Resonant response

The 19th century was called the century of famines''. The 1857 Mutiny brought the East India Company's rule to an end and the civil admi...

The 19th century was called 8220;the century of famines8221;. The 1857 Mutiny brought the East India Company8217;s rule to an end and the civil administration directly under the British crown. With this, the monopoly of the Christian missions in India petered out. Disaster response gradually slid into the hands of other religious communities, particularly the Hindu community. The Arya Samaj and the Ramakrishna Mission became particularly active in providing social relief.

Delhi experienced a famine in 1860-1, and in 1868-70 a famine affected 45 million people in Rajputana and Central India. Again in 1896-7, there was a nationwide famine in British India not in the Indian-ruled states, affecting 62 million people over 360,000 sq km. A string of scarcities and disasters marked the opening years of the 20th century, but the really big disaster was the Bengal famine of 1943-4, in which three million people died. The Ramakrishna Mission covered 19 districts through 75 centres from June 1943 to April 1945.

The year 1947 saw cross-denominational raw courage and selflessness. The National Christian Council NCC, an organisation representing almost all the non-Catholic churches in India, formed a relief committee that was asked by Mahatma Gandhi to be deployed to Panipat. At the gigantic Kurukshetra camp, the army, the NCC and the Ramakrishna Mission pooled together their resources to help over 250,000 refugees. The NCC Relief Committee, being a neutral arbiter, was ideally placed to help both Hindus and Muslims. The Ramakrishna Mission8217;s involvement stretched well beyond the immediate, continuing even after the other agencies had pulled away. Its centre in Belur was the hub of relief activities, and later expanded to Sealdah and Tripura. The Mission was the major distributor of supplies from agencies like the Indian Flood Committee in New York and the Indian Chamber of Commerce in Fiji.

The first officially declared famine in independent India occurred in Bihar in 1966-7. It was accompanied by massive migration, looting and protests. In November 1966, the Ananda Marg set up its headquarters in Patna and began relief work. The Arya Pratinidhi Sabha surfaced in Monghyr, Palamau and Gaya districts. The RSS mobilised considerable resources both from within India and from expatriate communities abroad. Both the Catholics CARITAS and Protestants CORAGS were involved in relief and rehabilitation in Bihar.

In the aftermath of the Andhra cyclones that have gained prominence since 1977, CARITAS India, the RSS, Chinmaya Mission, Ramakrishna Mission, the Church8217;s Auxiliary for Social Action CASA and the Jamaat-e-Islami-e-Hind have all been involved. According to their persuasion, some have worked with the government while others have considered the civil administration a nuisance in the post-disaster scenario.

However, religious charities do not address the vulnerabilities embedded in the social structure, weaknesses that every calamity exploits to strengthen orthodoxy. A seemingly striking religious observation, for instance, is that famine leads to the erosion of moral consciousness. The disaster responses of religious organisations since 1958 have, directly or indirectly, affected the attitudes and behaviour of people. For instance, in 1997, it was observed, in the villages surrounding Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh, that survivors of the earthquake, even when able, would often wait for voluntary organisations to come their way, and many religious charities were only too happy to meet their expectations.

There were also instances of organisational rivalries with regard to media coverage, and a relief scrimmage entirely inappropriate to the context.

From the India Disasters Report, Oxford University Press.