INDIAN FAMINES - Institute for Social and Economic Change

OF PAST FAMINES.
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gation projects are impossible, as may be
gathered from the fact of its proximity to,
and in some cases its actual encroachment
upon, the desert. Our own province of
Ajmere is studded with tanks, and these are
being multiplied as fast as possible. The railway,
as already noted, has now fairly entered
Rajputana. Its progress was considerably expedited
by reason of this very famine, which
proves that the lesson has been taken to heart.
In taking a general view of the foregoing
table, we cannot but be struck with the vast
amounts which have already been absorbed in
d~aling with these calamities; and we must,
however reluctantly, face the equally certain
future expenditure which will have to be made,
in the attempt either to avert them or to mitigate
their effects. Nor should it be forgotten
that the table does not represent the sUIJlstotal
expended on these disasters. Many more
than are there noticed occurred in the Bengal
Presidency since 1770; while it may be said
that Bombay is not represented at all, and that
the Madras Presidency is almost equally unnoticed.