Poverty

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Poverty and Underdevelopment Lecture 1 Famine
in India Lecture 2 The Causes of
Poverty and Underdevelopment Lecturer David
Hardiman
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Madras Famine 1876-77
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Western Indian famine of 1899-1900
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• Features of Famine in late Nineteenth Century
  India
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• Rain failure.
• Hoarding by traders and urban moneylenders.
  Export of grain.
• Attacks on grain shops and stores. Upsurge in
  robberies.
• Government demands tax at normal harvest time.
  Many refuse to pay. Tax officials apply
  coercion, forcing richer peasants to pay up.
  Poorer peasants have land confiscated, or
  mortgage or sell property - jewellery, farm
  implements, land - to moneylenders to pay taxes.
  Richest peasants and moneylenders enlarge their
  holdings.
• Government establishes relief works, to which
  poorest peasants go. Middling peasants, and
  higher castes without resources starve.
• Destitute start to wander in search of food. Some
  receive charitable relief in towns.
• Suicides, parents sell or kill children, deaths
  (often of disease).

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Features of Famine in late Nineteenth Century
India   1. Rain failure.   2. Hoarding by traders
and urban moneylenders. Export of grain.   3.
Attacks on grain shops and stores. Upsurge in
robberies.   4. At normal harvest time,
Government demands tax. Many peasants refuse to
pay. Leads to coercion by tax-officials, forcing
richer peasants to pay up. Poorer peasants have
land confiscated, or mortgage or sell property -
jewellery, farm implements, land - to
moneylenders to pay taxes. Richest peasants and
moneylenders enlarge their holdings.   5.
Government establishes relief works, to which
poorest peasants go. Middling peasants, and
higher castes without resources starve.   6.
Destitute start to wander in search of food. Some
receive charitable relief in towns.   7.
Suicides, parents sell or kill children, deaths
(often of disease).
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The Irish famine Bridget O'Donnel and her
children Illustrated London News, 22 December
1849
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Ethiopian famine 1984
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Monsoon July-Sept
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Major Famines in India 1860-1900      1860-61 -
western United Provinces.   1865-66 - Bengal,
Bihar, Orissa. Orissa worst hit.   1876-77 -
Maharashtra and South India.   1896-97 -
Maharashtra and South India   1899-1900 - Gujarat
and Rajasthan  
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• British policy towards famine
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• Ideological commitment to free trade.
• Belief that famine corrected over-population,
  following theory of Thomas Malthus.
•  Belief that free relief promotes idleness and
  saps initiative, following doctrines of the
  Utilitarians. People must labour for their
  subsistence.
• Famine-proofing through building of irrigation
  canals
• Famine Codes drawn up in 1880, but only
  implemented effectively after 1900.

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2. Population theory Thomas Malthus
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• British policy towards famine
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• Commitment to free trade, following economic
  theory of Adam Smith.
• Belief that famine corrected over-population,
  following theory of Thomas Malthus.
•  Belief that free relief promotes idleness and
  saps initiative, following doctrines of the
  Utilitarians. People must labour for their
  subsistence.
• Famine-proofing through building of irrigation
  canals
• Famine Codes drawn up in 1880, but only
  implemented effectively after 1900.

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Famine relief works
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The Ganges Canal at Rookee, 1863
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The Famine Codes post 1880
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Bengal famine 1943
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Bengal Famine, street in Calcutta, 1943
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