Centres of relief were thereupon opened at four places in the interior of the subdivision, where gratuitous distributions as. w e ll.
as oheap sales o f rice were made. The mortality in the town from diseases induoed b y privation of food was very considerable, and a pauper hospital and,- afterwards, a small-pox hospital were established. The number of deaths in the streets and hospital was estimated at an average of fifteen a day duriDg the months o f July, August and September, and numbers of children were deserted. „ Employment on the roads was found for 1,500 paupers in September. The mortality, however, still continued very great, the paupers flockin g in from Bankura, Manbhum and Deogarh in a state o f utter prostration, and dying soon after they arrived from the effeots of starvation, dysentery and diarrhoea.
T he total amount expended on relief in.the Raniganj subdivision was Rs. 7,568, and the aggregate of the daily total of persons who received relief was returned by the Committee at 348,296 a daily average of 2,902 for the four months, from the middle of July to the middle of November, during whioh the operations were in progress.
In Burdwan generally (excluding the Raniganj subdivision whioh did not then belong tp the district), the total amount expended on relief by the Burdwan, Katwa and Kalna Relief Committees was as fo llo w s:— From the Board of Revenue, Rs. 3,000 ; from the Calcutta Central R elief Committee, Rs. 2,000;
private subscriptions Rs. 9 ,558; total Rs. 14,558. The Katwa and K&lna relief oentres were maintained solely by private subscriptions. This sum, however, does not include the expen
diture incurred by the Maharaja and other private individuals in giving relief, besides Rs. 4,830 granted and Rs. 4,210 advanced for speolal works.
In concluding the distriot narrative of the famine in Burdwan the Famine Commissioners remarked that “ speaking comparatively, the people of this distriot did not suffer severely.
The generally prosperous condition of the cultivating classes, caused by their proximity to the Caloutfa markets, enabled them to oppose a greater power o f resistance to famine than that which could be offered by the cultivators of the less- advanced districts to the west and south-west, and they also received muoh support from their landlords. The day-labourers were driven into the towns to seek for subsistence, and there swelled the crowds of paupers who had comte in from districts whioh had suffered more severely. In these centres disease and death were unavoidable, A lthough the external relief granted to this distriot was small we think that it probably did not fall short of the requirements.
I t would, however, have* been well if the organised relief at the .different points in the interior of the distriot had been begun
earlier in the season.*’
The following aooount of the famine of 1874 is oondensed f i m i n b
from Mr. A . P. Macdonnell’s “ F ood Gram Supply and Famine °* 1874*
R elief in Bihar and Bengal.” Relief operations in Burdwan during 1874 were for a lengthened period very widespread, but the distress which called for them oannot be wholly attributed to the failure in the harvests of 1878. The year 1874 found the distriot suffering from the effeots of two years of markedly adverse harvests and nearly ten successive years of virulent epidemic fever. N ot only were the material resources of the people reduced, but their physical capaoity was also seriously impaired.
In 1872 the rains commenced very late and they were not equally distributed. There was a Very thort outturn of the winter rioe crop, the prinoipal food supply of the people. Several plots of land, even entire villages, remained uncultivated. Only in the Katwa subdivision— less than one-eighth of the district—was the rainfall seasonable or the harvest good. T he rains in 1873 were not so greatly deficient in quantity as unseasonable in distribu
tion, and in September and October there was great deficiency.
Distress whioh had gradually been making way, first attraoted serious attention in the north-west of the district about the beginning of April. The Collector on proceeding to the spot found “ the condition of some of the people very wretched, the labourers complained very loudly o f want of work, and it appeared that many of the men had emigrated to Kachar and elsewhere leaving their women and children. The so-called respectable classes were nearly as loud in their complaints as the p o o r ; goldsmiths complained that their trade was at a standstill;
barbers, that the people had given up shaving; cultivators that the grain-lenders had refused the usual advances; Brahmans, -'that their sources of income had failgd; village watchmen that
their service lands yielded next to no crops, and that their money dues were not p a id ; mendicants, oripples and lepers, that charity was no m ore; weavers, that advanoes were no more to be had.
Allow ing of course for some exaggeration in »11 these complaints, still the looks of many of the complainants were enough to prove that they were in the main founded on truth.” On the 1st of June the Collector after a tour of inspection wrote The eye is at once caught by the ansemio,* clammy faces of the sufferers from chronio fever.” The circle of distress as the year wore on widened still more. In July around Katwa in almost every village visited by him and the Civil Surgeon more or less
1 0 4 BTJRDWAN.
