INDIAN FAMINES - Institute for Social and Economic Change

A FEW GENERAL CRITICISMS. 121
principally to subjects taken up by the press,
and more especially to those dealt with by the
correspondent of the 'Daily News,' who has, on
the whole, approached the majority of the subjects
requiring animadversion in a fair and temperate
spirit.
At the outset it may be said that we have
very little in common with India. In the first
place, it is scarcely an exaggeration to say, that
no one at home has had any experience whatever
in grappling with such a disaster as
famine, and that therefore our ideas are necessarily
vague and impracticable. I have already
noticed that mankind is not apt to be of one
universal opinion; we are therefore likely to
have the views of one set of men with regard
to the general management of a famine opposed
to those of another set; while in matters of
detail no two men's ideas are likely to coincide.
We have ha.d experience of this at home during
the present famine. As one instance, I may
point to the discussion as to whether exportation
of grain in India should be stopped or not;
and as another, to the discussions held at several
public meetings in the early part of the famine.