The Chalisa Famine

Introduction:

In 1783, Punjab’s vast fields cracked under the sun. Crops withered. Wells ran dry. This marked the beginning of one of the deadliest famines in Punjabi history - the Chalisa Famine. Named after the Vikram Samvat year 1840; Chalisa - forty, the famine reshaped Punjab. The crumbling Mughal Empire stood powerless, while the rising Punjabi Confederacy struggled to keep the land alive.

Note: The Vikram Samvat refers to the Hindu calendar used in the Indian subcontinent. Today it has been mostly replaced by the Gregorian calendar, but still operates alongside other calendars in some regions. This is the calendar discussed in The Punjabi Year series.

Causes:

The Chalisa Famine did not strike Punjab by surprise, but would have been a jarring shock to the average farmer. It was the result of multiple factors converging to create a perfect storm of environmental disaster and political instability.

• El Niño is a weather phenomenon marked by warmer than usual sea temperatures in the Pacific Ocean. This disrupts global weather patterns by weakening trade winds and altering atmospheric circulation, which directly affects monsoon systems. In Punjab, El Niño leads to weakened or delayed monsoon rains, triggering prolonged droughts and agricultural distress.

  Historical records suggest that an El Niño event played a key role in the Chalisa Famine, by severely disrupting the monsoon and causing a massive drought across Punjab. With reduced rains came failed harvests - leaving both farmers and livestock without sustenance in a region that is otherwise abundant.

• Mughal imperial decline. By the 1780s, the Mughal Empire was in a state of collapse. Internal chaos and territorial losses had left their mark on its administration, making it incapable of responding to crises. Shah Alam II, the emperor at the time, had little power and no real control beyond Delhi. In Punjab, the Sikh Misls had largely taken over Mughal authority, meaning the empire had little ability, or interest, in providing relief to the suffering population.

• Punjab had become a battleground. The Mughal Empire was locked in conflicts with the Marathas and Afghans, while the rise of the Sikh Misls further intensified instability. This continuous warfare devastated farmlands, making agriculture impossible in many regions. Supply chains were disrupted, villages were looted, and fertile lands abandoned - all of which worsened food shortages when the drought struck.

A Failed Monsoon:

Each year the Asian monsoon rains are driven by steady trade winds pushing warm waters westward across the Pacific Ocean toward Indonesia. This keeps the eastern Pacific cool and global wind circulation in balance. In 1782–83, this pattern was broken: the trade winds weakened, and large amounts of warm water drifted eastward, anchoring the moist air that would normally condense to form monsoon clouds over the Pacific itself. Without this rising motion, the Indian Ocean monsoon lost its driving force. The mechanism that should have carried the rains into the Indian Subcontinent stalled, leaving Punjab exposed to one of the most dramatic climatic disruptions of the eighteenth century.

Punjab’s prosperity has always depended on the balance between summer monsoon rains and the glacial snowmelt of the Himalayas. In 1783, this balance collapsed when the monsoon did not arrive. Historical accounts describe cloudless skies across the Indo-Gangetic plain, wells that dried prematurely, and dust storms that swept through villages in place of seasonal showers. The rivers of Punjab narrowed, and without the monsoon’s recharge, even Himalayan runoff proved insufficient, as the soil itself had dried out.

Note: The Indo-Gangetic plain is a lowland region encompassing parts of Pakistan, Nepal, India, and Bangladesh. Its name is derived from the rivers that flow through it - Indus on the west, and Ganges on the east (occasionally the Brahmaputra river is also considered on the eastern side of the plain). It is bound by the Himalayan mountains in the north, and the Deccan plateau in the south. The Punjab region is in the western side of the Indo-Gangetic plain, where the five rivers - Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Sutlej, Beas, meet to form the plains of Punjab. The soils of the Indo-Gangetic plain are alluvial - deposited by rivers, and therefore amongst the most fertile in the world, making it an agricultural powerhouse for the entire subcontinent.

