[India Famine Relief]

A broad appeal for financial aid to help alleviate the 1899-1900 Indian Famine.

This depressing collection of ephemera was distributed by the Committee of One Hundred on India Famine Relief in the summer of 1900 to solicit material and financial aid to alleviate ongoing starvation across western and central India. Failure of summer monsoons the year prior, coupled with the aftereffects of another devastating famine in 1896/97, led to the deaths of between 3 and 10 million due to malnutrition and related diseases. Numerous groups were organized within Britain and overseas to combat the ongoing devastation.

The Committee of One Hundred was founded by some of New York’s leading business magnates, including John D. Rockefeller, Jr. A list of these luminaries and titans of industry can be seen on the stationary of the letter boldly titled India’s Appeal. It unfolds to show photographs of shockingly skeletal bodies of all ages, suffering from starvation and related illnesses. Accompanying descriptive text relates that between 20 and 25 million are in extreme destitution, with as many as 10 million at risk of perishing – an ominous prediction.

A broadsheet replicates various newspaper articles about the ongoing famine and the efficacy of the relief efforts, with a handwritten note at the bottom reflecting a modest donation from the proceeds of a Children’s Fair in Brooklyn.  A map of the region affected by the famine is also included, with a corresponding caption that again outlines the scope of the misery. “The famine area exceeds 450,000 square miles; greater than France and Germany combined, and equal to all New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin.”

The Committee of One Hundred was not the only American organization established to aid the famine in India. The Christian Herald, an evangelical weekly newspaper, facilitated the largest contribution of relief funds in 1900. Though the admirable goals of the two groups were quite similar, friction occurred as a result of differing methodologies. According to Joanna Simonow, ‘The Committee of One Hundred presented itself as a ‘citizen’s movement’ that intended ‘to show the sympathy felt by the citizens of New York for the victims of the famine in India.’

Differences between the two committees surfaced as well in the disagreement about the composition of the committee in India that was in charge of distributing US funds and grain. The Committee of One Hundred rejected the idea of donating the money to the all-white and all-missionary committee that distributed the aid sent from the Christian Herald. Consequently, the Americo-India Famine Relief Committee was set up to administer the donations from the Committee of One Hundred. Its formal separation from the Christian Herald served to ensure that Indians perceived the Committee of One Hundred as “a civic agency” that provided aid irrespective of differences of “race or creed.”

Thus it’s interesting that the collection also includes a small 16-page pamphlet, order form, and self-addressed envelope for the Christian Herald. It’s headquartered at the Bible House in New York, though in a different unit than the Committee of One Hundred. It’s likely the group of material was issued early in the lifespan of the latter organization, when a spirit of mutual cooperation existing between the two groups.

Sources: ‘Fill Full the Mouth of Famine’: Voluntary Action in Famine Relief in India 1896— 1901; Ending Famine In India: A Transnational History of Food Aid and Development;