The present work is, in many ways, a point of arrival for the author and his associates in the Centre for Regional, Ecological and Science Studies In Development Alternatives (CRESSIDA), even though it presents a very partial and limited view of the extensive studies in Food Systems and the Human Environment in Eastern India, undertaken since 1979, mainly with the support of a number of UN agencies. In the initial stages, the author's own work in this field was supported by the Nehru Memorial Fund in his capacity as Jawaharlal Nehru Fellow. Later, a Fellowship with the Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS), Shimla, enabled him to put together a significant part of the material in the form of printable publication. But for the support of a number of UN agencies, such as the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the UN University (UNU) and the FAO, the vast quantity of statistical material, both primary and secondary, of which only a small part is presented here, could never have been brought together. These various international and national agencies, however, provided only the support system for the field studies and part of the subsequent analysis, and are in no way committed to the findings or policy implications. Above all, but for the generous assistance of the research team of CRESSIDA, its various computational and other facilities, and the keen interest in the publication of this work taken by Dr.Karl-Enc Knutsson, Director, Central South Asia Regional Office of the UNICEF, by Dr. Dharam Ghai, Director, UNRISD, and Dr. Peter Usher of the UNEP, it would have been impossible to get the work ready for publication within a short time.
In particular, grateful acknowledgement is due to the significant research inputs provided by the Late Niranjan Sengupta, Wing Commander B.L. Bose, a well-known Agro-Meteorologist, and Sunil Behari Sen Sarma, a well-known Hydro-Geologist. Similarly, particular gratitude is due to Sitansu Bhattacharyya, but for whose careful vetting of field dam, it would be difficult to make sense of the nutritional and anthropometric information collected through households surveys. Debes Chakraborty, Alok Bandyopadhyay and Usri Sengupta's initial draft reports on the field data have been heavily drawn upon. Alok Bandyopadhyay has also let me use some parts of his M.Phil. and Ph.D. theses. The absolutely decisive role of Pierre Spitz in enabling the author to launch a major research programme on Food Systems and Society in Eastern India and in bringing to these volumes the significant contribution on seasonality, needs special mention. I am also grateful to my friend, Rolando Garcia, once incharge of the Global Atmospheric Research Programme (GARP) of W.M.O., for suggesting certain methods of analysing the rainfall data, pioneered in CRESSIDA by B.L. Bose.
Pursuing a systemic view of access to food, Volume I focuses on the social dimensions, and Volume II on the so-called "natural" dimensions, such as the water regime and the resultant periodicity and seasonality, much of it man made. Community perceptions of both the social and natural environments are, however, reviewed in Volume 11.
The work reported in Volume I traces out in Chapter I the context and processes of the Bengal Famine, 1943. The famine exemplifies starkly the endemic situation obtaining in Eastern India as the legacy of colonial rule, and sharply draws out the profiles of the different social actors involved in the crisis.
The growth and instability in foodgrains output in India as a whole since Independence is spelt out in Chapter II, which then proceeds to situate in the all-India context the contrasts between the laggard Kharif rice zone of Eastern India and the advancing Green Revolution Rabi wheat zone in the North-West. The colonial neo-Malthusian situation of population growing faster than foodgrains output, was revered in the thirty years since Independence. But the National Sample Survey data show that the per capita availability of the early thirties is yet to be reached. The endemic character of food insecurity in Eastern India declining growth rates and increasing year-to-year instability is put forward as one of the major constraints on a steady revival of per capita foodgrains consumption for the country as a whole. Historical roots of this endemic food insecurity are traced in a systemic framework involving a whole range of factors, from land tenures to the ethos of Eastern India as distinct from the North-West.
Hindu (906)
Agriculture (101)
Ancient (1037)
Archaeology (690)
Architecture (554)
Art & Culture (880)
Biography (641)
Buddhist (545)
Cookery (163)
Emperor & Queen (507)
Islam (239)
Jainism (276)
Literary (869)
Mahatma Gandhi (365)
Send as free online greeting card
Email a Friend
Manage Wishlist