In the period 1875-1900 indebtedness
increased
rapidly,
and with it the sale and mortgage of agricultural land.
and with it the sale and mortgage of agricultural land.
Cambridge History of India - v4 - Indian Empire
3
Modern famine policy has been treated in another chapter, but a
few facts may be added here. In 1860-1 severe famine affected an
area of 50,000 square miles containing a population of twenty millions.
It comprised the south-eastern Panjab and the west of the present
United Provinces. The policy of relief on public works, initiated in
1837-8, was retained and expanded, while poorhouses for the gra-
tuitous relief of the incapable were opened for the first time. Remis-
sions of revenue were comparatively small but considerable advances
were made. Gratuitous relief appears to have been liberal: in the
Hissar district of the Panjab, for example, its recipients were treble
the number of persons on relief works. The same tract was again
severely attacked in 1868-9 by a famine which was far more wide-
spread than the last. Distress was extreme, mortality great, and the
destruction of cattle immense, while a heavy influx of starving multi-
tudes from the feudatory states, which were without famine organisa-
tion, greatly aggravated the situation and in fact broke down the
relief system. In the United Provinces the state spent nearly Rs. 30
lakhs in addition to heavy expenditure in the Panjab. In 1896–7 the
same areas again suffered from intense famine, and the Central
Provinces were for the first time affected. But on this occasion the
1 Triennial Review, p. 128.
2 Idem, p. 170.
3 Statistical Abstract, 1917-18, p. 150.
Imp. Gaz. II, 485; Rep. of Fam. Comm. 1880, p. 12; Adm. Rep. Unil. Provs. 1911-12, p. 12;
H. of C. Papers, 1862, vol. XL.
s Gazelleer of Hisar District, 1892, p. 23.
• Imp. Gaz. 111, 487; Rep. of Fam. Comm. 1880, p. 12; Adm. Rep. Unit. Prous. 1911-12,
p. 22.
## p. 286 (#324) ############################################
286 ADMINISTRATION IN U. P. , C. P. , AND PANJAB
organisation, as testified by the subsequent Famine Commission of
1898,- was far more efficient than it had been previously, while the
agricultural population generally showed a power, hitherto unknown,
of meeting the disaster. In the Panjab Hissar was again the most dis-
tressed district, and it accounted for more than one-half of the total
number relieved in that province, at one time as many as 15 per cent.
of its total population being in receipt of relief. Rs. 167 lakhs were
spent in the United Provinces and Rs. 23 lakhs in the Panjab in addi-
tion to heavy suspensions and remissions of land-revenue. Once more
in 1899–1900 the south-eastern Panjab and the Central Provinces
were very severely attacked. Distress was more intense than in 1896-7
and cattle mortality, owing to a complete failure of fodder, enormous. 3
In the Panjab the death-rates of the affected districts rose considerably
but mortality from actual starvation was prevented. Relief operations
in that province cost Rs. 48 lakhs, most of which was incurred in the
Hissar district. The great development of irrigation and of communi-
cations which has been achieved in recent years, the elaboration of
a complete famine organisation, not only in British territory but also
in the feudatory states, and, last but not least, the growth of general
economic prosperity have gone far to vanquish one of India's direct
and most persistent scourges.
The forests of India are of the first importance, not only for their
natural products but also through their influence on climate, rainfall,
and water supply. As has been truly said they are "the headworks
of Nature's irrigation scheme in India". Under native rule unchecked
destruction and wasteful misuse did untold damage. Up to 1855
British attempts at management were sporadic and dominated by
considerations of revenue, but in that year Lord Dalhousie inaugurated
a policy of scientific conservation and regulated exploitation. An
inspector-general of forests was appointed nine years later, but it was
not until 1869 that an organised forest department with a staff of
trained officers came into existence. Indian forest lands are the
property of the state, though generally more or less burdened with
public or private customary rights of user, largely grazing, in favour
of village communities or individuals; a fcature which mainly decides
the degree of conservation which can be applied. Those classed as
reserved” are important for purposes of scientific forestry. Forests
are “protected” with a view to later reservation or in order to increase
their direct utility to the agricultural population; while in “unclassed”
forests very few, if any, restrictions are enforced. The first legal basis
for forest administration was the Indian Forest Act of 1865, which
was replaced by the existing Act VII of 1878. It prescribes, inter alia,
1 Rep. of Fam. Comm. 1898.
* Adm. Rep. Unit. Provs. 1911-12, p. 23; Adm. Rep. Panjab, 1911-12, p. 24.
; Adm. Rep. Panjab, 1911-12, p. 25;
• Imp. Gaz. m, 107sq. ; Moral and Mat. Prog. Rep. 1882–3, pp. 202 sqq. ; H. of C. Papers,
1871, vol. LII.
66
9
## p. 287 (#325) ############################################
FORESTS
287
a procedure for the adjudication and record of public and private
rights in forest lands and for their extinction in the reserves, if necessary,
by compensation or exchange; the entire operation being known as
a forest settlement. Each provincial government has a forest depart-
ment under a conservator of forests. For executive purposes there are
deputy-conservators, or district forest officers, each in charge of a
division, corresponding to a civil district, with an assistant and a
subordinate staff. The collector is not concerned with technical forest
work, but the deputy-conservator is under his control in all matters
which directly concern the people, such as grazing in forests, levy of
fees, and supply of forest produce. The collector, or a specially deputed
officer, carries out forest settlement operations, often a lengthy and
intricate business. Up to 1921 the Government of India controlled
forest administration through its inspector-general. The main objects
of the department are scientific improvement and regeneration of the
forests, and, as subsidiary measures, protection from fire and from
illicit grazing. Produce of various kinds is commercially extracted in
accordance with prescribed working plans, which regulate this as well
as other branches of forest technique. The United Provinces and the
Panjab are not of great importance as measured by the proportion of
forest to total area, which is 7 per cent. in each. In the Central
Provinces, however, the figure is 20 per cent. , the forest area consisting
of 20,000 square miles of “reserves " 1 Former large areas of unclassed
forest in the Panjab plains have been entirely colonised in recent
years. The reserves in all three provinces are chiefly in the hills.
Smuggled importation from feudatory states together with the wide
prevalence of illicit distillation of alcohol, facilitated by the abundance
of suitable material supplied by the cultivated sugar-cane and by the
wild mahua tree (Bassia latifolia), long hindered progress in excise
administration. But by 1918 much had been accomplished through
restriction of supply to supervised distilleries and by improving the
quality of the preventive establishment. ? An excise law, applying to
the North-Western Provinces, was passed in 1856, which provided
for central distilleries. But in view of their previous failure, it was not
until 1863 that they generally displaced the system of farms and out-
stills in the North-Western Provinces, though in Oudh they had been
introduced in 1861. A duty was levied on all spirituous liquor pro-
duced, and the right of vend at specified shops was leased separately.
By 1870 it became clear that the change had been too extensive, and
in 1873 illicit traffic was found to be very prevalent. Again there was
a reversion to farms and out-stills in many districts. Matters remained
thus in the United and the Central Provinces until the early years of
this century, farms and out-stills prevailing in one-third and nearly
1 Statistical Abstract, 1917-18, p. 157.
• Imp. Gaz. II, 235; Parl. Papers, LXII, 609 sqq. ; Moral and Mal. Prog. Rep. , 1882-3, pp.
170-1; Papers relating to Excise administration in India, Government of India Gazette,
i March, 1890.
## p. 288 (#326) ############################################
288 ADMINISTRATION IN U. P. , C. P. , AND PANJAB
three-fourths of their respective areas. Throughout the Panjab, where
previously there had been no excise restrictions, the farming system
was in force for some years after annexation, but in 1863 it was en-
tirely replaced by central distilleries, with separate licences for sale at
specified shops. Under this system, which continued for nearly forty
years, taxation was substantially increased, so that by 1890 illicit
traffic was more rife than in the rest of India. In the early years of
this century central distilleries gave place throughout the province to
a few private distilleries of modern type located at selected places.
Under direct official supervision and in mutual competition, they
supplied spirituous liquor, after payment of duty, and at prices liable
to government control, to local vendors, who were separately licensed
for specified shops. The system was known as the “free supply"
system. Only in two small areas, peculiarly situated, were out-stills
allowed.
