was again the scene of a two years' famine, which is memorable as being the first occasion on which the starving people were employed by Government on relief works. Famines again occurred in Southern India in 1802-04, 1807, 1812, 1824, 1833, 1854, and 1866. A terrible dearth in 1838 caused great mortality in the North-Western Provinces.

In 1861;

But so little was done by the State in these calamities, that Famines of few administrative lessons can be learned from them. 1860-61, however, a serious attempt was made to alleviate an exceptional distress in the North-Western Provinces. About half a million persons are estimated to have been relieved, at an expenditure by Government of about three-quarters of a million sterling. Again, in 1865-66, which will ever be known and of as the year of the Orissa famine, the Government attempted to 1866. organize relief works and to distribute charitable funds. But on neither of these occasions can it be said that its efforts were successful. In Orissa, especially, the admitted loss of one-fourth of the population proves the danger to which an isolated Province is exposed. The people of Orissa died because they had no surplus stocks of grain of their own; and because importation, on an adequate scale, was physically impossible by sea or land.

Passing over the prolonged drought of 1868-70 in the North-Western Provinces and Rájputána, we come to the Behar scarcity of 1873-74, which first attracted the interest of England. Warned by the failure of the rains, and watched and stimulated by the excited sympathy of the public in England, the Government carried out in time a comprehensive scheme of relief. By the expenditure of 6 millions sterling, and the importation of 1 million tons of rice, all risk even of the loss of life was prevented. The comparatively small area of distress, and the facilities of communication by rail and river, allowed of the accomplishment of this feat, which remains unparalleled in the annals of famine.

The famine of 1876-78 is the widest spread and the most Famine of prolonged that India has experienced. The drought com- 1876-78.

menced in Mysore by the failure of the monsoon in 1875; and the fear of distress in the North-Western Provinces did not pass away until 1879. But it will be known in history as the great famine of Southern India. Over the entire Deccan, from Poona to Bangalore, the south-west monsoon failed to bring its usual rainfall in the summer of 1876. In the autumn of the same year, the north-east monsoon proved Failure of deficient in the south-eastern Districts of the Madras Presi- rain, 1876. dency. The main food crop perished throughout an immense

tract of country; and, as the harvest of 1875 had also been
short, prices rapidly rose to famine rates.
starvation was already at work, and
measures to keep the people alive.

In November 1876, Government adopted The next eighteen

months, until the middle of 1878, were devoted to one long Failure of campaign against famine. The summer monsoon of 1877 rain, 1877. proved a failure; some relief was brought in October of that year by the autumn monsoon; but all anxiety was not removed until the arrival of a normal rainfall in June 1878.

Scarcity in Meanwhile the drought had reached Northern India, where Northern it found the stocks of grain already drained to meet the famine India, 1877-78. in the south. Bengal, Assam, and Burma were the only Provinces which escaped in that disastrous year. The NorthWestern Provinces, the Punjab, Rájputána, and the Central Provinces suffered from drought throughout the summer of 1877, and, from its consequences, far into the following year.

Famine in

When once famine gets ahead of relief operations, the flood the South. of distress bursts its embankments, and the people simply perish. Starvation and the long attendant train of faminediseases sweep away their hundreds of thousands. The importation of grain was left entirely free, and within twelve months 268,000 tons were brought by land, and 166,000 tons by sea, into the distressed Districts.

Famine expenditure,

1876-78.

Cholera.

The total expenditure of Government upon famine relief on this occasion may be estimated at 11 millions sterling, not including the indirect loss of revenue nor the amount debited against the State of Mysore. For this large sum of money there is but little to show in the shape of works constructed. The largest number of persons in receipt of relief at one time in Madras was 2,591,900 in September 1877; of these only 634,581 were nominally employed on works, while the rest were gratuitously fed. From cholera alone the deaths were returned at 357,430 for Madras Presidency, 58,648 for Mysore, and 57,252 for Bombay. Dr. Cornish, the Sanitary Commissioner of Madras, well illustrated the effects of the famine by the returns of births and deaths over a series of years. In 1876, when famine, with its companion cholera, was already beginning to be felt, the births registered in Madras. numbered 632,113, and the deaths 680,381. In 1877, the Decrease year of famine, the births fell to 477,447, while the deaths rose to 1,556,312. In 1878, the results of the famine showed themselves by a still further reduction of the births to 348,346, and by the still high number of 810,921 deaths. In 1879, the births recovered to 476,307, still below the average, and the deaths diminished to 548,158. These figures are

of birthrate, 1877-78.

only approximate, but they serve to show how long the results of famine are to be traced in the vital statistics of a people.

from

With regard to the deaths caused by the famine, and the Total diseases connected with it, the Famine Commissioners thus deaths report: It has been estimated, and in our opinion on sub- famine of stantial grounds, that the mortality which occurred in the 1876-78. Provinces under British administration during the period of famine and drought extending over the years 1877 and 1878 amounted, on a population of 197 millions, to 5 millions in excess of the deaths that would have occurred had the seasons been ordinarily healthy; and the statistical returns have made certain what has long been suspected, that starvation and distress greatly check the fecundity of the population. It is probable that from this cause the number of births during the same period has been lessened by 2 millions; the total reduction of the population would thus amount to about 7 millions. Assuming the ordinary death-roll, taken at the rate of 35 per mille, on 190 millions of people, the abnormal mortality of the famine period may be regarded as having increased the total death-rate by about 40 per cent.'

