CHAPTER V.

AN ESTIMATE OF THE DISASTER: THE ILL WROUGHT, THE GOOD RESULTING.

SIR RICHARD TEMPLE closed his famine works before the end of 1877, and simultaneously with this act, penned a minute on the whole campaign. This chapter will be little more than a summary of his minute.

The area over which the distress raged was 34,183 square miles, and the population affected 5,000,000. There were three maxima of distress thus accounted for by Colonel Merriman, who succeeded General Kennedy when the latter proceeded to Madras:-(1) Up to January 1877 the numbers were too great for thorough supervision by the existing establishments, wages were liberal, and the works generally were too attractive. After January the proper remedies were applied by strengthening establishments, reducing wages, and enforcing work. (2) In June the famine was at its height. When the monsoon broke, the demand for Government assistance grew immediately less. (3) In August it seemed that a second season of drought had commenced; at the end of that month the rain came and dissipated the fear. Government relief began as soon as the season had failed, but pressure of high prices had already commenced. It is laid down as a maxim-So long as relief works are well supervised, it is an advantage to open them at an early date, because that prevents the labouring poor from lapsing into a weak condition.'

From the beginning to the end of the scarcity the activity of private trade in grain was extraordinary. 166,137 tons were imported by the sea-coast (mostly by means of country craft), and 267,863 by rail, that is, by the Great Indian Peninsula Railway. The graindealers, great and small, possessed a complete organisation, extending from the marts of distant provinces of India to the marts of the affected districts, and thence to every village bazaar. There was, at the outset, some slight trouble at a few places, from apprehended scantiness of supplies, but that soon passed away. With this exception, the grain markets were well supplied from first to last. In some cities, notably Poona, really vast supplies, enough for a protracted scarcity, were known to have been laid in. In every direction the distressed area was traversed by strings of grain-laden carts. Some of the roads were metalled, but many were rough and unmetalled; many crossed low hills; some ascended the lofty sides of the Western Ghât mountains. But the strong-built carts and the sturdy bullocks endured the heavy work; and despite the dearness of fodder, the cartmen kept their draught cattle in serviceable order. Even if the famine had unhappily lasted for a second twelvemonths, as at one time seemed probable, there was every reason to believe that private trade would have proved fully equal to so grave an occasion. It was at no time necessary for Government to import grain, or to organise any transport for private grain, or to reduce the fares on the railways in favour of grain destined to the distressed districts. All that was necessary was to give grain preference over other goods.

The percentage of population affected varied in several districts, thus :- Khandeish, 3.8 per cent.; Nasik, 10-3; Ahmednagar, 8-8; Poona, 23·5; Sholapur, 13.8; Satara, 15.2 ; Kaladgi, 21.2; Belgaum, 12.3;

CLASSES RECEIVING RELIEF.

369

and Dharwar 13. Those who received relief mainly belonged to the humbler castes of the Hindu community, and to the class of field labourers, of rude artisans, and of village menials. Mr. Gibbs calls this remark into question, and gives instances of people of better social status than described resorting to the works for relief. Sir Richard thinks the assertion sometimes made, that the failure of a single season, the loss of one harvest, plunges the people into distress, or draws them to the verge of pauperism, can hardly be supported by the facts. He goes on to say that only a moderate percentage of the total population came upon State relief; and that the percentage on the peasant proprietary classes, the real backbone of the agricultural community, was smaller still. In other words, despite the vast loss of crops, despite the misery protracted for a full twelvemonth, the majority of the general population, and almost the whole of the peasant proprietors, sustained themselves without assistance from the State, 'They suffered much with exemplary patience; many received aid from private sources as well as from the State; and some died; still, for the most part, the people supported themselves. Although one year's harvest was destroyed over so large an area, and although the following harvest remained in jeopardy for two critical months, nevertheless the people imported for themselves, without aid from Government, grain enough to keep supplied the grain markets, great and small, for so many millions of souls. How strong, then, must have been the self-supporting power of the people; how large must have been their stores and stocks of food-grains; how extensive their credit; how great their means of purchasing supplies from a distance; how resolute their spirit of self-help! Let anyone regard the magnitude of the losses which befell the

peasantry, and the comparative smallness of the number who sought for help, and then say whether the peasantry of any country would have behaved better, and whether their self-management does not prove that these people were not poor in the sense of being unable to supply their simple wants, but had, on the contrary, after many years of careful revenue settlements and just administration, become well-to-do, in the sense of having more than enough for their actual necessities.' 1

The numbers on gratuitous relief, i.e. Government gratuitous relief, were comparatively small, the proportion at the early stages being large, and at the end a similar state of things existed. The works undertaken consisted mainly of projects of irrigation and trunk roads, on the chord line from Dhond to Manmad ; 30,000 persons daily were employed. All the irrigation works were of the highest utility, 'calculated to

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1 Commenting upon this the Bombay Gazette remarks: The sole foundation for this eloquent passage seems to be the fact that the proportion of the affected population who came upon relief works never exceeded 10 per cent. or, to be exact, 528,951. But it seems to us that before Sir Richard Temple could come to this conclusion, which he uses for the purpose of showing that he is right in compelling the ryots to pay their full land revenue for the whole period of the famine, he was bound to show what the effect of the famine has been upon those classes which did not come upon relief works. He himself acknowledges elsewhere in his minute that the reluctance of all but the lowest classes to accept relief in any shape or form was extraordinary, and it is therefore taking a very shallow and one-sided view of the case to assume that, because nine-tenths of the population did not ask for help, therefore they have not suffered the greatest distress, and even been reduced to the verge of starvation by the famine which desolated the country. This is a subject which might very usefully be inquired into by the Famine Commission which Lord Salisbury has ordered to be appointed. It certainly cannot be considered settled on the strength of Sir Richard Temple's showy special pleading. Let the Famine Commissioners hold a few meetings in Poona and other important stations in the Deccan, and collect evidence from the people themselves as to the state of the country before and after the famine, and let it be well understood that the witnesses who give their evidence will not incur the displeasure of the Government by speaking the truth, and then perhaps we shall know what has actually happened.'

VARIOUS IRRIGATION PROPOSALS.

371

be tolerably remunerative in ordinary times, to permanently improve agriculture, and to protect some parts of the country against famine in future.' Some of the roads are useful, but many are unavoidably left unfinished.' This is the great drawback to works undertaken during a famine campaign.

Fortunately, even providentially, plans and estimates of many projects for irrigation, prepared by Colonel Fife, R.E., were at hand ready for commencement. On these many thousands of labourers were employed.

The total area of all the tanks may be set down at about 21,727 acres, the total length of the canals and main channels at about 502 miles, and the total extent of lands irrigable at about 692,827 acres. The works, however, are not complete, though they may be described as being in various stages of completion. Even in their present state, however, a few of them will afford some useful irrigation. The total expense incurred during the famine on these irrigation works may be set down at 2,800,000 rs., or 280,000l.; and the expenditure required to complete them may be estimated at about 6,300,000 rs., or 630,000l. The means of providing the money hereafter for such completion has been separately considered in connection with Bombay provincial finance.

In a sketch map attached to his minute, Sir Richard indicates various proposals of irrigation, some actually undertaken, others designed with a view to being undertaken if the famine had lasted. The large tanks will fill after the ordinary rains of one year, and will hold a supply of water enough for two years. This is Sir Richard's opinion, but taking into consideration the loss through percolation and the absorption from the surface in a land of such intense atmospheric heat as