FAMINES IN THE INDIAN SUBCONTINENT, 1500 to 1767

1527: Sindh- incorrect report
Documented causes: n/a
Documented effects: n/a

Lieut. Col. A.T. Etheridge, "Report on Past Famines in the Bombay Presidency" (1868) [Reports collected by local officials in all districts]

p16 (Scinde, by Commissioner Havelock): "The earliest famine regarding which information is procurable appears to have occurred in A.D. 1527, when Mirza Shah Beg Ayhoon conquered the Province [No. Mirza had gained control of parts of Sindh by 1522, but died in 1524]. Jam Ninda, then ruler of Scinde [Also no, he had died in 1508, and the actual ruler attacked by Shah Beg was the ineffectual Jam Feroz], directed that all grain should be burnt, in order that it should not fall into the hands of the Conqueror. This famine lasted for six months." [To confuse things still further, Etheridge's consolidated list of famines (p19) omits 1527, but instead includes 1521, which would indeed match Shah Beg's campaign (see my entry for that year)]

1527: Kutch (information only)

[Nothing resembling the above story appears in Mahomed Masoom's classic "History of Sind" (trans. 1855), and the closest I can find is this entry in M.H. Panhwar's "Chronological Dictionary of Sindh" (1983), based on the "Tarikh-i-Tahiri"- in which "Shah Hasan" is presumably Husain, last Shah of the Argun dynasty:]

p392: "[1527 CE] "Shah Hasan marched on Cutch. The Rajput chief instead of meeting in an open battle adopted guerilla tactics, made night attacks and poisoned wells and ponds with dead animals and cactus. Shah Hasan started burning the villages and fields but finally peace was restored through intermediaries and Kanghar agreed to pay annual tribute."