Akola District in1896-1897.

169. The Berar Districts very rarely suffer from famine; in 1871 a deficient monsoon resulted in some distress, and in 1877 a long break in July caused a great though temporary rise in prices; actual famine has however only occurred twice since the Assignment, in the years 1896-1897 and 1899-1900. The taluks which now form Akola District were then divided between the three old Districts of Akola; Basim, and Amraoti. Akola District contained the five taluks of Akola, Akot, Balapur, Khamgaon, and Jalgaon; Basim District contained Basim, Mangrul, and Pusad; Murtizapur taluk belonged to Amraoti District. The present chapter describes separately the famines as they occurred in the old Akola and Basim Districts; Murtizapur taluk is. dealt with in the Amraoti volume.

During the rains of 1896 Akola District received only 26 inches instead of an average, calculated on the preceding ten years, of 35 inches. Heavy rain fell in the early part of August but there was practically none later; most of the other Districts in Berar received useful rain in November. Cotton reached an average of eight annas all over the District, that is more than half a normal crop; jawari was estimated at eight annas north of the railway line and four annas to the south; rabi crops completely failed. These conditions would have caused little more than a shortage of employment but that the monsoon failed throughout India, causing a great rise in price; on the 28th of September the price of jawari in Akola rose suddenly from 20 to 13 seers per rupee and that of wheat from 12 to 9½ seers. Apparently the rise was immediately caused by large purchases for export but was much intensified by speculation; satta dealings, for forward delivery, were very common in Akola and Khamgaon and kept prices there 15 per cent. or more above the level of other places in At Khamgaon Marwaris who wanted prices to run high were said to buy up the first cartloads of grain at rates higher than the owners asked. The sudden rise in prices caused a popular panic for a few days; people closed their grain stores to prevent export, and the difficulty of getting grain caused a danger of rioting. The famine was more severe in Akola than in any other part of Berar, except the Melghat, but caused no permanent harm; people now speak of it as the ' six-anna crop dearness ' or in similar phrases.

Public heath, crime, food-supplies.

170. Public health was better than normal from September 1896 to April 1897, but worse from May to the following October. In ordinary years the death-rate per thousand is from 2½ to 3½ between May and July and from 4 to 5 between August and October; in 1897 it was from 4 to 4½ in the former period and rose to 11 in August. The chief causes were dysentery and diarrhoea, but cholera also prevailed; people were very unwilling to go any considerable distance in search of relief, and suffered by living at home on poor and Insufficient food. Scarcely any deaths were caused by starvation; the few victims were chiefly wanderers from other provinces. Crime increased considerably, the object being generally to get grain; it was not committed by organised bands, but by lazy people who preferred crime to labour on relief works. The increase began in September with house trespass and petty riots in bazars, and developed in October into robberies and dacoities. In August and September 1897 a great deal of crime occurred; people had returned to their villages but received wages very low in view of the high prices still prevailing. It is very difficult to estimate the supply of jawari, the staple food-grain; it is chiefly stored in grain pits and people are very unwilling to say how much they have. Little seems, however, to have been imported into the District, and though there was considerable anxiety in 1897 lest the famine should continue it is almost certain that there were a few months supply in hand. The average price of jawari in the different months during the decade in which the famines occurred varied from 20 to 22 seers a rupee; from October to December 1896 it varied between 12 and 10; it remained at the latter rate till May 1897, rose to nine in June and July and eight in August, but then fell steadily till it returned to normal in the beginning of 1898. Water-supply caused great anxiety, especially in Khamgaon and Jalgaon taluks. Cattle suffered, but less severely than in some of the other Berar Districts. Land-revenue collections caused little difficulty; only Rs. 23,000 were suspended and no remissions were given, but in the whole of Berar no single defaulter had to be imprisoned, and only 43 fields were sold. This was due partly to the general prosperity, partly to the low rates of assessment, and partly to the fact that good prices had been realised for the crops of 1897 before the demand for that year became due

Relief measures.

