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

There is a popular notion that exports give rise to scarcity. It is a very wrong idea indeed. Exports have rather made you richer and stronger than before to fight manfully against your foe--famine. You do not make exports in order that it would bring on distress. They rather save your country from starvation. I told you that 8,000 tons of rice were imported from other provinces to save your country in 1874. Look at the state of affairs of the present year: how much of rice is still being imported from Burmah to save you? You know well the famous saying of Sri Krishna,

The verse can very well be applied in this case too. You helped Orissa in 1866, so she did the same to you in your worst days of 1874. We ought not to be a kupamanduka; our knowledge should not be so limited as not to see what is going on beyond the boundary wall of our compound; nor should we be so selfish as not to let any outsider look at us. Interchange and inter-communication make a country advance onward in every respect. It hastens the rise and growth of a nation. Without it, India could not have re-established her former glory in both her material and spiritual aspects, as she has been doing now every day. Look at the present stage of Great Britain; you know what Britain was before the Roman conquest, and behold now what she is today! Why can you not rise as Britain has? You have your ancestral properties far more precious and far more in number than Britain had before the Christian era. You may well make your fortune and make all sorts of improvement out of your own things. But I know you will never do that; and neither do you know yourselves how to do that, nor will you learn it from others or bear the sight of others doing the same for the good of the general public. We, of course, ought not to behave like mischievous boys who do not prepare their own lessons, nor let others prepare theirs. Further, if our things were as plenty as they were a hundred years back, we (as the nature of our nation is) would grow idler still. The taking away of our things in this way (in the commercial way, paying sufficient remuneration) has rather increased our activity, has rather set our brain working more.

Famine or scarcity is not a frequent occurrence of this age or of this country alone that the blame should fall on the foreign tradesmen. It existed even at the pre-historic period when exportation was quite an impracticable thing. During the time of Abraham there was a famine in Cannan, about 1921 B.C. Again in Jacob's time, about 1804 B.C. there was a universal famine for seven years over the whole earth, when Egypt was the only fountain of succour. At the time of Ahab, who reigned from 918 to 897 B.C. there was a famine when the people boiled their children for food. Then in the third century, Cape Cat or Galta, Cyprus, was entirely depopulated by a famine, and the whole province became full of wild serpents. Cats were introduced to destroy them and hence the name Cape Cat.

The Bengal Presidency can spare for export a considerable quantity of food-grains every year. Let me prove this to you: Bengal produces three rice crops a year at many places. Let us take into account the case of the land producing only one crop. It is estimated by competent and impartial authorities that an acre of land (i.e., a little less than three bighas-and-a-half) produces at least one tonne or 28 maunds of rice sufficient to support two persons. The three provinces of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa contain 48 million acres of land under cultivation. Of this, more than 38 million acres of land yield rice which can well support more than 76 million persons. The population of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa is a little more than 60 million persons, hence we get a margin of rice for 16 million persons, or in other words, 8 million tonnes or 2,240 lakh of maunds of rice can be spared every year. Now, from export returns of Bengal ports we learn that in ordinary years not more than half a million tonnes or 140 lakh maunds of rice is exported. Such being the case, how then can exports give rise to scarcity? The other day, I heard certain big zemindars complaining that exportation is the main cause of our distress. It is rather for them--for the vain Zemindars, Rajahs or Maharajahs, and other high Auzurs of the land--that the people of our country suffer so much. What is the use of the title of a Rajah or a Maharajah--what political or agricultural necessity of having a Rajah or Maharajah--if he or she does not or cannot maintain his or her subjects properly? What is the necessity of a Zemindar or a Rajah if he does not look after the welfare of his ryots by bettering the condition of the land? It is not exportation that drains the country of its grains; but it is the vain Zemindar or Rajah who exhausts both money and grains of his own subjects towards whom he ought to behave as a dutiful and loving father behaves towards his child. The Zemindar or the Rajah seems to forget his primary duty and responsibility, and sqeezes money out of the ryot, spends it in bad directions and in vain matters or aims at hoarding it up.

Everyone of us should bear in mind that wealth is a national property, and I like to add that it is sacred as well. As a matter of fact, wealth is worshipped in our country as Lakshmi. Even the pot or box or the room in which it is kept is held holy. Wealth is truly a sacred national property. You earn an honest penny. Mind you, never forget to think it as very sacred. Think over and over again on the sacred thing; how to make the best use of it; mind you, your spending the penny will be your sowing the seed of your good or evil future. The best use of the honest penny will be, if you can spend frugally two farthings for your bread; one farthing, if you can keep aside for your future need, until it is amassed to a very limited and proper amount; and the fourth farthing, if you can lay out for your brethren, or rather for your country by whose co-operation you have been able to earn the penny. Mind you, this fourth part of the honest penny, which you will lay out for your brethren or country, will fetch you a good shilling. But lo, when this shilling comes, mind you very much that you may not happen to swell your spirits and position at the gain and thereby spoil yourself and your country. Take, as before, only two farthings for your bread, and one farthing, if still necessary, to keep apart for future need; and lay out all the rest of the shilling for the good of your country, which will fetch you a faithful pound. And so on you will continue increasing your property as well as that of your nation. Remember, the more your earnings will be, the more will your responsibility increase.

