Sri Ramakrishna Math : The Vedanta Kesari, The History and Philosophy of Famine

Six states of the country are this year under the grip of drought. Gujarat and Rajasthan are most severely affected. Even famine is feared. If the rains fail this year--with eight successive good monsoons, the law of averages is against us--we are in for some deep trouble this summer and beyond. Even if we have good rains, with the fall in sub-soil water levels, acute water-scarcity is the greatest problem which the country may have to face in the coming years.

In August 1897 Swami Trigunatitananda was placed by Ramakrishna Mission in charge of the famine (or scarcity) relief work at Dinajpur, a district of North Bengal, where he made the village of Birole his centre of work. Within two months he extended help to some eightyfour villages. The Swami's work came to a close in November, and on December 3, a grand public meeting was held at Dinajpore to present a vote of thanks to him.

The report of Swami Trigunatita's lecture on "The History and Philosophy of Famine," delivered in reply to the address of thanks was printed in four instalments in The Indian Mirror of January 28 and 30, February 26 and March 5, 1898. This lecture was later printed as a pamphlet, and has recently been reproduced in Swami Trigunatita, His life and Work, published by Vedanta Society of Northern California, in 1997. Looking at its relevance even after a lapse of a century, we are reproducing it here with the kind permission of the publishers.--Ed

The speech of the President of the meeting, Mr.N.Bonham Carter, the Collector of Dinajpur district.

We have assembled here to perform the pleasant duty of addresssing a vote of thanks to Swami Trigunatita and his brotherhood, for the work, in regard to the scarcity, which he did with his own hand and brain. I gladly consented to preside at this meeting for several reasons. In the first instance, I fully realise the Swami's good and disinterested work. He had nothing to bind him to this district. His only object was to do good to mankind. I do not, of course, detract from interested good work as that of the Zemindars. But disinterested good work deserves additional praise. He did not depend on the officials for help, neither did he work in opposition to officials. He occasionally appealed to me and was always ready to take my advice and follow it. Private good work should be done by the people. It is a mistake at the same time to run in opposition to Government. The Swami did work in the best possible way.

Another reason is that the Swami did work himself and with his own hand. This is the secret of success in Self-Government. Self-Government consists in having work done and not having meetings only. Meetings, of course, are necessary, when things are of large scale, but what is required is real work. If we had more such men, I must say, we would have more Self-Government. There are several instances, in which people govern themselves without help from the Government. We find huge trade-unions in Europe, and athletic and turf clubs in England. They go through huge work. They do not rely on Government, but they simply depend upon simple agreement of the people. If people turn attention more to doing work than mere superficialities or formal work, we shall find Self-Government more flourishing in the country.

The third reason is that the Swami carried on work in a methodical way. It is very easy to give away in charity when one has wealth. But charity to the undeserving does more harm than good. It pauperizes the people. The undeserving should be refused charity. The Swami undertook labour and personal enquiry to ascertain who were the deserving....

My dearest brothers, sons of the same parents--the Purush, primeval male principle being our father and the Prakriti, the primeval female principle our mother. The Bhagavan says: Prakritim swamavashtabhya visrijami punar punah. Elsewhere the Lord says:

Mama yanirmahadbrahma
tasmingarbham dadhamyaham;
Sambhavah sarvabhutaman
tato bhavati Bharata.
Sarvayonishu Kaunteya
murttayah sambhavanti yah;
Tasam Brahma mahadyoni
raham bijapradah pita.

God is our common original Father, ever-loving, all-pervading and all-protecting. He who has eyes can see; who has ears can hear; and who has heart and brain can perceive. He being our common and real Father, we are but brothers.

Everything I see all around--even the minutest particles of sand--I take as my own brothers. The greatest Bengali poet of the day sings:

When I was going over to Tibet to visit Kailash, my companions--a caravan of the place--under certain circumstances, could not but leave me behind to my fate at the foot of the snowy Himalayan Pass. Thus I was there alone. The companions soon became out of sight. I was obliged to take my seat there in despair. It was then very calm and serene though there were many things of inevitable danger. All around there was nothing but snowy peaks. I took those heavenly peaks as my own brothers. The shining hills were then living persons, as it were, to me. I gave vent to many a spiritual soliloquy. The hoary-headed brothers of mine responded to my soliloquies and consoled me in speechless superhuman voice. These and all else in the world that I see, I look upon as my brothers.

But of all mortal and perishable things, man seems to approach nearest to the Almighty Throne. Of all things in the world, man is made the highest. It is said, 'Man is made after the image of God.' Of all mortal beings, man seems to be the dearest child of our Father. I, therefore, call you my dearest brothers--be it my wisdom or ignorance.

Such being the case, if I help you or any of your district in any way, it is not much. If I help my needy brothers and sisters, be they Hindus or Christians or Mussalmans, it is my duty that I do, and for that, you need hardly be thankful to me. If I have good dishes, if I indulge in sweets, while I find my brothers and sisters living on but plants and leaves--if I be at ease, looking at my brothers and sisters starving--I shall be a brute and not a man. If I do not help my brothers and sisters in these days of hardship, I shall be lacking in my duty; I shall be wanting in the very fundamental property of man as a humane being; I shall then commit a sin, for which I ought to be punished before our Stern Father, the Omniscient Supreme Justice.