Fl o o d s.
distress was fou n d; some of the poorest people were even found
to be eating grass seeds. •
Charitable relief began in the first week o*f April, when nearly serpen thousand persons were gratuitously fed. The number rose to eleven thousand in the end o f May and twenty-six thousand in the end of June, whilst during the three following months of July, August and September, the recipients of charitable relief never fell below fifty-five thousand and rose in the middle of August to seventy thousand. In all 6,812 tons of rice were gratuitously distributed, 3,002 tons advanced on loan and 1,495 tons paid as wages. A t the same time Rs. 5,46,723 were expended in charitable relief, Rs. 62,277 in wages and Rs 70,559 advanced on loan. Labourers employed on relief works numbered on a daily average 1,168 in January, 3,5JL3 in February, 3,359 in Maroh, 6,430 in April, 9,613 ih May, 11,574 in June, 7,571 in July, 5,252 in August, and 2,206 in September, after which this form of relief ceased; but on the last day of November 3,475 persons were still being fed at the cost of Government. A ll relief was brought to a close with the end of the year.
Since this famine the district has been singularly immune from serious scarcity. In 1884-85 there was some considerable distress due to failure o f the crops in two successive years.
L ocal relief works were opened, gratuitous relief was distributed and loans were advanced. The supply of food was, how
ever, always plentiful in the markets and prices never reaohed famine rates. In 1896-97, when the adjacent distriot of Bankura was seriously affected with scarcity, Burdwan escaped scatheless ; not a single relief work was opened and not a single person publicly received gratuitous relief. During 1904 some portions of the Burdwan and Katwa subdivisions suffered from scarcity as a result of the failure o f the dus rioe crop, but the distress was local and short-lived. The total oost of the relief operations whioh were closed in July was Rs. 26,600; Rs. 3,000 was expended in gratuitous relief and loans amounting to Rs. 35,000 were made.
From the earliest times the district has been proteoted from flood by embankments along the Damodar and Ajay. A t first individual effort rather than publio contribution provided for their construction. A farmer or landowner whose field was threatened would construct a bandh to save it with the result that the flood water would attack some other point further down.
The process would be repeated again and again until the banks of the rivers were protected by a series of regular embankments Before the last half of the 19th century, however, these wer.
neither so extensive n*>r so strong as to effectually check the fury of*the great floods to which hill-fed streams, such as the Damodar and Ajay,'are liable, and the early history of the distriot is full of accounts of disastrous floods which breached the embank
ments and caused widespread damage. The earliest recorded occurred in 1770 and the injury which it caused to the winter rioe crop, following on a previous season of scarcity owing to drought, intensified the famine of that year. The inundation was first observed on the 29th September, when the waters o f the Damodar rose to a level with the top o f the embankment, and near the western extremity of the town of Burdwan the embank
ment gradually gave way. The damage was repaired, but four or five days afterwards a sacond rising of the river resulted in the entire destruction of the embankment. Every effort to check the violence of the towent’ proved- in vain and the town o f Burdwan was almost totally destroyed : not an earth-built house remained, and even those constructed with bricks suffered consi
derably. The A jay had also flooded: its banks, and the whole tract between that river and the Damodar was under three or four feet of water. Sugarcane and cotton, both which crops appear to have been cultivated to a much larger extent than at present, suffered severely and the whole o f the embankment was in a state of ruin. A sum of Rs. 80,000 was remitted from the land revenue payable by the Maharaja, in consideration of his under
taking the neoessary repairs, the oost of whioh, however, is said to have far exoeeded the sum remitted. It was not till a period of two years had elapsed that the cultivators began to recover from the disaster. The Maharaja and other zamlnd&rs, in spite of the destruction of their orops, cattle and homesteads insisted on the payment of rent, and it does not appear that afly further abatement in the Government demand for land revenue was granted on account of the calamity.
Another flood which seems to have been equally disastrous ooourred in 1787. Describing the damage caused by it the Colleotor, Mr. Kinlooh, wrote : “ The town is totally destroyed, not a vestige of a mud house remaining, and even those built o f briok are many of them fallen or so entirely damaged that a longer resi
dence in them becomes dangerous. Many pepple have lost their ' lives and a great number of cattle are drowned.” A nd again :
“ Every house in Burdwan and every village contiguous to it fell down— nothing but the banks of tanks remained for the reception of every living animal.”
The inundation of 1823-, whioh commenced on the night of the Flood
26th September, was caused by the bursting of the embankments 1823>
1 0 6 BURDWAN.
