INDIAN FAMINES - Institute for Social and Economic Change

OF PAST FAMINES. 105
of affairs, but our early representatives had
lived in the country and witnessed them, and
the traditions of generations had been told to
them. Everything, therefore, tended to make
the Englishman of that period in India thoroughly
oriental in his ideas of the management
of native affairs, and to inspire him with that
contempt for the scourges and wrongs of llUmanity
which familiarity engenders. It is even
questionable whether the native of these days
was recognised as "a man and a brother" by
us; at all events, there is no doubt that ideas
were then prevalent which would be scouted
now. This is one cause for the very great change
of famine aspects between 1770 and 1870.
Again, we must consider the difference between
the influence of "public opinion" then
and now. To prove that there was neither the
wherewithal nor the means of disseminating it,
it will be sufficient to recollect that the' Times'
did not exist in these former days. Nor must
we forget that public opinion itself has altered
considerably during this period.
At page 96 I have noticed, in a general way,
how the remissions and suspensions of land