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| Famines in India (1690–1770) | |
|---|---|
| Name | Famines in India (1690–1770) |
| Date | 1690–1770 |
| Place | Indian subcontinent |
| Result | Widespread mortality, migration, fiscal strain |
Famines in India (1690–1770)
Between 1690 and 1770 the Indian subcontinent experienced a sequence of severe food crises that affected regions under the Mughal Empire, Maratha Empire, Nizam of Hyderabad, Kingdom of Mysore, Sikh Confederacy, Bengal Subah, Awadh and various East India Company presidencies. Contemporary chroniclers such as Mirza Muhammad Rafi Sauda, European visitors like William Hawkins (diplomat), company officials including Robert Orme and later historians such as Irfan Habib and C.A. Bayly have linked these famines to overlapping political, climatic and fiscal stresses. The period intersects with events like the War of the Spanish Succession, the Mughal–Maratha Wars, the Battle of Plassey, and the expansion of the British Raj which reshaped relief and revenue practices.
Late 17th–mid 18th century South Asia saw the decline of centralized authority after the death of Aurangzeb and the fragmentation of the Mughal Empire into successor states such as the Bengal Sultanate successor administrations and emergent polities including the Maratha Confederacy and the Nizam of Hyderabad. Fiscal regimes tied to the Zamindari system, the jagir allocations and revenue settlements under officials like Todar Mal’s successors were stressed by military campaigns like the Deccan Wars and the Third Carnatic War. Climatic variability during the late 17th and early 18th centuries—documented in proxy series used by Michael E. Mann and climatic reconstructions referenced by Georges C. McIntyre and Katharina Neumann—coincided with monsoon failures that affected the Ganges Delta, the Deccan Plateau, the Coromandel Coast and the Malabar Coast. Trade links via the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal and overland routes influenced grain prices as seen in records of the Dutch East India Company, the French East India Company and the English East India Company.
Notable crises include the late-1690s famine affecting the Deccan Plateau and Mughal territories, the 1719–1720 Bengal and Bihar crisis recorded by Thomas Bowrey and John Fryer, the 1739–1740 crisis coinciding with invasions by Nader Shah and military upheaval, the 1745–1746 famine in Madras Presidency reported by Elliot (historian)’s sources, and the widespread 1769–1773 Bengal and north-Indian dearth overlapping with the Great Bengal Famine precursors and the fiscal aftermath of the Battle of Buxar. Provincial episodes—such as famines in Awadh, Mysore under Hyder Ali, Karnataka tracts, and the Punjab—are documented in letters of Warren Hastings, reports by Charles Grant, and registers of the Calcutta Council.
Primary causes combined multi-year monsoon failure in the Indian Ocean Dipole influenced region, crop failures of rice and millet on the Indo-Gangetic Plain, and pest outbreaks noted in Persian and European travel accounts. Secondary factors included revenue extraction practices tied to the Zamindari assessments, wartime requisitions by commanders like Chhatrapati Shahu, supply disruption from campaigns of the Maratha Empire and the Durrani Empire, and market speculation recorded by the Dutch East India Company and the English East India Company. Institutional failures—highlighted in correspondence by Robert Clive and analyzed by Bipan Chandra—and the collapse of traditional grain storage systems in towns such as Murshidabad and Agra amplified mortality.
Regions varied: the Bengal Subah and Bihar saw urban mortality, rural depopulation, and migration to river ports like Kolkata and Chittagong; the Deccan experienced agrarian distress, cattle loss and village abandonment; the Coromandel and Malabar coasts faced labor dislocation affecting textile centers tied to Madras and Calicut trade. Contemporary population estimates by provincial administrators and later demographers such as Simon Digby and Tapan Raychaudhuri suggest localized declines, altered sex ratios, and interruption to artisan clusters in cities like Ahmedabad and Jaipur. Epidemic diseases—reported in accounts by Jean-Baptiste Tavernier and physicians linked to the French East India Company—followed famines, compounding demographic shock.
Responses ranged from traditional charity by temple institutions such as the Jagannath Temple and waqf endowments to state interventions including grain distribution by governors like the Nawabs of Bengal and relief works commissioned by the Maratha Peshwa and the Nizam. European companies instituted granary policies, public works and market controls—the English East India Company experimented with price controls and importation of rice via the Bay of Bengal—while administrators such as Warren Hastings and Robert Orme debated laissez-faire versus interventionist strategies. Military movement orders, siege logistics from commanders in the Carnatic Wars, and the interventions of merchants such as the Armenian and Chettiar networks influenced relief efficacy.
Longer-term effects included restructuring of agrarian contracts in regions under Company rule, shifts in land revenue regimes that prefigured the Permanent Settlement of 1793 debates, changes in grain market integration across ports like Surat and Masulipatnam, and the decline of some artisanal industries serving courts of rulers such as the Nawab of Awadh. Social consequences encompassed reconfigured patronage networks around nobles like Shuja-ud-Daula, intensified migration patterns toward colonial nodes such as Calcutta, and transformations in customary practices of communal charity centered on institutions like the Akbar period-legacy foundations.
Primary sources include Persian chronicles, company records from the British Library and the National Archives of India, travelogues by Jean Chardin-era writers, and regional chronicles in languages such as Bengali, Persian, Marathi and Kannada. Key modern studies by Irfan Habib, C.A. Bayly, Tapan Raychaudhuri, Bipan Chandra, David Ludden and Anjan Ghosh synthesize climate proxies, fiscal ledgers and narrative sources to debate causation and culpability. Historiographical disputes continue between scholars emphasizing climatic determinism, those highlighting institutional failure associated with the East India Company, and revisionists reading continuities from the Mughal administrative inheritance.
Category:Famines in India Category:History of South Asia Category:Environmental history