Group of emaciated young men wearing loin cloths and a woman, the hospital nurse, wearing a sari during the Great Famine. Bangalore, British India. October 17, 1877. [3236×2394]
The Great Famine of 1876–78 (also the Southern India famine of 1876–78 or the Madras famine of 1877) becan by drought in the Deccan on 1876 (other droughts occured around the wold in the same time, causing the same issues).
>Sea surface temperatures confirmed that there was indeed an intense El Niño that persisted for the larger part of two years of the Great Famine (1877-78). But the extreme El Niño may have been primed by cooler waters in the central tropical Pacific from 1870 to 1876. This prolonged period of coolness—the longest on the record—may have led to immense buildup of warm water in the western tropical Pacific. This ended in a strong [La Niña](http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2017/11/15/how-will-la-nina-affect-winter-in-the-u-s/) event in 1875-76. The La Niña kicked off dry conditions in India, Mexico and the southwestern U.S., then discharged into a strong El Niño, which brought along more dryness across a large fraction of the globe.
At the same time, the colonial authorities were trying to reduce their welfare budget, Famine Commissioner Sir Richard Temple, having been critisized for, when Lieutnant Governor of Bengale, expending too much money to import rice from Burma during the 1873 Bihar famine. Sir Temple pushed for a freer grain market and stricter standards of qualification for relief and on more meager relief rations.
By early 1877, Temple proclaimed that he had put “the famine under control”; William Digby noted that “a famine can scarcely be said to be adequately controlled which leaves one-fourth of the people dead.”
Around 5.5 million people have been reported to have died. Starved paupers emigrated to other British colonies as indentured laborers, and the natural population growth in the Bombay and Madras presidencies were neutralized during the decade between the first and second censuses of British India in 1871 and 1881 respectively.
Johannes_P
The original sources for this picture are found [here](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WWHooperFamine1876-78GroupOfEmaciaedMenandOneWoman.jpg) and [here](http://search.wellcomelibrary.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb1193061;jsessionid=39EBC4623E13303FA3126509865333D4?lang=eng).
The Great Famine of 1876–78 (also the Southern India famine of 1876–78 or the Madras famine of 1877) becan by drought in the Deccan on 1876 (other droughts occured around the wold in the same time, causing the same issues).
>Sea surface temperatures confirmed that there was indeed an intense El Niño that persisted for the larger part of two years of the Great Famine (1877-78). But the extreme El Niño may have been primed by cooler waters in the central tropical Pacific from 1870 to 1876. This prolonged period of coolness—the longest on the record—may have led to immense buildup of warm water in the western tropical Pacific. This ended in a strong [La Niña](http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2017/11/15/how-will-la-nina-affect-winter-in-the-u-s/) event in 1875-76. The La Niña kicked off dry conditions in India, Mexico and the southwestern U.S., then discharged into a strong El Niño, which brought along more dryness across a large fraction of the globe.
At the same time, the colonial authorities were trying to reduce their welfare budget, Famine Commissioner Sir Richard Temple, having been critisized for, when Lieutnant Governor of Bengale, expending too much money to import rice from Burma during the 1873 Bihar famine. Sir Temple pushed for a freer grain market and stricter standards of qualification for relief and on more meager relief rations.
By early 1877, Temple proclaimed that he had put “the famine under control”; William Digby noted that “a famine can scarcely be said to be adequately controlled which leaves one-fourth of the people dead.”
Around 5.5 million people have been reported to have died. Starved paupers emigrated to other British colonies as indentured laborers, and the natural population growth in the Bombay and Madras presidencies were neutralized during the decade between the first and second censuses of British India in 1871 and 1881 respectively.
From [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_of_1876%E2%80%9378):
>The *Great Famine* was to have a lasting political impact on events in India. Among the British administrators in India who were unsettled by the official reactions to the famine and, in particular by the stifling of the official debate about the best form of famine relief, were [William Wedderburn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wedderburn) and [A. O. Hume](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._O._Hume).[[22]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_of_1876%E2%80%9378#cite_note-hall-matthews-2008-24-22) Less than a decade later, they would found the [Indian National Congress](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_National_Congress) and, in turn, influence a generation of [Indian nationalists](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_nationalist). Among the latter were [Dadabhai Naoroji](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dadabhai_Naoroji) and [Romesh Chunder Dutt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romesh_Chunder_Dutt) for whom the *Great Famine* would become a cornerstone of the economic critique of the [British Raj](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Raj).[[22]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_of_1876%E2%80%9378#cite_note-hall-matthews-2008-24-22)
Sources:
* [Causes of the Great Famine, One of the Deadliest Environmental Disasters](https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2017/12/15/causes-great-famine-drought/)