a weak

check on

But when estimated over a period of years, the effect of Famine famine as a check upon the population is small. The Famine Commissioners calculate that, taking the famines of the past populathirty years, as to which alone an estimate of any value can be tion. made, the abnormal deaths caused by famine and its diseases have been less than 2 per mille of the Indian population per annum. As a matter of fact, cultivation quickly extended after the famine of 1877-78, and there were in Bombay and Madras 120,000 more acres under tillage after the long protracted scarcity than before it.

sum

The famine of 1876-78 affected, directly, a population of 583 Famine of 1876-78 million persons, and an area of 257,300 square miles. The average number daily employed by the State on relief works marized. was 877,024. The average number of persons daily in receipt of gratuitous State relief was 446,641, besides private charities. Land revenue was remitted to close on 2 millions sterling. The famine lasted from 12 months in the North-Western Provinces, to 22 months in Madras. Its total cost, including both outlay and loss of revenue, is officially returned at £11,194,320. A Commission was appointed to inquire into the causes of famine in India, and the means of averting or alleviating those calamities. Its report, presented to both Houses of Parliament in 1880, is replete with carefully collated facts regarding the past, and with wise suggestions for the future. 1 Report of the Indian Famine Commission, part 1, p. 24 (1880).

CHAPTER XVII.

MEANS OF COMMUNICATION.

Internal THE means of communication in India may be classifed communi- under four headings-(1) railways, (2) roads, (3) rivers, and (4) canals.

cations.

Indian

railways.

Their history, 1843-71.

The existing system of railway communication in India dates from the administration of Lord Dalhousie. The first Indian line of rail was projected in 1843 by Sir Macdonald Stephenson, who was afterwards active in forming the East Indian Railway Company. But this scheme was blighted by the financial panic that followed soon afterwards in England. Bombay, the city which has most benefited by railway enterprise, saw the first sod turned in 1850, and the first line of a few miles opened as far as Thána (Tanna) in 1853. The elaborate minute, drawn up by Lord Dalhousie in the latter year, still faithfully represents the railway map of India at the present day, although modified in detail by Lord Mayo's reform Lord Dal- of 1869. Lord Dalhousie's scheme consisted of well-chosen housie's trunk lines, traversing the length and breadth of the peninsula, trunk lines, and connecting all the great cities and military cantonments. These trunk lines were to be constructed by private companies, to whom Government should guarantee a minimum of 5 per cent. interest on their capital expended, and from whom it should demand in return a certain measure of subordination. The system thus sketched out was promptly carried into execution, and by 1871 Bombay was put into direct railway communication with the sister Presidencies of Calcutta and Madras. The task Lord Mayo had to undertake was the development of traffic by means of feeders, which should tap lines, 1870. the districts of production, and thus open up the entire

1853.

Lord Mayo's branch

Two

classes of Indian

lines.

country. This task he initiated by the construction of minor State lines on a narrower gauge, and therefore at a cheaper rate, than the existing guaranteed railways.

Accordingly, the railways of India are divided into two classes, each of which serves a special purpose. On the one

ways.

hand, we have the railways constructed by guaranteed companies, for the most part between 1855 and 1875, which follow the main lines of natural communication, and satisfy the first necessities of national life, both commercial and political. On the other hand, there are a body of branch State lines, individually of secondary importance, all begun within the last ten years, and destined to yield fruit only in the future. The 'Guaran guaranteed lines, including the East Indian, which was trans- teed' railferred to Government in 1879, in accordance with terms applicable to all alike, comprise the following:-(1) The East The eight Indian, running up the valley of the Ganges from Calcutta great lines. (Howrah) as far as Delhi, with a branch to Jabalpur. (2) The Great Indian Peninsula, which starts from Bombay, and sends one arm north-east to Jabalpur, with a branch to Nagpur, and another south-east to the frontier of Madras. (3) The Madras line, with its terminus similarly at Madras city, and two arms running respectively to the Great Indian Peninsula junction at Raichur and to Beypur on the opposite coast, with branches to Bangalore and Bellary. (4) The Oudh and Rohilkhand, connecting Lucknow and Moradábád with Cawnpore and Benares. (5) The Bombay, Baroda, and Central India, which runs due north from Bombay through the fertile plain of Guzerat, which is destined ultimately to be extended across Rájputána to Delhi. (6) The Sind, Punjab, and Delhi, consisting of three sections, one in Lower Sind, another from Delhi to Lahore, and the third from Lahore to Múltán. (7) The South Indian (the only guaranteed line on the narrow gauge), in the extreme south, from Cape Comorin to Madras city. (8) The Eastern Bengal, traversing the richest portion of the Gangetic delta. The State The State lines are too numerous to be described singly. They include railways. the extension from Lahore to Peshawar on the north-west frontier, which at present (1879) stops short at Jhelum; the 'missing link,' from Múltán to Haidarábád, thus bringing the Punjab into direct connection with its natural seaport at Karachi (opened throughout in 1878); the line up the valley of the Irawadi from Rangoon to Prome; and many short lines which have been constructed entirely at the expense of Native States.

The following are the railway statistics of India for the year Railway 1878-Total length of lines open for traffic, 8215 miles, of statistics, 1878. which 6044 miles belong to guaranteed railways, and 2171 miles to State railways; total capital expended, £115,059,434, being £95,430,863 on the former, and £19,628,591 on the latter class; number of passengers conveyed, 38,519,792; total number of tons of goods and minerals, 8,171,617;