There were 14 famines in India between 11th and 17th century (Bhatia, 1985). B.M. Bhatia believes that the earlier famines were localised and it was only after 1860, during the British rule, that famine came to signify general shortage of foodgrains in the country. There were approximately 25 major famines spread through states such as Tamil Nadu in South India, Bihar in the north, and Bengal in the east in the latter half of the 19th century, killing between 30-40 million Indians in the period as India's native industries suffered almost total collapse, with its skilled artisans driven out of work while British imports flooded into the Indian markets.
The famines were a product both of uneven rainfall and British economic and administrative policies, which since 1857 had led to the seizure and conversion of local farmland to foreign-owned plantations, restrictions on internal trade, heavy taxation of Indian citizens to support unsuccessful British expeditions in Afghanistan (see Second Anglo-Afghan War), inflationary measures that increased the price of food, and substantial exports of staple crops from India to Britain. Some British citizens such as William Digby agitated for policy reforms and famine relief, but Lord Lytton, the governing British viceroy in India, opposed such changes in the belief that they would stimulate shirking by Indian workers. The first Bengal famine of 1770 is estimated to have taken nearly one-third of the population. The famines continued until independence in 1948, with the Bengal famine of 1943-44—among the most devastating—killing 3-4 million Indians during World War II.
In 1966, there was a 'near miss' in Bihar, when the USA allocated 900,000 tons of grain to fight the famine. It is the closest independent India came to a famine and is insightful into the workings of a democratic government that will even beg and borrow to avert diasters such as these.
The Famine Commission of 1880 observed that each province in British India, including Burma, had a surplus of foodgrains, and the annual surplus was 5.16 million tons (Bhatia, 1970). At that time, annual export of rice and other grains from India was approximately one million tons.
Chronology
- In 1630-1631, there was a famine in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
- In 1770, India experienced the first Bengal famine of 1770.
- 1780-1790s: some millions Indians died of famine in Bengal, Benares, Jammu, Bombay and Madras.
- 1800-1825: 1 million Indians died of famine
- 1850-1875: 5 millions Indians died of famine in Bengal, Orissa, Rajastan and Bihar
- 1875-1900: 26 million Indians died of famine (1876-1878: 10 millions)
- 1905-1906: famine raged in areas with the population of 3,3 million.
- 1906-1907: famine captured areas with the population of 13 million
- 1907-1908: famine captured areas populated by 49,6 million Indians.
- In 1943, India experienced the second Bengal famine of 1943.
- In 1966, there was a 'near miss' in Bihar. The USA allocated 900,000 tons of grain to fight the famine.
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