# data[].attributes.body
American sociologist Clifford Manshardt documented India’s ecology of poverty surrounding ignorance during his missionary trips to India in the early 1900s through his journal articles published in 1930. He argued that Indian agriculturalists were incredibly poor mainly due to bad physical environment like the lack of rainfall and the individuals’ wasteful expenditures incurred through lavish weddings and seasonal feasts (Manshardt. 1930). I agree with these claims to some extent as these reasons were present. However, I am stupefied to not find any mention of the impact British rule had on the plight of farmers.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Journal Information

Current issues are now on the Chicago Journals website. Read the latest issue.The Journal of Religion is one of the publications by which the Divinity School of The University of Chicago seeks to promote critical, hermeneutical, historical, and constructive inquiry into religion. While expecting articles to advance scholarship in their respective fields in a lucid, cogent, and fresh way, the Journal is especially interested in areas of research with a broad range of implications for scholars of religion, or cross-disciplinary relevance. The Editors welcome submissions in theology, religious ethics, and philosophy of religion, as well as articles that approach the role of religion in culture and society from a historical, sociological, psychological, linguistic, or artistic standpoint. Articles that present highly specialized research in limited areas of inquiry may be considered provided that their findings, in the judgment of the Editors, have significance for a wider readership. Submissions may not be concurrently under consideration for publication elsewhere.

Publisher Information

Since its origins in 1890 as one of the three main divisions of the University of Chicago, The University of Chicago Press has embraced as its mission the obligation to disseminate scholarship of the highest standard and to publish serious works that promote education, foster public understanding, and enrich cultural life. Today, the Journals Division publishes more than 70 journals and hardcover serials, in a wide range of academic disciplines, including the social sciences, the humanities, education, the biological and medical sciences, and the physical sciences.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Missionary Approach to the Poverty and Ignorance of India on JSTOR

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Journal Information Current issues are now on the Chicago Journals website. Read the latest issue.The Journal of Religion is one of the publications by which the Divinity School of The University of Chicago seeks to promote critical, hermeneutical, historical, and constructive inquiry into religion.

# data[].attributes.body
Before and during British rule in India, India was a land of villages. With the arrival of the British and the East India Company, India’s once-robust textile industry was diminished, and many were pushed into agriculture in the aftermath of the great Orissa Famine of 1866. This shift to farming was both due to means of self-survival, as well as incentivisation put forward by the British government themselves. However, this was exacerbated by the region’s seasonal monsoons and the British who felt that no relief was the best relief stating Malthusian principles that excess death were nature’s response to overpopulation (Ambirajan, 1976). Ignorance of any mention of the British rule in Manshardt’s article could be due to the fact that he was an American working in the education sector in India which was highly regulated by the British (Mookerjee, 1944).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Given the fact that almost all members of the Indian civil service in the nineteenth century were trained in Britain and consequently liable to be influenced by views prevailing there, this paper examines the role of Malthusian population theory in forming the principles behind British famine policy in India. The conclusion is that not only did Malthusian population theory provide the intellectual basis for the Indian administration's long-run perspective about Indian famines, but also buttressed its largely negative approach to famine relief in the short run.

Journal Information

For over half a century, Population Studies has reported significant advances in methods of demographic analysis, conceptual and mathematical theories of demographic dynamics and behaviour, and the use of these theories and methods to extend scientific knowledge and to inform policy and practice. The Journal's coverage of this field is comprehensive: applications in developed and developing countries; historical and contemporary studies; quantitative and qualitative studies; analytical essays and reviews. The subjects of papers range from classical concerns, such as the determinants and consequences of population change, to such topics as family demography and evolutionary and genetic influences on demographic behaviour. Often the Journal's papers have had the effect of extending the boundaries of its field.

Publisher Information

Building on two centuries' experience, Taylor & Francis has grown rapidlyover the last two decades to become a leading international academic publisher.The Group publishes over 800 journals and over 1,800 new books each year, coveringa wide variety of subject areas and incorporating the journal imprints of Routledge,Carfax, Spon Press, Psychology Press, Martin Dunitz, and Taylor & Francis.Taylor & Francis is fully committed to the publication and dissemination of scholarly information of the highest quality, and today this remains the primary goal.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Malthusian Population Theory and Indian Famine Policy in the Nineteenth Century on JSTOR

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Given the fact that almost all members of the Indian civil service in the nineteenth century were trained in Britain and consequently liable to be influenced by views prevailing there, this paper examines the role of Malthusian population theory in forming the principles behind British famine policy in India.

