Enlightenment · South Asia · Exploration

1702

Gujarat Famine

April 27, 1702

A prolonged drought devastated western India as the Mughal tax system buckled under Aurangzeb's Deccan wars. European travelers described villages emptied and bodies unburied in the roads. The Mughal chronicles record mortality in the hundreds of thousands. Imperial decline was being measured, above all, in the bellies of peasants. The famine accelerated Maratha and British encroachment into Gujarat's weakened principalities.

More from 1702 Enlightenment

In context

Also in 1702 (5 other events on record)

Queen Anne Ascends the English Throne · Europe · Politics
Queen Anne's War Begins · North America · War
Forty-Seven Ronin Avenge Their Lord · East Asia · Politics
First English Daily Newspaper · Europe · Culture
War of the Camisards · Europe · Religion

Before and after in South Asia

Before: March 29, 1699: Guru Gobind Singh Founds the Khalsa
After: July 1, 1706: Hyderabad's Nizam Rises

Before and after in Exploration

Before: 1699: William Dampier Explores Western Australia
After: November 26, 1703: The Great Storm of 1703

Era

Enlightenment (1651–1800), one of 696 events from that era on Saeculum.