With the passing of an Excise Act in 1896 matters had developed
thus far when in 1905 the government referred the whole question of
excise administration in India to a committee for review and for
advice. In doing so it declared definitely that, while refusing to inter-
fere with the moderate use of alcohol, its settled policy was to minimise
temptation for the abstainer and to discourage excess among others;
and that no considerations of revenue could be allowed to hamper
this policy. It held that the most effective means of pursuing this
was as high a taxation of liquor as was possible without stimulating
illicit production and resort to harmful substitutes. While recognising
that uniformity of method was impossible, it regarded the continuance
of extensive farm and out-still areas, of crude distillery systems, and
of low rates of taxation as defects to be remedied as soon as possible.
After a lengthy enquiry the committee in 1906 submitted with its
report detailed recommendations for the future course of excise ad-
ministration, most of which, with some modifications, are now in
force. 2 In each of the three provinces spirituous liquor is made in
private licensed distilleries under official supervision. After payment
of duty it is supplied to local licensed vendors under officially con-
trolled arrangements and at regulated prices. Out-still areas have
been reduced to a minimum in the United and the Central Provinces,
and entirely abolished in the Panjab. Separate licences, containing
many desirable prohibitions and restrictions, for the retail vend of
liquor at specified shops are issued on fees which are generally deter-
mined by auction. The duty is enhanced from time to time with the
object of increasing the proportion borne by its yield to that of vend
fees; but the risk of stimulating illicit distillation hampers the process.
On all foreign liquor, spirituous or fermented, import duty is levied,
* Report of the Excise Committee, 1905-6, and Government of India Resolutions
thereon, in Parl. Papers, 1907, LVIII, 645 599.
• Provincial Excise Administration Reports for 1907-8 and subsequent years.
## p. 289 (#327) ############################################
AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT
289
2
and sale is controlled by licences; while the production of beer, mainly
for European consumption, is also subject to excise regulations. The
general Excise Act has been replaced by separate provincial enact-
ments.
Opium was extensively grown in the Panjab before its annexation,
but its cultivation, manufacture and sale were soon brought under
control. 1 The first was gradually restricted and is now prohibited
except in a few small hill tracts, very little opium being at present
locally produced. For public consumption opium manufactured by
government agency is issued at a monopoly price to vendors licensed,
on fees usually determined by auction, to sell at specified shops. In
the United and the Central Provinces the supply is confined to such
government opium.
In 1893 a commission investigated the production, sale and con-
sumption of drugs made from the hemp plant (Cannabis sativa). ? It
did not recommend prohibition, but control and restriction. The
control is enforced by a system of licences for sale similar to liquor
licences. Cultivation has been greatly restricted, most of the supply
being imported from Central Asia.
Local excise administration is one of the more important duties of
the collector. The work has grown greatly in volume and complexity
in the present century; the total net revenue of the three provinces
in 1917–18 being 2. 2 millions sterling.
Important developments connected with agriculture, with rural
indebtedness, and with the closely allied subject of co-operation have
taken place within recent years. As has been already stated the
provincial departments of land records and agriculture, instituted in
1880, had little concern with technical agriculture. In 1901, as a first
step towards its more scientific organisation, the Indian Government
appointed an inspector-general of agriculture with a small staff of
experts. During the next few years the subject of agriculture was
separated from land records and provincial departments in:stituted,
each under a director with a small staff, subsequently increased by
the addition of trained officers. The fundamental object of these
departments is the development, by experiment and research, of
improved agricultural methods and implements, of better qualities
of seed, and of effective means of coping with crop diseases and insect
pests. With the growth of the departments many experimental stations
and demonstration farms had been established by 1915 and were
doing satisfactory work. Several cultural and manurial problems
had been dealt with, greatly improved varieties of seed for important
crops had been produced, and the introduction of better implements
had begun. For the provision of sound agricultural training on
Imp. Gaz. IV, 245; Report of Opium Commission, 1893, H. of C. Papers, 1895, vol. xlu.
* Report of Indian Heinp Drugs Commission, 1893, and Government of India Resolu-
tion thereon of 21 March, 1895.
• Annual Reports of Provincial Agricultural Departments.
GHIVI
19
1
## p. 290 (#328) ############################################
290 ADMINISTRATION IN U. P. , C. P. , AND PANJAB
scientific lines, an essential feature of the entire scheme, provincial
agricultural colleges, with research institutes attached, have been
estaulished; while a central college at Pusa in Bihar provides more
advanced instruction. The three provinces have taken their full share
in the progress, their colleges being located at Cawnpore, Nagpur,
and Lyallpur respectively. The last, situated in the Chenab colony,
is now a leading centre of research, experiment and instruction.
Though the modern movement was started not in response to popular
demand, but on the initiative of the government, the agricultural
department has succeeded to a surprising degree in securing the con-
fidence of the rural classes. The collector, though having no control of
its technical operations in his district, is closely concerned with it on
its administrative side and with its general results.
Debt is an inevitable adjunct of peasant agriculture, but under an
unhealthy system of credit, where numerous illiterate and often
thriftless rural borrowers are in the toils of literate and astute money-
lenders, it is apt to become both a fruitful economic evil and a political
danger. The grant of freely transferable proprietary rights to the
peasantry of the Panjab and of the United Provinces, combined with
a novel moderation in the fiscal demands of the state, put at its dis-
posal a volume of credit which grew with the value of land and of its
produce.
In the period 1875-1900 indebtedness increased rapidly,
and with it the sale and mortgage of agricultural land. In the Panjab
the evil had attained alarming proportions by the latter year. After
very prolonged investigation and discussion a remedy was sought in
legislation. The Panjab Alienation of Land Act of 1900, while not
affecting transfers of land between members of the agricultural tribes
of the province, narrowly restricts such transfers where the transferees
are members of other classes, which include most of the professional
money-lenders. The undue restriction of credit, the general fall in
land values, the widespread evasion which some anticipated as
necessary results of the measure, have not occurred. Credit is being
placed on a more healthy basis by the co-operative movement noticed
below; the rise of land values, though not necessarily beneficial to the
rural population, has continued steadily, while the peasant himself
now regards the act as an indispensable factor of his economic
security. Its proper administration is one of the important duties of
the deputy-commissioner. Similar legislation has not been found to be
necessary in the United Provinces except in Bundelkhand, where it
was introduced in 1903. 2
It is, however, rural co-operation combined with improved agri-
cultural practice, which is proving itself to be the most effective means
of raising the economic condition of the peasantry. The subject is one
which deserves a much closer study than is possible here. After a
Adm. Rep. Panjab, 1911-12, p. 49, and other extensive literature.
; Adm. Rep. Unit. Provs. 1911-12, p. 20.
## p. 291 (#329) ############################################
CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES
291
preliminary period of investigation, with practical experiments in
various parts of India, a Co-operative Credit Societies Act was passed
in 1904, which provided legal facilities for the formation and working
of such societies. In the light of subsequent experience it was replaced
by the Co-operative Societies Act of 1912, an improved measure of
wider scope, which, in addition to credit societies, provided for societies
co-operative in the purchase of seed and implements, the marketing
of produce, and in other activities. A rural credit society is broadly
of the German Raiffeisen type, though with certain differences. Its
membership is confined to a small specified area, and its function is
to lend among its members for approved objects connected with
agriculture, including reasonable domestic consumption, funds raised
on their joint and several unlimited liability. A small entrance fee is
charged, and in the Panjab and the United Provinces, but not in the
Central Provinces, each member contributes in addition a small
amount of share capital. Deposits are received from both members
and non-members, and further capital is borrowed from other societies
or from central banks, which form an integral part of the system and
are in touch with the external money market. A committee of mem-
bers constitutes the managing body, and as no paid staff is employed,
working expenses are at a minimum; but borrowers are charged a
rate of interest, which, though much less than that usually taken by
money-lenders from single borrowers, allows of the accumulation of
a reserve fund. The whole of the above resources are employed as
working capital; and an immense alleviation of rural indebtedness is
being gradually effected, while the moral education in self-help,
thrift, self-respect, and social solidarity which is being silently im-
parted can scarcely be overestimated. Many societies for co-operative
objects other than credit have been started. In each province the
local government appoints a registrar with one or two assistants, who,
with a trained staff, superintend and advise the societies in addition
to performing statutory functions under the act. The figures for
agricultural societies in 1918-19-United Provinces, 3177; Central
Provinces, 3871; Panjab, 5087—show the extent to which the move-
ment has spread. It is one of the most effective economic and educative
influences which have been introduced into India.
