hen followed another terrible famine in 1876, which lasted for nearly two years, and extended over a wide area in Madras, Mysore, Hyderabad, Bombay, and the United Provinces. On all these occasions various measures were adopted by the Government to afford relief to the people, but they were not very effective. It was observed that in the absence of definite principles and well-thought-out methods of work, the relief afforded in various areas was neither uniform nor even commensurate with the expenditure involved. In Bombay, for example, more human lives were saved than in Madras at less than half the cost. The Governor- General, Lord Lytton, rightly held that it was necessary to formulate general principles of famine relief, and appointed a strong Commission under General Sir Richard Strachey for this purpose. The Commission reported in 1880, and its recommendations formed the basis of the Famine Code promulgated in 1883 by the Government of India, and of the various provincial famine codes prepared in following years.
The Commission started with the fundamental principle that it is the duty of the State to offer relief to the needy in times of famine. The relief was to be administered in the shape of providing work for able-bodied men and distributing food or money to the aged and infirm. For the first, schemes of relief-work should be prepared in advance, so that actual operations may begin immediately after famine breaks out. These works should be of permanent utility, and on an extensive scale, so as to give employment to a large number of persons. Local works, such as excavation of ponds or raising embankments, etc., in villages might also be undertaken for the employment of persons who were not fit to be sent out on larger works. It was specially emphasised that the people should be provided with work before their physical efficiency had deteriorated through starvation.
Further relief was to be provided by suspension and remission of land revenue and rents, and offer of loans for purchase of seed- grain and bullocks.
The Commission held that in order to prevent waste and extravagance in affording relief, a large share of the cost involved should be borne by local authorities, and the Central Government would only supplement the provincial funds after carefully examining the resources and abilities of the province. In order further to bring home to the people concerned a sense of responsibility, the Commission recommended that relief should be administered through the representatives of the tax-payers who were to provide the major part of the funds.
In order to meet the heavy unforeseen expenditure caused by famine, it was decided to set apart fifteen millions of rupees every year in order to constitute the ” Famine Relief and Insurance Fund”
The principles of the Famine Code were put into effective operation during the minor famines that occurred in subsequent years, and the terrible families of 1896 -1897 and 1899-1900. The famine of 1896-1897 affected the United Provinces, Bihar, the Central Provinces, Madras and Bombay, the area under acute distress measuring about 125,000 square miles with a population of thirty-four millions. During 1899-1900 Bombay, the Central Provinces, the Punjab, Rajputana, Baroda and the Central Indian principalities suffered in varying degrees. Relief measures were undertaken on an extensive scale and Lord Curzon, estimated ” that one-fourth of the entire population of India had come, to a greater or less degree, within the radius of relief operations.”
After the famine of 1896-1897, a Commission was appointed under Sir James Lyall. It fully approved of the principles adopted in 1880, suggesting merely some alterations in the detailed working of the scheme.
Another Commission was appointed in 1900 under Sir Antony MacDonnell. It also endorsed the principles of 1880, but laid stress on the benefits occurring from early suspension of land-revenue and rents, and early distribution of advances for purchase of seed-grain and cattle. It recommended the appointment of a Famine Commissioner in a province where relief operations were likely to be adopted on an extensive scale. Among various other recommendations of the Commission, the following may be regarded as the more important:
(a) In particular circumstances, preference should be given to local works in a village over large public works, which had hitherto been the main feature of relief operations.
(b) Non-official assistance should be utilised on a larger scale in the matter of distributing relief.
(c) Establishment of agricultural banks and introduction of improved methods of agriculture.
(d) Wide extension of irrigation work.
These recommendations were accepted and acted upon by the Government. Thus a great step was taken to prevent and combat famine in India. It may be added that the extension of railways also served as an important means of famine relief by facilitating the transport of grains to the affected province, and their distribution to the various areas where they were badly needed.
We may next turn to activities of the Government directed towards improving the material resources of the country with the aid of scientific discoveries.
Railways
The most important among these is the extension of the railway system. Since the very modest beginning made by Dalhousie, 36,000 miles of railway were constructed at a total cost of 350 millions sterling. To begin with, these enterprises were left to private efforts. Private Companies were encouraged to undertake them on a guarantee given by the Government of India that if their net profits fell below 5 per cent, the balance should be paid by the Government. In return for this the Government secured certain privileges. If the profits of the Company exceeded the guaranteed 5 per cent, the Government would be entitled to half the excess profits. Further, the Government could exercise control over the management of the railway lines, and purchase them at a fixed rate at the end of a stipulated period, usually twenty-five years.
At the beginning, and indeed up to the end of the nineteenth century, the Government suffered heavy losses. But on the expiry of the early contracts, more favourable conditions were imposed on Companies, and in some cases the Government themselves constructed and managed the railway lines. Gradually the railway became a source of revenue. The importance of the railway should not, however, be judged merely by the profits it earned. Its importance lay in the facility of communications and the impetus given to trade and industry. By bringing the distant places of this vast country within easy reach, it has served to foster a spirit of unity and nationality among the Indians.
