Dinesh Mishra is a renowned activist and scholar who has studied and worked on the issues of floods for decades. He has given crucial critical perspectives on the myth of flood control.
Generally, famine-like conditions do not arise in North Bihar of India because there are a good number of small and big rivers in this area. Still, due to lack of rain, drought does occur sometimes. It is rare that the north-eastern region of the state is hit by famine. Total failure of crops happens here only in very adverse circumstances and rarely a farmer returns home empty-handed from his fields. During the British period, it did happen a few times that a famine like situation arose here, but this happened only due to administrative negligence of British officials, inaction and terrible neglect of duty by the staff that is responsible for the well-being of the farmers. According to British records, during 1771, 1783, 1865, 1873, 1891-92, 1896-97, 1906, 1908-09, 1930-31, 1932-33 and 1940-51, there was a lot of damage to the crops in Purnea district due to drought. In 1771, the situation reached the point of famine. In the twentieth century, wars on a global level were also a reason for such calamities. On all these occasions, the main reason for the debacle was lack of responsibilities of the powers that be and its handling of the situation.
Scene after
independence
After independence, years like 1950, 1951, 1952, 1956, 1957, 1966, 1967, 1972 were not very consoling for North Bihar, but the situation did not go out of hand either. Some 52 years ago, in 1972, due to drought and four consecutive crop failures, the problem of starvation had become very serious in Katihar sub-division of Purnea district and the people had started looting without caring about law and morality. Aryavart (Hindi) newspaper published from Patna writes that, “It has been learnt that on the 2nd August, 1972 in a village of Kehunia Panchayat under Pranpur block of Katihar Sub-division of Purnea district, a large group of hungry people gate crashed the house of a rich farmer Puran Sah of the same village. A case has been registered in Pranpur police station and the matter is being investigated vigorously. There is a lot of panic among the people due to the fear that this incident may be repeated elsewhere too. The situation of famine is becoming increasingly serious in various areas of the district. The economic condition of the people has become worrisome because 90 percent of the population of Manihari, Amdabad, Barari, Pranpur, Kadwa, Phalka and Katihar blocks are badly affected and many people went without food up to two days. This has increased the tendency of begging among many. Due to non-starting of agricultural work and destruction of four consecutive crops, even big farmers with hundred bighas of land had reached on the brink of going without food. The condition of the laborers and their families had become pitiable due to lack of livelihood.
The reason for reaching such an unfortunate situation was that, in 1971, the rainy season started very late in this area and the farmers were not able to sow seeds in the fields on time. There was no government system of irrigation here in those days, so the entire crop could not survive the atmospheric heat and was lost completely. The farmers kept watching everything helplessly. Then there was heavy rain in Hathia constellation. This was a good sign that if the summer crop was lost, now somehow the winter crop would be saved and their misfortune would end. But it also needed at least one or two irrigations and that was fulfilled by the winter rains in the month of January and /or early February. In 1972, this rain, too failed, and the farmers were left in the lurch. Due to this unfortunate situation, the farmers were trapped in a pitiable condition due to the failures of crops of the summer crops of Bhadai, Aghanai and now the Rabi.
“On the other hand, the Revenue Minister of the state said in a press conference that it is not possible to declare famine at this stage in Katihar or any other area within the state as a famine-affected area , but if any area of Bihar has to be declared a famine-affected area in future this year, this area will get the first priority. He said that by declaring famine, the price of every commodity in the market will increase and the profiteers will start taking advantage of the situation. The Revenue Minister said in strong words that the people here will not die of hunger. The Government’s treasury is open and in any case, the people will be saved from famine. He said that 22 lakh rupees have been given for the hard labor scheme to the Commissioner of Bhagalpur which covers Purnea district too and half of it will be spent in this area of Katihar sub-division of Purnea district. He also said that he had ordered the District Magistrate to spend at least one lakh rupees on this scheme every day so that the laborers do not remain unemployed. He also said that if there is no other problem, then the measurement of the earthwork should be done within a day and the laborers should get their wages on the next day, and no laborer should get less than 21 rupees a week. He said that strict action would be taken against anyone who pays less than Rs. 21 and that laborers have the right to be vigilant and raise their voices against any mismanagement.
“He also said that there will be no shortage of grains in the grain warehouse. There will be cheap ration shops everywhere and the grains will be available in abundance where its price will not be more than Rs 35.20 paise per maund. Along with this, profiteers in the market were warned that under no circumstances they will sell wheat in the open common shops of the village for more than Rs 40 per maund otherwise strict action will be taken against profiteering. The Revenue Minister clearly announced that the area is devastated and we have to be cautious of anti-social elements who want to take advantage of the situation.”1
The Misery of Kehunia
The author talked to 68-year-old Shri Shivdev Jha of Kehunia village, Pranpur block, (present) Katihar district (Purnia in 1972) about this incident of looting grains in his village. He said, “I passed my matriculation examination in 1972. In those days, there used to be regular drought in this area. We also had the problem of floods and overall, we could not grow more than one crop in a year.
