AakritiAIR 93 · CSE 2025 · 204 wordsTheir whole copy
Opening
Colonial India witnessed a significant number of famines & severe scarcity due to a mix of factors, all characteristic of colonial mindset.
Body · points
Causes
(1) Revenue administration
(a.) Rising indebt-ness → reduced farm investment eg in Ryotwari (b.) Policy objective failure → No rise in agricultural productivity
(c.) Forced shift from food to cash crops. (d.) Labor shift → disguised unemployment in agriculture.
(2) Economic causes (a.) Laissez Faire economics → absent welfare intervention (b.) Rapid deindustrialization → decline in purchasing power
(3) Viceroy elitism (a.) Organization of Delhi Durbar (Viceroy Lytton) during great famine (1870s).
(4) Colonial policies (a.) No famine code (Lyall commission) (b.) Foodgrain diverted to soldiers - Bengal famine (1943)
Consequence
(1) Short term (a.) Rise in mortality & morbidity (b.) Political instability eg. Kheda satyagraha No relief despite crop failure (famine & drought)
(2) Long term (a.) Disenchantment with foreign rule → shattered image of "Benevolent power" (b.) Rising sense of unity & nationalism eg. crop failure in 1 area → scarcity in another. (c.) establishment of famine committees → identified state's irresponsibility. (d.) Indian leaders took up famine relief
Close · a summary
Famines of colonial India although caused huge life loss it became an opportunity for wearing sense of unity in Indians.
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