INDIAN FAMINES - Institute for Social and Economic Change

EXECUTIVE MAlvAGEMENT. 183
could be managed in a small way, and it convinced
me that it was quite possible to carry
out the principle on a larger scale.
Extensive works, such as reproductive railways,
roads, and canals, require special and long
consideration. It is not enough to say, "there
is famine in the land, and there is a canal
wanted between two points; therefore let us
make this canal!" To be of any permanent
benefit, such projects must be undertaken with
deliberation. Appropriate works are not always
practicable in the afflicted districts, and therefore
it is quite possible that it might be found
necessary to transport (using the word in a
mild sense) a considerable portion of the
population to some distant tract. This, however,
may provoke the question, What is to
become of the old, the infirm, &c., and of
the men who must necessarily remain behind
to cultivate the land when happier times return?
The reply is, employ these on reliefworks
at home, much in the same way as is at
present being done in the Bengal famine; but
let this be considered the abnormal and not the