INDIAN FAMINES - Institute for Social and Economic Change

HISTORICAL FAMINES. 5
time are generally credited with. Again, we
have the many dialects spoken, and the material
changes in the language itself during 1000
years, to contend with. I have no doubt that
records of many more famines than those I shall
mention might be found after very careful and
minute search; but I think the reader will find
that enough have been mentioned to answer the
purpose here intended.. In fact, the trouble of
tracing them, and the time required to read
the accounts, would be out of proportion to
the benefit to be gained from a knowledge of
them. It is not until we come to the days of
our own rule that records of passing events are
available; and even of the memorable famine
of 1770, which occurred shortly after we undertook
the fiscal administration of Bengal,
specific details are to a great extent wanting.
In the absence of these records, it is impossible
to say with any certainty whether modern
famines are of greater intensity, or, rather,
whether they naturally would be so if not
artificially prevented, than those of former days,
and vice versa,. We have no reason to suppose
that the natural causes of these disasters have