The modern development of local self-government is described in
another chapter. Beginning in 1873 with Lord Mayo's measures for
the decentralisation of finance,? it was placed by Lord Ripon in
1881–2 on a broader basis, with a largely increased elective element
and with a limited degree of freedom from official control. In actual
practice, however, most local bodies were dominated by the influence
of the district officer, and, in financial matters especially, by the
2
1 Annual Provincial Reports.
· Imp. Gaz. iv, 287 sqq. ; Parl. Papers, 1883, LI, I 599. ; Moral and Mat. Prog. Rep. 1882-3,
pp. 59-63.
19-2
## p. 292 (#330) ############################################
292 ADMINISTRATION IN U. P. , C. P. , AND PANJAB
a
increasingly centralised control of the provincial government and its
departments; both being exercised in the interests of administrative
efficiency, which otherwise, there can be little doubt, would have
seriously deteriorated, there being then no public opinion competent
to compel local bodies to discharge their responsibilities. The district
officer was not merely the controlling guide of local bodies, but their
main active element; their affairs forming a considerable part of his
daily work; a position which continued until the Indian Decentralisa-
tion Commission issued its report in 1909. It found that progress in
local self-government had been hindered because local bodies, and
more especially rural boards, had no real power and responsibility
owing to want of funds and to excessive control. It made many drastic
proposals for removing the trammels, the more important of which,
after reference to provincial governments, the Indian Government
accepted in 19151 with certain reservations and modifications. As a
general result central departmental control was much relaxed and in
some respects abrogated; local bodies have been placed in a freer and
stronger financial position; while in municipalities official chairmen
have for the most part disappeared. What the ultimate practical
outcome will be in terms of public health and convenience remains
to be seen. In the year 1917–18 there were in the United Provinces,
the Central Provinces and in the Panjab, 83, 57 and 100 munici-
palities respectively, which contained in the case of the first two 6) per
cent. , and in the case of the third 8 per cent. of the whole provincial
population.
The important subject of education has been treated elsewhere. Its
administration being for the most part in the hands of the provincial
education departments, its connection with district administration
has been mainly through the local bodies, who have helped to finance
primary, and to some extent also secondary education, without,
however, exercising much actual control over either. The function of
the district officer has been to co-operate, advise and encourage on
a basis of general interest, supervision and local knowledge.
The main lines which the development of district administration
has followed have now been sketched. Throughout the process the
district officer-collector or deput -commissioner on the whole re-
tained the position of principal local official of the government, in
direct control, so far as his district was concerned, of its chief activities,
and in direct touch with all others conducted by more purely depart-
mental officials not wholly subordinate to him. The extremely multi-
farious nature of his work has been indicated. His primary duties are
the collection of revenue from the land and from other sources, and
the exercise of judicial powers, criminal and revenue, both of first
instance and in appeal. But police, jails, municipalities, rural boards.
i Government of India Resolutions 55-77, 28 April, 1915.
• Statistical Abstract for 1917-18, p. 98.
## p. 293 (#331) ############################################
THE DISTRICT OFFICER
293
education, roads, sanitation, dispensaries, local taxation, agricultural
statistics, records of rights and irrigation are matters with which he
is more or less daily concerned, directly or indirectly. He is also
responsible for the maintenance and submission of correct accounts of
extensive local receipts and expenditure, and for the safe custody of
large amounts of public money. He must, moreover, be familiar with
the social life of the people and with the natural aspects of his district.
But the district officer who should seek to undertake personally the
daily minutiae of all these subjects would be unwise, not to say in-
competent. With a comparatively few of them to do so is inevitable,
but the main, the most important work is continuous supervision and
control of subordinates, combined with a broad view and a strong but
kindly grasp of the changing aspects and the half-expressed needs of
the mass of human beings committed to their care. Centralised
control has doubtless increased; but the common complaint that it
has harmfully restricted the initiative of the district officer is in the
main an exaggeration. It has certainly increased his otherwise mani-
fold preoccupations, and where he has not been provided with ade-
quate staff the result has been harmful. But he has been able to
succeed just in so far as he has appreciated the need for, and has
skilfully arranged, wherever possible, a devolution of actual work to
properly qualified subordinates.
## p. 294 (#332) ############################################
CHAPTER XVII
THE DEVELOPMENT OF FAMINE POLICY
Three
HREE hundred years ago the Dutchman, Francisco Pelsaert,
travelling in Upper India, described in vivid language the relations
between agriculture and the seasons:
The year is here divided into three seasons. In April, May and June the heat is
intolerable, and men can scarcely breathe, more than that, hot winds blow con-
tinuously, as stifling as if they came straight from the furnace of hell. The air is
filled with the dust raised by violent whirlwinds from the sandy soil, making day
like the darkest night that human eyes have seen or that can be grasped by the
imagination. Thus in the afternoon of 15 June, 1624, I watched a hurricane of dust
coming up gradually, which so hid the sky and the sun that for two hours people
could not tell if the world was at an end, for the darkness and fury of the wind
could not have been exceeded. Then the storm disappeared gradually, as it had
come, and the sun shone again. The months of June, July, August, September and
October are reckoned as the rainy season, during which it sometimes rains steadily.
The days are still very hot, but the rain brings a pleasant and refreshing coolness.
In November, December, January, February and March it is tolerably cool, and
the climate is pleasant.
From April to June the fields lie hard and dry, unfit for ploughing or sowing
owing to the heat. When the ground has been moistened by a few days' rain, the
cultivators begin to sow indigo, rice and various food grains eaten by the poor.
When all these are off the land, they plough and sow again, for there are two harvests;
that is to say in December and January they sow wheat and barley, various pulses
and "alsi" (linseed) from which oil is extracted. Large numbers of wells have to
be dug in order to irrigate the soil, for at that time it is beginning to lose its productive
power. Provided the rain is seasonable and the cold is not excessive, there is a
year of plenty, not merely of food, but in the trade of all sorts of commodities. I
But if the rain is not seasonable, if the monsoon fails over large
tracts which cannot be sufficiently irrigated from ponds, rivers, wells
or canals, the crops which are the mainstay of the countryside must
be sown in a much restricted area and will often be poor even there;
the grass which has been burnt up by the blazing sun and burning
winds of March, April and May cannot revive, and both the milch-
cows and the plough and transport cattle, which are the cultivator's
working capital, are decimated. The water level falls; and the supply
is tainted with noxious germs. The peasantry see their means of live-
lihood vanish. If no remedy be forthcoming they must starve.
Destitution will bring cholera and pestilence in its train; and thousands
of humble lives will be sacrificed. Such is famine in that grim shape
which it has often worn. But nature sometimes relents; and man has
done much to combat this king of terrors.
The drought which follows a feeble monsoon may be mitigated by
light winter rains; and in any case there are marked differences of
· Pelsaert, Jerangir's India, pp. 47–8. For an account of the climate and rainfall see
vol. 1, chap. i of this History.
a
## p. 295 (#333) ############################################
MEANS OF IRRIGATION
295
climate and inequalities of rainfall. The populations have accustomed
themselves to this circumstance both in their density and in their
selection of crops. There are wet provinces and dry provinces, wet
areas and dry areas, sometimes within the same district; there are wet
crops and dry crops. If communications are adequate there are
flourishing tracts to come to the rescue of those less favoured. Rain
never fails throughout the whole country, even though the monsoon
sometimes disappoints not only regions inured to some degree of
drought but those which are usually blessed with abundant rainfall.
When the south-west monsoon is over the young winter crops, and
in parts the later rice, need artificial irrigation; and if the rainfall has
been deficient, the irrigation must be strenuous and constant. Rivers,
wells, "tanks” (artificial ponds) are all requisitioned. But in a dry
year, the supply from these sources shrinks, and canals, where they
exist, are the greatest stand-by of all. Large-scale systems of canals,
drawing supplies from rivers or artificial reservoirs, began with the
consolidation of British rule; but the West Jumna Canal, in a dilapi-
dated condition, was inherited from Moghul times; and the Kaveri
delta canal system in Madras comes down from remote antiquity.
In the year 1919-20 the total area irrigated by canals in British India
exceeded 27,000,000 acres. The total length of canals and distributaries
was 66,754 miles. The estimated value of the crops watered by govern-
ment irrigation works amounted to £156,000,000, double the capital
expenditure which these works had entailed.
