Constructing Disaster Subjects
John Shore, poem, in WW Hunter, Annals of Rural Bengal. London: Smith, Elder & Co.,
1897. 7th ed.
Still fresh in Memory's eye. the scene I view,
The shrivell'd limbs, sunk eyes, and lifeless hue;
Still hear the mother's shrieks and infant's moans.
Cries of despair, and agonizing groans.
In wild confusion, dead and dying lie;—
Hark to the jackall's yell, and vulture's cry,
The dog's fell howl, as, midst the glare of day,
They riot, unmolested, on their prey!
Dire scenes of horror! which no pen can trace,
Nor rolling years from Memory's page efface
RA Dalyell. Memorandum on the Madras Famine of 1866. Madras: Madras Central Famine
Relief Committee, 1866.
no amount of preparation can altogether prevent the recurrence of such calamities, as
famines, in those portions of India, where the storage of water depends entirely on
periodical rain.
It was pitiable to see the reduction and ruin of an industrious order of men, invested in
primitive forms with all the duties and obligations of property, and to reflect that
nothing less than a succession of prosperous seasons, combined with considerate
usage on the part of the Revenue Department, can restore these people to physical
vigour and material welfare.
The miserable condition of whole villages, was attested by the emaciated appearance
of their leading inhabitants, sent in numerous deputations to solicit help from the
Collector, at Chetterpore. The roads were full of wretched creatures prostrated on the
earth. In many places, I was pursued by clamorous crowds, which might be likened to
flocks of skeletons or ghosts.
In many cases, the starving objects sustained themselves with the flesh of forbidden
and abhorred animals, and there were instances in which the child fed upon its dead
parent, and the mother on her child.
In these cases the skin appears to be drawn over a fleshless skeleton ; the gluteal
muscles are replaced by a fold of loose skin, giving a deformed and repulsive aspect
to the figure; the face has the look of a corpse, and the voice and strength are almost
gone.
1
Report of the Indian Famine Commission. Part I. Famine Relief. London: George Edward
Eyre and William Spottiswoode, 1880.
The relief thus given should be tendered promptly, and before the people have begun
to lose strength from want of food, and the needful steps should be taken to induce all
destitute persons able to work to come to the places where employment is offered to
them as early as possible
Report of the Indian Famine Commission. London: Darling and Son, 1898.
A. Able-bodied persons accustomed to labour of the kind required on ordinary works
B. Able-bodied persons accustomed to labour, but not to labour of the kind required
on ordinary works
C. Able-bodied persons not accustomed to labour
D. Persons not able-bodied, but fit for light employment on relief works; or more
briefly,
A. Professional labourers
B. Labourers, but not professional
C. Able-bodied, but not labourers
D. Weakly
Papers Regarding the Famine Operations in India During the Year 1896 With Copy of the
Famine Code for the North-West Provinces and Oudh. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode,
1897.
I. Employment on large relief works entered on, the administrative programme
(article 17; Famine Code) and, managed by the Public Works Department or
similar agency.
II. Employment on small relief works [article 65'(a), Famine Code] controlled by
District Officers.
III. Gratuitous distribution of relief in poorhouses, State kitchens, and hospitals to the
poor and infirm unable to work until they can be sent to their villages or become fit
for labour.
IV. Employment at their homes of respectable, but indigent people who are debarred
by national custom from appearing in public.
2
V. Gratuitous distribution of relief at their homes to persons of respectable position
and family who are reduced to starvation
In every town and in many villages there are respectable people: in reduced
Circumstances whose women are debarred by national custom from appearing in
public, while the men also have not been accustomed to such labour as can be offered
on relief works. It is true, no doubt, that in past famines, when starvation had touched
these people, they came upon the Government relief works, where they were
employed, as far as possible, according to their castes and aptitudes. But it is
consonant with native feeling that relief should be distributed to these classes in their
own villages, if this can be done consistently with reasonable economy and a due
outturn of work
Report of the Indian Famine Commission (1898)
Steady regular labour, submission to discipline, and method in the general conduct of
life are qualities essential on famine as on all organized work, and these qualities they
do not possess. They therefore generally prefer to starve in the recesses of their hills
and jungles rather than to join the relief works in the plains. Even when sometimes
forced to come under pressure of starvation, their free and easy nature soon rebels
against the irksome fetters of organization, and any attempt to make them conform to
order may quickly drive them back to their jungle homes and haunts
Famine Relief Code: Bombay Presidency. Bombay: Government Central Press, 1904.
He [the Special Relief Officer] shall give special attention to the state of the idle or
disheartened poor, who, though able to work, refuse to leave their villages.
Note. These must be dealt with strictly: only those who are in danger of starving and
cannot leave the village are to be fed in it; and of those who come back from the
works to their villages, those only able to be fed who are unable to work. It should be
borne in mind that to those who have wilfully abandoned the works, relief should not
be given, unless it is indispensable for the preservation of their lives. At the same
time, the children of such persons as those described here should receive
consideration, and, if found in a reduced state, should be relieved in poor-houses or
village kitchens. Much discretion in these matters is left to the Special Relief Officer,
which cannot be safely accorded to his subordinates
