Dr. RUTHERFORDasked how many famines there were in India during the 25 years ending in 1887 and in 1907, respectively, with the official estimate of the loss of life involved during each period; and the names of the provinces which suffered most severely?
The MASTER of ELIBANKOmitting droughts of limited extent there were four great famines in the first period—the Orissa famine of 1865; the Northern India and Rajputana famine of 1868–70; the Behar famine of 1873; the Southern India famine of 1876–8. The Famine Commis- 250 sion of 1880 estimated the mortality in British India in these four famines at about 8,000,000 in excess of the normal. Much of the excess mortality was due to epidemic diseases obscurely connected with seasons of drought and privation. In the second period there have been four great famines—the Upper India and Central Provinces famine of 1895, which extended to Madras and Bombay, and to Bengal and the Punjab; the Rajputana and Central India famine of 1899, which also affected Bombay and the Central Provinces; the Guzerat famine of 1899–1902; the United Provinces famine of 1907, which extended to parts of the Central Provinces and Punjab. The excess mortality in British India in 1895 has been estimated at 750,000, and in 1907 at 1,000,000. I am not aware that estimates have been made for the later famines. In the 1907 famine in the United Provinces the provincial death-rate was 36.47 per thousand, against a normal of 34.59, but there were only 11 deaths which after full inquiry could be attributed to want of food.