University Studies No. 2 An Essay on the Economic Causes of Famines in India and Suggestions to prevent their frequent recurrence

The first change in the principles and practice of famine relief was inaugurated after the famine of 1868 in Northern India ; and it was not till the Report of the Commission of 1880 was issued that the terrible famine of 1876-78 forced upon the Government of India the necessity of laying down definite and authoritative principles for a clear recognition of state responsibility for the systemati [...] The authors of the system have not correctly appreciated the habits and conditions of the rural population as well as the co-operative instincts of the peoples of the land of origin and of the land of adoption. [...] The highest and noblest duty is to raise the mass of the poplation from the dead level to which it has sunk by years of starvation and servitude ; and the growth of the material and moral prosperity of the country must attend the improvment of the condition of the preponderating proportion of its population. [...] that the percenage of total units relieved and of the average daily number of people on relief to the population of the distressed area 22 was the lowest in Bengal ; and the percentage of the maximum number on relief to the latter was the lowest in that province with the exception of Bombay. [...] It must not of course be understood that statistical information of the nature indicated above will operate directly as a preventive of famine ; but its indirect value in acquainting the Government and the public with an idea of the resources and needs of the people and of the country as a whole will be of the greatest help to enable the Government to determine the nature of the remedy required