Bengal famine of 1770

Great Bengal Famine of 1770 ৭৬-এর মন্বন্তর (Chhiattōrer monnōntór)
Country	Company Raj
Location	Bengal
Period	1769–1773
Total deaths	10 million
Observations	Policy failure
Relief	None provided
Impact on demographics	Population of Bengal declined by a quarter
Consequences	The revenues of British East India Company dropped to £174,300 due to the famine. Tax collection was carried out violently to make up for Company losses.

The Great Bengal Famine of 1770 (Bengali: ৭৬-এর মন্বন্তর, Chhiattōrer monnōntór; lit The Famine of '76) was a famine between 1769 and 1773 (1176 to 1180 in the Bengali calendar) that affected the lower Gangetic plain of India. The famine is estimated to have caused the deaths of 10 million people. The famine is usually attributed to the rule of the British East India Company. Nobel prize winning Indian economist Amartya Sen describes it as a man-made famine, noting that no previous famine had occurred in India that century. The Company had conquered the area just six years previously from the Mughal Empire in the Battle of Buxar. It destroyed large areas of food crops to make way for the growing of indigo plants for dye and opium poppies. It increased the tax on agricultural produce from 10% to 50%, transferring much of Bengal's wealth to the company's shareholders. The stockpiling of rice was also outlawed. These conditions allowed a food shortage caused by drought to become a famine with such a high death toll. It was further aggravated by the nonresponsive administration of the Company, which was concerned only with extracting wealth from the region regardless of the cost in lives.

The Bengali name derives from its origins in the Bengali calendar year 1176. ("Chhiattōr"- "76"; "monnōntór"- "famine" in Bengali).

Munni Begun, wife of Mir Zafar Ali Khan served as regent for both of them.

The famine occurred in the territory which was called Bengal, then ruled by the British East India Company. This territory included modern West Bengal, Bangladesh, and parts of Assam, Odisha, Bihar, and Jharkhand. It was earlier a province of the Mughal empire from the 16th century and was ruled by a nawab, or governor. In early 18th century, as the Mughal empire started collapsing, the nawab became effectively independent of the Mughal rule.

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