Bihar Famine and American Diplomacy
Famines in India Famines are not unfamiliar on the Indian landscape. They have been experienced, feared and like all bad things—forgotten. Be it the two centuries of British occupation or the period before, famines have hit the Indian subcontinent hard and certain regions in particular even harder. While the war on famine picked up pace post-independence, it has been a bumpy ride with plentiful challenges. The latter half of British rule in India saw at least six major famines (1873-74, 1876, 1877, 1896-97, 1899, 1943), with fatalities in the millions. And the one that makes a prominent appearance as perhaps one of the worst famines of the twentieth century came piggybacking the Second Great War (WWII). This was the Bengal Famine of 1943, where imperial policies, inaction and draining of resources as part of the war effort led to food shortages and massive inflation. Millions were deliberately starved to death, making them indirect casualties of the war. The death toll skyrocketed ...