171. Relief operations began with petty works opened by local boards at rates between ordinary and famine wages, and were continued by different agencies. The Public Works Department spent Rs. 68,000 on diverting the Shahanur river in Akot taluk, to avoid the flooding of land on its lower course and the obstruction of the Akot road; the Department also constructed a tank at Eranda in Akola taluk (Rs. 22,000), and roads from Telhara in Akot taluk to Adsul and Jhiri (Rs. 19,000). Khamgaon municipality spent Rs. 20,000 on improving the Januna tank, which supplies the town with water. A total of Rs. 44,000 was spent by the different authorities in collecting broken stone metal; several tanks were repaired and small pieces of road made. The total cost of these works was Rs. 1,92,000; their estimated value was Rs. 1,44,000; the. number of persons employed, calculated ' for one day' and including dependents, was 1,384,000, a little over 2 per cent. of the population. Ellichpur District, which contained the Melghat, spent Rs. 77,000; the other four Districts spent from Rs. 46,000 to Rs. 53,000 each; Akola had more than twice as many people on relief as any other District. Government loans to agriculturists were somewhat hampered by a difficulty in applying to Berar a circular letter of the Government of India, but they amounted to Rs. 35,000, many times more than the total of ordinary years. The figures given do not sufficiently represent the intensity of the famine; private charity was very generously exercised, both reducing the numbers in need of Government relief and dealing with distress beyond the scope of Government operations. The District subscribed over Rs. 15,000 to the Charitable Relief Fund, from which it received over Rs. 35,000; in the large towns a daily distribution of food was made to all poor wanderers; patels and factory managers, Marwaris and Brahmans, vied with each other in providing shelter and cooked food; Government officials, missionaries, and other private persons subscribed most liberally for poor-houses and charitable relief.

Basim District in 1896-1897.

172. The famine of 1896-1897 was felt severely in the old Basim District, though less than in Akola. The rainfall was only 24 inches instead of an average of 44, but nearly 2 inches fell in November. Cultivators used commonly to keep only enough grain to last till the next harvest, surplus stocks being largely in the hands of sahukars; these demanded ruinous terms when the famine harvest failed. The number of leases and deeds of sale and mortgage almost doubled during the year, and ornaments were sold at rates from 25 to 30 per cent. below the ordinary prices. Many cultivators must therefore have become deeply involved, but no permanent ill effects were caused. Public health was good-till June 1897, but the death-rate from July to October varied between 5½ and 8 per thousand; the maximum rate had been surpassed in epidemics of cholera, but the ordinary rate of those months was only three or four. The roads were patrolled to rescue starving wanderers and only 32 deaths from starvation occurred. Crime increased considerably, but no additional police had to be engaged. At first some petty grain riots occurred, apparently with the partial object of securing free board and lodging in goal; this was checked by whipping being inflicted. During the ten months from January to October 1897 there were less than 20 dacoities and less than 20 robberies; but housebreakings numbered 230 instead of the average of 70, and thefts 350 instead of 150. Some dacoities were the work of organised gangs; the large transport of grain offered many opportunities to bad characters; some individuals felt driven to crime by want; but on the whole the increase of crime was slight enough to form clear proof of the law-abiding disposition of the people.

Food, water, fodder, cattle.

