142221 SE Poverty and Famines in Modern South Asia (2024W)

The title of this seminar refers to an important publication by Amartya Sen. Published in 1981, Poverty and Famines marked a turning point in the analysis of famines. Sen is one of the most important development economists and philosophers working today on issues such as economic and social justice, hunger and famine. He grew up in West Bengal, a region that experienced a devastating famine in 1943, when millions died of hunger and starvation. Sen experienced this famine first-hand as a child - an experience that certainly shaped his academic interests.

Colonial rule, it could be said, not only ended with a terrible famine, it began with one: the famine of 1769-70, also in Bengal, which killed an estimated third of that province's total population. There were, of course, many other severe famines throughout the period of British rule. But there has been no famine in India since independence in 1947. Moreover, there is little archival evidence of large-scale famines in pre-colonial India. This suggests that famine was not simply a 'natural' recurring event in the subcontinent, as some colonial administrators suggested, but was closely linked to colonialism and its impact on the economy and society of South Asia. The first major aim of this seminar is to familiarise students with famines in colonial South Asia, as this was a period of frequent and severe famines that affected large parts of the subcontinent. We will discuss the factors that have the potential to turn a food crisis into a famine, including extreme weather events, failing markets or misguided public responses. We will also discuss what made the people of South Asia so vulnerable to famine in the first place.

Second, we study issues of food security and food sovereignty in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. South Asia was a central arena of the so-called Green Revolution, a massive transformation of agriculture that began in the 1960s. New high-yielding seeds, pesticides and irrigation technology rapidly increased agricultural productivity and helped alleviate the problem of food shortages, at least in the short term. In the long run, however, the Green Revolution created new problems, such as declining soil fertility, depleted groundwater, and dependence on external agents such as seed companies. Recently, many governments, development agencies and scientists have called for a 'New Green Revolution'. Biotechnology, they hope, can combat climate change and hunger. Not only could biotechnology further increase crop yields, but it could also help to sustain agricultural production in harsh ecological conditions - conditions that are otherwise becoming increasingly difficult for agricultural production due to the climate crisis. Studying the long-term effects of the first Green Revolution in South Asia could help us understand the potential impact of a 'New Green Revolution' on the subcontinent.