Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the origins, principles and functioning of poorhouses that were established in colonial north India. Following the workhouses in 19th c Britain, poorhouses sought to combat hunger, transform indigenous charity and instill discipline before disappearing from the colonial agenda.

Paper long abstract:

The late 19th c was marked by a number of famines in colonial India resulting in high mortality and circumstances that aggravated the precarious food security of the poor. This pushed the colonial state in India towards some ameliorative steps for its starving subjects in its quest for legitimacy. This paper investigates a somewhat neglected experiment in famine relief, namely the poorhouses that were established in several districts of the North-West Provinces and the Awadh region in north India.

Beginning with the first poorhouses that were established during the famine of 1860-61, colonial administrators sought to devise and test many principles of governance on people confined and located in a defined space. Poorhouses were simultaneously conceptualised as workhouses where subsistence was offered to those who were considered eligible, deserving and willing to do some work. Those who were considered able-bodied or seeking alms were to be deterred. However, poorhouses soon became unpopular as they were perceived by relief-seekers as places that violated caste norms. Colonial administrators saw them as desirable institutions that had the potential of regulating 'desultory private charity' and instilling values of diligence and discipline in the subject population. Poorhouses were apparently modelled on those workhouses in Britain that followed the New Poor Law (1834) and yet they were different and pale imitations in the colonial context, something this paper explores. Poorhouses were regarded as institutional solutions to hunger and despite their humanitarian and benevolent rhetoric, they tried to minimise responsibility, discourage indolence, and institutionalise indigenous charity.