Kozhikode :

Colonial rulers and chroniclers of British rule had all along maintained that blessed with copious rains and unfailing monsoon, Malabar remained impervious to famine.

But a recent, first of its kind study on ‘Famines in British Malabar’ busts the myth which William Logan, the famous historian and administrator, had reiterated in his exhaustive treatise Malabar Manual, that ever since the East India Company (EIC) took over the administration in India and subsequently passed it on to the British Crown, there was no record of famine in the district, and he gave much of the credit to an efficient British government.

But the yet to be released monograph of ‘Famines in British Malabar’ written by food economist, Dr. M Raghavan, Former Director of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, says that Logan’s accounts about having a largely famine- free Malabar during the 18th and 19th centuries are factually icorrect.

“The archival records themselves reveal that Logan himself had received, under his official seal and date, periodic reports from taluk level officials about the ravaging epidemics and famines in the district. Interestingly, all these reports were received in the Collectorate under the official seal”, Raghavan says in the study.

“Fact being that the Malabar Manual was first published just eight years after the 1876-78 famine, the statement that post the 1727 famine there was no record of any famine in Malabar is more of a deliberate attempt on the part of Logan to conceal the truth,” he said.

Raghavan, who has worked for around 35 years in the realm of food security in various roles including as deputy economic advisor at the Planning Commission, said that there has not been any comprehensive study of famines in British Malabar.

“These assertions are clearly preposterous as in the first half of the twentieth century, Malabar alone had undergone at least four grievous famines in 1918, 1924, 1933, and 1943,” he added.

“Though the construction of railways has been generally perceived as the best long term guarantee against famines as it allowed movement of food quickly from surplus to famine-prone deficit areas, in reality the British administration tacitly allowed private traders to carry away whatever food stocks were available, either for exports or for indulging in speculation inviting disastrous famines at progressively shorter intervals,” Raghavan said.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kozhikode / by K R Rajeev, TNN / July 16th, 2014