Bengal famine: How the debate got reopened
For nearly three decades, one explanation of the Bengal Famine towered above all others. It came from Amartya Sen, who had witnessed the catastrophe as
For nearly three decades, one explanation of the Bengal Famine towered above all others. It came from Amartya Sen, who had witnessed the catastrophe as a child and would later become one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century and eventually win the Nobel Prize. Sen changed how the world understood famines and his work became so influential that it reshaped the study of starvation everywhere.Then, in 2010, a science journalist walked into the debate and reopened questions many thought had already been settled. Madhusree Mukerjee's book 'Churchill's Secret War' revived an old dispute about food shortages, put Winston Churchill -- who was missing from Sen's analysis -- at the centre of the story and forced Sen himself into a public wrangle in the columns of a prestigious magazine.The famine that killed 30 lakh IndiansThe Bengal Famine of 1943 killed nearly 30 lakh people. By the time it ended, entire districts had been devastated. Emaciated villagers wandered into Calcutta looking for food. Corpses lay on pavements and children died on railway platforms. British soldiers stationed in India wrote home describing scenes that seemed impossible to reconcile with a modern state.The famine occurred due to a host of factors. The first shock came in 1942 when Japan conquered Burma. Bengal had long depended on Burmese rice imports as a buffer against local shortages. Overnight, that supply disappeared. And as the Japanese advance also created fears that Bengal itself might be invaded, army started hoarding grains.Also read | The nose theory: When the British measured the noses of IndiansResponding with scorched earth policies, British authorities removed or denied rice stocks to regions that might fall into Japanese hands. They also destroyed boats for the same reason. If the Japanese landed, they would find neither transport nor food. These measures also disrupted local food distribution networks that millions depended upon.At the same time, the war economy was transforming India. Military spending exploded and large numbers of workers connected to the war effort saw their incomes rise. This led to a surge in inflation and rice prices rose suddenly.With Japanese likely to attack Bengal and prices beginning to rise, traders hoarded grains and households too began stockpiling food. Rumours of scarcity fuelled speculation. Food continued to exist, but it moved less freely through the market.An outstanding feature of the famine was that starvation was not evenly distributed. Calcutta, a city vital to the Allied war effort, was relatively protected. Government employees, industrial workers and military personnel generally retained access to food. The worst suffering occurred in the countryside where agricultural labourers, fishermen, transport workers and artisans bore the brunt of famine.There was also administrative failure. The Bengal government reacted slowly as officials misread the scale of the crisis and relief measures came with a delay. Price controls did not prove too effective as food procurement itself became chaotic.All this happened while India had become a supply base for the British war effort when a lot of goods, including food, was being exported to support the war and feed the imperial stockpiles.
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