INDIAN FAMINES - Institute for Social and Economic Change

98 FINANCIAL ANlJ'-:()THER RESCLTS
It is again necessary to note the difficulty
experienced in comparing famines on account
of the numerous dissimilar features which they
present. We are for this reason brought to a
stand-still in pushing this inquiry. Column 8,
lwwever, supplies an item common to all
famines, notwithstanding their various conditions
j but yet it does not afford a mathematically
correct standard of comparison. The
population in one distressed locality may be
rieher than in another, and hence they may not
require equal amounts of relief; or it may he
that one is an agricultural population, while the
other is a manufacturing one: but as a rule, the
broad areas affected neutralise these disturbing
elements to such an extent, that we can accept
the figures as providing an index sufficiently
accurate for our present purpose.
In studying the figures of this column 8, the .
first point which strikes the attention is the remarkably
small expenditure per head of population
which has ever been made. The conclusion
which is at once drawn from this fact is, that
0111y a very small proportion of the inhabitants
required to avail themselves of this mode of re-