Famine of Bengal

Bengal famine of 1943 পঞ্চাশের মন্বন্তর
Country	British India
Location	Bengal
Period	1943–44
Total deaths	1.5 to 4 million
Observations	Policy failure, war

The Bengal famine of 1943 (Bengali: পঞ্চাশের মন্বন্তর) struck the Bengal Province of pre-partition India. Estimates are that between 1.5 and 4 million people died of starvation, malnutrition and disease, out of Bengal’s 60.3 million population, half of them dying from disease after food became available in December 1943 As in previous Bengal famines, the highest mortality was not in previously very poor groups, but among artisans and small traders whose income vanished when people spent all they had on food and did not employ cobblers, carpenters, etc. The food crisis increased from the beginning of 1943, becoming a serious famine from mid-1943. This ended with the harvesting of the December 1943 rice crop, though continuing famine relief was needed for the next few months.

India, and Bengal in particular, had food shortages by the beginning of 1943 for the following reasons.

The food situation in India was tight from the beginning of the Second World War with a series of crop failures and localized famines which were dealt with successfully under the Indian Famine Codes. In Bengal in 1940-41 there was a small scale famine although quick action by the authorities prevented widespread loss of life. India as a whole faced a food shortage in 1943. After the Japanese occupation of Burma in March 1942, Bengal and the other parts of India and Ceylon which were normally supplied by Burma had to find food elsewhere. However, there were poor crops and famine situations in Cochin, Trivandrum and Bombay on the West coast and Madras, Orissa and Bengal in the East. It fell on the few surplus Provinces, mainly the Punjab, to supply the rest of India and Ceylon. India as a whole had a deficit, but exported small quantities to meet the urgent needs of the Indian Army abroad, and those of Ceylon. India had imported 2 million tons of grain a year in previous years but there were only small net imports in 1943..

Bengal’s winter 1942 ‘aman’ rice crop, the most important one, was well below average.

In addition, Bengal was hit by a cyclone and three tidal waves on October 16, 1942. An area of 450 square miles were swept by tidal waves, 400 square miles affected by floods and 3200 square miles damaged by wind and torrential rain, destroying food crops. This killed 14,000 people. Reserve stocks in the hands of cultivators, consumers and dealers were destroyed.‘The homes, livelihood and property of nearly 2.5 million Bengalis were ruined or damaged.’ The districts affected were normally an important supplier of food to Greater Calcutta.

...
Wikipedia