173. The local supply of food grains would have sufficed for the District, but it was largely reduced by exports to Akola and Murtizapur: fortunately there was a bumper crop of dadri jawari, a rabi crop, just across the Nizam's border; large quantities were imported, except during an interval in which the Nizam's officers stopped the traffic. The water-supply in ordinary years is ample in Basim taluk but inclined to scantiness in parts of Mangrul and Pusad; in February 1897 difficulty was felt in the jungles to which a large number of cattle had been driven; in villages both man and beast suffered through May and June, and in parts of Pusad throughout July. Both grass and kadbi were also scanty on account of the poor rainfall. The reserved forests were opened to the extent of 72,000 acres at rates reduced by either two-thirds or five-sixths, but, perhaps on account of the distance of the forests from villages, only 14,000 cattle were brought to graze. Cattle suffered severely from the lack of fodder and water; Banjaras and other owners of large herds lost very heavily; buffalo flesh was sometimes cheaper than grain, even on relief works. The plough bullocks were however saved and cultivation in the next year was not retarded by lack of cattle. No pressure was exerted to bring in the land revenue except when enquiry revealed ability to pay; less than Rs. 7000 out of a total of Rs. 672,000 was suspended, while 33 per cent. of the rabi instalment, or 8 per cent. of the whole, was actually paid in advance. Cultivators from long tradition regard the land revenue demand as inexorable and some must have satisfied it by borrowing, but it can have caused no great distress. In the less fertile parts of Mangrul and Pusad taluks some land used every year to be taken up by people who meant to abscond after harvest without paying the land revenue a certain number of fields were sold there to realise the demand, but this happened every year.

Relief measures.

174. Practically the whole District was affected by the famine; relief measures had to be taken up in all parts in February 1897, when field labour became scanty. The number of persons relieved, calculated for one day, was altogether 618,000, the great majority on large works but 30,000 in poorhouses and 13,000 in their own homes. On the average of the months from February to October 1897 nearly 6 per thousand of the population was in receipt of relief, but relief on a large scale was taken only during the months of April, May, and June, when the ratio per thousand was-for April 7, May 28, and June 7. Gratuitous relief was given from provincial and municipal revenues on only a small scale. Poorhouses were opened at the taluk headquarters on these resources and at Risod and Sirpur in Basim taluk on a small fund of private donations. A Relief Committee also opened a cheap grain shop at Basim, affording relief to the extent of Rs. 4,000 These agencies were all more or less under Government auspices. Relief labour was utilised to deepen four tanks, and Rs. 8,000 were issued in loans for improving wells Many well-to-do agriculturists took advantage of the cheapness of labour to improve their wells, and charitable Marwaris deepened the tank at Mop in Basim taluk. Private charity was fairly active throughout the District. Subscriptions to the Charitable Relief Fund amounted to Rs. 8,000, and expenditure from it to Rs. 10,000. No famine allowances were made to public servants. Loans to agriculturists amounted altogether to Rs. 15,000. The chief relief works were the improvement of the Nagpur dak line, especially important in view of the opening of the Godavari Valley Railway at Jalna, and the making of a road from Mangrul to Shelu. The former work cost Rs. 17,000 and the latter Rs. 9,000 The country in Mangrul and Pusad taluks is very rough, and much valuable work was done in improving ghat roads. The total amount expended was Rs. 50,000; the value of the work done was estimated at Rs. 36,000 only, but there was great doubt about the estimate because many of the works were not valued till the rains had set in and made judgment difficult. Other relief measures included the free use of the mahua crop, which must have saved many lives in the jungly tracts; and payment of takavi instalments was suspended. It was noted that though the condition of the cultivators had much improved since the period of high prices in 1876-1877 it was not clear that their power of resisting bad seasons had increased. The habits of the Kunbi had formerly been very simple, and owing to the low value of his land he had slight facilities for borrowing money. He now found it easy to borrow and had got into a habit of squandering money on very slight pretexts, thus largely sacrificing his prosperity. However the crops immediately after the famine were excellent and there was every prospect that with a few more good seasons the cultivators would wholly recover their former position.

Akola District in 1899-1900.