The storage of water and the regulation of its outflow are matters of
supreme importance to Indian agriculture. Wells, tanks and canals
play their part. But the wide extension of irrigation which marked
the years 1858–1918 could not have been achieved without the skilled
and devoted co-operation nf the Indian forest service. To quote the
words of one of its most distinguished members:
It is by the agency of the forests that the surface-flow from the hills is restrained
after heavy rain; that the water level is maintained at such a height that it can be
reached by the primitive methods of the East; that the springs are kept supplied;
and that perennial springs may be made to flow in the place of those water-courses
trịckling through dreary beds of sand, that would hardly be suspected of becoming
later on in the summer turbulent and muddy torrents, often carrying devastation
instead of blessing. "
We need only summarise the history of famines before 1858. In
ancient times scarcity owing to floods or drought was not infrequent
and sometimes extended to a whole kingdom. 3 But scarcities caused
by floods have always affected comparatively small areas, and inunda-
tions have left a fertilising silt. The great famines have been caused
by drought. In his elaborate studies of economic life under the
1 Moreland, India at the Death of Akbar, p. 108; Knowles, Economic Development of the
Overseas Empire, np. 366-82; Moreland, From Akbar to Aurangzeb, pp. 195-6.
• Eardley-Wilmot, Forest Life and Sport in India, p. 5.
3 Cf. vol. 1, chap. viii, supra.
>
## p. 296 (#334) ############################################
296 THE DEVELOPMENT OF FAMINE POLICY
Moghul emperors Mr Moreland has shown us that the famines then
were marked, not only by widespread mortality and desolation, but
by suicide, voluntary enslavement and cannibalism. 1 Before the “pax
Britannica” was definitely established the miseries of such times were
often aggravated by the ravages of armies. In 1802 the army of the
Maratha chief, Jasvant Rao Holkar, marching to Poona from the
north, laid waste the countryside. The Pindaris followed in its wake
and reduced the Deccan to such depths of misery and want that
human beings are said to have been devoured by the peasants.
Emigrants passed into the Konkan leaving a trail of dead and dying
behind them. The late rains failed; the river at Poona was black with
putrescent corpses; and “hunger, hand in hand with cholera, left
many villages permanently desolate”. 2 But, in any case, as long as
districts were land-locked and populations were isolated, famine
relief was largely regarded as hopeless. Almsgiving, storage of food
grains in central towns, remissions of revenue, digging of wells, were
palliatives occasionally resorted to. But no attempt was made to stem
the full tide of starvation and ruin. Even when the government of the
East India Company, recently established at Calcutta, was in 1769–70
first brought face to face with responsibility for some measure of
relief, its dispatches,
while breathing a tone of sincere compassion for the sufferings of the people, were
busied rather with the fiscal results as affecting the responsibility of the Company
towards its shareholders, than with schemes which would have seemed wholly
visionary for counteracting the inevitable loss of life. 3
There is no reason to dispute the finding of the 1880 Famine Com-
mission that up to the end of the eighteenth century “the position of
the British in India was not such as either to create any sense of
general obligation to give relief, or to supply sufficient means of
affording it". While the administration was endeavouring to find its
feet, while wars frequently carried devastation into large tracts of
country, while the effects of climatic disturbances on food crops were
largely a matter of conjecture, while agricultural, economic and vital
statistics were unknown, while it was difficult to transmit information
speedily, while the absence of communications rendered the timely
transmission of grain for long distances or in large quantities a very
arduous or an impossible undertaking, while hal, tarved bullocks or
heavy barges were the sole means of transport, famine was regarded
as a calamity wholly transcending the powers of man to counteract
or even materially to mitigate. 4 The years 1765–1858 were marked
by famines or scarcities in various parts of the country which were
dealt with by such measures as seemed best to the local governments
1 Moreland, India at the Death of Akbar, chap. vii; From Akbar to Aurangzeb, chap. vii.
2 Grant Duff, History of the Marathas (ed. Edwardes), II, 368.
3 Report of the Famine Commission, 1880; cf. Hickey, Memoirs, 111, 343-4.
• Cf. Kaye, British India, pp. 275-6, and Maconochie, Life in Indian Civil Service, pp. 9-10.
## p. 297 (#335) ############################################
EARLIER FAMINES
297
or district officers concerned. No attempt was made to formulate any
general system of famine relief or prevention, although such experi-
ments as storage of grain by the government, penalties on hoarding,
bounies on import, poorhouses, advances of money to encourage the
sinking of wells, and relief works to afford employment, were under-
taken at one time or another. The only business which can afford
employment to Indian cultivators when tillage fails is earth-work,
the excavation of reservoirs, the construction of irrigation embank-
ments and the making of roads. But earth-works were never opened
on an adequate scale. When in 1837 famine visited the upper reaches
of the Ganges and the Jumna, the local government laid down the
principle that while the state found work for the able-bodied, the
whole community must, as in ordinary times, look after the helpless
and infirm. The measures adopted were quite insufficient. Heavy
mortality resulted; and violent riots broke out. Twenty years later
came the Mutiny, which was followed by the complete transfer of
government to the crown.
The period with which we are now concerned was marked by a
wide extension of railways1 and other communications, by a rapid
growth of trade and overseas commerce, by a great expansion of
means of irrigation, by the development of an elaborate system of
public instruction, by agrarian legislation mainly in the interest of the
cultivators, by a gradual change in economic factors which, in spite
of a great increase of population, very gradually modified the character
of famines.
The seasons of 1858-9 were irregular; and in 1860 the monsoon
practically failed over 48,000 square miles of the North-West Pro-
vinces around Agre. Alwar and other Indian states were affected;
and about half a million persons deserted the distressed tracts.
The provinces were still suffering from the effects of the Mutiny;
but their south-east districts and neighbour provinces had received
plenty of rain and were able to supply abundance of food grains.
Within the distressed area canals protected about 900,000 more acres
than they had protected in 1837; around it communications had
improved, and the East Indian Railway had progressed far enough
to render useful service. Free-trade principles were followed; and, as
in 1837, it was declared that the state would provide employment for
the able-bodied while voluntary agency should give charitable relief
to the helpless and infirm. In fact, however, voluntary agency did
very little; and the government found it necessary to undertake almost
the whole burden of relief. Able-bodied persons were organised in
gangs, housed in temporary sheds and employed upon earth-works
for roads or canals. Some helpless persons were relieved in their
homes and others in poorhouses where light tasks were imposed upon
the more capable inmates. The famine was on a small scale, but is
1 For the early history of railways in India see Quarterly Review, 1868, (xxv, 48–78.
## p. 298 (#336) ############################################
298 THE DEVELOPMENT OF FAMINE POLICY
remarkable for the fact that then for the first time a special enquiry
was held into the causes, area and intensity of such a calamity. While
it was proceeding Colonel Baird Smith was deputed to examine these
matters; but his report did not lead to any formulation of general
principles of relief.
We come now to the famine of 1866–7, which is known as the
Orissa famine because in Orissa it assumed its most terrible form; but
it extended along the whole east coast from Calcutta to Madras and
penetrated inland. This calamity proved a turning point in the history
of Indian famines for it was followed by the investigations and report
of a committee (presided over by Sir George Campbell") which laid
the foundations of a definite policy.
The causes of the famine were the failure of the autumn rains, and
consequently of the rice crops, of 1865, together with the almost com-
plete absence of importation into Orissa of food from outside. The
main stress of privation fell on the three British districts which form
a comparatively narrow strip between the uplands and the sea and
are intersected by rivers which swell enormously in the rainy season.
There is a large pilgrim traffic by land to Jagannath in the dry season;
but commercial communications were then principally by sea from
several small ports open the greater part of the year but inaccessible
from the heavy surf and the prevalent winds after the breaking of the
south-west monsoon. The country is almost entirely a rice or water
country; but the supply of rain is generally ample, and there had been
no previous famines since Orissa became British territory. In 1865,
however, the monsoon ceased prematurely along the east coast, and
two-thirds of the rice crop were lost. Food stocks were low, as export
had been brisk of late years, but prices remained moderate for some
time. The warnings of certain local officers were disregarded, and
'famine arrived like a thief in the night.
"In April 1866", says Campbell, “the magistrate of Cuttack still reported that
there was no ground for serious apprehension. A few days later in May, he and his
followers were almost starved. We compared it to the case of a ship where the stores
are suddenly found to have run out. '
A panic had set in and stores were withheld from the market. Every
Indian cultivator aims at growing and keeping his own food supply.
The market supply is what he sells to pay his rent and meet his cash
needs, but in times of scarcity even grain which can be spared is held
up. Dealers also incline to wait for higher prices. If, however, im-
portation from other districts is easily practicable, even a great failure
of crops will not lead to a widespread hold-up of stocks.
