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The Agra famine of 1837–1838〔The famine is often referred to as the ''Agra famine'' because, just before it began, the North-Western Provinces, then the Ceded and Conquered Provinces, were to have become the ''Presidency of Agra''; later, in 1904, the region again became the Agra Province of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh (U.P.)〕 was a famine in the newly established North-Western Provinces (formerly Ceded and Conquered Provinces) of Company-ruled India that affected an area of and a population of 8 million people. The central ''Doab'' in present-day Uttar Pradesh—the region of the districts of Kanpur, Etawah, Mainpuri, Agra and Kalpi—was the hardest hit; the trans-Jumna districts of Jalaun, Hamirpur, and Banda also suffered extreme distress.〔 By the end of 1838, approximately 800,000 people had died of starvation, as had an even larger number of livestock.〔 The famine came to be known in folk memory as ''chauranvee'', (Hindi, literally, "of ninety four,") for the year 1894 in the Samvat calendar corresponding to the year 1838 CE. ==Onset of the famine== There had been a number of droughts and near-famines in the region in the first third of the nineteenth century. The years of scarcity included: 1803–1804, 1813–14, 1819, 1925–26, 1827–28, and 1832–33.〔 Especially in the 1830s, a number of factors—which included a decade long economic depression, ecological changes in the region, and likely El Niño events—conspired to create a succession of scarcities, of which the Agra famine of 1837–38 was the last. The 1837 summer monsoon rains failed almost entirely in the region of the ''Doab'' lying between Delhi and Allahabad as well in the trans-Jumna districts. During August and September 1837, reports of both severe drought and the failure of the ''kharif'' (or autumn) harvest rushed in from different parts of the region.〔 By the time the Governor-General of India, Lord Auckland, assumed charge of the administration of the North-Western Provinces on January 1, 1838, the winter monsoon rains had failed as well, and no ''rabi'' (or spring) harvest was expected.〔 A famine was, consequently, declared and Auckland commenced a tour of the famine-afflicted regions.〔 In his report to the Court of Directors of the East India Company dated 13 February 1838, Auckland wrote not only about human distress, but also about the impact of the famine on livestock:〔 "... harrowing accounts of famine and distress pour in from Calpee, Agra, Etawah and Mynpoorie ... not only has the ''khareef'' crop in these districts entirely failed but the grass and fodder were also lost. This has led to extensive mortality amongst the cattle, and in some districts nearly all those which have not perished on the spot, have been driven off to other parts of the country in order that they might be saved. It has thus happened that great difficulty has been experienced in irrigating the land for the ''rubbee'' crops, and much land which would otherwise have been cultivated has lain waste from this want of means of irrigation."〔Auckland to the Court of Directors, British East India Company, 13 February 1838, quoted in 〕 Other nineteenth-century accounts also spoke of distress, chaos, and migration southwards: "Grain merchants closed their shops, the peasantry took to plunder; cattle starved and died; in the part of the Mathura district west of the Jumna, the village thatches were torn down to feed the starving beasts. There was a general move of the people in the direction of Mâlwa, that Cathay or land of plenty, where, in the imagination of the North Indian rustic, the fields always smile with golden grain and poverty is unknown." Auckland found the conditions in these districts to be so distressing that, in his words, "the largest expenditure" was required "in order to palliate the evil, and prevent the total depopulation of the country by starvation and emigration."〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Agra famine of 1837–38」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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