Scrapbook of newspaper cuttings about Afghanistan [‎135r] (278/312)

THE MORNING POST, MONDAY. OCTOBER 1878.
LONDON, MONDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1878.
The necessity of basing precautions against the
recuiring evil of Indian famine upon the res alt 3
of searching inquiry had been recognised by the
Indian Government even before the menace of
war came to darken the difficult financial situa-
lion, and the consciousness of an added strain
upon Indian resources must still further excite
the zeal with which our officials have set them
selves to work upon the subject. The arduous
task of making ends meet in Indian finance has
been long admitted and deplored, but of late
years that task has become more and more exact
ing, and the financial question is now fully par
ceived to be the one question which really over
shadows all others. Our authority is supreme over
the vast extent of the Indian Empire. With the
exception of some suspected centres of hopeless
intrigue, contentment with our rule is universal.
Against a foreign enemy we can count upon the
services of a literally inexhaustible supply of some
of the best fighting material in the world. la
India we can go anywhere and do anything, and
but for one drawback there would not be a
shadow to trouble our repose. India is poor, and
the expenses of its administration weigh with ter
rible severity r upon its population, in spite of the
goodwill of hundreds of experienced officials bent
upon saving the people every item of coat which
can be spared without detriment to the Imperial
Government. The state of agriculture, the
danger of famine, now recognised to be
a complication regularly likely to recur, formi
the main preoccupation of Indian authori
ties, and it is felt that until we can suc
cessfully grapple with the problem here presented
not only is progress impossible, but a steady
worsening of the situation may be expected with
only too much reason. Yet why should India be
without a cure for its afflictions ? Why should
Indian difficulties be insuperable ? If there be
.abuesas affecting the developmeafc of Indian agri
culture thoy must be as open to a remedy as in 1
other countries. If famine is to be a recurring
feature of the agricultural situation means must
be forthcoming, on inquiry, by which the mischief
of times of scarcity can be minimised and spread by
a proper system of precaution and assurance over
a sufficient space and period. It is under
the influence of this conviction that the Indian
Government has set on foot careful inquiries, and
) as especially addressed itself to the most expe
rienced among the officials who have had to admini-
fter tracts of country in times of scarcity aad
famine. "Famine relief," in the widest sense of
i he words, forms the burthen of the questions and
responses throughout the inquiries, and it is hari
1o suppose that a considerable accession to our
information upon this all-important subject will
i ot be the result of the collection and comparison
of so vast a body of intelligent opinion.
Some of the most valuable results of these investi
nations must necessarily relate to three orfourmaia
points which force themselves upon the con
i ideraticn of every one acquainted with the
history of the recent famines in Bengal, the North-
West Provinces, and Madras, How are we to
ascertain the real amount of food in the country
at a period of existing or threatened distress ?
Who are the persons most likely to conduct with
efficiency and knowledge a system of famine
relief ? In what manner should famine relief be
afforded so as to provide the most immediate
assistance together with the minimum of result
ing waste and pauperisation ? What are the
general circumstances existing in the permanent
condition of a tract of country which make it
better or worse calculated to endure and
to recover from the strain of a period of
distress 1 It is not on the spur of the moment
that we can arrive at a knowledge of the area of
food-crops actually existing in a time of distress.
It is not every official taken firsthand who is com
petent to administer the resources of a district to
the best advantage in an hour of terrible crisis.
There are remedies almost worse than the disease,
and ill-considered charity may perpetuate a famine
while momentarily relieving it. Finallv, an un
intelligent system of tax collection, an unhealthy
condition of agricultural relations, customs, and
abuses which damp self-help, which discourage
improvement, which depress industry, which
fester poverty in ordinary times—all these things
must infallibly aggravate, if they do not even
cause very frequently, the calamities which em
barrass Government while destroying the people.
Such being the obvious and necessary points of
principal interest, it is satisfactory to know that
clear and cogent observations have already been
made upon all of them, and that the chances of a
well-informed and systematic dealing with the
great problem are proportionately increased.
Indian administration is inevitably bureaucratic,
and bureaucracies inevitably tend to routiae, b it
the eense of responsibilities such as thoss imposed
by the precarious nature of Indian finance must
overcome the excessive influence of traditional
ways of acting; and our zealous administrator! at-
Calcutta will scarcely prove an exception. The
absolute necessity of accurately esfmatiag
the crop areas from year to year cannot
fail to be allowed. We can only effec
tually relieve famine when we have in
formation, and we can only get information by
collecting it, !Nor is the difficulty of regularly
collecting information on this point more serious
than upon many others which have in no way
affrighted the Administration. As a report from
the district of Sewan expresses it— {< With the
" income tax, road cess, and license tax, we have
<c made a number of inquiries into the affiirs of
" individuals very much more irritating than ths
" demand from the zemindars, the village put-
" warees, and headmen of returns of the area in
" each village under each crop in each year, , , ,
" The expense would be infinitesimal compared
" with theadvantage of possessing suchknowledge,
"We have been very much too long working in
" the dark." The necessity of " the establishment
"of seme serious system of statistics carried
" on and continuously corrected from year to
" year " must then be recognised as the very A
B C of relief reform. This fundamental fact
established, the question answers itself as to the
persons who ought to manage famine relief on the
actual outbreak of the dreaded emergency. Of
course it is the men who have been conversant
by long experience with the statistical condition
of the districts in question, and we are thus led
to acknowledge the parallel importance of that in
dispensable safeguard against errors in famine
management, namely, the special training of
officers in the agricultural facts of special districts.
If we entrust an official from the Daccan with the
famine management of Behar, there can only be one
result. Again, we know the effects of that favourite
plan of recent relief administrators, the establish
ing of so-called " relief works," at which entire
populations are gathered at a distance from their,
homes and occupations, half fed to do worthless
wo k at exorbitant rates, necessitating an im
mense outlay in supervision and superintendence
of all kinds, and with no better result as a rule
than to assyrethe permanent pauperisation of the
handful of demoralised survivors. Who that has
had personal experience of the "relief work"
system in Behar and Madras will not recognise
the sad accuracy of the description given by an
ex-famine official 1 '' Relief work afforded to
" unskilled labourers, including women and
" children, presents itself to me as a wild
" phantasmagoria of laziness and wretched-
" ness, of bad work and high wages, of ex-
" pensive supervision in chief and dishonest
" overseeing in ordinary, of smug inertness of high
" caste men and ragged misery of low casta
" women, with all the weary accessories of nominal
"rolls and tickets, and checking payments, aad
" the distance test, and the wage teat,
" and classifying by physique, and classify-
" ing by age, and classifying by sex, and
" relief camps, and the cost of hutting par head,
" and latrines, and discipline, and whatnot, in-
" eluding daily and weekly 'returns and reports,'
" and for all this what return do we get ? In
" 1874 the district engineer of Sarun «al-
" culated that the relief works were worth