INDIAN FAMINES - Institute for Social and Economic Change

88 TRADITIONAL AND
tention to the popular idea on the subject of
food in India, as the matter is necessarily connected
with the harvests. In Hindustan proper-i.
e., north of the Deccan-the boundary
_ of which is the Vindyan range of hills, the
staple food of the country is wheat, the harvest-time
for which is March and April. In
the Deccan, the principal food is jowar and
bajra, the harvest-time of which is November
and December. "Rice as a general article of
su bsistence is confined to Bengal and part of
Behar, with the low country along the sea all
round the coast of the peninsula. In most
parts of India it is only used as a luxury." So
writes Elphinstone, in his 'History of India.'
To this the editor subjoins the note: "It was
probably the circumstance of our early settlements
in Bengal and on the coast of Coromandel
that led to the common opinion that rice is
the general food of the country." Anyone
wishing to gauge the labour-market" up country"
would certainly inquire the price of
wheaten flour, and judge accordingly. There
are two reasons, I think, which account for this
distribution of the food-grains: First, and this