For my helping the brothers and sisters of this District, if you still, out of your love or out of your sense of duty, give me and my society your thanks, I must say, 'My dearest brothers, kindly do not mention them at all.'

Your cordial thanks are rather due to those generous persons of England, America, Madras, and other places, who have been helping me and my society materially with money in the present mission of ours. It is owing to their help that my society has been able to open free relief-works at several places in Bengal. Our best wishes ought to be to them. God bless them; it is due to them that I have been able to work here in this famine-stricken, rather scarcity-stricken District.

The term famine may be better explained as a universal 'craving for food' among a certain people or nation for a certain period of time. It is more logical to make a distinction between the terms 'famine' and 'scarcity.' The term 'scarcity' is derived from the word 'scare' meaning not easily got. The word 'scarcity' means not plenty, or quantity less in proportion to demands. The term 'famine', according to established philosophers, is related to the Sanskrit word bhaksha, and gives the idea of 'having nothing to eat.' 'Famine' is the worst type of scarcity. If we use the term 'scarcity' in the sense of the word 'famine', we shall commit a logical degeneration of terms.

Famines and scarcities are very familiar to Indian people and to students of Indian history.

The popular notion regarding famines and scarcities is that they are visitations of God. But philosophically speaking, they are not. God says:

Na kartritwam na karmani lokasya srijati prabhuh;
Na karmaphalasamyogam swabhavastu pravartate.
Nadatte kasyachit papam nachaiva sukritam vibhuh;
Ajnanenavritam jnanam tena muhyanti jantavah.

Had they been visitations of God they could not have been remedied by human hand. There is another erroneous notion among us that famines and scarcities are due to want of one the prescribed yajnas or religious sacrifices. There is a passage in the Gita:

Annadhavanti bhutani parjanyadannasambhavah;
Yajnadbhavanti parjanyo yagnah karmasamudbhavah.

The error arises from the misinterpretation of the words parjanya and yajna there. Parjanya means irrigation; from prish, to water; parshanti means sinchati. The passage yagnah karmasamudbhavah means that yajna proceeds from karma. There are several kinds of karma. Now, the question is, 'What sort of karma is that by which this particular yajna is accomplished?' I think, by this karma is meant the Vaisya karma mentioned in the eighteenth chapter of the Gita:

It is absurd to say that cultivation of rice depends simply on ritualism. The thing is that wherever we cannot find out the proper cause of a thing or wherever we cannot afford the proper remedy of an evil, we generally ascribe the cause or the thing to God or to any supernatural agency.

The causes of famines or of scarcities are not to be sought in the non-performance of ritual yajna but in the inadequacy of political, commercial, agricultural or other necessary scientific measures.

Under the head of insufficient political measures can be mentioned those famines or scarcities that are occasioned by (1) the devastations of war, (2) any unfavourable legislation in regard to the exports or imports of food-grains, (3) over-immigration of people into comparatively smaller districts, and (4) imprudent administration.

Under the head of the commercial causes may be mentioned those famines or scarcities that are occasioned by (1) lack of organizing and speculative powers on the part of the merchants, (2) insufficient means of transport of food-grains, and (3) undue consumption of staples for less important purposes. Under agricultural causes may be mentioned those famines and scarcities that are occasioned by (1) drought or want of irrigation, (2) inundation or want of adequate river banks and sea banks, as in Sylhet in 1784, in Rangpore in 1787 and in Orissa in 1865, (3) excess of rain or want of drainage, (4) insufficient method of fertilizing lands, (5) improper use of the soil in planting other crops than what is most necessary, and (6) depending upon only one kind of food, as the Irishman who suffered much from the famous potato-famine of 1846.

Scientific causes: There are some causes of famine or scarcity such as (1) total destruction of forests which may give rise to drought, as it often happens in the Northern China, (2) injury made by insects; this often happens in Asia Minor, and (3) excessive frosts. Some of these may well be confronted by suitable scientific means.

Cause in India: Of all the above causes either drought or flood is the invariable one for Indian famines and scarcities. Of these two, drought is the most general cause.

In Bengal, the scarcity of a certain year is generally the effect of the failure of the winter crop of the preceeding year. If this failure of the winter crop is followed by the failure of the autumn crop of the scarcity-year, the scarcity generally becomes 'very severe.' And, if again, the winter-crop of the same scarcity year fails, the province is visited by 'dreadful famine.' Happily, this year, Bengal has very narrowly escaped such a calamity. This year's scarcity of Bengal happily has not advanced to the stage of a famine, for instance, like that of 1770 or of 1874. It has 'narrowly escaped,' partly owing to the good and able arrangement of relief-works made by the Government, and mainly owing to the success of the present winter-crop. In order to give you a comparative idea of this year's distress, and those during the former famines of Bengal, let me describe a little of the famines of 1770 and 1874.

