The end of the dryland famine around 1900 was of great significance in Indian history. Famine historiography, preoccupied with the Bengal famine of 1943 and shortages of food, obscures why the dryland famine ended and, therefore, misreads why they happened in the first place. This paper suggests that the dryland famines were caused primarily by a shortage of moisture, and secondarily, a shortage of food. Uncoordinated interventions targeting water supply and wider access to water, roughly occurring between 1880 and 1930, played a significant role in their end. It draws the inference that drought-induced famines in India’s past were not caused by food distribution failure, but water supply failure. As episodes of extreme dryness become more likely due to climate change, this history has relevance.

Patronage as Politics in South Asia edited byAnastasia Piliavsky, Delhi: Cambridge University Press, 2014; pp xvi + 469, Rs 895, hardback.

Modern Times: India 1880s-1950s by Sumit Sarkar, Ranikhet: Permanent Black, 2014; pp xiv+464, Rs 895(hardback).

Continuing the debate on the economic legacy of colonial rule, the author responds to Banerjee et al's critique of his essay, also published in EPW.

Adivasis and the Raj: Socio-economic Transition of the Hos, 1820-1932 (Critical Thinking in South Asian History Series) by Sanjukta Das Gupta (Hyderabad: Orient Blackswan), 2011; pp xvi+367, Rs 820.

Beyond Caste: Identity and Power in South Asia, Past and Present by Sumit Guha (Leiden: Brill (Brill's Indological Library)) 2013; pp xx+ 236, $127.

The Great Escape: Health, Wealth and the Origins of Inequality by Angus Deaton (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press), 2013; pp xvi + 360, £19.95 (cloth).

Pelagic Passageways: The Northern Bay of Bengal before Colonialism edited by Rila Mukherjee (Delhi: Primus Books), 2011; pp xv + 502, Rs 1,395.

The Oxford History of Contemporary Indian Business by Dwijendra Tripathi and Jyoti Jumani (New Delhi: Oxford University Press), 2013; pp xvi + 285; Rs 2,995.