Indian Famine Paradox
While reviewing e xcerpt from the History of British India vol.2 at the British Library, some important revelations emerge. We were taught that the British built the Indian railway system to develop trade. True but what is also true is they accelerated the work because they were shocked to witness the unimaginable death across the country from famines and natural disasters. They had not witnessed anything like this before. Collectively, the British and the intellectual natives, realized for the first time that the Mughals had simply looted the country and never invested in any developmental activities like building new methods of travel and transport. Did you know that in 1899, 475,000 sq miles of India was prone to drought and 69,500,00 human lives were affected by it while only 6,500,000 could be provided relief? Imagine the colossal loss of life. Despite coming from the land of Aryabhatta, Patanjali, Brahmagupta, Charaka, Bhaskara, Kanada & Varahamihira we Indians were ber