Modern famine policy has been treated in another chapter, but a
few facts may be added here. In 1860-1 severe famine affected an
area of 50,000 square miles containing a population of twenty millions.
It comprised the south-eastern Panjab and the west of the present
United Provinces. The policy of relief on public works, initiated in
1837-8, was retained and expanded, while poorhouses for the gra-
tuitous relief of the incapable were opened for the first time. Remis-
sions of revenue were comparatively small but considerable advances
were made. Gratuitous relief appears to have been liberal: in the
Hissar district of the Panjab, for example, its recipients were treble
the number of persons on relief works. The same tract was again
severely attacked in 1868-9 by a famine which was far more wide-
spread than the last. Distress was extreme, mortality great, and the
destruction of cattle immense, while a heavy influx of starving multi-
tudes from the feudatory states, which were without famine organisa-
tion, greatly aggravated the situation and in fact broke down the
relief system. In the United Provinces the state spent nearly Rs. 30
lakhs in addition to heavy expenditure in the Panjab. In 1896–7 the
same areas again suffered from intense famine, and the Central
Provinces were for the first time affected. But on this occasion the
1 Triennial Review, p. 128.
2 Idem, p. 170.
3 Statistical Abstract, 1917-18, p. 150.
Imp. Gaz. II, 485; Rep. of Fam. Comm. 1880, p. 12; Adm. Rep. Unil. Provs. 1911-12, p. 12;
H. of C. Papers, 1862, vol. XL.
s Gazelleer of Hisar District, 1892, p. 23.
• Imp. Gaz. 111, 487; Rep. of Fam. Comm. 1880, p. 12; Adm. Rep. Unit. Prous. 1911-12,
p. 22.
## p. 286 (#324) ############################################
286 ADMINISTRATION IN U. P. , C. P. , AND PANJAB
organisation, as testified by the subsequent Famine Commission of
1898,- was far more efficient than it had been previously, while the
agricultural population generally showed a power, hitherto unknown,
of meeting the disaster. In the Panjab Hissar was again the most dis-
tressed district, and it accounted for more than one-half of the total
number relieved in that province, at one time as many as 15 per cent.
of its total population being in receipt of relief. Rs. 167 lakhs were
spent in the United Provinces and Rs. 23 lakhs in the Panjab in addi-
tion to heavy suspensions and remissions of land-revenue. Once more
in 1899–1900 the south-eastern Panjab and the Central Provinces
were very severely attacked. Distress was more intense than in 1896-7
and cattle mortality, owing to a complete failure of fodder, enormous. 3
In the Panjab the death-rates of the affected districts rose considerably
but mortality from actual starvation was prevented. Relief operations
in that province cost Rs. 48 lakhs, most of which was incurred in the
Hissar district. The great development of irrigation and of communi-
cations which has been achieved in recent years, the elaboration of
a complete famine organisation, not only in British territory but also
in the feudatory states, and, last but not least, the growth of general
economic prosperity have gone far to vanquish one of India's direct
and most persistent scourges.
The forests of India are of the first importance, not only for their
natural products but also through their influence on climate, rainfall,
and water supply. As has been truly said they are "the headworks
of Nature's irrigation scheme in India". Under native rule unchecked
destruction and wasteful misuse did untold damage. Up to 1855
British attempts at management were sporadic and dominated by
considerations of revenue, but in that year Lord Dalhousie inaugurated
a policy of scientific conservation and regulated exploitation. An
inspector-general of forests was appointed nine years later, but it was
not until 1869 that an organised forest department with a staff of
trained officers came into existence. Indian forest lands are the
property of the state, though generally more or less burdened with
public or private customary rights of user, largely grazing, in favour
of village communities or individuals; a fcature which mainly decides
the degree of conservation which can be applied. Those classed as
reserved” are important for purposes of scientific forestry. Forests
are “protected” with a view to later reservation or in order to increase
their direct utility to the agricultural population; while in “unclassed”
forests very few, if any, restrictions are enforced. The first legal basis
for forest administration was the Indian Forest Act of 1865, which
was replaced by the existing Act VII of 1878. It prescribes, inter alia,
1 Rep. of Fam. Comm. 1898.
* Adm. Rep. Unit. Provs. 1911-12, p. 23; Adm. Rep. Panjab, 1911-12, p. 24.
; Adm. Rep. Panjab, 1911-12, p. 25;
• Imp. Gaz. m, 107sq. ; Moral and Mat. Prog. Rep. 1882–3, pp. 202 sqq. ; H. of C. Papers,
1871, vol. LII.
66
9
## p. 287 (#325) ############################################
FORESTS
287
a procedure for the adjudication and record of public and private
rights in forest lands and for their extinction in the reserves, if necessary,
by compensation or exchange; the entire operation being known as
a forest settlement. Each provincial government has a forest depart-
ment under a conservator of forests. For executive purposes there are
deputy-conservators, or district forest officers, each in charge of a
division, corresponding to a civil district, with an assistant and a
subordinate staff. The collector is not concerned with technical forest
work, but the deputy-conservator is under his control in all matters
which directly concern the people, such as grazing in forests, levy of
fees, and supply of forest produce. The collector, or a specially deputed
officer, carries out forest settlement operations, often a lengthy and
intricate business. Up to 1921 the Government of India controlled
forest administration through its inspector-general. The main objects
of the department are scientific improvement and regeneration of the
forests, and, as subsidiary measures, protection from fire and from
illicit grazing. Produce of various kinds is commercially extracted in
accordance with prescribed working plans, which regulate this as well
as other branches of forest technique. The United Provinces and the
Panjab are not of great importance as measured by the proportion of
forest to total area, which is 7 per cent. in each. In the Central
Provinces, however, the figure is 20 per cent. , the forest area consisting
of 20,000 square miles of “reserves " 1 Former large areas of unclassed
forest in the Panjab plains have been entirely colonised in recent
years. The reserves in all three provinces are chiefly in the hills.
Smuggled importation from feudatory states together with the wide
prevalence of illicit distillation of alcohol, facilitated by the abundance
of suitable material supplied by the cultivated sugar-cane and by the
wild mahua tree (Bassia latifolia), long hindered progress in excise
administration. But by 1918 much had been accomplished through
restriction of supply to supervised distilleries and by improving the
quality of the preventive establishment. ? An excise law, applying to
the North-Western Provinces, was passed in 1856, which provided
for central distilleries. But in view of their previous failure, it was not
until 1863 that they generally displaced the system of farms and out-
stills in the North-Western Provinces, though in Oudh they had been
introduced in 1861. A duty was levied on all spirituous liquor pro-
duced, and the right of vend at specified shops was leased separately.
By 1870 it became clear that the change had been too extensive, and
in 1873 illicit traffic was found to be very prevalent. Again there was
a reversion to farms and out-stills in many districts. Matters remained
thus in the United and the Central Provinces until the early years of
this century, farms and out-stills prevailing in one-third and nearly
1 Statistical Abstract, 1917-18, p. 157.
• Imp. Gaz. II, 235; Parl. Papers, LXII, 609 sqq. ; Moral and Mal. Prog. Rep. , 1882-3, pp.
170-1; Papers relating to Excise administration in India, Government of India Gazette,
i March, 1890.
## p. 288 (#326) ############################################
288 ADMINISTRATION IN U. P. , C. P. , AND PANJAB
three-fourths of their respective areas. Throughout the Panjab, where
previously there had been no excise restrictions, the farming system
was in force for some years after annexation, but in 1863 it was en-
tirely replaced by central distilleries, with separate licences for sale at
specified shops. Under this system, which continued for nearly forty
years, taxation was substantially increased, so that by 1890 illicit
traffic was more rife than in the rest of India. In the early years of
this century central distilleries gave place throughout the province to
a few private distilleries of modern type located at selected places.
Under direct official supervision and in mutual competition, they
supplied spirituous liquor, after payment of duty, and at prices liable
to government control, to local vendors, who were separately licensed
for specified shops. The system was known as the “free supply"
system. Only in two small areas, peculiarly situated, were out-stills
allowed.