175. In Akola in the two years which succeeded the famine of 1896-1897 the rain fall was deficient but came at the right times to secure good kharif crops. There were thus good harvests of cotton and jawari, and stocks of the chief food grain were replenished, though prices were low. Rabi crops had been poor for three years before the first famine and were even worse in these two years. They occupied only 7 per cent. of the whole cropped area, but the loss was considerable, especially as the people were unaccustomed to poor crops. The rains of 1899 commenced in the second week of June, but for the whole period of the monsoon gave only scattered showers. The average rainfall of the District for the preceding 10 years had been 5 inches in June, 10 in July, 6 in August, and 6 in September. In 1899 there were only 3 inches in June, 2 in July, 1½ in August, and 1 in September; and the local distribution of even this scanty fall was most irregular. There were constantly promising clouds, and cultivators remained hopeful right into September. As many as three sowings were often made, and people looked forward to good rabi crops when it was too late to sow jawari, but the rain never came. There were in a few villages close under the hills a little stunted jawari and a cotton crop estimated at something between half an anna and one anna in the rupee, but with this trifling exception the crops were a total failure. The loss to the whole District entailed by this failure of all unirrigated crops was estimated at Rs. 1,13,45,310. The irrigated area, though the largest on record, was under 10,000 acres, or less than 1/10 per cent. of the whole cultivated area of the District. It was believed, though certainty was impossible, that there was less jawari in hand at the beginning of the second famine than in 1896. At any rate the greatly increased demand in the rigorous and widespread famine of 1899 caused prices to rise more quickly than in the earlier year. The average price of jawari during the period just before the famine had varied only between 19 and 22 seers at different times of the year. In September 1899 it was 14 seers, from October to May 1900 it was 10, from June to August 9, in September and October 10, then 12 in November, 16 in December, and presently a normal price again. Even though local crops had completely failed it was at first thought that the stocks in the District were sufficient to allow of export, which  continued briskly from August to November, the jawari going chiefly to Bombay; and a considerable quantity was lost by repeated sowings. Prices reached a famine level by September. From December till the end of the famine cheap rice from Burma and pulse and various other kinds of grain from northern India poured into the District, and this kept the price of jawari fairly steady in most places-though in some villages remote from the main roads it rose to 7 seers a rupee. Competition was too active, and in most parts communications were too good, for any ring to be formed to keep up prices. Famine conditions were prolonged owing to the cotton crop of 1900-1901 being backward. The monsoon burst late, and cultivators found a difficulty in getting seed and bullocks, and in paying for labour. Thus the labourers who had come to relief works found agricultural labour scarce till the harvest began, and they suffered more acutely during the months from July to October 1900 than at any other time. The population of the District was 575,000, of whom 35 per cent. were petty cultivators and 31 per cent. agricultural labourers.

Relief measures.

