When Robert Clive laid the foundation of the British Empire in 1757 by defeating Nawab Siraj-ud-daula’s army at Plassey, Bengal was one of the world’s wealthiest regions. As Dr. Madhusree Mukerjee, narrates in her book “Churchill’s Secret War: The British Empire and the Ravaging of India During World War II,” Bengal was described as “the paradise of the earth” by Clive himself. Its rice reached Sri Lanka and the Maldives, its sugar made its way to Arabia and Mesopotamia, and its silk adorned the markets of Europe. Ships departing from its ports carried a diverse array of exports, including wheat biscuits, salted meats, varnish, wax, musk, spices, preserved fruits, and clarified butter. Bengal’s cotton, renowned for its remarkable diversity and exceptional quality, served as a global supplier. By the end of approximately two centuries of British plundering and pillaging, Bengal transformed into a hinterland giving way to widespread poverty and despair. The colonial era in Bengal was marked by a series of devastating famines, beginning with the Great Bengal Famine in 1770, a mere 13 years into British rule, which resulted in the loss of an estimated 7 to 10 million lives.
The last famine of British Bengal happened 4 years before the British left India. Dr. Shashi Tharoor, a former UN Under-Secretary General and a Member of Parliament in India, described in his book “Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India”, how nearly 4 million people of Bengal starved to death during the Second World War. It was the 1943 Bengal famine. As decimated bodies of people dying and dead of hunger littered the streets of cities, the then British Prime Minister Winston Churchill diverted food from famine-stricken people of Bengal to British soldiers and stockpiles in Greece and other places in Europe.
Colonialism does not exist in the world anymore. However, famines do still occur. In the 21st century, Somalia, a country that emerged from former British and Italian colonies, experienced a devastating famine from 2010 to 2012. According to the United Nations estimate, about 260,000 people died in that famine.
A research article titled “The 2011 Famine in Somalia: lessons learnt from a failed response?” authored by Andrew Seal and Rob Bailey and published in the Conflict and Health Journal identified several factors that led to the famine in Somalia. These factors include severe drought, increase in food prices, armed conflicts in various parts of the country, the application of anti-terrorism law by the United States government obstructing aid delivery to Southern Somalia, and the absence of prompt action from both domestic authorities and the global humanitarian network.
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This article was published in the Daily Sun on September 6, 2023. Please read the full article here or here.