The Great Famine of 1876 to 1878 struck southern and western India during severe drought and monsoon failure. Colonial economic policy, grain markets, and administrative choices intensified suffering. Millions died, and the event exposed the vulnerability of agrarian communities under imperial rule.

The famine shaped Indian literary memory through hunger, failed rains, village loss, and critiques of colonial governance. It provides context for later Indian poets writing about monsoon, land, peasant endurance, and the moral violence hidden behind imperial claims of progress.