The famine of 1770 was chiefly due to the 'political sham' of double Government established by Lord Clive in 1765. The system of double Government reduced the country to 'penury' and the result was that trade came to a standstill. Furthermore, no importation could be made at that time for want of means of inter-communication. In the third place, the country had been suffering from the troubles of continuous wars and successive battles.

It is said that during the great famine of 1770, even the old houses of Bengal were almost penniless. One of the richest 'Rajahs' of Bengal happened to die during this famine. His minor son had to sell gold and silver utensils, and at last, to borrow some little money to perform his father's shraddha.

The price of rice rose to only 3 seers from two maunds-and-a-half for the rupee.

Imagine the horrors of famine. In certain cases, children fed on the dead bodies of their parents, and parents on their dead children. Three millions of persons out of fifteen millions were swept away. Half of the remainder were written down as palatika. Almost the whole country became a great jungle. There was not a single labourer to till the land. A long period of 30 years had elapsed before the agricultural condition of the land was improved by a large 'importation of labourers' from distant provinces. Nevertheless half of Bengal still remained a jungle. From the perusal of the history of this famine and its after-effects, I am led to understand that the present jungles of Bengal for the most part are the proofs of the famine of 1770.

It was occasioned by the failure of the winter crop of 1769. The spring crop in the following year yielded very little. The people went on dying till September when the autumn harvest relieved a little. Mr.Verelest, the then English Governor of Bengal, took some measures, but it was of no avail. There was no money in the country to contribute.

Your Upper Bengal fared not so bad as the Districts of the Lower Bengal and Bihar during the famine of 1770 A.D.

The famine of 1874 ravaged the Northern Bengal, especially Rangpore, Dinajpore, and the neighbouring districts, more than the districts towards the Lower Bengal.

The ravages were felt most in the Northern Bengal, because Railway constructions were then not made, and no immediate transport of grain could be made.

But your Dinajpore is ever so famous for rice production that even in the year of that famine and of her deep distress, she could spare and send out 25,000 maunds of rice to Rangpore, and thereby save her sister district. In the Northern Bengal, the famine was more severe than in the Southern, because the former had lost the two successive harvests in 1873--the autumn and the winter; while in the latter only the winter crop failed.

The able Lord Northbrook could successfully avert the expected wide-spread disasters of the famine by his vast organization of relief-works. Early in November the Governor General issued a Resolution, in which his principles for averting the famine were:

2. To afford facilities for the transport of grain by reducing the rates on the guaranteed railways.

3. To give suitable employment to the needy, and to pay the wages in food-grain.

4. To give loans from the public treasury to undertakers of agricultural and other improvements.

5. To make advances of money by Government to private gentlemen to import grain.

7. To give relief by suspension or even remission, if required, of land revenues, to the zemindars.

8. To make the commissariat, the medical, and other branches of the public service co-operate with the relief works.

9. In order to give employment to needy labourers, the Government also commenced the construction of the Northern-Bengal State Railway and of the embankments of the Gundak and carried on vigourously the Soane Canal works.

In January, the Government granted 50,000 pounds for emigration to British Burmah, and imported a large store of rice to keep in reserve for the time of emergency. At this time, the rate of rice ranged from 12 to 15 seers in place of 28 (the rate in ordinary years).

In February, at a public meeting in Calcutta at which Lord Northbrook presided, a Central Relief Committee was appointed. Public meetings were also held in London and at other places...

Disbursement for giving charitable relief amounted to 200,000 pounds; for relief works 2,530,000 pounds, and for special establishments 135,000 pounds. There were many other items of expenditure. The total net expenditure was over 6,000,000 pounds.

The Government relief was closed in November. In almost all the Indian famines and scarcities, when the failure of the winter crop of September, October and November are marked by much misery, generally distress begins in March, increases most in July, decreases in September and ends in November; but if the autumn crop fails the distress continues to increase more and more till the next winter harvest...

In Purnea and Jalpaiguri, the price of rice stood at 5 to 6 seers per rupee for a few days in May during the last famine of 1874, i.e., the same rate as in July and August of this year in this district. But the mortality during the last famine of 1874 was comparatively far greater than that during the scarcity of this year. In 1874, 100,000 persons died in Bengal from starvation; while in this year, very few have died from actual starvation, though the prices, generally speaking, were twice as dear as they were in the last famine. And what is the reason of it? In 1874, Lord Northbrook spared no pains to take every sort of possible measure to avert deaths from starvation, still he could not succeed so much as he had expected. He gave charity to persons, four times more in number than in the present year. For instance, this year, in my circle of 96 villages, 1,053 persons got charity, and that was sufficient; while in the previous famine of 1874, a circle of the same number of villages had to relieve 4,800 persons and still, deaths happened. Let us go a little back towards the close of the last century when a famine happened in 1788. We find that at that time, the rate of rice was 30 seers per rupee; the visitation was most severe (especially in Northern Bengal) and many deaths occurred. All this tends to show that the country has been growing wealthier every year. Even the labourer has been growing capable enough to buy rice at the very starvation rates of the previous famine years. And whence do the people derive their wealth? It is from export.