The failed monsoon destroyed two consecutive harvests in Punjab. The kharif - summer crops; rice, millets, and pulses, sown in June/ July, withered before they could mature. The following rabi - winter crops, sown in October/ November, also failed, as they depended on residual soil moisture and canal irrigation replenished by the monsoon. Wheat, barley, and gram either never sprouted or withered in their early stages. After losing two consecutive harvests, the granaries of Punjab emptied and food prices soared. The agricultural heart of the region was broken, and Punjab began to spiral into famine.

Impact:

The Chalisa Famine ravaged Punjab and North India, leaving destruction in many ways:

• Starvation and Disease. As food supplies ran out, desperate people resorted to eating wild berries, leaves, tree bark, and even animal remains. Malnutrition became widespread as people’s immunity weaked, and outbreaks of deadly diseases like cholera wiped out entire villages and communities.

• Mass Migrations led to families and villages abandoning their ancestral homes and land in search of food and sustenance. Punjab’s population declined rapidly as refugees fled, with many moving to the Upper Gangetic Doab, and others seeking refuge in Sindh, Rajasthan, and Delhi.

  Note: The Upper Gangetic Doab, and Punjab’s Doaba region are not synonymous. The Upper Gangetic Doab lies between the Ganges and Yamuna rivers in Uttar Pradesh, India, and the Doaba region is located between the Sutlej and Beas Rivers in Punjab, India.
  The term Doab is a Persian word used to describe the area between two bodies of water; Do - two, Aab - water.

• Economic Collapse. Failed harvests, abandoned villages, and staggering mortality rates led to the inevitable collapse of the economy. Grain prices soared, trade routes became unsafe as desperate people resorted to looting merchants, and landlords struggled to maintain their estates as farmers either perished or migrated.

The Response:

At the time of the famine, Punjab was officially still under Mughal administration as a Subah - province, but the real control was with the Sikh Confederacy. The Mughal administration had no response to the famine, giving the leaders of the confederacy another opportunity to solidify control over Punjab.
Some misl chiefs were weakened by the continuous warfare, and could not organise relief for their subjects. Others distributed food, and offered refuge to displaced families as best they could. Some sources state that Maha Singh of the Sukerchakia Misl gave chana - gram to his subjects, but this is not widely documented.

Baghel Singh and the Budha Dal: A Significant Contribution

Baghel Singh (1730–1802) was a prominent Sikh military leader and Misl chief from the Panjgarhia Misl. As the crisis worsened, Baghel Singh led the Sikh troops of the Budha Dal - “The Old Army”, one of two Sikh military groups which make up the Khalsa into Delhi to help save Punjab. This forced Emperor Shah Alam II to negotiate, and allowed the troops to build Gurdwaras - Sikh temples in Delhi. Baghel Singh also secured an agreement allowing Sikhs to collect 12.5% of Delhi’s octroi tax, redirecting wealth to support Punjab’s struggling population. This marked a turning point, demonstrating that the Sikh Misls were not just regional influences but a rising political force on the subcontinent.

Long-Term Consequences: A Shift in Power

The famine was more than a natural disaster as it marked a pivotal moment in Punjab’s history. It brought about change in the following ways.

• The end of Mughal control in Punjab. The Mughal Empire was already on the brink of collapse, but their limited relief and aid saw the loss of whatever remaining control it had over Punjab.

• Rise of Ranjit Singh’s Empire, the Sikh Confederacy, having endured the crisis, emerged as the dominant force. By the early 19th century, Punjab would be united under Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

• Changes in demographics and land ownership, the aftermath of the famine meant entire regions were depopulated, leading to resettlements and shifts in landholding patterns. Trade routes were redirected, further strengthening the new Sikh leadership.

Conclusion

The Chalisa Famine wasn’t just a tragic event, it was a turning point. It altered Punjab’s political trajectory, and made way for new leadership. Among the Sikh Misls, Baghel Singh’s actions in Delhi stand out as one of the most documented contributions during this period. His securing of economic resources and construction of Sikh institutions had a lasting impact.

It also serves as a reminder that climate, politics, and conflict are deeply interconnected.

A real image of the Punjabi wheat crops.

To Punjab, who saw the Earth crack, and empires crumble, but rose with new force from the ruins. With Marvel - TrishSaab.