Gujarat Famines & Khoja Migrations

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Earthquakes,droughts and colonial mismanagement in Gujarat during the British hagemony caused many famines, which have played the most important role in history of Khojas and their forced diaspora.

During the Raj, the effects of the famines were more pronounced as the colonial export system continued to send food out of India, even as the impoverished peasants died of starvation.

Furthermore,the Indian railways grid was geared toward exports so when drought hit, the distribution of food to the affected areas was wholly inadequate.

An 1878 study published in the Journal of the Statistical Society found that there were 31 serious famines in 120 years of British rule compared to 17 famines in 2000 years of Indian rule. And that doesn't even count two more major famines, in 1888 and in the late 1890s.

Famines. These raised no concern in Britain, as the famine of 1770 had done. Scholars like James Mills argued it was India's natural state. The public was not aware of the plunder (by the Raj) and one way wealth drain to Britain.

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Major famines that forced large-scale emigration of the Khojas from Kutch & Kathiawar prior to 1905----

1791-1792 - The Skull Famine left 11 million dead in Northern India, including Gujarat and likely lead to the early movement of Khojas to the Bombay Presidency.

1803-1835 Famines- A series of famines also struck Kutch-Kathiawar in 1803;1813-1814;1823-1824;1834-1835 with a similar outflow of those who had connections to Karachi, Gwadar, Bombay, Muscat(See ,Rahimtullah Fadu Dewani)

1819 Earth Quake in Kutch- This major catastrophe lead to the migration of Kutchi Khojas to Karachi and Kathiawar.

1876-1878 - The Great Famine hit hard in both Kutch & Kathiawar and likely forced the Khojas to brave the Kala Pani black waters to East Africa. 10 million Indians are reputed to have died at that time.

1899-1901 - The Indian Famine also called the "Chappanyo" by the Khojas, was most severe in Gujarat.

The progressive prosperity of Kathiawar received a shock from the famine of 1899–1900, which was felt everywhere in the area with extreme severity; between 1891 and 1901, the population of the states covered by the (Kathiawar) Agency decreased by 15 percent, largely due to the results of the famine.

Since the 1820's, Khojas traders had settled in East Africa and many hundreds fled Kutch thorough Mandvi and Mundra on the large Indian sailing vessels or later in the early part of the the 20th century through the port of Porbandar on the German or British steamships. Sevadaris (donors) even built a large mussafirkhana at Porbandar for the benefit of the travelling families.See Alladina Giga Patney.

The community leaders including pioneers such as Taria Topan and Alidina Visram made trips to India to persuade their relatives and friends to take advantage of the opportunities opening up through the development of the East African economy.

- A contempory official colonial account of the earthquakes, locust attacks & droughts that caused the famines in Kutch during the period of Khoja migrations-

The most disastrous, severer than any that had happened for more than 400 years, began on the 16th June 1819. The first shock was felt at about a quarter to seven in the evening, and lasted for about two minutes. The ground could be seen to move, it was hard to keep standing, and every house was shaken to its centre." Within four hours (11 P.M.) three slight shocks were felt, and on the next day the earth was often in motion with gusts of wind, and a noise as of the rumbling of carriages. This noise went on during the whole night, and after stopping for a few minutes at a quarter to ten, a severe shock, lasting about fifty seconds, brought down a number of shattered buildings. For six weeks there were daily shocks, and, during the next four months, they were felt at intervals, the last on the 20th November. Little has been recorded as to the speed and course of the earthquake wave. The shock seems to have been felt at the same time over the whole of Cutch, and to have travelled north about fifty-three miles a minute. Cutch seems to have been the centre of disturbance. The damage caused by the earthquake was very great. At Bhuj, 7000 houses including the Rao's palace were destroyed, and 1150 persons buried in the ruins;

In 1577 Cutch passed through a time of much distress. The well-to-do were ruined, and even large landlords, Jághirdárs, were forced to seek help from the Ráo. During the latter half of the eighteenth century there were seven famine years, 1746, 1757, 1766, 1774, 1782, 1784, and 1791. The 1746 famine was severe. To relieve the poor the Ráo had large quantities of food cooked near the Bid or grain market gate at Bhuj, and allowed all who came to eat what they liked, and take home enough for one other person. The building erected on the cooking spot is still called Tota Váli Varandi.