With the passing of an Excise Act in 1896 matters had developed
thus far when in 1905 the government referred the whole question of
excise administration in India to a committee for review and for
advice. In doing so it declared definitely that, while refusing to inter-
fere with the moderate use of alcohol, its settled policy was to minimise
temptation for the abstainer and to discourage excess among others;
and that no considerations of revenue could be allowed to hamper
this policy. It held that the most effective means of pursuing this
was as high a taxation of liquor as was possible without stimulating
illicit production and resort to harmful substitutes. While recognising
that uniformity of method was impossible, it regarded the continuance
of extensive farm and out-still areas, of crude distillery systems, and
of low rates of taxation as defects to be remedied as soon as possible.
After a lengthy enquiry the committee in 1906 submitted with its
report detailed recommendations for the future course of excise ad-
ministration, most of which, with some modifications, are now in
force. 2 In each of the three provinces spirituous liquor is made in
private licensed distilleries under official supervision. After payment
of duty it is supplied to local licensed vendors under officially con-
trolled arrangements and at regulated prices. Out-still areas have
been reduced to a minimum in the United and the Central Provinces,
and entirely abolished in the Panjab. Separate licences, containing
many desirable prohibitions and restrictions, for the retail vend of
liquor at specified shops are issued on fees which are generally deter-
mined by auction. The duty is enhanced from time to time with the
object of increasing the proportion borne by its yield to that of vend
fees; but the risk of stimulating illicit distillation hampers the process.
On all foreign liquor, spirituous or fermented, import duty is levied,
* Report of the Excise Committee, 1905-6, and Government of India Resolutions
thereon, in Parl. Papers, 1907, LVIII, 645 599.
• Provincial Excise Administration Reports for 1907-8 and subsequent years.
## p. 289 (#327) ############################################
AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT
289
2
and sale is controlled by licences; while the production of beer, mainly
for European consumption, is also subject to excise regulations. The
general Excise Act has been replaced by separate provincial enact-
ments.
Opium was extensively grown in the Panjab before its annexation,
but its cultivation, manufacture and sale were soon brought under
control. 1 The first was gradually restricted and is now prohibited
except in a few small hill tracts, very little opium being at present
locally produced. For public consumption opium manufactured by
government agency is issued at a monopoly price to vendors licensed,
on fees usually determined by auction, to sell at specified shops. In
the United and the Central Provinces the supply is confined to such
government opium.
In 1893 a commission investigated the production, sale and con-
sumption of drugs made from the hemp plant (Cannabis sativa). ? It
did not recommend prohibition, but control and restriction. The
control is enforced by a system of licences for sale similar to liquor
licences. Cultivation has been greatly restricted, most of the supply
being imported from Central Asia.
Local excise administration is one of the more important duties of
the collector. The work has grown greatly in volume and complexity
in the present century; the total net revenue of the three provinces
in 1917–18 being 2. 2 millions sterling.
Important developments connected with agriculture, with rural
indebtedness, and with the closely allied subject of co-operation have
taken place within recent years. As has been already stated the
provincial departments of land records and agriculture, instituted in
1880, had little concern with technical agriculture. In 1901, as a first
step towards its more scientific organisation, the Indian Government
appointed an inspector-general of agriculture with a small staff of
experts. During the next few years the subject of agriculture was
separated from land records and provincial departments in:stituted,
each under a director with a small staff, subsequently increased by
the addition of trained officers. The fundamental object of these
departments is the development, by experiment and research, of
improved agricultural methods and implements, of better qualities
of seed, and of effective means of coping with crop diseases and insect
pests. With the growth of the departments many experimental stations
and demonstration farms had been established by 1915 and were
doing satisfactory work. Several cultural and manurial problems
had been dealt with, greatly improved varieties of seed for important
crops had been produced, and the introduction of better implements
had begun. For the provision of sound agricultural training on
Imp. Gaz. IV, 245; Report of Opium Commission, 1893, H. of C. Papers, 1895, vol. xlu.
* Report of Indian Heinp Drugs Commission, 1893, and Government of India Resolu-
tion thereon of 21 March, 1895.
• Annual Reports of Provincial Agricultural Departments.
GHIVI
19
1
## p. 290 (#328) ############################################
290 ADMINISTRATION IN U. P. , C. P. , AND PANJAB
scientific lines, an essential feature of the entire scheme, provincial
agricultural colleges, with research institutes attached, have been
estaulished; while a central college at Pusa in Bihar provides more
advanced instruction. The three provinces have taken their full share
in the progress, their colleges being located at Cawnpore, Nagpur,
and Lyallpur respectively. The last, situated in the Chenab colony,
is now a leading centre of research, experiment and instruction.
Though the modern movement was started not in response to popular
demand, but on the initiative of the government, the agricultural
department has succeeded to a surprising degree in securing the con-
fidence of the rural classes. The collector, though having no control of
its technical operations in his district, is closely concerned with it on
its administrative side and with its general results.
Debt is an inevitable adjunct of peasant agriculture, but under an
unhealthy system of credit, where numerous illiterate and often
thriftless rural borrowers are in the toils of literate and astute money-
lenders, it is apt to become both a fruitful economic evil and a political
danger. The grant of freely transferable proprietary rights to the
peasantry of the Panjab and of the United Provinces, combined with
a novel moderation in the fiscal demands of the state, put at its dis-
posal a volume of credit which grew with the value of land and of its
produce.
In the period 1875-1900 indebtedness increased rapidly,
and with it the sale and mortgage of agricultural land. In the Panjab
the evil had attained alarming proportions by the latter year. After
very prolonged investigation and discussion a remedy was sought in
legislation. The Panjab Alienation of Land Act of 1900, while not
affecting transfers of land between members of the agricultural tribes
of the province, narrowly restricts such transfers where the transferees
are members of other classes, which include most of the professional
money-lenders. The undue restriction of credit, the general fall in
land values, the widespread evasion which some anticipated as
necessary results of the measure, have not occurred. Credit is being
placed on a more healthy basis by the co-operative movement noticed
below; the rise of land values, though not necessarily beneficial to the
rural population, has continued steadily, while the peasant himself
now regards the act as an indispensable factor of his economic
security. Its proper administration is one of the important duties of
the deputy-commissioner. Similar legislation has not been found to be
necessary in the United Provinces except in Bundelkhand, where it
was introduced in 1903. 2
It is, however, rural co-operation combined with improved agri-
cultural practice, which is proving itself to be the most effective means
of raising the economic condition of the peasantry. The subject is one
which deserves a much closer study than is possible here. After a
Adm. Rep. Panjab, 1911-12, p. 49, and other extensive literature.
; Adm. Rep. Unit. Provs. 1911-12, p. 20.
## p. 291 (#329) ############################################
CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES
291
preliminary period of investigation, with practical experiments in
various parts of India, a Co-operative Credit Societies Act was passed
in 1904, which provided legal facilities for the formation and working
of such societies. In the light of subsequent experience it was replaced
by the Co-operative Societies Act of 1912, an improved measure of
wider scope, which, in addition to credit societies, provided for societies
co-operative in the purchase of seed and implements, the marketing
of produce, and in other activities. A rural credit society is broadly
of the German Raiffeisen type, though with certain differences. Its
membership is confined to a small specified area, and its function is
to lend among its members for approved objects connected with
agriculture, including reasonable domestic consumption, funds raised
on their joint and several unlimited liability. A small entrance fee is
charged, and in the Panjab and the United Provinces, but not in the
Central Provinces, each member contributes in addition a small
amount of share capital. Deposits are received from both members
and non-members, and further capital is borrowed from other societies
or from central banks, which form an integral part of the system and
are in touch with the external money market. A committee of mem-
bers constitutes the managing body, and as no paid staff is employed,
working expenses are at a minimum; but borrowers are charged a
rate of interest, which, though much less than that usually taken by
money-lenders from single borrowers, allows of the accumulation of
a reserve fund. The whole of the above resources are employed as
working capital; and an immense alleviation of rural indebtedness is
being gradually effected, while the moral education in self-help,
thrift, self-respect, and social solidarity which is being silently im-
parted can scarcely be overestimated. Many societies for co-operative
objects other than credit have been started. In each province the
local government appoints a registrar with one or two assistants, who,
with a trained staff, superintend and advise the societies in addition
to performing statutory functions under the act. The figures for
agricultural societies in 1918-19-United Provinces, 3177; Central
Provinces, 3871; Panjab, 5087—show the extent to which the move-
ment has spread. It is one of the most effective economic and educative
influences which have been introduced into India.
