British India: Famines

I remember our history books mentioning many famines in India. I always assumed it was tragic but unavoidable for that era. Which is why I was taken aback when I read Shashi Tharoor’s An Era of Darkness.

 

Here is a startling contrast. During British rule, between 30 to 35 million Indians died due to famines. Post independence, no famines have taken place. Even though our own governments were inefficient, corrupt and not exactly quick to respond. How come? Because in democracies with a free press, governments are held more accountable, which then triggers effective response.

“Lack of (true) democracy and public accountability, however, is what was characterized British rule in India.”

 

Lack of accountability aside, the British had 3 considerations that drove them to intervene as minimally as possible to famine. (1) They believed in letting the market forces decide (demand and supply), (2) the Malthusian doctrine (overpopulation was the cause and the famine was nature’s correction) and (3) why spend money on a country which they intended to loot. (For what it is worth, on this matter, the British were not racist. They followed the same policies during Irish famines as well).

 

One might think that famines back then were not handled well by any ruler, and ask if the British were worse by the standards of that era. They were much worse. During the 1866 Orrisa Famine, the British happily exported 200 million pounds of rice to Britain. Will Durant wrote of the “brutal collection of high taxes in the very midst of famine”. Local rulers all did the opposite during famines – they reduced taxes, banned export of food, and transferred food to the impacted areas. This is why famines before the British were never as bad in their impact.

 

Even after the railway lines had been laid, and the speed at which food could have been transported in times of famines could have been faster, the data shows no such improvement in the handling of famines. The railways, as I wrote in an earlier blog, were never created to do good for Indians...

 

Even in the middle of the 1943 Bengal famine, Churchill’s priority was to send food from India to British troops across Europe. They breed like rabbits, was Churchill’s comment. British ships laden with wheat coming from Australia went to Britain’s war effort in Europe, even though famine hit India lay on the way. Being a far more recent event, the callousness, the racism and the self-centeredness of Britain is far better documented than earlier famines.

 

Those words perfectly summarize British rule of India – racist and self-centered.