INDIAN FAMINES - Institute for Social and Economic Change

36 TRADITIONAL AND
fntermediate famines between 1783 and 1837,
this of 1803 was by far the most severe, but it
was happily limited in area.
1813. - Famine prevailed in and around
Agra, and apparently the western states of
Rajputana were again affected. Bundelcund,
to the south, was also in straitened circumstances.
The crops of the previous year, 1812,
had been indifferent; but the late rains of 1813
were the immediate cause of this scarcity.
1819, &c.-:Famine again attacked the North­
'Western Province and Bundelcund. Famine
or scarcity also recurred in 1825-26-27, and in
1832, chiefly in the North-Western Province
and adjacent countries,-sometimes to the south,
in Bundelcund-often to the west, in Rajputana
-and at times to the north, in the Punjab. It is
rather remarkable that the east, Oudh and
Rohilcund, appear to have enjoyed comparative
immunity from these disasters. It may be that
the proximity of these districts to the Himalaya,
with the abundant rainfall which is peculiar to
these mountains, has a beneficial influence in a
dry season.
It will have beeu noticed that all the famines