Natural disasters can encourage people to help each other. Tirthankar Roy, author, 'Natural Disasters and Indian History' tells Books Editor Yogesh Vajpeyi that some man-made disasters create a role for the state in reversing them.
What prompted you to look into a history of natural disasters?
Indians are exposed to a higher risk of natural disasters. Yet, there is no study available on the effects of these events on society or on how the society learns to deal with them. I believe that Indian historians tend to be obsessed with politics, while neglecting other factors that shape our well-being, such as geography or environment. The environment poses risk to livelihoods and human lives. I wanted to write a social history of this risk.
How are these disasters different from man-made disasters?
In man-made disasters you can identify a human source, and therefore, fix liabilities. In natural disasters, you cannot identify a human source and know who is liable. In the latter, the task of compensation and reconstruction must rely on social cooperation.
Their impact on human activity?
In the short run, disasters can encourage people to help each other. Sometimes disasters can lead to fierce competition for limited resources like food or medicine. When people get busy with rebuilding, there is a need for cooperation and to share information. In the very long run, the major impact that disasters have is the build-up of scientific knowledge about why they happen. On the basis of that knowledge, better systems of prediction and prevention can be created.
How has the state response evolved over the years?
The state plays a much bigger role in relief today than it did a 100 years ago. In the past, an earthquake would be seen as god’s punishment for our sins. Today, we understand these events in scientific terms. The growing realisation that some disasters may be the result of environmental destruction caused by human action creates a role for the state in reversing it.
Famines may have stopped, but hunger deaths continue. Why?
Famines of the ninth and tenth century caused deaths on an enormously larger scale than the hunger deaths of today. In the past diseases like cholera or smallpox would kill a large number of people already weak from lack of food. Today the epidemic effect is absent and the scale of hunger is much smaller. Yet, hunger, like the old famines, continues to be acute in areas of poor agriculture, little job prospects outside agriculture, and poor roads and markets. Crop failure in such zones can have devastating effect on the population of landless workers.
How do you look at India’s disaster preparedness?
It’s much better today. The parameters are constantly shifting. Storms are getting worse, earthquakes are potentially more severe.
What are the lessons for future?
You cannot prevent them. The best bet is to deal with the disasters.