If you go on this way, you will find how much your country advances in a very few days. If you go on this way in your life, you will really live for your country, and your life will really be blessed; else you will be said to live for your own flesh which is a very unhappy thing for mankind. Mind you, your position in the world is very relative. In every act of yours the whole of your nation--nay, the whole world--is linked to you somehow or other. The very elements of political economy dictate that one man's gain is not another's loss, but the gain of others too. The civilization of your country will advance further and further, the more you will learn how to render mutual benefits and services, have reciprocal interests, and how to continue increasing such benefits, services, and interests and thereby unite your fellow-countrymen with one bond, and promote the well-being of your nation.

But we seem to understand quite the contrary. We seem to behave as barbarians. If we happen to become wealthy and moneyed men, we hardly use our wealth or money for general good. We seem to ignore the existence of our neighbours or fellow-countrymen or others, and think ourselves the only persons having an absolute right over wealth or money to satisfy our own selfish and inordinate appetites.

We never retrospect or think back over the source of that wealth--whence wealth comes. In any case it is labour.

Labour is the only real thing that produces wealth. And that labour too is sacred. But, alas! In our country we have not yet learnt to entertain so high an idea of labour. Why has America become so wealthy? Because labour is held very sacred there; and it is for this reason that America has today advanced so much in art and civilization. No labour, be it of whatever sort, is despised in America. No labourer, be he or she of any denomination whatsoever, is ever disregarded or held in abhorrence. But in our country the case is just the opposite. We undervalue, look down upon, and take no proper care of the labourer; while we worship and puff up the idle gudians unduly to the skies, whose money and wealth is all chiefly due to the unceasing sweat of the poor and helpless labourer. By all this, I do not mean that the labourer should be worshipped. My drift is that the Zemindar should take particular care of the ryot, who is the main source of filling up his granary and his iron-chest.

Rajahs or Zemindars of India should be ardent worshippers of Ram Chandra who sacrificed all for the sake of his subjects. If they meditate daily for long hours on the noble virtues of Ram Chandra, they may come to understand how grave and responsible relation they bear to their prajas or ryots. Without prajas or ryots, the Rajah or Zemindar is nothing. The ryot is equally as important a factor as the Rajah himself to produce his Raj or Zemindari. Such being the case, any neglect of the ryot or the land is a serious offence and a great injury to the Zemindari. The Rajah extorts money in all possible ways from the ryot but the unfortunate ryot does not get a farthing even in the days of scarcity from the Rajah. The ryot starves and dies from scarcity, still no material help comes from the Rajah--at the most the khajana is suspended, but never remitted; no especial arrangement is made to save them from the ravages of famine.

What necessity is there for a Zemindar if he cannot keep apart a certain amount of money to meet the wants of his ryots during famine or scarcity? What political or agricultural need for a Zemindar or a Rajah is there, if he cannot render his lands practically proof against famine, by keeping them under irrigation through canals and wells? What right have we to squander the sacred national money in our selfish and sensual pursuits; or in keeping up our usual luxurious style even in times of scarcity, without paying particular heed to the miserable condition of ryot? We, as conscientious beings, ought not to think we have an absolute right over the national money; we should take out of the profits of our lands only so much as would cover the moderate expense for our livelihood, and the surplus we should lay out in the agricultural improvements of our lands. Call to your mind the ultimate condition of the Roman Patricians. Have a recollection of the behaviour of the English East India Company, the renewals of their charter, and the transfer of the Government from the Company to the Crown. Look at the present condition of the Banias at the firms of merchants. If we continue to abuse the money or profits of our lands, and do not make any agricultural improvements in them, our Zemindari rights may be taken away, and we may be kept as so many so-called Zemindars drawing only a set salary to simply supervise the agricultural affairs, according to the strict directions of the Government.

If our country be visited by the dreadful calamities of famine or scarcity, it is the poor ryot that will die, and the Government that will have to suffer much. We big-bellied gudians will remain as idle as ever, sitting on the soft cushion with the filled up iron-chest on one side, the malkhana or store of jewelry on the other, the replenished granary behind, and an omniscient ministry or body of amlahs in the front. If our ryots happen to die from starvation, we shall never give them even a handful of grain from our granary, nor our omniscient ministry will let us give it. If the Government sqeezes us much, we at most subscribe some money most reluctantly--not from within the ever-reserved iron-chest, but from the daily cash-box. Or, if some of us be very much active and energetic, they at most bestir themselves to go up to the Government to ask for help, as the British Indian Association did in 1874! Why do you ask for such help? You big advocates of Local Self-Government? We cannot govern our own selves--we cannot manage ourselves, our own families--we cannot ourselves manage to improve the condition of our own lands, and to improve the land we go before the doors of others! Ludicrous enterprise after all indeed! We have not yet learnt how to properly produce, procure, and preserve our bread--and we go on discussing high topics of politics and other branches of knowledge! The very first thing to which our particular attention should be directed is the improvement of the land.

