INDIAN FAMINES - Institute for Social and Economic Change

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CONTENTS.
. CHAPTER YI.
EXECUTIYE MANAGEMENT.
The three main heads to be observed in the Executive
management of famines; the measures which indirectly,
and those which directly, affect the economy
of relief-works. The various ways of employing
famine· relief labour, and the advantage of the petty
coutract system over the three other methods-viz.,
daily labour, task-work, and contracts; the question
of the amount of wages; the character of the
food supplied; the different degrees and phases of
famine which require payment in wages or in food, 179
CHAPTER VII.
PREYENTn.'E AXD MITIGATIVE MEASt:RES.
The climate is such that famines, or the causes of
them, will ever recur in India; the changed aSpect
of society in respect to famines between former and
present times; the oriental ideas of the inevitable
result of famines, and of the futility of attempting
to prevent or to mitigate them; the effect of caste
as a disturbing element in mitigative measures, with
the important decisions of the pundits regarding the
acceptance of cooked food in times of dearth; engine·power
generally is indigenous in England but
exotic in India; the thews and. sinews for its production
and mainteaance are awanting in the latter
country. Some of the influences which in the
natural order of things tend to alleviate the effects