As we study the origins of Lahore, it is clear that the city developed because of the famines and floods that hit nearby Harappa and we see how a majority of the population moved to the seven mounds on the River Ravi. That ultimately formed Lahore as we know it today.

The whole concept of famines, let alone floods, in our part of the world are a major factor how cities and empires have shaped, and made us as we are today(Fieldhouse 1996, pp 132-145). In this piece, let us have a look at some of the major famines and floods that our city directly, and indirectly, faced.

A few years ago, while walking through Cambridge city centre, I came across the famed economics Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, those economic theories of famines and the well-beings of countries are renowned. In our brief conversation, he described the floodings and famines that Lahore faced, and why the entire economic structure of our land was connected to it. As he hurriedly left for a meeting, he commented: “The food of Lahore is great”.

According to research, Harappa was hit between 1900 BC and 1300 BC by periodic famines followed by massive floods (Irfan Habib, Harappa, pp76). This saw the end of the Harappan civilisation, a slow emptying of an ancient city … and the creation of another ancient city we belong to. Just how many perished in those events is not known.

Once the Aryans moved into the Indian sub-continent from the western side and formed the Ved Vedic kingdom between 1100 BC and 500 BC, we see the formation of Hinduism, an extension of a combination of idol worshipping and part Zoroastrian practices, a new society settled as farmers. Compared to the local African origin Dravidians, who were dark, the Iranian origin Vedic were fairer.

These circumstances led to ingrained racism and the growth of a caste system that prevails, to varying degrees, in all of us. All these people faced long periods of weather without rains, which led to famines, and then massive floodings, which led to migration of people.

The 1100 BC to 500 BC casualties have been estimated at over five million (Coningham & Young 2015 PP 180). Just for clarity, this is an estimate only. We know that between 500 BC and 322 BC Harappa and Lahore were hit by five rounds of flooding and famines. This seems like a climatic pattern, which, experts today claim, is continuing. Between 200 BC and the turn of 1 AD, just 2,224 years ago, our lands and its surroundings faced a massive famine followed by floods, claiming an estimated 9,000,000 lives. This, experts claim, was to that date the biggest casualty figures ever from famines and flooding.

But then with times that is between 200 AD and 400 AD it claimed 13 million lives.

Experts claim that with time these weather patterns continue to become severe with seven million lives lost in the 700 AD period, five million in the 800 AD period and in the 917-918 years in Kashmir alone where the ice form, approximately a million persons were swept away.

The weather seems to focus of urban areas intensely as during 1335-1342 in Delhi alone, over 2,000 people perished. The examples put forward by scholars are mind-boggling.

But let us examine the Mughal Emperor Akbar’s period (1556-1605) and what happened in Lahore. Initially, he faced floodings and then a long period of six years of no rains. Crops failed and famine set in. People from all over the country set off to surround Lahore. The emperor had stocks in the Lahore Fort, and he hired 25,000 of them to make bricks and build the walls of Lahore and the Lahore Fort.

In exchange, they were provided with one meal in the evening. The walls of Lahore (now stolen by out traders) and the fort are the result of the terrible famine that struck our land. As we study the record, we notice that every 11 years this famine and flooding pattern sets in. It hits to varying degrees. One of the worst was in 1630-31 when the entire sub-continent faced 7,500,000 deaths.

The period where famines and floods were recorded was the British era, which saw an increase in the incidence of severe famine. Approximately 15 million died from 1850 to 1899 in 24 major famines: more than in any other 50-year period. These famines in British India were bad enough to have a remarkable impact on the long-term population growth of the country, especially in the half-century between 1871 and 1921.

The 1770 Great Bengal Famine is estimated to have taken the lives of up to ten 10 million people. Dr Amartya Sen’s work is primarily on this famine. The impact of this famine caused East India Company to obtain a loan of £1 million from the Bank of England to fund their annual military budget. The 1901 Famine Commission found that 12 famines and four ‘severe scarcities’ took place between 1765 and 1858.

In this column, we notice that floods and famines are connected, and that they occur every 11 years. This is because of the earth’s rotation and increasingly because of the carbon content of the atmosphere. As we lovingly collect cars and build more factories, this progress only adds to our own misery. That we ignore this 11-year happening is to our own peril. Our schoolchildren do not learn about the environment they live in.

When we read about the Mughal ruler Akbar’s reign over Lahore, all we learn is about he built the walls of Lahore City and the Lahore Fort. No one writes about the circumstance in which they were built. Even more tragic is the fact that when he came to Lahore, a famine was in place. On the streets of the ancient walled city, bodies lay all over the place. He got a system of carts to collect these bodies and to bury them at where today is the Mahmood Booti Bund. Even today at places bones emerge as the waste collecting effort is on there.

But even more important is for researchers and bureaucrats to study and understand how and when floods and famines take place. There is an official need to store away two years of rice and wheat and sugar. Merely to export them for foreign exchange, or to save them abroad, is criminal by any measure. Most importantly, our universities and schools should teach this aspect of life. It’s time we learnt our shortcomings, not blame foreigners for our miseries.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2025