176. Preparations for a very severe famine were begun in August and the District Board was asked to be ready to start test works at a week's notice. The Board responded promptly and admirably, and proved able unaided to meet the great rushes of panic-stricken labourers that ensued. Four test works were opened in September and their number was increased to ten in October. In the middle of September they contained 1700 workers, at the end of the month 6000, and by the middle of October 13,600. Eight of them were then converted into large relief works under the Public Works Department, and more similar works were added till they numbered 23 in June 1900. The chief relief works were devoted to the repair of the great roads and of certain tanks and to the earthwork of. the proposed Khandwa-Akola-Basim and Khamgaon-Jalna railways, but very numerous minor works were also carried out. The number of labourers on these works rose from 30,000, or 5 per cent. of the population, at the end of November to 60,000, or 10 per cent., in December and to 83,000, or 14½ per cent., toward the end of June. In the middle of November kitchens were attached to works for the relief of dependents, the number of whom gradually rose to nearly 13,000 in May. At first many of the better class of workers supported their families out of their earnings and reserves, but this gradually became impossible. Gratuitous relief by private charity was organised in August and preparations for the distribution of Government doles were completed in November, though distribution was not commenced till January. The number. in receipt of these doles rose in June and July to nearly 6000. As the private grain funds in villages became exhausted, which happened in the hot weather, names were transferred from their lists to Government lists. An order to open village kitchens was received from the Resident in April and was carried into effect in May. They were meant chiefly for the relief of poor children and proved most effective. Their number was increased when the breaking of the monsoon caused people to return to their villages, and as the system was more economical than that of relief by doles incapable adults were transferred from the doles list to the kitchen list. In August the number of kitchens at work was 146, the total number of inhabited villages in the District being 966, and on a date toward the close of September the number of persons relieved by them was 25,000, or over 4 per cent. of the population. Poor-houses were opened early in December 1899. They were established at the five taluk headquarters and at She-gaon in Khamgaon taluk and Telhara in Akot taluk. They were periodically cleared out, incapable wanderers being alone retained and others being sent either to their villages for gratuitous relief or to relief works. During the four months from April to July over 15 per cent. of the population was in receipt of relief, and this proportion rose in June to 19 per cent. Apparently about 25 per cent. of the labourers on receipt works in the hot season were cultivators, but almost all of these returned to their villages when sowing commenced. Cultivators needed their little savings for the preservation of their cattle, a far more expensive matter than the preservation of human life; they could only have obtained credit on ruinous terms, but were able to maintain their position fairly well by coming to the relief works. The proof of this is that no land was relinquished; the normal area was brought under cultivation in the next year, showing the resisting power of the cultivating class. District officers remarked the small proportion of Muhammadans on the works and considered that a distaste for manual labour was one of the causes. The cost of supporting an adult during the 14 months of the famine was estimated at Rs. 52, and that of every head of cattle saved at Rs. 100 or more. Well-to-do cultivators freely took advantage of cheap labour to improve their property, and great private charity was exercised by all classes. The Indian Charitable Relief Fund received subscriptions of Rs. 35,000 from the District and allotted Rs. 1,83,000 to it. Labourers on relief works were often reported to be lazy, and their work was finally valued at only a quarter of what it cost, but Kunbis showed both considerable independence and great gratitude for the help of the fund.

Economic effects.

177. In the year 1895-1896, which was a normal year, there were registered 3,390 mortgages of land with a value of Rs. 10,77,000, and 4,160 sales of land with a value of Rs. 11,00,000; in 1899-1900 the mortgages numbered 4,550 and were valued at Rs. 10,38,000, and the sales numbered 4,050 at a value of Rs. 10,30,000. Thus the mortgages increased in number by 35 per cent., though the increase in value was by no means proportionate, and the sales decreased in both number and value. Compared with the famine of 1896-1897 the mortgages of the second famine increased by 24 per cent. and the sales decreased by 2 per cent. Many cultivators again would be unwilling to mortgage their land and would obtain loans on simple bonds or on stamped acknowledgments. Yet even if the figures are regarded in the most unfavourable light it is clear that the cultivating class survived the disaster of a second and very rigorous famine far better than might have been feared. Weavers were expected to go to the ordinary relief works if they were capable of doing ordinary work; relief was given in their own villages to others from March 1900, the total number so assisted being 13,000. There are few weavers in the District, and most of these live in Akola, Akot, and Balapur. It was calculated that nearly Rs. 7,00,000 worth of gold and silver ornaments and utensils were sold during the famine, but it was impossible to get exact statistics. The selling rate in these cases involved a loss of about 36 per cent.; brass and copper utensils sold at a loss of 50 per cent. Far more of these articles were sold than in the former famine; gold and silver idols were openly offered in the market. The total value mentioned would come to R. 1-4 per head of the population. A little emigration into the Nizam's Dominions occurred at the very beginning of the famine owing to false reports of good crops and of the generosity of some Raja there, but most of the wanderers soon came back. Some of the smaller villages were wholly or partially deserted while the people were away at the relief works, but by the end of the famine the inhabitants had returned and there were few visible traces of their wanderings except occasional ruined houses. Indebtedness must have increased considerably and there was a great loss of cattle, the better class of cultivators suffering even more than the poorer, but considering that this was the severest famine on record and that it closely followed another famine extraordinarily little permanent harm was done. This must be attributed to the general previous prosperity of the District and the very liberal assistance given by Government. In both famines the labouring class, once the immediate stress had passed, was left very little the worse.