# data[].attributes.body
We see further income inequalities vividly from the image, taken between 1941 to 1943 when Archibald Wavell was Commander-in-Chief of India. We see Government officials dressed in suits while the victims of poverty, a direct result of rising prices and dwindling grain reserves among farmers who couldn’t feed themselves looking incredibly malnourished (Anderlini, 2020).

# data[].attributes.body
With the exclusion of British rule’s actions, Manshardt’s claims of the ignorance of agriculturalists in India, does support my hypothesis that poverty was inevitable due to the ecology of farming in rural India. You could say the British were rather inexperienced with how to deal with India’s problems given how Britain was already an industrialized nation whereas India’s industrial revolution was still in its infancy.

# data[].attributes.body
Interestingly, we could view the downfall of Indian farmers in a chronological fashion. Nine-tenths of the people in India were connected with agriculture (P. Jones, 1910). Ecologically, India’s soil was poor, and its weather patterns were highly irregular featuring unexpected heavy rainfall. There was a mighty imbalance in financials as their average income per capita was Rs. 33, whereas expenditure on necessities like staple food, garments and housing was Rs. 44. How do they survive then? The go-to answer was traditional money lenders who charged immensely high interest rates (25 to 300%). Farmers faced with no other viable option, turn to fate and borrow money hoping that they would be blessed with a good crop in the following season at the expense of mortgaging their farming land. But however, given the uncertain climate in India, such blessings usually arrived too late, at a time when they had already lost out their collateral (i.e., Farming land and housing) to the money lenders (Manshardt. 1930).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
John P. Jones, The Present Situation in India, The Journal of Race Development, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Jul., 1910), pp. 86-109

# data[].attributes.body
The analysis does raise a few eyebrows given how he explicitly claims that the main problem of poverty among agriculturalists can be solved only through education targeting only the negation of extravagance which Indians apparently did through lavish ceremonies and feasts.

# data[].attributes.body
There could be some bias here because of the following two reasons:
1. Farmers couldn’t even breakeven their income and expenses on necessities in the first place and there were no sources proving the existence of many impoverished people organising lavish feasts and weddings forgetting about their plight.
2. Manshardt was part of the Christian missionary that promoted education, and hence, could be using such strong claims (i.e., lack of education in India accentuating ill behaviours like feasts) in order to expedite the progress of his missionary’s activities in India. Thereby, getting support from the British who themselves didn’t want to do much to help these farmers.

# data[].attributes.body
All in all, the hypothesis is true given that the degradation of the ecology, both through the highly fluctuating weather patterns, poor soil conditions, lack of assistance from the government due to an already poor economy, and the existence of worsening elements like high interest charging money lenders, farming was destined for poverty during the British rule in the early 1900s. Fast-forward to today, farmers are still financially unstable with many even turning to suicide due to inability in repaying loans. With the absence of British rule in India, it does raise questions of whether the ecology of poverty among farmers has transitioned into more of a climate crisis issue with even more extreme changing rainfall patterns (Ahmad, 2021).

# data[].attributes.body
1. Manshardt, C. (1930). Missionary Approach to the Poverty and Ignorance of India. The Journal of Religion, 10(3), 394-400. Retrieved March 12, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1196121
2. Jones, J. (1910). The Present Situation in India. The Journal of Race Development, 1(1), 86-109. doi:10.2307/29737849
https://www.jstor.org/stable/29737849?origin=crossref&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

# data[].attributes.body
1. Mookerjee, S. (1944). Education in British India. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 233, 30-38. Retrieved March 12, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1025819
2. Ambirajan, S. (1976). Malthusian Population Theory and Indian Famine Policy in the Nineteenth Century. Population Studies, 30(1), 5-14. doi:10.2307/2173660
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2173660?seq=1
3. Anderlini, J. (2020). Britain’s colonial crimes come back to haunt trade negotiations. https://www.ft.com/content/224109be-6763-11ea-800d-da70cff6e4d3
4. Ahmad, O. (2021). Climate crisis is foundation of Indian farmers’ protests. https://chinadialogue.net/en/food/climate-crisis-is-foundation-of-indian-farmers-protests/