02-01-2004, 12:21 PM
Mike Davis in his book titled "Late Victorian Holocaust" recounts the circumstances surrounding a number of horrific famines in India, Brazil and China between 1870 and 1900. In the late 1870s and 1890s somewhere between 30 and 60 million people died during famines in those three countries. Most histories have explained away these famines as a result of ecological devastation, which is one of the causes that Davis highlights. Davis, however, is unsatisfied with this simplistic analysis. He argues that these countries were also ravaged by imperialist imposed "free" market reforms. At that time, British imperialists undermined domestic agricultural security for their own self-serving interests. They consciously destroyed China and Indiaâs long established food security systems. Intertwined with their strict ideological adherence to "free" market ideology was their stated goal of "modernization". So called modernity brought with it incredible death and devastation.
Thousands, if not millions, of people starved to death right next to the very symbols of modernity, the railways that linked ancient agricultural areas to the new international market. <b>The stated British mission of civilizing India actually curtailed Indiaâs economic growth. In addition to the roughly 20 million Indians who died from starvation (British estimates), Indiaâs economy stagnated. In 1800 Indiaâs share of the worldâs manufactured product was four times that of Britain. By 1900 India was almost totally under British control and the ration was 8-1 in Englandâs favor. Moreover, according to a British statistician, who analyzed Indian food security measures in the two millennia prior to 1800, there was one major famine a century in India. Under British rule there was one every four years</b>
Thousands, if not millions, of people starved to death right next to the very symbols of modernity, the railways that linked ancient agricultural areas to the new international market. <b>The stated British mission of civilizing India actually curtailed Indiaâs economic growth. In addition to the roughly 20 million Indians who died from starvation (British estimates), Indiaâs economy stagnated. In 1800 Indiaâs share of the worldâs manufactured product was four times that of Britain. By 1900 India was almost totally under British control and the ration was 8-1 in Englandâs favor. Moreover, according to a British statistician, who analyzed Indian food security measures in the two millennia prior to 1800, there was one major famine a century in India. Under British rule there was one every four years</b>