| Deccan famine of 1630–1632 | |
| Country: | Mughal Empire Deccan sultanates, India |
| Location: | Deccan Plateau, Khandesh and Gujarat |
| Period: | 1630–1632 |
| Preceded: | Damajipant famine |
| Succeeded: | Deccan in 1655, 1682 and 1884 |
The Deccan famine of 1630–1632 was a famine associated with a back-to-back crop failure.[1] The famine happened during the reign of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan.[2] The famine was the result of three consecutive staple crop failures, causing plague and leading to intense hunger, disease, and displacement in the region. The famine was further intensified by the Mughal campaign led by Shah Jahan in Malwa and the Deccan after Malwa's Mughal commander turned rogue and joined hands with the Deccan forces of Nizam Shah and Adil Shah. About three million people died in Gujarat in the ten months ending in October 1631 while another million died around Ahmednagar. The report gives an overall death toll of 7.4 million by late 1631, which might be for the whole region.
Peter Mundy writes his first-hand account of the Deccan Famine as follows:
"The Gujarat famine began with a drought in 1630, attacks on crops by mice and locusts in the following year, and then excessive rain. Famine and water-borne diseases created high mortality: 3 million died in 1631. People migrated towards less affected areas, many died on the way, and dead bodies blocked the roads. Both Persian and European sources tell the story of this famine, with a subverted cornucopoeia of grotesque consumption patterns: cattle-hide was eaten, dead men’s bones were ground with flour, cannibalism was frequent, and people fed on corpses. Carts belonging to banjaras (carriers) transporting grain from the more productive regions of Malwa were intercepted and supplies diverted to feed Shah Jahan’s royal army in Burhanpur, who were fighting territorial wars in the Deccan (southern) provinces. The pre-famine price of wheat was 1 mahmudi per man; in 1631 it had risen to 16. Imperial charitable practices of opening free kitchens and offering land revenue remission had limited effect. Gujarat was one of the main production centres for calico cloth and this trade was badly affected by the death and migration of weavers."[3]