THE FORGOTTEN FAMINE

The Forgotten Famine: How Capitalist British Killed 10 Million People In Bengal For Profit

The Forgotten Famine:

By Anshul Gandhi, Monday, 12 Oct 2015

The British rule in India was a period of grief and devastation which not only led to a downturn in India’s growth as a prosperous nation but also made it poor and insufficient in all major sectors. This, however, is nothing as compared to the great famine of 1770 caused by total policy failure of the British in India.

The British came to India with just one motive: profit. The means to extract profits didn’t matter to the higher-ups in the East India Company, let alone the welfare of poor farming majority in India at the time.
The Forgotten Famine: How Capitalist British Killed 10 Million People In Bengal For Profits


In 1765 the East India Company signed a treaty with the then Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II. The treaty was forced upon the emperor as he was defeated in the battle of Buxar on October 22, 1764. The treaty granted the East India Company Diwani rights, or rights to collect taxes on behalf of the emperor, from the eastern province of Bengal-Bihar-Orissa. In return, the Mughal emperor was paid a sum of 26 Lakh Rupees annually.

While the Britishers enjoyed the collection of tributes or taxes from the large population of Bengal, they were completely insulated to the cries of the farmers who paid 50 per cent of their land earnings in taxes as opposed to 10 per cent earlier. Monsoonal delays coupled with financial atrocities by the British lead to a famine so big that it lasted four years, engulfing one-third the population of the region.
The Forgotten Famine: How Capitalist British Killed 10 Million People In Bengal For Profits

Indigenous rulers had taken care of the peasants whenever such a situation arose by lowering the taxes and implementing farmer friendly policies. The British, however, decided to juice the Indian farmers further by ordering to grow cash rich crops like Opium.

Various figures quoted by historians tell a harrowing tale of the great Bengal Famine. In one of the most brutal examples of capitalism, the British wiped out an entire generation for mere profits. The reported number of deaths due the famine was even greater than the Jews incineration during World War II.
The Forgotten Famine: How Capitalist British Killed 10 Million People In Bengal For Profits


Later in 1943, the British Prime Minister of the time, Winston Churchill was extremely callous in his dealing of another famine and therefore was a willing participant in building the riches of the west on the graves of the East. He even diverted the medical and food supplies meant for the sub-continent to the already well fed soldiers in Europe.

The great famine could have been avoided had the British showed some sympathy to the malnourished farmer population which resorted to eating grass and flesh in a last ditch effort to survive. But it wasn’t to be as history would tell us because many such famines struck the nation including the harrowing famine of 1943.
The Forgotten Famine: How Capitalist British Killed 10 Million People In Bengal For Profits


The Bengal Famine will always remind the world of the horrors of capitalism and how greed can destroy the human race irrespective of race.