 bassador in India from the court of 

 Seleucus between 317 and 312 B. C, may 

 be believed, up to that time there had 

 never been a famine in this land. The 

 uncertainty of the seasons since the dawn 

 of the Christian era develops a far dif- 

 ferent story. 



famine's terribeE tole in india 



In the ancient chronicles of Indian 

 courts little space is given to the suffer- 

 ings of the common people ; hence the 



early accounts of famine are meager; but 

 occasionally a single sentence from a 

 poem or a historical sketch is illuminat- 

 ing in its very brevity. For example, we 

 find the line, "The flesh of a son was 

 preferred to his love," grimly suggesting 

 the practice of cannibalism in times of 

 dearth. 



There are records of whole provinces 

 being depopulated as early as 1022 and 

 1052 A. D., while at about the time that 

 the Black Death was making its appear- 

 ance in Europe a famine of such severity 

 swept over Hindustan that the Mogul 

 emperor himself was unable to obtain 

 the necessaries for his household. 



In 1630 a devastating drought afflicted 

 the province of Gujarat and whole cen- 

 ters were depopulated. A Dutch mer- 

 chant, returning from Swaily, reported 



87 



