INDIAN FAMINES - Institute for Social and Economic Change

RECE ... YT FAMINES. i3
seasons of scarcity the ryot had been accustomed
to find relief in them, especially in
Malwa, which was regarded as a land of plenty,
where famines were unknown. This year, however,
the failure of the rainy season has been
more extended; and l\1alwa, given up to opium,
to the exclusion of grain crops, does not offer
the same relief as it did in former years. The
Marwar ryots, without losing heart, prepared to
meet the dreadful calamity, and to absent themselves
from their native laud till the returning
seasons should hold out more propitious prospects.
Without waiting till the grass en route
was dried up, they sta.rted for their voluntary
exile as early as the middle of August. Putting
the little grain they had left at the bottom of
their carts, and spreading their clothes over it
as a seat for their little ones and the female
members of the households, and driving their
nunrerous herds before tlieIll, they journeyed in
complete village communities, with grave and
thoughtful, but not depressed countenances."
The poor people who arrived in Malwa late
had to pass on, and were reduced to the last
extremity of distress. After exhausting their