INDIAN FAMINES - Institute for Social and Economic Change

RECENT FAMINES.
some heavy showers occurred. * In Ganjam the
suflking was increased on account of the two
previous years having been also periods of
scarcity.
I will confine the few remarks which I intend
making on this famine almost entirely to
what occurred in Orissa. Anyone wishing to
read a graphic account of the country, and of
this famine which devastated it, should get Dr
Hunter's I Orissa.' There are blue-books, of
course, on the subject, but these generally are not
available; and, as a rule, there is more matter
in them than the public cares to wade through.
The worship of Juggemath, whose abode is
here in Orissa, had its influence on the misery
produced by the drought; and it is scarcely
necessary to add that this influence was not
beneficial-the poor pilgrims being the principal
sufferers.
The first point that strikes one in connection
with this disaster was the almost complete state
of isolation in which Orissa was then placed.
On the land side it is completely shut in by impassable
mountains, and seawards by an inhos-
" Blue·Book on the Madras Famine.