Thread by @Aakar__Patel

Description of Chhappaniyo dukaal (Famine of 1900 in Gujarat)

“At first, people took grass and leaves from their farms,
sold it in the cities and bought grain with the money. Then
they started cutting trees. All the trees were wiped
out but stomachs could not be filled.
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Then, in the middle of winter, they began to sell their quilts and
mattresses, querns and mortar-pestles, brass and bronze
vessels and jewellery. When there was nothing left in the
house to sell, they sold the beams and roof and finally
door and doorway.
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When nothing was left, the farmers and farm labourers moved to
the cities. There was no work. Labourers were willing to work for a whole day for three paise. Masons were available for
4 annas, carpenters for 6 annas but there was no work except begging.
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Prostitutes came and bought young and even small girls.
For a pittance of one or two rupees, parents would give
away their daughters. In some places charitable people
had opened community kitchens. In some places, khichadi
was cooked and every beggar would get a bowlful.
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Beggars would gather on one side and as they received their
bowlful they were pushed to another side so that they
could not return to take more food. Even that bowl of
khichadi could not be given to everyone.
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The number of beggars increased; there were skirmishes during khichadi distribution. In every house, after every
meal, leftovers were collected and even the water in which
rice had been boiled was saved. This water and
leftovers were distributed to beggars in their bowls.
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This bowl was the beggar’s only possession ... At nightfall
they would sleep wherever they happened to be, clutching
the bowl to their chest as they slept.
As summer set in, we would see three or four corpses
every day on the way to school.
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Every day the bhangis [the lowest caste in the Hindu social hierarchy which is responsible for the disposal of dead bodies] would drag the bodies away and dump them in a dried-up well. They did not cover the bodies, as a result of which
the stench lingered for 2 or 3 years.
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It was difficult to pass by that way. The village had a municipality but it did not occur to anyone to cover the corpses with mud.
People would come and go by that road, pinching their
nostrils to keep out the smell.
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The cities of Gujarat had money during the Chhapaniya.
The textile mills had started about half a century earlier
and they were now well established. There were many
wealthy people in the cities but it not occur to any of
them to step in to save people dying of hunger.
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There were religious godmen in Gujarat, who had become rich
with the contributions of farmers and poor people. Yet
chhapan bhog was being offered at the Vaishnav havelis
and the acharyas continued to enjoy their luxury.
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Lakhs of rupees lay in the coffers of the Swaminarayan
temples. A good sum was collected at the temple of Shri
Ranchhodrai at Dakor. The wealth in the Jain temples
multiplied as interest gathered upon interest generated
by the fortune there.
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Yet not one dharmaguru had the good sense to keep alive the starving people by generating some work for them.
It is very unfortunate that even though they were faced
with such a great famine, the well-to-do lovers of the
Hindu religion...
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who profess to believe in vasudhaiva
kutumbakam, did not think of extending a helping hand...
Only foreign priests believing in a foreign religion felt
compassion for the suffering multitude. They begged for
funds in Europe and America...
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and used the money to rescue lakhs of people from the jaws of death without a thought to their status or caste. A majority of the Gujarati Christians today are those who survived due to the mercy
of these foreign ‘paadris’.
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This is the account of Bhailal Bhai Patel, from the world The Shaping of Modern Gujarat (Yagnik, Sheth)

archive.org/stream/TheShap…

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We shouldn’t assume the state is competent or caring enough for the poor to look after them in situations like this. It is our obligation to ensure that the poor of India do not suffer like they have in the past as we all try and make our way through this plague.