UPSC History – Policy of laissez faire

UPSC History – Policy of laissez faire

The government’s policy of laissez faire in the trade of grain. For example, two of the worst famine-afflicted areas in the Madras Presidency, the districts of Ganjam and Vizagapatam, continued to export grains throughout the famine.

Export crops displaced millions of acres that could have been used for domestic subsistence, and increased the vulnerability of Indians to food crises. 

Others dispute that exports were a major cause of the famine, pointing out that trade did have a stabilizing influence on India’s food consumption, albeit a small one. 

The large-scale loss of life due to the series of famines between 1860 and 1877 was the cause of political controversy.