INDIAN FAMINES - Institute for Social and Economic Change

1M
AD1tfINISTIU.TIVE MA.NAGEMENT
earliest stages whether there is or will be a
famine-not to assert, when all is over, that sufficient
means were not taken." Weare really
in a dilemma before any actual difficulty has
arisen. It is this necessity for decided action
before any stage of want has developed itself,
that adds very considerably to, if ~t is not the
chief of, the difficulties experienced in the general
administl'ation of famines. An illustration
of the perplexity experienced in deciding on the
intensity even of a famine after it has developed
itself, is afforded by the fact that some people
say that the relief operations undertaken by
Government for the present Bengal famine are
far in excess of the requirements, and that the
severity of the whole affair has been grossly exaggerated.
They seem to look upon the relief
measures as a gigantic farce, got up by Government
as a means for the disposal of the vast
stores of grain accumulated, which its paternal
solicitude had suggested in haste, as being
necessary to feed a supposititious perishing
multitude.
What, then, are the indications of an approaching
scarcity 1 As already remarked, it