Public health; children.

178. Public health was poor before the beginning of the famine, possibly through an unusual cycle of deficient monsoons. The death rate in the hot weather immediately before the famine, when there was nothing to suggest conditions dangerous to health, was almost as high as during the corresponding quarter in the famine year. It fell in July, was normal by September, and remained above the normal for the rest of the famine. It was between 4 and 6 per thousand in the cold weather months, when it is usually between 2 and 3; was 6 in May and June, 9 in July, and 11 in August (which in that decade usually ranked as the most unhealthy month in virtue of a death rate of 5), after which it gradually sank to a normal 3 in December. There was a good deal of cholera through most of the famine year, more than was shown by the village statistics; because the headmen found more than usual difficulty in making the special daily reports required when cholera has been declared. When the rain came, in July, all conditions became temporarily more unhealthy still. The poorer classes usually ate tarota bhaji during the rains, but in the famine they ate also tarota and tamarind leaves and seed, grass seed, gullar or wild figs, umra, katsewari flowers, ubatya beans, gokhar, and other plants, and mixed with their jawari some of the oil-cake given to cattle The labourers on relief works had generally been in good condition and it does not appear that they had been weakened by getting insufficient pay. A curious point rises in connection with the question of age mortality. Throughout the famine about 75 per cent. of the deaths were among children under 5 or adults over 50; there was a general impression that these classes, the very young and the old, were especially badly hit by it. In fact however during the five prosperous years ending in 1895 the proportions were just the same, or rather the children suffered less in the famine year than in those years. This seems to suggest that the relief measures were very successful, though it brings out the fact clearly that in ordinary years nearly one-quarter of the deaths are among children under one year of age, another quarter among children of from one to five years, and about a quarter more among people of over 50 years. Privation is apparently inevitable in times of severe famine, but only 13 cases of starvation were reported and only two of these proved on investigation to, be genuine. The victims were in both cases wanderers from outside the District; no one in the District died from not being within reach of food or from the inadequacy of relief arrangements. Hardly any cases of children being abandoned by their parents were observed. A list of 1200 orphans was made out during the famine and it was expected that an orphanage would have to be started for them, but all were suitably provided for by local charity. The birth rate, which is usually 40 per mille per annum, fell during the famine by less than half a point.

Crime, food-supply, etc.

179. Crime naturally increased. The number of murders and attempts to murder was double the normal. Most offences against property increased in the same proportion, and dacoities increased twelve times. However most of these crimes were only technically serious; there was, for instance, no system of organised dacoity. Additional police were enrolled to watch treasure at famine camps, but for no other purpose. There was considerable ill-feeling at first at the sight of sahukars making large profits by exporting grain when others could hardly afford to buy enough for their own needs, but under the circumstances the people were very quiet and law-abiding. The food grains exported by railway from September to November 1900 amounted to 275,000 maunds, and those imported by the same means to close upon 2,000,000 maunds. Probably one-half of this went through the District to Basim or Buldana. It was calculated afterwards that there must have been nearly 2,000,000 maunds more stored in the District, that is, at half a maund or 45 pounds per head per month, nearly seven months' supply. The imports were largest during December and January; they were left to uncontrolled private enterprise, which answered quite satisfactorily. Cheap grain shops to the number of 31 were established by private charity and managed by committees under official supervision. At Akola Rs. 38,000 were raised for this purpose by a very trifling rate on all sales made by tradesmen, a system to which people willingly agreed. Admission to the shops was restricted to the needy and so no competition with ordinary shops resulted. Water was so scanty that people at many villages and most relief works had to depend on shallow wells sunk in the dry beds of streams. Shegaon suffered more severely than any other municipality. Cattle are largely fed on jawari stalks for eight months of the year; when jawari failed completely and grass almost entirely it is clear that very great difficulty was caused. Many cattle were taken far into the Melghat hills in search of fodder and water but were unable to stand the change to hill life. There was tremendous mortality among the cattle in the District, so that animals were sold in the markets for two or three rupees. An annual census of cattle is taken by village officials but the results are not very reliable. A special census taken in this one District in July 1900 showed that 46 per cent. of cows and 36 per cent. of bullocks had died, but it is quite possible that the figures should be 50 per cent.; this correction is borne out by the figures about export of hides given by the railway company. Village officials at first pressed cultivators for the payment of land revenue, not only in the supposed interests of Government but also because their own emoluments are payable after 90 per cent. of the revenue has been collected. Enquiry was made to find out who were in a position to pay and who were not, but it was found that the lists made by village officials required further scrutiny on behalf of the cultivators. Every patel was warned that no one was to be reported as able to pay unless he could do so without borrowing. By the end of July 1900, five months after the proper date, 66 per cent. of the demand had been paid, by February 1901 only 7 per cent. remained, and thanks to good prices almost the whole of this was rapidly paid up.

