INDIAN FAMINES - Institute for Social and Economic Change

so
TRADITIONAL AND
"The consequence of so general a calamity
cannot be confined to individuals, and though
they most severely feel them, the public must
suffer likewise; and we have too much reason
to apprehend it will occasion a very considerable
diminution in your revenue, to what
amount we cannot at present form a judgment;
but we deem it our indispensable duty to give
this early information, in hopes, by being prepared
for such accidents, you may be better
able to guard against its effects; and we would
take the liberty to suggest whether a considerable
diminution in your revenue for so unforeseen
and unavoidable a cause may not be a just
cause for a proportional abatement to be made
from the demands of Government, as well as
that of your being dispossessed of any part of
your territorial acquisitions and revenue by any
foreign power."
Not a word is said about any measures preventive
of such calamities in the future !
During the winter of 1769, as in the corresponding
season of the present famine, the
effects of the drought made themselves more
palpable and widespread. "Alarming prospects