Indian Antiquary Vol 52

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Stephen Meredyth Edwardes, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 252

236
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ SEPTEMBER, 1923
great manufacturing country, and certainly, in the time of Shah Jahan, industries gave employment to only a microscopio minority of the population (Hamilton, Trade Relations between India and England, ch. ii, p. 7). The people depended, as now, upon agriculture; and Bernier's accurate description shows the miseries which the wretched peasantry were suffering.
This miserable state of the country certainly led to the frequent rise and spread of famines, and when famines did occur, Shah Jahan displayed the most callous indifference to the sufferings of the people, who died in myriads for lack of sustenance of any kind. Nothing was done by the government to help the suffering people; but the author of the Badshah-Nama states that the emperor opened a few soup kitchens, gave a lakh and a half of rupees in charity spread over a period of twenty weeks, and remitted only one-eleventh of the assessment of land revenue. The remissions so made" by the wise and generous Emperor" in the crown lands amounted to seventy lakhs. The holders of jagirs and official commands were expected to make similar reductions. These facts do not justify the historian's praise of "the generous kindness and bounty" of Shah Jahan. The remission of one-eleventh of the land revenue implies that attempts were made to collect ten-elevenths, a burden which could not be borne by a country reduced to the "direst extremity" and retaining no trace of productiveness. We are not told how far the efforts to collect the revenue succeeded ; and, as usual, we are left in the dark concerning the after-effects of the famine. No statistics are on record. Even the nature of the consequent pestilence is not mentioned, but it is almost certain that cholera must have carried off thousands of victims. Sir Richard Temple, the editor of Mundy's work, has good reason for saying that "it is worthwhile to read Mundy's unimpassioned matter-of-fact observations on the famine ", in order to realise the immensity of the difference in the conditions of life as existing under the rule of the Moghul dynasty when at the height of its glory, and those prevailing under the modern British government” (V. A. Smith, Oxford of History of India, p. 394).
The full truth of Sir Richard's remarks will be realised when we compare the relief measures undertaken by Lord Curzon in 1900-1 with those of Shah Jahan. A cruel famine broke out in 1900-1 ; and the following extracts from Mr. Lovat Fraser's India under Curzon and After (ch. viii, p. 263 and fol.) will give an idea of the heroulean efforts made by that noble Viceroy to assuage the rigours of famine: "At the end of July 1900, Lord Curzon, accompanied by Mr. (now Sir) Walter Lawrence and others, started in fierce heat upon another famine-tour [he was ceaselessly touring for months) through the worst districts of Guzerat, where they met Lord Northcote, the Governor of Bombay, who was also investigating conditions on the spot. It was the most critical moment of the famine. The monsoon was due and some rain had fallen, but the people swarmed on the relief works, and the cholera had been raging. In more than one camp visited by the Viceroy the sufferers were still dying from cholera. While the tour was in progress, the rain set in heavily, and the whole region was changed into a slough." One extract from an account of a visit to a famine camp under these conditions, must suffice as a type of several such visits. It describes a halt at Dohad in the Panch Mahals on the 1st August: "Fine rain was falling when the Viceroy started on horseback. The drizzle increased steadily to a downpour. The roads were in a frightful state, and the horses had difficulty in keeping their feet. A scramble over the bund and a tramp through the gluey mud brought the visitors to the camp .. .. In spite of the weather & complete tour of the camp was made .... Wet to the skin, the party prepared to return, etc." • The cost of the famine to the Indian Exchequer was very great. The amount expended in direct relief was £6,670,000. A further sum of £1,585,000 was spent in loans and advances to landholders and cultivators, and only half this sum was ever recovered. Land