INDIAN FAMINES - Institute for Social and Economic Change

A FEW GENERAL CRITICISMS. 131
only felt over a limited area, is famine, provided
the scarcity reaches starvation point." But
"starvation point" would be as difficult to
define as "famine point." Sir J. Strachey
(now Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West
Province) writes in a note on famines: "Scarcity
has not yet passed into absolute famine.
. . . It is important that the distinction be
rightly understood between a state of famine
and a partial deficiency, which shows itself
clearly in the increased prices of food. Famine
means something more than this. It means
that the supply of food existing in the country
is, apart from the question of price, insufficient
for the support of the people." This definition
I propose to adopt hereafter. Heretofore it has
been unnecessary to be so exact in the definition.
In accepting this, however, it does not at
all necessarily follow that a " scarcity" does not
also require relief measures. But the laws of
supply and demand will, in this latter case, to
some extent provide against the want. The
labourer is worthy of his hire, which implies
the means of providing food and raiment; and
as the cost of these rises, so will the price of
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