In 1791 the rains failed and the country swarmed with black ants which were eaten in large quantities by the cattle. …. In 1803, a scarcity caused by locusts was in the next season followed by a failure of rain.

The province had with other parts of north Gujarat suffered from locusts in 1811 and from a failure of rain in 1812, and in the next season, among the people reduced by want and crowded into the larger towns, a pestilence broke out that, carrying off half of thier number, paralyzed the whole population. Large numbers migrated to Sind and returned after rain fell.

Nine years later (1813) came the fiercest and most destructive famine on record. Destitute and unruly bands passing to Sind plundered the villages, and grain was sold only in well guarded stores.

Well guarded grain shops were also opened in Bhuj, Mándvi, Mundra, and Anjár, and private charity helped by giving daily doles of food. The distress, increased by bands of destitute wanderers on their way to Sind, was most severe. Many sold their children for food. A cat or dog was a delicacy and even human flesh was eaten.

In 1815, still known as underiu or the rat year, a promising early harvest was destroyed by rats, which swarming over the fields carried off the ears of corn and stored them in their holes.

In 1820 heavy rain rotted the grain and Indian millet and wheat were frost-bitten, grain prices rising to about thirty-nine pounds the rupee (6 patis the kori).

In 1825 the failure of rain caused great scarcity.

In 1826 rats again appeared, but did less damage than in 1815.

In 1834 the promise of a good harvest was destroyed by locusts, who ate every green thing, crops, grass, and tree leaves. One flight swept through Bhuj filling some of the houses so thickly as to put a stop to all cooking.

The locusts are said to have come from the east and north. After devastating Cutch they would seem to have been driven west and out to sea. Ship Captains from Maskat and Zanzibar, some hundred miles from Mándvi, found the sea covered with their dead bodies.

1839, 1841, and 1842 were years of want. 1846, 1849, and 1858 were years of short rainfall and failure of crops, … In 1861 an almost complete failure of rain caused much distress. …..

Between 1862 and 1877 came a succession of unfavourable seasons.

In 1860 an almost total failure of rain was followed by extreme scarcity of provisions.

In 1869 the promise of a good harvest was destroyed by locusts, and in the two following years the rain was scanty and the crops bad.

The 1872 crops were damaged by locusts, and from scanty and unseasonable rain those of the next three years were so poor that many people were forced to leave Cutch.

In 1877 the rain, though abundant, was unseasonable, the early crops failed and the scarcity pressed hard on the poorer classes. A kind of lark, banda, did much damage scraping the seed out of the fields.

To relieve the distress half the grain import dues were remitted, wells were dug and works opened, chiefly the Tuna-Anjár and Mándvi-Bhuj roads. Local subscriptions were collected; some rich merchants sold grain at low prices; and supplies were forwarded for distribution by Cutch residents in Bombay.

The province had with other parts of north Gujarat suffered from locusts in 1811 and from a failure of rain in 1812, and in the next season, among the people reduced by want and crowded into the larger towns, a pestilence broke out that, carrying off half of their number, paralyzed the whole population.

From April to October, the eastern parts of Cutch, as far west as Bhuj and Mándvi, suffered from a rather severe epidemic of cholera.

Dr. Burnes noted that cholera, though very fatal in the neighbouring countries, had never made much progress in Cutch. But in 1876 there was a rather serious outbreak in eight months (March - October) causing 954 deaths. This was followed by a still severer attack in 1878. Coming from Káthiáwár cholera made its first appearance in Vágad in April 1878, and continued..

cholera was in September followed by an epidemic of malarious fever that attacked every village and hamlet in the province, and was so severe that in Bhuj alone, of a population of 23,000 souls, for two months about forty died a day.