adouglasmhor
LE
It's even sadder than that. The famine was mostly in one of the Indian States, speculation by traders and a run of bad harvests in the years before the famine contributed, Britain had already promoted a switch from fibre crops to food crops in many cases and this was a policy continued by the successive governments after independence and partition.
"British and Indian governments, both at the centre and in the provinces and states, were dealing with crop failures and subsistence crises from the outbreak of war in summer 1939 onward. The “man-made” famine argument ignores the substantial efforts undertaken by groups ranging from the War Cabinet in London to small princely states and private relief organizations, as well as the obstacles and clearly evident shortages of food reserves that they faced. The “man-made famine” argument blames the British for the Bengal famine while ignoring British concerns regarding the Japanese attacks on shipping and the food needs of other regions dependent on Britain. The argument also seems to minimize the Japanese threat, evidenced by the Japanese atrocities reported from Burma, and from which British and Indian military forces protected Bengal and the rest of India."
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