The modern development of local self-government is described in
another chapter. Beginning in 1873 with Lord Mayo's measures for
the decentralisation of finance,? it was placed by Lord Ripon in
1881–2 on a broader basis, with a largely increased elective element
and with a limited degree of freedom from official control. In actual
practice, however, most local bodies were dominated by the influence
of the district officer, and, in financial matters especially, by the
2
1 Annual Provincial Reports.
· Imp. Gaz. iv, 287 sqq. ; Parl. Papers, 1883, LI, I 599. ; Moral and Mat. Prog. Rep. 1882-3,
pp. 59-63.
19-2
## p. 292 (#330) ############################################
292 ADMINISTRATION IN U. P. , C. P. , AND PANJAB
a
increasingly centralised control of the provincial government and its
departments; both being exercised in the interests of administrative
efficiency, which otherwise, there can be little doubt, would have
seriously deteriorated, there being then no public opinion competent
to compel local bodies to discharge their responsibilities. The district
officer was not merely the controlling guide of local bodies, but their
main active element; their affairs forming a considerable part of his
daily work; a position which continued until the Indian Decentralisa-
tion Commission issued its report in 1909. It found that progress in
local self-government had been hindered because local bodies, and
more especially rural boards, had no real power and responsibility
owing to want of funds and to excessive control. It made many drastic
proposals for removing the trammels, the more important of which,
after reference to provincial governments, the Indian Government
accepted in 19151 with certain reservations and modifications. As a
general result central departmental control was much relaxed and in
some respects abrogated; local bodies have been placed in a freer and
stronger financial position; while in municipalities official chairmen
have for the most part disappeared. What the ultimate practical
outcome will be in terms of public health and convenience remains
to be seen. In the year 1917–18 there were in the United Provinces,
the Central Provinces and in the Panjab, 83, 57 and 100 munici-
palities respectively, which contained in the case of the first two 6) per
cent. , and in the case of the third 8 per cent. of the whole provincial
population.
The important subject of education has been treated elsewhere. Its
administration being for the most part in the hands of the provincial
education departments, its connection with district administration
has been mainly through the local bodies, who have helped to finance
primary, and to some extent also secondary education, without,
however, exercising much actual control over either. The function of
the district officer has been to co-operate, advise and encourage on
a basis of general interest, supervision and local knowledge.
The main lines which the development of district administration
has followed have now been sketched. Throughout the process the
district officer-collector or deput -commissioner on the whole re-
tained the position of principal local official of the government, in
direct control, so far as his district was concerned, of its chief activities,
and in direct touch with all others conducted by more purely depart-
mental officials not wholly subordinate to him. The extremely multi-
farious nature of his work has been indicated. His primary duties are
the collection of revenue from the land and from other sources, and
the exercise of judicial powers, criminal and revenue, both of first
instance and in appeal. But police, jails, municipalities, rural boards.
i Government of India Resolutions 55-77, 28 April, 1915.
• Statistical Abstract for 1917-18, p. 98.
## p. 293 (#331) ############################################
THE DISTRICT OFFICER
293
education, roads, sanitation, dispensaries, local taxation, agricultural
statistics, records of rights and irrigation are matters with which he
is more or less daily concerned, directly or indirectly. He is also
responsible for the maintenance and submission of correct accounts of
extensive local receipts and expenditure, and for the safe custody of
large amounts of public money. He must, moreover, be familiar with
the social life of the people and with the natural aspects of his district.
But the district officer who should seek to undertake personally the
daily minutiae of all these subjects would be unwise, not to say in-
competent. With a comparatively few of them to do so is inevitable,
but the main, the most important work is continuous supervision and
control of subordinates, combined with a broad view and a strong but
kindly grasp of the changing aspects and the half-expressed needs of
the mass of human beings committed to their care. Centralised
control has doubtless increased; but the common complaint that it
has harmfully restricted the initiative of the district officer is in the
main an exaggeration. It has certainly increased his otherwise mani-
fold preoccupations, and where he has not been provided with ade-
quate staff the result has been harmful. But he has been able to
succeed just in so far as he has appreciated the need for, and has
skilfully arranged, wherever possible, a devolution of actual work to
properly qualified subordinates.
## p. 294 (#332) ############################################
CHAPTER XVII
THE DEVELOPMENT OF FAMINE POLICY
Three
HREE hundred years ago the Dutchman, Francisco Pelsaert,
travelling in Upper India, described in vivid language the relations
between agriculture and the seasons:
The year is here divided into three seasons. In April, May and June the heat is
intolerable, and men can scarcely breathe, more than that, hot winds blow con-
tinuously, as stifling as if they came straight from the furnace of hell. The air is
filled with the dust raised by violent whirlwinds from the sandy soil, making day
like the darkest night that human eyes have seen or that can be grasped by the
imagination. Thus in the afternoon of 15 June, 1624, I watched a hurricane of dust
coming up gradually, which so hid the sky and the sun that for two hours people
could not tell if the world was at an end, for the darkness and fury of the wind
could not have been exceeded. Then the storm disappeared gradually, as it had
come, and the sun shone again. The months of June, July, August, September and
October are reckoned as the rainy season, during which it sometimes rains steadily.
The days are still very hot, but the rain brings a pleasant and refreshing coolness.
In November, December, January, February and March it is tolerably cool, and
the climate is pleasant.
From April to June the fields lie hard and dry, unfit for ploughing or sowing
owing to the heat. When the ground has been moistened by a few days' rain, the
cultivators begin to sow indigo, rice and various food grains eaten by the poor.
When all these are off the land, they plough and sow again, for there are two harvests;
that is to say in December and January they sow wheat and barley, various pulses
and "alsi" (linseed) from which oil is extracted. Large numbers of wells have to
be dug in order to irrigate the soil, for at that time it is beginning to lose its productive
power. Provided the rain is seasonable and the cold is not excessive, there is a
year of plenty, not merely of food, but in the trade of all sorts of commodities. I
But if the rain is not seasonable, if the monsoon fails over large
tracts which cannot be sufficiently irrigated from ponds, rivers, wells
or canals, the crops which are the mainstay of the countryside must
be sown in a much restricted area and will often be poor even there;
the grass which has been burnt up by the blazing sun and burning
winds of March, April and May cannot revive, and both the milch-
cows and the plough and transport cattle, which are the cultivator's
working capital, are decimated. The water level falls; and the supply
is tainted with noxious germs. The peasantry see their means of live-
lihood vanish. If no remedy be forthcoming they must starve.
Destitution will bring cholera and pestilence in its train; and thousands
of humble lives will be sacrificed. Such is famine in that grim shape
which it has often worn. But nature sometimes relents; and man has
done much to combat this king of terrors.
The drought which follows a feeble monsoon may be mitigated by
light winter rains; and in any case there are marked differences of
· Pelsaert, Jerangir's India, pp. 47–8. For an account of the climate and rainfall see
vol. 1, chap. i of this History.
a
## p. 295 (#333) ############################################
MEANS OF IRRIGATION
295
climate and inequalities of rainfall. The populations have accustomed
themselves to this circumstance both in their density and in their
selection of crops. There are wet provinces and dry provinces, wet
areas and dry areas, sometimes within the same district; there are wet
crops and dry crops. If communications are adequate there are
flourishing tracts to come to the rescue of those less favoured. Rain
never fails throughout the whole country, even though the monsoon
sometimes disappoints not only regions inured to some degree of
drought but those which are usually blessed with abundant rainfall.
When the south-west monsoon is over the young winter crops, and
in parts the later rice, need artificial irrigation; and if the rainfall has
been deficient, the irrigation must be strenuous and constant. Rivers,
wells, "tanks” (artificial ponds) are all requisitioned. But in a dry
year, the supply from these sources shrinks, and canals, where they
exist, are the greatest stand-by of all. Large-scale systems of canals,
drawing supplies from rivers or artificial reservoirs, began with the
consolidation of British rule; but the West Jumna Canal, in a dilapi-
dated condition, was inherited from Moghul times; and the Kaveri
delta canal system in Madras comes down from remote antiquity.
In the year 1919-20 the total area irrigated by canals in British India
exceeded 27,000,000 acres. The total length of canals and distributaries
was 66,754 miles. The estimated value of the crops watered by govern-
ment irrigation works amounted to £156,000,000, double the capital
expenditure which these works had entailed.
