FAMINE IN SOUTH ASIA

Famines have been a recurrent feature in the history of South Asia since the earliest recorded times. For example, the Mughal Empire experienced many such events in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and famines may have occurred even more frequently after the empire's disintegration in the eighteenth century. A particularly severe famine occurred during the rule of the English East India Company in Bengal in 1770, when it was claimed that perhaps 10 million of Bengal's 30 million people died. Such figures must be regarded with great caution, but one can say that famines were common before the nineteenth century, were often severe, usually were precipitated by a failure of the monsoon rains, and together with endemic and epidemic diseases had a significant impact on the overall level of mortality.

The Response to Famine

Major famines continued to occur under East India Company rule in the first seven decades of the nineteenth century. Influenced by the writings of classical economists such as Adam Smith and David Ricardo, company administrators were often unsure how much they should intervene in food markets during times of famine. In addition, their opinions sometimes were influenced by Malthusian beliefs that spending resources on famine relief, and thus saving lives, might only exacerbate the region's population problem over the longer run. Consequently, the responsibility for famine relief during this period was often left to Indian princes, although limited relief measures and related efforts to improve and extend canal irrigation were increasingly undertaken by the British as the nineteenth century progressed.

In the period from 1876 to 1878 huge areas, particularly in southern India, were afflicted by monsoon failure and massive famine. The availability of early census and vital registration data has led to several estimates of excess mortality for this time, varying between 5 million and 8 million in a total population of perhaps 210 million. Such an enormous catastrophe attracted worldwide concern, was embarrassing to the British imperial authorities, and led to the establishment and recommendations of the Famine Commission of 1880. That commission's proposals included the formulation of "Famine Codes" to help local administrators deal with the threat of famine, the provision of guaranteed work at a subsistence wage for people affected by famine distress, and the provision of free famine relief for those deemed too feeble to work.

However, those proposals were not always implemented, and their existence failed to avert two more massive disasters in the 1890s. Estimates of excess mortality in British India from the famine of 1896–1897 vary between 2.5 million and 5 million, and the crisis of 1899–1900 may have led to between 2 million and 4.5 million deaths. In each of these major disasters of the late nineteenth century, epidemics of cholera, diarrheal diseases, and above all malaria broke out during the famines and caused the deaths of millions of starving people. The three famines were the reason that the size of South Asia's population remained fairly static during the 1870s and the 1890s.

Famine in the Twentieth Century

Partly because of the Famine Commission's recommendations, the first four decades of the twentieth century were comparatively free of major food crises. In 1943–1944, however, there was a serious famine in Bengal–then still under colonial rule–in which it is now known that there were about 2.1 million excess deaths in a total population of about 60 million. The immediate triggers of this event were complex, but as with many other food crises around the world during the early 1940s the occurrence of this famine cannot be viewed in isolation from the fact of world war. This was also the last famine in South Asia in which epidemic malaria played a major role in contributing to famine deaths.

After India and Pakistan gained independence in 1947, both the frequency and the severity of famines were greatly reduced. In no small part this has occurred because the region's countries have assumed responsibility for their own food security and health conditions. Also relevant has been the existence to varying extents of comparative press freedom and democratic government. However, in 1965–1966 there was a severe food crisis in the Indian state of Bihar in which there may have been considerable excess mortality, and in the early 1970s in the state of Maharashtra alone there were at least 70,000 excess deaths after the occurrence of severe and widespread drought. Other parts of the region, such as areas of Sri Lanka, were also affected by drought and food scarcity in the early 1970s.

However, probably the most serious famine to affect South Asia since 1947 was that in Bangladesh in the period 1974–1975. The extent of excess mortality resulting from this crisis is hard to gauge, but it seems likely to have been several hundred thousand. The occurrence of this famine cannot be viewed apart from the Bangladesh war of independence in 1971. Indeed, both in its causation and in its demographic consequences there are significant parallels between the 1943–1944 crisis in Bengal and that which hit much of the same region (i.e., Bangladesh) in 1974–1975.

The Twenty-First Century

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, provided that there continues to be relative sociopolitical stability and peace in the region, it is hard to see a major famine affecting the countries of South Asia in the foreseeable future. This is the case mainly because recent decades have seen economic diversification and growth, plus major infrastructural, epidemiological, and health improvements. Also, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka all either hold relatively large stocks of food or have the capacity to purchase emergency supplies if the need arises. This conclusion should not obscure the fact that droughts and harvest failures still occur in the region and have the potential to cause some excess deaths, particularly among the poorest sectors of society. However, famines that cause large-scale devastation and mortality in South Asia appear to be things of the past.

See also: Food Supply and Population.

bibliography

Ambirajan, S. 1976. "Malthusian Population Theory and Indian Famine Policy in the Nineteenth Century." Population Studies 30(1): 5–14.

Dyson, Tim. 1991. "The Demography of South Asian Famines." Population Studies 45(1 and 2): 5–25 and 279–297.

Dyson, Tim, and Arup Maharatna. 1991. "Excess Mortality during the Bengal Famine: A Re-Evaluation." Indian Economic and Social History Review 28(3): 281–297.

——. 1992. "The Demographic Consequences of the Bihar Famine of 1966–67 and the Maharashtra Drought of 1970–73." Economic and Political Weekly 27(26): 1325–1332.

Maharatna, Arup. 1996. The Demography of Famines–An Indian Historical Perspective. Delhi: Oxford University Press.

Tim Dyson