INDIAN FAMINES - Institute for Social and Economic Change

122 A FEW GENERAL (JRITICISJlS.
Further, we must bear in mind what is here
a very important fact-viz., that Englan~ in its
present normal state imports food-grains, while
India exports them j and that in the latter
instance, it makes a very vast difference
when we have to reverse the operations. A
home famine does not seem a very terrible
matter to contemplate. We can easily imB.::,aine
a very bad harvest, or a succession of them,
caused either by drought or otherwise. The
worst we can picture is a total failure of crops,
ruined farmers, and grumbling landlords. It does
not seem that we would be at all anxious concerning
our actual wants being ultimately supplied j
nay, we cannot even imagine that there ever
would be any serious want felt; we instinctively
come to a conclusion that food would be forthcoming
somehow. The question therefore arises,
'Whence this instinct? On what grounds is it
based 1 Why should we 8uppose when our
crops have failed that want would not be felt,
while a native of India would as instinctively
contemplate days of dire distress and starvation,
if not death itself, as a probable result? The
reason is simply that we are a wealthy nation,