A Cultural History of Famine: Food Security and the Environment in India and Britain (Routledge Environmental Humanities)

The term "food security" does not immediately signal research done in humanities disciplines. It refers to a complex, contested issue, whose currency and significance are hardly debatable given present concerns about environmental change, resource management, and sustainability. The subject is thus largely studied within science and social science disciplines in current or very recent historical contexts. This book brings together perspectives on food security and related environmental concerns from experts in the disciplines of literary studies, history, science, and social sciences. It allows readers to compare past and contemporary attitudes towards the issues in India and Britain – the economic, social, and environmental histories of these two nations have been closely connected ever since British travellers began to visit India in the latter half of the sixteenth century. The chapters in this book discuss themes such as climate, harvest failure, trade, technological improvements, transport networks, charity measures, and popular protest, which affected food security in both countries from the seventeenth century onwards. The authors cover a range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches, and their chapters allow readers to understand and compare different methodologies as well as different contexts of time and place relevant to the topic. This book will be of great interest to students and researchers of economic and social history, environmental history, literary studies, and South Asian studies. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of Figures List of Tables Notes on Contributors Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Introduction: A cultural history of famine Time and space Forms of exchange Discourses, narratives, and memories Notes Part I: Historical interpretations Chapter 1: Famine and food security in early modern England: Popular agency and the politics of dearth Famine and social and economic change in early modern England Food security, risk insurance and the social economy of dearth The politics of harvest failure: protest, popular agency and state intervention Conclusion Notes Chapter 2: Subsistence crises and economic history: A study of eighteenth-century Bengal The context Price movements and their implications Conclusion Notes Chapter 3: Climate signals, environment and livelihoods in the long seventeenth century in India Historiography of the crisis The climate of the seventeenth century India, climate and the seventeenth-century crisis Drought, famine and causality in eighteenth-century India Conclusion Notes Part II: Roads and rivers Chapter 4: Famine chorography: Peter Mundy and the Gujarat famine, 1630–32 Discourses of space, place, and mobility Famine chorography Representing the Gujarat famine Placing famine: the “Deccan” Notes Chapter 5: Rivers, inundations, and grain scarcity in early colonial Bengal The climatic event Prolonged effects Geographical impact The famine Government response Climate, famine, and riot Food markets Rivers and famine Notes Part III: Politics of climate and relief Chapter 6: Chaotic interruptions in the economy: Droughts, hurricanes and monsoons in Harriet Martineau’s Illustrations of Political Economy The debilitation of drought Britain’s investment in revolutionary France The taste of dispossession, food security and imperialism Conclusion Notes Chapter 7: Poorhouses and gratuitous famine relief in colonial North India The principles and organisation of poorhouses Poorhouses become unpopular Poorhouses beyond famine years Conclusion Acknowledgements Notes Part IV: Contemporary voices and memories Chapter 8: Farming tales: Narratives of farming and food security in mid-twentieth-century Britain The neglect of farmers’ writings in standard agricultural histories The agricultural context and the emergence of family and working farmers Henderson: the “self-made” working farmer Reynolds: the “sceptical” working farmer Donaldson: the “intellectual” working farmer Conclusions Chapter 9: The economy of hunger: Representing the Bengal famine of 1943 Notes Chapter 10: Are we performing dearth or is dearth performing us, in modern productions of William Shakespeare’s Coriolanus? Grain prices performed by earthly ecologies Early modern plays potentially influenced by dearth Food insecurity in performance Coriolanus Notes Bibliography Primary sources Manuscript Print Online Secondary sources Index Présentation de l'éditeur : "The term "food security" does not immediately signal research done in humanities disciplines. It refers to a complex, contested issue, whose currency and significance are hardly debatable given present concerns about environmental change, resource management, and sustainability. The subject is thus largely studied within science and social science disciplines in current or very recent historical contexts. This book brings together perspectives on food security and related environmental concerns from experts in the disciplines of literary studies, history, science, and social sciences. It allows readers to compare past and contemporary attitudes towards the issues in India and Britain - the economic, social, and environmental histories of these two nations have been closely connected ever since British travellers began to visit India in the latter half of the sixteenth century. The chapters in this book discuss themes such as climate, harvest failure, trade, technological improvements, transport networks, charity measures, and popular protest, which affected food security in both countries from the seventeenth century onwards. The authors cover a range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches, and their chapters allow readers to understand and compare different methodologies as well as different contexts of time and place relevant to the topic" Introduction : A Cultural History Of Famine / Ayesha Mukherjee -- Famine And Food Security In Early Modern England : Popular Agency And The Politics Of Dearth / John Walter -- Subsistence Crises And Economic History : A Study Of Eighteenth Century Bengal / Rajat Datta -- Climate Signals, Environment, And Livelihoods In The Long Seventeenth Century In India / Vinita Damodaran, James Hamilton, And Rob Allan -- Famine Chorography : Peter Mundy And The Gujarat Famine, 1630-32 / Ayesha Mukherjee -- Rivers, Inundations, And Grain Scarcity In Early Colonial Bengal / Ujjayan Bhattacharya -- Chaotic Interruptions In The Economy : Droughts, Hurricanes And Monsoons In Harriet Martineau's Illustrations Of Political Economy / Lesa Scholl -- Poorhouses And Gratuitous Famine Relief In Colonial North India / Sanjay Sharma -- Farming Tales : Narratives Of Farming And Food Security In Mid-twentieth Century Britain / Michael Winter -- The Economy Of Hunger : Representing The Bengal Famine Of 1943 / Amlan Das Gupta -- Are We Performing Dearth Or Is Dearth Performing Us, In Modern Productions Of William Shakespeare's Coriolanus? / Julie Hudson. Edited By Ayesha Mukherjee. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.