FAMINES.

Kolhapur, with its good rainfall and rich land especially in the valleys of the Dudhganga, Krishna, Varna, and Panchganga, is more free from famine than most of the Deccan districts. Owing to failure of crops in some outlying parts of the State, on account of scarcity of rain, prices have been occasionally high; but except in 1876-77 no famine has been recorded. Even the 1876-77 distress was caused more by the condition of the surrounding British districts than by a total failure of crops in the State.

In 1804-5 in Kolhapur though the season was tolerably good the people suffered from scarcity of food which is said to have been caused by the devastations of the Maratha army in the interior of the Maratha country. All the starving persons from the neighbouring Maratha country flocked to Kolhapur for relief. There was a great pressure on local supplies and the rupee price of grain rose to seven pounds and a half. The number of deaths from starvation appears to have been large. Shivaji, the then ruling prince of Kolhapur, as well as Himmat Bahadar, Bhim Bahadar, and other sardars and well-to-do persons, distributed food to the starving people who had flocked to Kolhapur from other places. The  following year was a year of plenty and the people soon recovered from the effects of this distress.

1876-77.

In 1876-77 the scanty rainfall of twenty-six inches led to a failure of crops, which following the bad crops of the previous years, by reason of which there was no grain in store, spread distress amounting to famine. The east suffered most. The Shirol sub-division between the Varna and the Krishna with its outlying part Raybag suffered most; next to it Katkol an outlying portion of Gadinglaj just south of the Belgaum-Kaladgi road; and then the tracts on the Sahyadri hills. While scarcity prevailed in the rest of the State, famine had full sway in these parts. For weeks together people lived on herbs mixed with chaff and sometimes committed petty thefts to satisfy hunger. When the 1876-77 monsoon set in very sparingly husbandmen became alarmed and grain-dealers who had only small grain stores gradually raised the rates. Things looked gloomy, but it was not till the first Week in October that the full extent of the calamity was felt. It was a week of panic. Prices suddenly rose to famine rates; village traders, moneylenders, and well-to-do persons, whose grain stocks had been already reduced by successive bad seasons, did not like to lessen their stock further and refused to make advances to husbandmen on the usual security of their field produce; there was no field work; and the people clamoured for relief works. At first small works were opened by the State to give immediate relief to Mangs, Mhars, and other classes more or less given to theft, who would otherwise have taken to wholesale plundering. At the outset, the wages on relief works which were somewhat less than the ordinary rates in the State, were 3d. (2 as.) for a man, 2¼d. (1½ as.) for a woman, and 1 ½d. (1 a.) for a boy or girl capable of doing work. But subsequently the sliding scale, based on the price of staple food grain, fixed by the British Government, was strictly adhered to. Under this scale the wages on works under Public Works agency were, for a man the price of one pound of grain and 1 ½d. (1 a.), for a woman the price of one pound of grain and ¾d. (½ a.), and for a boy or girl above seven years the price of half a pound of grain and ¾d. (½ a.); and on the civil works, for a man the price of one pound of grain and ¾d. (½ a.), for a woman the price of one pound of grain and ?d. (ft.), and for a boy or girl above seven years the price of half a pound of grain and ?d. (¼ a.). Children under seven years were given ?d. (¼ a.).

In November 1876, the first relief-works were opened in Shirol and Ichalkaranji in the east where distress began to be felt early and in the hilly parts of Vishalgad in the west, where owing to failure of crops in 1875, distress already prevailed. As the number of relief-seekers increased in December and January earthworks were started all over the State. The numbers of labourers became large. The number was doubled, and went on steadily increasing till September when it began to fall off gradually to the end of November when all relief works were finally closed.

From July 1877, the Imperial Public Works Department took charge of some of the relief-works carried on a large scale. To these works large numbers of able-bodied labourers were transferred with their children under seven years. The total cost on relief-works amounted to £26,030 (Rs. 2,60,300).

Besides these works gratuitous relief was given to those who were unable to work. In Kolhapur and in the feudatory States under it there were already several permanent charitable houses. The scope of these was enlarged soon after the scarcity began to be generally felt. As the distress increased new relief-houses were opened at convenient places. In all there were about eighteen relief-houses. The inmates of Kolhapur alms-houses were on two occasions supplied with clothing. The clothing funds were contributed by a lady in England who sent out £40 (Rs. 400) and by Mr. Bhau Mansaram of Poona who gave £100 (Rs. 1000). The gratuitous relief cost the State £5680 (Rs. 56,800). The following statement shows for each of the famine months in 1876 and 1877, the number of persons employed on relief-works, both under the Civil and. Public Works Agency, with the average rupee prices of jvari and nachni:

Kolhapur Famine, 1876-77,

 

As the agricultural season of 1877 approached advances were made to a large number of cultivators who would otherwise have, been left without any means of cultivating their fields, as they had neither credit nor the means of buying either food or seed grain,' The sum advanced, which amounted to £21,600 (Rs. 2,16,000) was subsequently recovered.

The average yearly number of deaths for the throe preceding years ending 1875-76 was 13,792; and in the famine year of 1876-77 it rose to 28,573 or more than double. The increased death-rate was more due to cholera, diarrhoea, small-pox, and other epidemics which, broke up in the hot season of 1877, than to actual' starvation. The harvest of 1877 was fair, but the affected people who had been, weakened by their previous suffering died in large numbers especially along the hills. The poorer classes suffered most. In some of the villages of Raybag whole families of husbandmen deserted their villages and were not heard of afterwards. The loss of cattle was great. Many Dhangars or Shepherds living in the hilly parts lost all their cattle, owing partly to want of fodder and partly to cattle-disease which accompanied the other epidemics. Well-to-do people did not actually seek State relief, but lost all they had. Ornaments, metal pots, spare clothing, and even family idols were freely sold. Though all visible signs of distress have disappeared, it will require a succession of good years to enable the husbandmen to recover what they have lost. [This chapter owes much to additions and corrections by Mr. E. 0. Ozanne, C.S., Director of Agriculture, Bombay.]