Fl o o d o f
1855.
of the Damodar, the Bhagirathi and minor streams. A correspondent o f the “ Calcutta Monthly Journal ” has desoribed the inundation :— “ Pioture to yourself a flat‘ country complete
ly * under water, running ^vith a force apparently irresistible, and carrying with it dead bodies, roofs of houses, palanquins and wreok of every description. I t lasted for three days ; communi
cation was out off, and the owners of masonry houses took refuge on the roofs. For many miles the thatched and mud houses, as well as thousands of trees, were prostrated. Such trees as had withstood the ravages of the flood formed the resting plaoes of men.” The area embraced by the flood commenced from Bali, and extended for twenty-five miles. The villages on both banks of the Bhagirathi, especially on the west bank, were submerged.
The height of the water in these villages was at first about three feet. The inundation rosS, and 5t its’height, on the 2nd Ootober, the water was about seven feet deep. On the 29th September a boat sailed across oountry from Caloutta to Burdwan. The loss of life was immense. The crops were destroyed ; the houses were submerged and ultimately carried away ; the people were destitute of food, so that parents sold their offspring for a mouthful of rice. The landmarks distinguishing the holding of the oultivators were swept away, and great confusion and endless litigation naturally ensued. The owners of properties were converted into claimants for land whioh had been in 'their
possession and that of their forefathers for generations.
The inundation of 1855 resulted in the destruction o f the» embankment on the right side of the Damodar. Previous to fViis time the embankments had been in charge of the zamindars or landholders within whose estates they lay ; but as their neglect caused the periodical breaching of the embankments Government took the matter into its own hands and maintained the embank
ment itself, debiting each landlord with a portion of the cost, A fter the destruction of the embankments on the right side of the Damodar in 1855 it was resolved to abandon them, and to keep up only those on the left bank. New embankments have accordingly been constructed along the whole of the left bank of the Damodar, a measure whioh has resulted in the comparative immunity of the country north of it from flood. Floods still do ocour as in August 1909 when, owing to heavy rains, the Banka and other rivers overflowed and flooded large tracts of country.
The water took several days to run off and the crops were damaged by their continued immersion. MaDy houses were damaged and five lives were lost.
C H A P T E R V I I . E E N T, W A G E S A N D P E I C E S .
In the early days of our rule the relation between landlord Rb n t s.
and tenant in the district seems to have been anything but satisfactory. The zamindar generally let out his estates in small parcels to farmers and, while these were under engagement for the revenue to their landlord, they had themselves no similar agreements with the tenants. In a letter to the Board of Revenue, dated June 1788, the Collector (Mr. Kinloch) remarks:
“ But I must observe that in this extensive distriot not more than one-fourth of the ryots are in possession of pattahs and these have been granted by the farmers or their gumashtas.” H e goes on to particularise the several olasses of tenants.- “ The first, he says, are the Khoad Kas/tt, or aborigines, being ryots of inferior, caste, who payx house rent and a greater revenue for the lands they cultivate than the Pykhast who are ryots of a superior rank, that neither pay rent for their dwelling house, nor do they pay so high a revenue for their lands, these last are again distinguished by the application of the Niz Gong Pykasht, who cultivate the lands o f their own village, and the Baza Gong Pykasht, who pay a still lower rate of rent. Besides these are the Muttariffa ryots who do not cultivate Jands but have shops and carry on a profession, and pay a high house rent, to all the above ryots.” The permanent settlement does not seem to , have improved matters much and in a letter from the Judge and Magistrate, dated the 9th of Maroh 1802, the confusion and fraud whioh permeated the relations of landlords, farmers, and tenants is very vividly
desoribed.
“ The interchange of engagements between the parties, with few exceptions, extends no farther than to the zamindar’s farmer who is here termed the Sudder farmer and to those amongst whom he subdivides his farm, in portions. A n engagement between the latter and the cultivators or heads o f a village, is scarcely known, except the general one, mutually understood to receive and pay, agreeably to past and preceding years; and for ascertaining this the accounts of the farm are no guide.
i.0 8 BURDWAN,
“ The zamindar himself seeing that no confidence is to be placed in the aooounts rendered him of the rent-roll of the farnr from the practice, whioh has so lo n » prevailed, of fabrication and false
•acoflunts, never attempts to call for them at the expiration of the lease; ail'd instead of applying a correction of the evil, inoreases it, by farming out the lands literally by auotion; and -the same mode is adopted in almost every subdivision of the farm.
The oonsequence of such a system must be obvious; needy rapacious farmers and fraudulent tenants become friends, and oollusively agree, at the expiration of the lease, to defraud the succeeding farmer. A trifling douoeur for the ryot, or the ryots of a whole village, is sufficient to procure a fabrication of the accounts, and a receipt to correspond»with them for a sum muoh below that actually paid in the revenue demand for the year ; and these are the valid and incontrovertible vouohers, held out to the successor in farm for his guide.
