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Abstract

Between c. 1860-1920, numerous famines affected the Indian subcontinent, resulting in widespread mortality. This thesis shows how the British colonial state provided famine relief: by setting up relief works (construction on public works), arranging for various forms of gratuitous relief and selectively distributing loans. Moving away from studies of famine causes, the dissertation highlights the centrality of labour both to famine relief and to the sustenance of colonial rule in India. It analyses the ideological impact of English Poor Laws and colonial knowledge-making to emphasize that the colonial state relied on untested knowledge of the Indian society to frame its famine relief policy, which therefore deepened divisions within the society. Moreover, the framework of political economy is used to argue that famine management was informed by a utilitarian calculus that aimed at the regulation of labour. The state justified colonial despotism in governance of labour under the famine regime through arguments of ‘improvement’ and ‘discipline’, in order to maintain the ‘coolie’ as the principle form of colonial subjecthood. Additionally, the dissertation examines how the colonial state’s famine relief provision and policy focused on labour and its ‘productive’ employment on public works projects. The thesis stresses how the colonial state used famine relief to legitimise its position in India and employed racist moral rationalisations to coerce local labour. The research thus opens up new ways of thinking about the entanglements of morality and economy in the colonial context.

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