The most fierce famine in the history of ‘Chhapapania Akal “Rajasthan or Thar, which took place in the year 1898, is also called’ Chhapania Akal” due to Vikram Samvat 1956. The world knows this famine as ‘The Great Indian Famine 1899’. It is believed that in this famine, ten million people of Rajasthan died due to hunger.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNV- Axorjqa
In folk songs and folk life, the description of this famine is still described. According to an estimate in 1908 in India’s Imperial Gazetteer, this famine alone in the territories ruled by British India, ie, directly in territories ruled by the British rule, caused death from starvation and related diseases. Some historians believe that this figure had reached about 25 percent of the total population of Rajasthan i.e. 40 to 45 lakhs. It does not include the number of losses caused by this famine in the princely states and princely states of that time. So let’s know the story of the most painful phase of history in today’s video
Thar located in Rajasthan is the 17th largest desert in the world and the 9th largest hot desert in the world. This is the area of Rajasthan from which nature does not have much attachment. In the entire desert where there is no rain, there is not a single river for water on the other hand. For this reason, this entire area is completely dependent on rain for its water needs. Historically, every third year in Rajasthan has been having a huge famine every third year and every eighth year, but Chhapania came to vow to not rain the clouds. Chhapania broke the waist of both the people of Rajasthan and Rajasthan so much that the people here were forced to eat cattle food.
The Chhapania famine began with the 1899 summer monsoon failure in western and central India. Which filled the life of more than 6 crore population of 476,000 square miles in the coming year with unbearable sufferings. In the initial phase, the impact of this terrible famine was seen in Central and North India, which included Bombay Presidency, Ajmer-Merwara’s minor province and Hisar districts of Punjab. However, most of the princely states of Rajasthan were affected by this famine. This famine caused the most devastation in areas like Nagaur, Marwar, Mewar, Kathiawar, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Barmer and Jaisalmer of Rajasthan. Due to drought, there was a huge reduction of rash and water in Rajasthan, which ruined the inter-regional trade of princely states. As a result, the death rate from hunger had increased significantly.
In the year 1899, the average rainfall in many parts of North India was reduced from 45 inches to just 11 inches. During this period, most of the lands of Rajasthan did not fall to a drop of rain throughout the year. Due to lack of rain in Rajasthan, the farmers could not sow their crops due to lack of rain. Due to which neither a grain of grain was born, nor fodder was available for animals. People started migrating due to severe lack of drinking water for drinking water for drinking water. The era of starvation reached the site that grains and water were started from people’s homes. You can understand the pain of its destruction from the fact that in that era, people were forced to sell their wife and child instead of grains. This shocking painful scene spread in every corner of Rajasthan.
In the famine, people were dying due to dehydration due to lack of drinking water on one side, on the other hand, people and people were dying on the path of 50-52 degrees Celsius in the desert. People dying with sesame seeds, hunting of grass, snake-new and dry bark of trees were forced to eat. The starvation of starvation was such that some people had become a cannibal from hunger.
The havoc of Chhapania famine was so severe that due to hunger and lack of water, every bone of the people could be seen clearly. People had become so weak that people would have needed support to stand up and even stand, for this, pegs were buried in almost every house. In Rajasthan, the pegs mean to bury a long pole in the ground, with which people can stand up, can walk and do their daily work. When there was a shortage of grain, people were forced to leave one day and eat food one day, but this devastation did not stop here. The situation deteriorated so much that people were forced to eat Kakadia-Matre seeds first in hunger, when they were over, when they were over, when the drought, they also ended with drought, people started eating plum, vegetation and flock. At one time it came that all these also ended in the miles of miles around the people. After this, people were made powder of remaining kernels of plum, forced to eat it with water. When every road was closed for the people, they started eating dry grass and eating. Famine Kalima The blood of people so deeply on the people was dry due to lack of water and lack of water.
With this famine, not only the general public but also the king of Rajputana was struggling. Many kings of Rajputana did many famine relief work to protect the public from this fierce tragedy, in which the arrangement of free food was the most important. Along with this, the princely states opened shelter for the subjects so that the hungry people could save their lives by eating food there. However, due to lack of limited means of traffic and communication mediums, people could not fully help. Due to this system, the treasures of many rulers of Rajputana became empty and they were drowned in heavy debt. During that time, relief camps were opened in the states under the British government to provide relief to the famine affected people, but there was limited relief to the people, which was negligible.
Finally, one day, nature also had to bow down to the people of Marudhara, and after a long time, the monsoon knocked in Jeth month. As soon as the clouds started thundering in Marudhara, some people were filled with the joy of the end of a long tragedy, some people had tears in their eyes or remember their deeds. Our ancestors have suffered the deeds of these famine with unmatched and intelligence year after year and kept the life of themselves and the life of family members with great effort from the era of crises. How much pain our elders have suffered, it is also impossible for those who watch these videos to sit in AC rooms today. But this famine caused serious damage to the social and economic condition of our ancestors. Due to which casteism got a lot of boost in the society. During this famine, many craftsmen and weaver castes left their crafts and drowned completely in debt due to hunger and later converted into brothers laborers. Balai weaver caste was also one in these lives, whose social status also declined very severe decline. Thousands of people from Rajasthan also migrated to Malwa and other places.
With this terrible famine, the kings and emperors of Rajasthan, the British government and the common people, made many such arrangements so that they and their coming books in future would not have to face such pain. After emerging from this famine, the people of Rajasthan had the courage to face any famine or natural tragedy of the world. Due to this terrible famine, many people of Rajasthan left their home and family and settled in different parts of India. These people showed such a lot of hard work and dedication that they started speaking in the name of Marwaris all over India. Many canals, reservoirs and buildings were constructed in future, so many canals, reservoirs and buildings were constructed in future. And plans were made for the future, which included promoting food production, red wheat from the US, red janwar, red wheat, ghats etc. through permits, starting of green revolution, changing the quality of seeds used for sowing, keeping sarplus in grain storage warehouses along with expansion.
So this was the story of Chhapania famine, thanks for watching the video, if you liked this video, please comment and give your opinion, subscribe to the channel, like the video, and share it with your friends and family.