Famine through the colonial lenses

-Santosh Kumar
Roll no 457
Government reports as documents of objective truth has been challenged long ago and thus it

needs to be taken into analyze what tools of language and method is utilized by the state to

create an illusion of objectivity and hide under the plethora of statistics their own subjective

assumptions. For that purpose we also need to challenge the role of statistics to validate and

sanctify a hypothesis. Statistics have acquired a domain of respectability in the domain of

archive so much so that it is utilized to not only validate reality but also assumptions and

perceptions . This reliance on statistics also creates a demarcation between a phenomena as a

living experience and phenomena as a social category of analysis. Famine report in that context

is a very important example of how colonial archive gaze a catastrophic event like famine with

an outsider's view and turn not only the event but also the people, region and resources of

corresponding event into category of analysis. Though at times the author himself challenges

the reliability of particular facts but the underlining statement in such cases is not a

replacement of facts with alternative modalities but one fact replaced by another set of reliable

statistics.

But at the same time such records need to be taken as a dynamic account where internal

dissonance between the colonial officials, attempts to mitigate a narrative which can gel with

the colonial presumptions of the event, but such unity is not always possible considering the

heterogeneity and problematic nature of the sources. For example in the very preface of the

text we see a difference in the opinions of the secretary of north west province and secretary of

government of India regarding the intensity of the phenomena the former ascribing it as a

calamity and the latter dismissing it as a distress, and this tug of war between the description of

a calamity and inference of a distress is vital in understanding the layers of the text.
But as said earlier, the text is a government document and obviously the discourse is initiated by

the colonial regime for which the issue is an administrative problem. We cannot compare their

approach with the experience of people for whom famine was a ground reality. So the question

arises- do these local people appear in the narrative in any way? And if they do, do they appear

as themselves or in relation to the state? And if the latter is the truth, is there any way we can

construct the discourse of everydayness of the famine and not as a macro level social

phenomena. While the text is itself focused on a pragmatic description of the famine, there are

a few descriptions which can be used to construct an alternative discourse. First of all, we can

read through the text, different anxieties and vulnerabilities of the classes in the famine. Of

course famine affects a large number of people over long period of time, we cannot discount

how caste, class and gender play a catalyst role in determining the impact of famine, and certain

categories are visibly more vulnerable than others in the time of distress. But even the classes

who are considered to be parasitic in such conditions had their own set of anxieties like that of

grain traders. At one point they are distressed not by lack of rain but due to onslaught of grain

which bring the prices of grain down thus losses being incurred to them, at another point there

are worried about their grain being looted by mob if exposed in the open. Secondly, different

people adapted to the situation differently, breaking sometimes what is considered the

normative moral order but the extent of such transgression will depend on the intensity of their

distress. And thus we can also see instances where even mild hope of normalcy can motivate

people to return to their land, because one the association with your land, its value as an asset,

and the lack of security and livelihood associated with migration. Thus when we see mothers
leaving their children behind at workplaces, can be an indication of distress and vulnerability of

the people.

Though from the perspective of colonial regime, this is also an event to exercise bio power. By

changing the regions and people into enumerative categories, colonial regime creates

knowledge for power and by acting as an agency through which charities were filtered down to

the local people; state was creating an image of a benevolent state even when it was churning

out a very small amount from their own pocket. There has been an attempt not only to

understate the impact of the famine to justify at times expenditure on relief and employment,

the gaze of the state also undermines the role played by the local agencies and the princely

state whose role is completely neglected. Thus by establishing the voice of state and authority

of the state as ultimate, this famine report can simultaneously be read as a document of

assertion of authority and hegemony of the state.