Basim District in 1899-1900.

180. Basim District also was severely affected by the famine of 1899-1900. Relief measures were begun in the middle of November in the former year and continued till nearly the middle of December in the latter. The District contained a population of close upon 400,000, of whom about 70 per cent. were either agriculturists or agricultural labourers; 5 or 6 per cent. more were unskilled labourers and would suffer equally severely from a general failure of employment. Distress was more widespread than was anticipated in the report submitted in October 1899, partly because it was impossible at that time to foresee how complete would be the failure of crops and partly because of an extraordinary influx of people from the Nizam's Dominions. The famine was very acute everywhere but was most severe in Pusad taluk and in the south-west of Basim taluk around Risod. Much of the land in Pusad taluk is poor and very many of the cultivators were Andhs and Banjaras, people averse to steady labour and in the habit even in good years of living from hand to mouth. In Risod pargana there was usually a great deal of rabi cultivation, which this year failed entirely, and the land was to an unusual extent in the hands of sahukars. The rains of 1899 set in favourably and though they were much below the average there were occasional falls till the middle of September; but by the beginning of November most of the jawari had withered so much that the cultivators cut it merely for fodder; its estimated outturn was only a fraction per cent. of the normal. Scarcely any rabi was sown and practically none survived; irrigation is always negligibly small. Good harvests in the two years following the famine of 1896-1890 had brought the price of jawari to a normal rate; this was maintained till September 1899, but a great deal of grain was exported in that month and the following, and prices then rose at a much more rapid rate than in the previous famine; jawari was selling at 10 or 11 seers per rupee till January of the previous famine, but it rose to 8 or 9 by October of this one. The unpromising opening of the rains of 1900 caused prices to remain high for a long time. Cultivators in Berar do not work as hard as they do in some places; owing to the prospect of discipline and fairly hard work in the camps they did not as a rule seek relief till their resources were really exhausted; the minimum wage was rather low, but many people preferred to remain upon it rather than do a fair amount of work. When the rains broke labourers sometimes lived largely on jungle produce in order to save something out of their wages, and their health suffered in consequence. Wages were reduced in July and replaced by cooked food in November, when the number of labourers fell greatly. Adult dependents and non-working children on relief works were from the beginning given cooked food, the cooks being generally Kunbis; this answered well on the whole, suiting all the lower castes except Bhois. Sheds were erected that children might be kept in the shade. During the dry months labour was concentrated on large works, generally road-making; people were usually reluctant to go far from their homes; in June small works were opened so that they might obtain relief near their own villages. Such Mahars as were left in the villages fox public work were given gratuitous relief and also made some profit by selling the hides of dead animals, the flesh of which they ate. Offences against property increased from 460 in the previous year to 1440 in the famine year, the largest proportionate increase in Berar. The District contained a large number of Charan Banjaras who found regular work very distasteful; they wandered a great deal, suffered severely, and were responsible for much of the crime committed. Immigrants from the Nizam's Dominions also wandered aimlessly, especially if any attempt was made to send them back to their homes-from which they had just made a long and painful journey; residents of the District as a rule moved little and with deliberation.

