Asiatic Quarterly Review (Full Title: The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review, and Oriental and Colonial Record): Volume XIII, No. 26 [‎532r] (188/238)

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Famine in India: its Causes and Effects.
reserves unless he has first fallen into the power of the money-lender; and
certainly something might be done by well-to-do friends of India in the
way of setting up agricultural banks ; but they must be started by natives
of the country, as Mr. Nicholson has pointed out in his invaluable report,
and will be warmly welcomed by our present enlightened Government.
After all, when a man sells his produce, he has (or ought to have) the value
of it in cash, and would have it always but for want of “ thrift ” ; the thrifty
ones manage to keep it, and do not suffer. Moreover, it is probably true
that but for the railways, which it is the fashion with our critics to decry,
much of the grain that is exported would never have been grown at all, or
would even have rotted on the ground, as it often used to do in in
accessible regions. Mr. Hare’s discovery that districts mostly affected by
famine are those through which the railways run—as if the railways had
caused the famines—reminds me of the pious monk’s comment on the
goodness of Providence in causing all the great rivers to flow past the
great towns. The railways were largely laid out through famine tracts,
because they were so liable to famine.
Chapter «., p. 9 . —The most easily accessible stock is money —not
grain, which is liable to all kinds of damage. It is not quite true
that “ the controllers of land and capital always pursue the working
classes to their doom ” (p. 11). On the contrary, the more intelligent
and thrifty of the working classes frequently displace the others. I should
say history familiarizes us with some famines in the old times which were
even more terrible than any we have now, and when nothing was done to
alleviate them. It is not true that “ man ” in those days “ grappled with
Nature, and was able to avert by common-sense the inevitable starvation.”
On the contrary, in those famines cannibalism was not uncommon, and
even Brahmins were often reduced to eating dogs. “ Common-sense,” or,
in other words, “ thrift,” would often avert starvation even now. Mr. Hare
seems to recommend a return to the system of collecting the revenue in
kind—the worst system ever known, as he will see by reading a report of
the Hon. A. Seshiah Shastri on the State of Puducottah in 1881. I have
had some experience of that system myself in Puducottah, and I know
that Seshiah is entirely right. Under the old communal system no pro
gress was possible, but that may be Mr. Hare’s reason for approving of it.
The argument that because under British rule land has become more
valuable (or, rather, individual rights to land have been largely developed),
therefore the owners are worse off than before, because they are tempted
to mortgage their land, and so get into debt, seems somewhat paradoxical
to the ordinary mind, but is supported by Mr. Thorburn, and has been
accepted as a basis of legislation in the Punjab. I cannot believe that any
such legislation would be endured in Madras, where private property in
land has existed for at least a century.
Some of Mr. Hare’s statements are open to question. For instance, he
says “ Lord Curzon zvill not devote himself to the causes of famine or its
prevention.” But how can he possibly have any information on that
subject ? Lord Curzon may decline to speak because he has not satisfied
himself as to the real causes of famine, or how it is to be prevented; but,
THIRD SERIES. VOL. XIII. CC