But what were famines like in the old days before the Raj?
Here's Fernand Braudel, the French historian on the same -
There was another terrible famine, almost everywhere in India, in 1630-31. A Dutch merchant has left us an appalling description of it.
"Men abandoned towns and villages and wandered helplessly......."
(Contd..)
In 1670, a Persian ambassador went to pay his respects to the Great Mogul, Aurangazeb. He returned home accompanied by "innumerable slaves" whom "he had had for almost nothing because of the famine"
"The Structures of Everyday Life" - the first volume of his trilogy - "Civiliazation and Capitalism - 15th to 18th century"
A Appadorai - Economic Conditions in Southern India (1000-1500AD)
Francois Bernier, Voyages..contenant la description des Etats du Grand Mogul (1699)
WH Moreland, From Akbar to Aurangazeb (1923) (quoting the dutch traveler Van Twist)