Economic aspects and relief measures.

181. The average value of mortgages of land had been Rs. 311 in a normal year; in the first famine it was Rs. 273, in the second Rs. 211. The number of mortgages of land in the year 1895-1896 was 250,000, in 1896-1897 it was 420,000, and in 1899-1900 it rose to 470,000; the sales of land in the same three years were 170,000, 260,000, and 280,000; the number of both transactions thus rose a great deal in both famines, but was especially high in the second. The Deputy Commissioner made careful enquiries and concluded that the object was very seldom to pay the revenue, because cultivators knew it would readily be postponed or remitted; people would sacrifice a field, perhaps already mortgaged, in order to remain at their homes as long as possible. The District contained only 6000 artizans; no special relief was given to them, but many found employment at their own trades at the relief works.; the Charitable Relief Fund allotted nearly Rs. 1,70,000 to the District, and Rs. 10,000 of this was spent in buying cloth from weavers. People commonly make investments by buying silver and gold ornaments; these and utensils of other metals were extensively sold by families who wished to postpone application at the relief works. It was clear that the District would take some years to recover from the effects of the famine; the revision settlements of Basim and Mangrul taluks, which were due in 1902, were postponed till 1904, but no further relief was thought necessary; that of Pusad was postponed six years. The daily average number of persons on relief was 60,000, or nearly 15 per cent. of the population; the average throughout Berar was 9 per cent.; the maximum was reached in May, when 35 per cent. of the population, the highest percentage recorded in Berar, was in receipt of relief. Mortality was below the normal till November 1899, but above it from that month till December 1900; for six months, April to September, the rate was above 9 per mille, rising in July to 19. These were by far the worst figures recorded in Berar, but they are in fact misleading because a large number of the deaths were among immigrants from the Nizam's Dominions; these wanderers also greatly aided the spread of cholera. Statistics to show their numbers cannot be given because they commonly gave a false account of their origin to avoid being sent back, but they were to be found in every relief institution, and more than half the applicants at poorhouses on the border sometimes admitted themselves to be from the ' Muglai.' The loss of fodder was not as serious as that of food grain; a fair outturn of kadbi was obtained in most parts of the District, so that large quantities were exported to Amraoti and Akola Districts; however the price of kadbi, which was usually Rs. 2 per hundred pullies at Basim in the hot weather, rose in the famine to Rs. 10. Stacks of fodder are not generally kept, the District being dependent on the yearly supply. Cattle on the whole suffered very heavily, especially in Pusad taluk, though there was more grass there than elsewhere, reliable statistics could not be obtained, but it appeared that about one-third of the total number of cows and buffaloes died, and one-fifth of the plough oxen. Just under 89 per cent, of the revenue demand was collected in the year 1899-1900, whereas in 1896-1897 there had been 99 per cent. collected; no permanent remissions were required. The relief works included Rs. 9,00,000 spent on road work, Rs. 1,30,000 on the proposed Khandwa-Akola-Basim railway, and Rs. 300,000 on tanks. Various useful ghat roads in Mangrul and Pusad taluks date from the famine; but during the monsoon work of little economic value had often to be undertaken in order to provide employment near the homes of the workers. The expenditure on the relief of dependents at kitchens in large works amounted to Rs. 1,80,000, that on doles in villages to Rs. 2,60,000, that on kitchens in villages in the rains to Rs. 2,00,000, and that on poorhouses to Rs. 70,000. In most of these cases the total spent in Basim was larger than that of any other Berar District and the. incidence of cost per head in such a remote District was also naturally high. Loans to agriculturists under the Land Improvement Loans Act and the Agriculturists' Loans Act combined for the two years 1899- 1900 amounted to Rs. 96,000. Missionaries spent Rs. 15,000. The total expenditure on the famine came to more than Rs. 30,00,000, while that in Akola was Rs. 28,00,000.