Land is the main origin of our bread, wealth and prosperity. By analysis we find that in every kind of our pursuits the land produces the very primary and essential thing of it. When such is the case, it is of vital importance to improve the productive power of the land.

The life of a nation consists of several phases, the agricultural life, the physical life, the social life, the intellectual life, the political life, the moral life, and the spiritual life. These are the several phases of a national life. The more a nation makes progress in each phase of its life, the more its civilization advances towards perfection. I draw your particular attention to the order in which a nation represents, in importance, the several phases of its life. The first and most important phase of a national life is the agricultural one; without the help of this phase a national life can never thrive properly in any of its other phases. Next to agricultural life in point of importance, comes the physical life which very much depends upon the agricultural life. It is evident that our vital powers are supported by the main products of the land; and this cannot be effected without the improvement of our lands by the application of the agricultural science, and of the science of agricultural economy. Next to agricultural and physical lives, comes the social phase of national life; this depends on the former two, i.e. on the agricultural and the physical life. Then the fourth, i.e. the intellectual, which depends on the former three, i.e. on the agricultural, physical and social lives.

You may improve much in the political or intellectual or in any other line, but all pursuits will be without foundation, if you have not first improved much in the agricultural branch of your knowledge, and if you do not apply practically, its fruits to your lands. It will be like building castles without or on insufficient foundation. One blast of wind may do away with all your work for centuries, root and branch. One famine like that of 1770 in Bengal or like that of 1878 in China, may send the whole country with all your advancement in civilization, to rack and ruin. Imagine what would the fate of Bengal, nay, of India have been, had the present winter-crop failed? We had but a hair-breadth escape.

Unless you make your country practically famine-proof, unless you deliver your country from the chronic disease of famine, no advancement in the agricultural phase of your national life can be said to have been made. And how can this be done? How can we get over this chronic national disease? It is a very grave and momentous question indeed, and requires effectual attention and vigorous undertaking of active measures on the part of every one of you, specially on the part of Zemindars.

I say, famine has become a chronic disease, not only in our country but almost in every country on the face of the earth. It is far more wide-spreading and far more dreadful and far more obstinate than plague. Dying scenes--inch by inch from starvation, are far more heart-rending to look at or to give ear to, than those from plague fever in a couple of days. The instances of famine, during which parents boiled their children for food, (as was the case in Asia Minor at the beginning of the Christian era, and in Bengal in 1770), are too formidable to describe.

Oh! No! Mother feeding on her children! What can be more shocking to man or even to lower animals! Rise up the whole world--East and West, and whoever there be in the North and South--rise up and arouse others that are still asleep, to struggle with Nature, to meet the great foe famine, manfully, and not in a beggarly fashion asking from door to door for help.

It is not India alone that is often visited by famine. For no less than four times, the whole world fell a prey to universal famine. In 1804 B.C., during the time of Jacob, there was a famine almost over all the face of the earth. In 879 A.D., there was another such famine. Another in 1022 A.D. and another happened in 1162. Whole Asia was attacked by it in 1631 A.D. Whole Europe fell a victim to it in 1016 A.D. The whole Africa almost succumbed in the seven years' famine of 1064 to 1072 A.D. In America there was a wide-spread famine in 1051 A.D.

It is not India alone that is often visited by it. Whole of Russia met a terrible famine in 1600 A.D. Twice very severely England was attacked in 1005 A.D., and in 1069. Ireland sank four times in 1491, 1581, 1822 and in 1846. The last one was the famous potato famine.

Of all the continents, Asia has now become the most favourite abode of the foe. It frequently travels over Asia Minor, India, and China. Of these countries, India the central one has been chosen for its den. This den has two larger openings--one to the south in Madras and the other here in Bengal. There are some smaller openings, such as in Bombay, Orissa and N.W.P.

Before the birth of the great Saviour, Asia Minor was often ravaged. It paid very dearly at least six times in 1921 B.C., 1804 B.C., 1409 B.C., 1118 B.C., 897 B.C. and 882 B.C. China was very terribly visited in 1878 A.D. when nine million persons died. In 1889 A.D. there was another famine in China.

And uncountable has become the beats of meek India's pulse! Every hour, some organ or other of hers is affected more or less severely! No year passes, in which some district or other is not eaten up by the monster. From time to time, the cannibal becomes omnivorous devouring many a district at every grasp. No less than 23 times, such omnivorous character was shown by this evil-doer.

Of the 23 attacks, eight turns were of Madras to yield to it in A.D. 1733, 1783, 1790 (when 1200 persons died at Vijgapatnam) 1805, 1814, 1824, 1854, and in 1877 (when 320,000 persons expired). Seven turns were of Bengal in the years: A.D. 1060, 1770 (when regarding its severity, the Government wrote 'It is scarcely possible that any description could be an exaggeration'), 1775, 1793, 1861, 1866, and 1874. Other Provinces were also attacked in the same manner, such as Bombay in A.D.1877 (when 100,000 deaths occurred), Orissa in 1866 (when one million were carried away), North West Provinces in 1861 and 1838 (when rivers were blocked with corpses), and so forth.