Famines in India - British Rule

British Rule

The late 18th and 19th centuries saw the worst famines. These famines in British India were bad enough to have a remarkable impact on the long term population growth of the country, especially in the half century between 1871-1921. The first, the Bengal famine of 1770, is estimated to have taken the lives of nearly one-third of the population of the region—about 10 million people. The impact of the famine caused East India Company revenues from Bengal to decline to £174,300 in 1770–71. The stock price of the East India Company fell sharply as a result. The company was forced to obtain a loan of £1 million from the Bank of England to fund the annual military budget of between £60,000–1 million. Attempts were later made to show that net revenue was unaffected by the famine, but this was possible only because the collection had been "violently kept up to its former standard". The 1901 Famine Commission found that twelve famines and four "severe scarcities" took place between 1765 and 1858.

Researcher Brian Murton states that the famines recorded after the arrival of the English, but before the establishment of the Indian Famine Codes of the 1880s, bear a cultural bias regarding the stated causes of the famine because they "reflect the view of a handful of Englishmen." These sources, however, contain accurate recordings of weather and crop conditions. Florence Nightingale made efforts to educate British citizens about India's famines through a series of publications in the 1870s and beyond. Evidence suggests that there may have been large famines in south India every forty years in pre-colonial India, and that the frequency might have been higher after the 12th century. These famines still did not approach the incidence of famines of the 18th and 19th centuries under British rule.