“During floods, Chintabhog variety of paddy seeds were spread in the fields of our area. Rain water in our fields which used to grow well in this area. This paddy is not transplanted. Its specialty was that as the flood water increased, this plant also grew accordingly. This paddy had to be harvested sitting in a boat. Its yield was not very high but it was certain that whatever paddy we grew, we used to keep it in the Thika (large circular basket made of bamboo). When there was famine or drought, father used to lend grains to the needy as per their demand. The condition used to be that the borrower would return it in the next Aghanai crop. Generally people used to return the paddy on time but there were some people who were not able to return it. They were given time to return the paddy as per their convenience.
“ There is a hamlet in our village called Jharna Tola. There was one Puran Sah ji (his name had appeared in the newspaper report of 4th August mentioned earlier) from that hamlet who used to be my father’s friend. He is no more now, he passed away about 15 years ago. My father is also no more. There was an incidence of looting grain at Puran Sah ji’s house that year, that’s all I remember. If in some year there was no paddy or very less paddy in the nearby villages, then people used to come to our house to borrow paddy. The condition was that they would have to return this paddy when the next Aghanai crop would come. Some people were able to return it, some could not. Those who did not return the paddy they had taken were given extra time. That was the normal practice with some increased quantity of grains while returning”2.
Through the contact of this Shri Shivdev Jha, I was able to talk to the heirs of late Shri Puran Sah of Jharna Tola village of Kehunia Panchayat. We met the three surviving sons of late Puran Sah of Jharna village namely Shri Rajendra Prasad Sah, Mahesh Prasad Sah and the youngest Shri Devendra Prasad Sah who were in their teens those days and the author is quoting their words whatever they told us about this incident. Two other sons of Shri Puran sah have now passed away. They said, “The road that passed in front of our house in the village was about 10 feet below the level of our house. Our house was located at a relatively higher level. On the other side of this road was our field in which corn was grown. Due to drought, the condition of the field had become such that corn was still left on two-thirds of the field, but the corn of one-third field was almost completely burnt and nothing was to be gained from it.
“There was an established tradition of farming in our family and most of the people knew that there was grain in our house which could be looted and they also knew that should a trouble start then they would get an excuse to loot the grain. With that intention, those people started digging the soil from that part of the field where there was still hope of corn being saved. Trouble started between our family and the workers regarding which part of the field should be dug to make the road before our house. After some heated discussions, their intentions became clear that the members of that group had their eyes on the grains kept in our house and they started trying to enter the house with the intention of looting the grains.
“Then Babuji ran from here to the police station. Meanwhile, the labourers had kept some wooden planks near the wooden gate in front of our house, which they used to break the gate. Then they entered the house and started looting about 125 maunds of grains kept in the Bhusaula (fodder godown). Babuji had gone to the police station, so there was no elder left in the house and we were just children then. The workers had completed all the looting work before the constables etc. came from the police station and they had also left the site after completing the work they really wanted to finish. Then Babuji filed a case which went on for a long time.
“This whole matter had started with casual discussion and had reached this point. The quarrel and trouble had increased to such an extent that it seemed that people had entered our house with the intention of killing us. We left our homes and hid in someone else’s house for many days. We were children at that time and could not do anything. The outsiders who were working here had only one aim, to somehow escalate the matter and loot our food grains. And they were successful in their aim.”3
This incident of 1972 is important because it happened in North Bihar where the availability of rainwater is better and such incidents are not common. Food riots are not common in south Bihar either under similar circumstances but stray incidences do occur sometimes because of non-availability of food in case of continued failing rains.
References
- Loot of food grains by hungry people-Strict action against profiteers, Aryavart-Patna, 4 August, 1972, p.5.
- Personal Communication with Shri Shivdev Jha. of the village Kehuniya.
- Personal Communication with Sarvashri Rajendra, Mahesh and Devendra Prasad Saah of Jharna Tola of Kehunia village.
Acknowledgements:
The author expressers his deep sense of gratitude to his friends Kishore Kumar Mandal and Manoj Kumar Mandal in Katihar for arranging the meeting and at Kehunia with Messrs Shiv Das Jha, Rajendra Prasad Sah, Mahesh Prasad Sah and Devendra Prasad Sah.