“ The practice is, however, too universal and too well-known to deceive h im ; but he is without an alternative, and aots his prede
cessor’ s part, in the repetition of it, for if honestly disposed (which is rarely the case) he has not time to have recourse to a measurement for ascertaining the quantity and quality of lands in the occupancy of the cultivators, with a view to a fair and
e q u i t a b l e "assessment: and the ryots finding their benefit in the o o n fu s io n , and despairing of honest dealing towards them while the present system exists, would oppose it, so as to make him a sufferer for the attempt.”
The oreation of patnl tenures did muoh to remove these abuses b y seouring some permanence of tenure to the farm er;
written leases between tenure holder and tenant are now practi-.
oally universal, and most of the tenants possess oocupanoy rights;
but in a great many oases they are not the aotual cultivators, the holdings being let out to sub-tenants for produce rents. N o settlement of rents has yet been carried out in the distriot, but it i8 reported that the average rent per acre paid by the aotual oultivator to his immediate landlord is approximately Rs. 6. For the inferior olass of rice land in the neighbourhood of Raniganj and Asafcsol the rent is considerably loss’ button the other hand rioe lands whioh are favourably situated, diara lands, and lands growing cane, potatoes or similar special orops demand a much higher rate. The latest survey and settlement in the district of any size was fhat of the Khas Mahals of the Burdw&n R a j. The statistics collected from this show that the assessment per aore for the low land varied from Rs. 15 to Rs. 3 with an average assessment o f Rs. 9, while the assessment for high land
varied from Rs. 6 to am as 12 per aore with an average assess
ment of Es. 3-6. The average area of the tenant’ s holding as ascertained from tHe reoords o f this settlement was 4 acres. A s has already been notioed, a tenant usually pays rent in oash, Htit in many cases he does not actually Cultivate the whole of his holding himself but sub-lets portions of it to under-tenants who pay rent in kind. Under this system the actual cultivator tills the land at his own cost, reaps the orop in the presence of the superior tenant or his agent, and carries it to the threshing floor where the grain and straw are divided in equal shares.
W ages both for skilled and unskilled labour are fairly high. Wages, The monthly wages paid in the factories during 1908 were as follows, the variations depending on the class o f work required, e.g., whether for brick-wprks, potteries, iron works or paper mills.
Blacksmiths Es. 12 to Es. HT; patters Rs. 13-12t6 to Es. 2 0 ; carpenters Rs. 14 to Rs. 20 ; brick-layers Rs. 1 1 ; engine drivers Rs. 11 to Rs. 16,; potters Rs. 15; moulders Rs. 14-6 to Rs. 16-6;
boiler-men Es. 10 to Rs. 2 3 ; fire-men Rs. 8 to Rs. 10. F or unskilled labour the wages were Rs. 6 to Rs. 9 and for a woman Rs. 4 to Rs. 5 ; durwaus and messengers Rs. 8 ; jamadar durwan Rs. 13. The Chinese carpenters employed in the Bengal Paper Mills, however, are paid as muoh as Rs. 60 a month.
In the town of Burdwan itself wages are considerably higher ; an ordinary carpenter or mason gets Rs. 22-8 a month while a ' skilled carpenter or jnason gets Rs. 3 0 ; an ordinary labourer is paid Rs. 11-4 and a woman Rs. 8-14 a m onth; a ghorami gets Rs. 15-8. Miners are usually paid from five annas six pies to seven annas a tub. Of late there has been a considerable rise in the price of both skilled and unskilled labour— a result doubtless o*f the general rise in prices whioh.has been so marked a feature of recent years. In 1900 the average monthly wage of an able- bodied agricultural labourer was Rs. 7. It is now over Rs. 9, and in the years 1903-1905 rose so high as Rs. 11-4. During the same period the wages of a common mason, carpenter or blacksmith rose from Rs. 15 to Rs. 16-8.
Landlords and large farmers with holdings of more than 5 village
or 6 aores usually engage farm servants to »assist them in the labourers,
cultivation of their lands. Those employed temporarily, at seasons when extra assistance is required, are usually, paid and engaged by the day, and are known as majurs (i.e., labourers, from majuri a wage). Generally, however, ode or more permanent servants are also kept. These are known as krishdns (i. e., cul
tivators, from krisha to cultivate) and are paid $nd engaged by the month. Their wages are usually Rs. 4 to Rs. 5 a month