Famines and Relief Administration

The work is an indepth study of famines and famine relief administration in Coastal Districts of Andhra area in the British administered Telugu speaking tracts of the erstwhile Madras Presidency. As such it makes a significant contribution to the available literature on Indian Famines and famine relief administration. Though it is primarily a historical topic, the author has not been just narrative in his presentation. He has successfully tried to analyse issues, examine facts, make a critical analysis of the same and present a very readable account of the British policy vis a vis the famines in Coastal Andhra. Though the main thrust of the work is an impartial and objective assessment of the famine relief administration in Coastal Andhra during the famines that took place in the later half of the Nineteenth Century, the author has given a very good account of the famines and critical assessment of the preceding Company Raj, incidentially narrating the manner in which the British acquired the Coastal Andhra area, a description of the physical features of the five Coastal districts highlighting the factors making them vulnerable to droughts and famines (chapter II). A chronological survey pertaining to the evolution of the famine relief policy during the period 1858 to 1901 forms the subject matter of chapter III. The famines that occurred from 1858 to 1880 and from 1880 to 1901 and a critical estimate of the relief measures taken by the British administrators during the above period have been presented in chapters IV and V.