The storage of water and the regulation of its outflow are matters of
supreme importance to Indian agriculture. Wells, tanks and canals
play their part. But the wide extension of irrigation which marked
the years 1858–1918 could not have been achieved without the skilled
and devoted co-operation nf the Indian forest service. To quote the
words of one of its most distinguished members:
It is by the agency of the forests that the surface-flow from the hills is restrained
after heavy rain; that the water level is maintained at such a height that it can be
reached by the primitive methods of the East; that the springs are kept supplied;
and that perennial springs may be made to flow in the place of those water-courses
trịckling through dreary beds of sand, that would hardly be suspected of becoming
later on in the summer turbulent and muddy torrents, often carrying devastation
instead of blessing. "
We need only summarise the history of famines before 1858. In
ancient times scarcity owing to floods or drought was not infrequent
and sometimes extended to a whole kingdom. 3 But scarcities caused
by floods have always affected comparatively small areas, and inunda-
tions have left a fertilising silt. The great famines have been caused
by drought. In his elaborate studies of economic life under the
1 Moreland, India at the Death of Akbar, p. 108; Knowles, Economic Development of the
Overseas Empire, np. 366-82; Moreland, From Akbar to Aurangzeb, pp. 195-6.
• Eardley-Wilmot, Forest Life and Sport in India, p. 5.
3 Cf. vol. 1, chap. viii, supra.
>
## p. 296 (#334) ############################################
296 THE DEVELOPMENT OF FAMINE POLICY
Moghul emperors Mr Moreland has shown us that the famines then
were marked, not only by widespread mortality and desolation, but
by suicide, voluntary enslavement and cannibalism. 1 Before the “pax
Britannica” was definitely established the miseries of such times were
often aggravated by the ravages of armies. In 1802 the army of the
Maratha chief, Jasvant Rao Holkar, marching to Poona from the
north, laid waste the countryside. The Pindaris followed in its wake
and reduced the Deccan to such depths of misery and want that
human beings are said to have been devoured by the peasants.
Emigrants passed into the Konkan leaving a trail of dead and dying
behind them. The late rains failed; the river at Poona was black with
putrescent corpses; and “hunger, hand in hand with cholera, left
many villages permanently desolate”. 2 But, in any case, as long as
districts were land-locked and populations were isolated, famine
relief was largely regarded as hopeless. Almsgiving, storage of food
grains in central towns, remissions of revenue, digging of wells, were
palliatives occasionally resorted to. But no attempt was made to stem
the full tide of starvation and ruin. Even when the government of the
East India Company, recently established at Calcutta, was in 1769–70
first brought face to face with responsibility for some measure of
relief, its dispatches,
while breathing a tone of sincere compassion for the sufferings of the people, were
busied rather with the fiscal results as affecting the responsibility of the Company
towards its shareholders, than with schemes which would have seemed wholly
visionary for counteracting the inevitable loss of life. 3
There is no reason to dispute the finding of the 1880 Famine Com-
mission that up to the end of the eighteenth century “the position of
the British in India was not such as either to create any sense of
general obligation to give relief, or to supply sufficient means of
affording it". While the administration was endeavouring to find its
feet, while wars frequently carried devastation into large tracts of
country, while the effects of climatic disturbances on food crops were
largely a matter of conjecture, while agricultural, economic and vital
statistics were unknown, while it was difficult to transmit information
speedily, while the absence of communications rendered the timely
transmission of grain for long distances or in large quantities a very
arduous or an impossible undertaking, while hal, tarved bullocks or
heavy barges were the sole means of transport, famine was regarded
as a calamity wholly transcending the powers of man to counteract
or even materially to mitigate. 4 The years 1765–1858 were marked
by famines or scarcities in various parts of the country which were
dealt with by such measures as seemed best to the local governments
1 Moreland, India at the Death of Akbar, chap. vii; From Akbar to Aurangzeb, chap. vii.
2 Grant Duff, History of the Marathas (ed. Edwardes), II, 368.
3 Report of the Famine Commission, 1880; cf. Hickey, Memoirs, 111, 343-4.
• Cf. Kaye, British India, pp. 275-6, and Maconochie, Life in Indian Civil Service, pp. 9-10.
## p. 297 (#335) ############################################
EARLIER FAMINES
297
or district officers concerned. No attempt was made to formulate any
general system of famine relief or prevention, although such experi-
ments as storage of grain by the government, penalties on hoarding,
bounies on import, poorhouses, advances of money to encourage the
sinking of wells, and relief works to afford employment, were under-
taken at one time or another. The only business which can afford
employment to Indian cultivators when tillage fails is earth-work,
the excavation of reservoirs, the construction of irrigation embank-
ments and the making of roads. But earth-works were never opened
on an adequate scale. When in 1837 famine visited the upper reaches
of the Ganges and the Jumna, the local government laid down the
principle that while the state found work for the able-bodied, the
whole community must, as in ordinary times, look after the helpless
and infirm. The measures adopted were quite insufficient. Heavy
mortality resulted; and violent riots broke out. Twenty years later
came the Mutiny, which was followed by the complete transfer of
government to the crown.
The period with which we are now concerned was marked by a
wide extension of railways1 and other communications, by a rapid
growth of trade and overseas commerce, by a great expansion of
means of irrigation, by the development of an elaborate system of
public instruction, by agrarian legislation mainly in the interest of the
cultivators, by a gradual change in economic factors which, in spite
of a great increase of population, very gradually modified the character
of famines.
The seasons of 1858-9 were irregular; and in 1860 the monsoon
practically failed over 48,000 square miles of the North-West Pro-
vinces around Agre. Alwar and other Indian states were affected;
and about half a million persons deserted the distressed tracts.
The provinces were still suffering from the effects of the Mutiny;
but their south-east districts and neighbour provinces had received
plenty of rain and were able to supply abundance of food grains.
Within the distressed area canals protected about 900,000 more acres
than they had protected in 1837; around it communications had
improved, and the East Indian Railway had progressed far enough
to render useful service. Free-trade principles were followed; and, as
in 1837, it was declared that the state would provide employment for
the able-bodied while voluntary agency should give charitable relief
to the helpless and infirm. In fact, however, voluntary agency did
very little; and the government found it necessary to undertake almost
the whole burden of relief. Able-bodied persons were organised in
gangs, housed in temporary sheds and employed upon earth-works
for roads or canals. Some helpless persons were relieved in their
homes and others in poorhouses where light tasks were imposed upon
the more capable inmates. The famine was on a small scale, but is
1 For the early history of railways in India see Quarterly Review, 1868, (xxv, 48–78.
## p. 298 (#336) ############################################
298 THE DEVELOPMENT OF FAMINE POLICY
remarkable for the fact that then for the first time a special enquiry
was held into the causes, area and intensity of such a calamity. While
it was proceeding Colonel Baird Smith was deputed to examine these
matters; but his report did not lead to any formulation of general
principles of relief.
We come now to the famine of 1866–7, which is known as the
Orissa famine because in Orissa it assumed its most terrible form; but
it extended along the whole east coast from Calcutta to Madras and
penetrated inland. This calamity proved a turning point in the history
of Indian famines for it was followed by the investigations and report
of a committee (presided over by Sir George Campbell") which laid
the foundations of a definite policy.
The causes of the famine were the failure of the autumn rains, and
consequently of the rice crops, of 1865, together with the almost com-
plete absence of importation into Orissa of food from outside. The
main stress of privation fell on the three British districts which form
a comparatively narrow strip between the uplands and the sea and
are intersected by rivers which swell enormously in the rainy season.
There is a large pilgrim traffic by land to Jagannath in the dry season;
but commercial communications were then principally by sea from
several small ports open the greater part of the year but inaccessible
from the heavy surf and the prevalent winds after the breaking of the
south-west monsoon. The country is almost entirely a rice or water
country; but the supply of rain is generally ample, and there had been
no previous famines since Orissa became British territory. In 1865,
however, the monsoon ceased prematurely along the east coast, and
two-thirds of the rice crop were lost. Food stocks were low, as export
had been brisk of late years, but prices remained moderate for some
time. The warnings of certain local officers were disregarded, and
'famine arrived like a thief in the night.
"In April 1866", says Campbell, “the magistrate of Cuttack still reported that
there was no ground for serious apprehension. A few days later in May, he and his
followers were almost starved. We compared it to the case of a ship where the stores
are suddenly found to have run out. '
A panic had set in and stores were withheld from the market. Every
Indian cultivator aims at growing and keeping his own food supply.
The market supply is what he sells to pay his rent and meet his cash
needs, but in times of scarcity even grain which can be spared is held
up. Dealers also incline to wait for higher prices. If, however, im-
portation from other districts is easily practicable, even a great failure
of crops will not lead to a widespread hold-up of stocks.
