Notes on the Famine Tour by his Highness the Maharaja Gaekwar

About The Book : As soon as the Famine administration had been well settled and relief-works had been opened in order to mitigate the distress of the people, I thought of visiting my northern dominions, where the cry of distress had been heard at a comparatively early date. I visited Mehsana, Vadnagar, Patan, Kalol, and Kadi, as well as the villages situated in the vicinity of these towns, and acquainted mg myself with the sufferings of their inhabitants and their expectation of relief from the State. The village people were very simple, and it was a pleasure to converse with these good-hearted, honest folk, whose unsophisticated minds left a favourable impression on me. It had never before given me greater pleasure to converse with the people in their own language, and to be able to move among them, often without their knowing who I was. I frequently try to mix with the people in this way, and, as frequently, I discover in the communion a source of interest and of instruction to myself. The guileless children of the soil, when simply and sympathetically questioned, poured forth their unvarnished tales of pleasure and of pain, of jealousy and of scandal.