INDIAN FAMINES - Institute for Social and Economic Change

RECENT FAMINES. 11
We, however, set the example in our own territory,
and offered precept in theirs. In Ajmere,
which is, figuratively speaking, an i~land belonging
to the British in the surrounding ocean
of native states, we spent an enormous sum
compared with the importance of the district;
but no doubt we fed and employed thousands
of wanderers from the bordering states. Our
expenses in this case are thus summarised in an
official document: "The sum-total which the
Government spent for the relief of the population
of its own territory, numbering 426,000
souls, was £152,007. This sum is equivalent
to nearly three years' gross revenue."
I now give the promised quotations regarding
the wanderings of the people in search of food,
from Colonel Brooke's reports.
«In reviewing the history of the past year
(1868), the subject which fills the mind is the
terrible famine from which the country is
suffering. The rainy season of 1868 commenced
early in June. The first falls were succeeded
by a long break, during which the grass sprouted
and withered away again. The husbandman,
however, ploughed his fields and sowed his