INDIAN FAMINES - Institute for Social and Economic Change

RECEXT FAMI..YES.
1832. No doubt these intermediate, and, COII\­
paratively speaking, petty scarcities, were local;
but the suffering was slowly accumulating,
and reached its limit in 1837, when a season of
unexceptional drought ended in famine. In
some districts it was considered the worst famine
known to any man of that generation.
Colonel Baird Smith, a great authority on the
subject of famines, concludes, from evidence
obtained, that the bad results of 1783 exceeded
those of 1837; though Mr Rose, another eminent
authority, takes the opposite view. There is
no satisfactory method that can be adopted to
compare the intensity of these calamities; but
it will be sufficient to place that of 1837-38
in the same category as those of 1770, 1783,
1860, 1866, and of Rajputana, 1868. In future
famines it will be still more difficult to estimate
correctly their relative intensities; and
as illustrative of this point, I may cite the
difference of opinion which exists in regard to
the present famine, the' extremes being-(l.) a
most intense severity, as evidenced by Government
preparations; and (2.) a complete false
alarm: and these antagonistic ideas will pre-