インド一九世紀後半の飢饉と植民地政府の対応 : 一八八〇年飢饉委員会報告書を中心として

抄録

During the last fifty years of the nineteeth century there were many famines in India. According to the statistics collected, there was a major famines in India. According to the statistics collected, there was a major famine once every ten years and a severe scarcity once every five years in one part of India or another. The famine of 1876-78 in particular affected a very large part of India. More than five million people are said to have died during these years. In response to the catastrophe, a Colonial Government set up the famine commission, which produced a report in 1880. This report contains the examination of the background of the famine as well as the nature of relief operations, and is considered to have laid foundation of the subsequent famine policies of the Government for the rest of the century. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the main lines of argument of the report and, by so doing, examine the character of the Government's famine policy. The first part of the paper looks at "the famine relief policy", which includes relief works, gratuitous relief, food policy etc. It concists of the short-run policy of the Government, and was obviovsly strongly influenced by the principles of laisses-faire. The principles operating behind the Poor Law in Britain were adapted in the policy-making. The concept of free trade also played a considerable part in the formation of the policy of non-interference with the grain market. The second part of the paper summarizes the Famine Commission's views of the long-run policies. The report is concerned about the land revenue policy, landlord-tenant relations, agriculutural indebtedness, technological improvement, irrigation and the development of the railways. The irrigation and the railway development were considered to be a major remedy for the disastor, although various socio-economic factors were of also taken into account. While it can be said that the majority were of the opinion that the causes of the famine were largely outside the control of the Government7s policy, some observers such as J. Caird clerly recognized the link between the British impact on the Indian rural society and the frequency of the famines, and argued that the change in the rural social structure such as the disappearance of traditional ties in the landlord-tenant relations, for example, was a major factor affecting the occurence of nation-wide famines.