Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c12.31

c12.31

The famine of 1630-33 might have wiped off large numbers in Gujarat, but "the country had recovered from famine, goods were to be had in abundance and...prospects of commerce were very encouraging...Gujarat was again prosperous by 1639..."²² But this recovery seems to have been exceptionally quick. The Bengal famine of 1769-1771 was devastating in its effects. Prior to its outbreak the population of Bengal was 13.06 millions, after the famine it had been reduced to 8.71 millions, and during these two to three years one-third of Bengal population had died. And it took sixty to seventy years for Bengal to regain its population.²³ Therefore, as pointed out by David Hume, demographic recovery in medieval times generally took one to two generations, or thirty to sixty years.