ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the noticeable shift in policy and traces the principles, practices, and institutional trajectory of poorhouses from the second half of the nineteenth century in northern India, most of which was then administratively organised as the North-Western Provinces and Awadh. A significant shift occurred in the policy towards gratuitous charity during the 1860-61 famine in northern India when the novel institution of the poorhouse made its appearance and it emerged as the most important agency of state-sponsored gratuitous relief. The general official view was that the state should refrain from direct involvement in it and if those having links with the colonial establishment wished to indulge in acts of gratuitous relief they should do so in their private capacity. In the model poorhouse at Moradabad, elaborate rules were laid down for doling out cooked food. The popular dislike of poorhouses, the colonial administration persisted with them and they became an important part of state-sponsored gratuitous relief.
