A Hunger that Ravaged Bengal
Chapter from History on Starvation as a War Crime
Throughout history, we have witnessed numerous instances of the systemic weaponization of starvation during times of war. From the Romans to the Germans, and even during the colonial conquests of America, such practices have been tragically common. Post World War II, the UN unanimously condemned the weaponizing of starvation as a crime against humanity. Yet, today, Israel is blatantly denying food and water to civilians in Gaza, as we passively observe cruelty and dehumanization unfold before us.
The following is the UN's response to the current events unfolding in the Gaza Strip
The Israeli government is using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in the Gaza Strip, which is a war crime.
Israeli officials have made public statements expressing their aim to deprive civilians in Gaza of food, water, and fuel – statements reflected in Israeli forces’ military operations.
The Israeli government should not attack objects necessary for the survival of the civilian population, lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip, and restore electricity and water.
As I've insisted before, unless we fully acknowledge the crimes and complacency of which we are capable, nothing will ever change. The world will spiral into its prevailing madness and separatist narratives, leaving us as nothing more than powerless spectators of such history. Unless we reclaim the narrative, rewrite the stories, and confront the ghosts of the past, we will remain entrenched in our disgraceful descent into accepting the same evil that has forever threatened humanity.
I am reposting this essay (edited for crispness) to recognize and condemn starvation as a crime against humanity, and the deprivation of individuals from the basic sustenance of food and water as an assault on life itself.
Also, visit this extraordinary piece by
on the trial of his ancestors, analyzing induced famine as a tool of colonial suppression and other facets related to land and colonial conquest.From today’s perspective, we can see the Highland Clearances as an act of colonization. The land grabs and suppression of indigenous culture has clear parallels to what has happened in Australia, Canada, the United States.
- John Lovie
They say we are shaped by our history, the reality once lived by our ancestors. If that's true, then I am a dormant repository of the past cruelties endured by my forebears. My genetic memory is haunted by the specters of skeletal figures, peeking through the curtains of time. Just a few generations ago, my ancestors bore witness to an unforgiving famine that claimed over 3 million lives in Bengal over the span of a year. It's difficult for me to fathom that the beloved boulevards of prosperous Kolkata were once overflowing with countless starving, homeless souls. Their protruding ribs resembled daggers threatening to pierce through their skin, rendering them barely recognizable as human. Some clung desperately to whatever shred of humanity remained within them, while others succumbed to exhaustion. I believe exhaustion is the primary sensation the body comprehends when one is on the brink of death.
It feels imperative for me to recount this tale, lest the aimless spirits of these ancient boulevards haunt me indefinitely. This story serves to exorcise the past of its agonizing suffering, to unearth the dead from the dreaded pits of history, and to unburden them from the weight of their untold tales.
Indifference
Shankar Ghosh recollects from his years of reporting in his remarkable memoir Scent of a Story
One of my greatest regrets while reporting in the war years was the studied indifference of our entire journalistic community to the famine in Bengal. Between 1942 and 1943, over three million people died of starvation in Bengal with hardly any mention in the media. Battles, skirmishes, they give, and take of a few square yards of real estate in unpronounceable locales made it to the front pages, but the death by starvation of Indians, almost equal to two-thirds the population of Scotland, was something to be wished away.
The consensus among European media, including British media, during this particular humanitarian crisis was one of indifference. A small, relatively impoverished colony held little significance in the power dynamics of world leaders. While documenting the case, various potential causes were cited for the famine, including natural disasters, crop infections, and the Japanese occupation of Burma (a major rice importer to British India). However, the reality of policy failure emerged as a major contributing factor as investigations progressed.
In her recent studies, journalist Madhushree Mukerjee has asserted that the widespread suffering and deaths due to starvation could have been prevented if Winston Churchill and his cabinet had taken heed of the severity of the crisis when alerted. Mukerjee has presented evidence that the cabinet was repeatedly warned that excessive spending of Indian resources on the war effort might lead to a severe famine in India. However, such concerns were met with indifference. The British government continued to export rice to other parts of the empire, perhaps believing that the machinery of war had to operate smoothly, and the lives of a few hundred impoverished colonial subjects were merely collateral damage.
However, when the death toll escalated from an estimated few hundred to three million, the initial indifference turned into denial. Rice stocks continued to be exported from India to the empire's reserves, causing prices to skyrocket in Bengal's markets. London persisted in denying any order to the Viceroy of India to supply one million tonnes of emergency grain supplies in 1942-43.
The escalating inflation wreaked havoc on numerous impoverished Bengali families. People could no longer afford to purchase food and eventually depleted all reserves. A chronic shortage of grains, pulses, vegetables, and fish—the essential dietary staples of the region—persisted. To exacerbate matters, Britain implemented a Denial Policy in response to concerns about Subhash Chandra Bose, the defiant Bengali militant leader of the All India Forward Bloc, a radical offshoot of the Indian National Congress. Bose's association with Japanese imperialists posed a threat to British interests.
Bose's political stance further compounded the suffering of the people of Bengal. Large quantities of rice and thousands of boats were confiscated from coastal regions in a paranoid rush to deny resources to the Japanese army in anticipation of a potential invasion. This serves as a stark example of civilians becoming victims in the power struggles of influential and privileged men.
When Churchill was questioned about this apparent policy failure, he attributed it to Indians “breeding like rabbits”, and snidely remarked that if the shortages were that bad how come Mahatma Gandhi was still alive.
I wonder why Britain was not held accountable by the allied powers for their policy failures, which resulted in the loss of 3 million Indian lives. Is it because they were perceived as heroes by those whose lives were impacted by the broader war? Or is it because colonialism is considered a lesser evil when compared to Germany's violation of 'state sovereignty'? Or perhaps it's because racism is viewed as less abhorrent than anti-Semitism?
Amidst the war, both countries operated in manners that led millions of people to their graves—a genocide by definition. This brings to mind a quote by Andrzej Sapkowski from The Witcher series,
Evil is Evil. Lesser, greater, middling… Makes no difference. The degree is arbitrary. The definition is blurred. If I am to choose between one evil and another… I’d rather not choose at all.
Survival
A Bengali writer Sailen Sarkar documented the life of a Bengal famine survivor named Chand Ali Khamaru in his work, Durbbhikkher Sakkhi (Witness of the Famine). Khamaru’s memories of his early life amidst the famine in the Medinipur district bring back vivid recollections of scavenging ponds for fiber and begging landowners for fain (the starchy water left over after boiling rice, usually given to cattle) to feed his family. Yet, his experiences were somewhat less harrowing compared to the scenes witnessed in Kolkata (then Calcutta).
Millions of people migrated to the city in search of food, leading to a mass exodus from the countryside. People walked hundreds of miles, hoping to find even a hint of sustenance. Tragically, thousands perished from dehydration and fatal diarrhea along the way. Some managed to reach Kolkata, only to find that the tunnel they had crossed in hopes of seeing light awaited them with death in surplus. The food stocks in the city rapidly dwindled. Despite its vast size, Kolkata was ill-prepared to accommodate a million hungry people from the countryside.
People were seen clutching cups, mugs, glasses, and various containers near the drains of red-bricked British offices, hoping to salvage rice starch or vegetable stock that might trickle out through the kitchen drains. Every street was brimming with skeletal figures with hollow eyes, begging for food, and eventually succumbing to starvation.
There are no scientific parameters to measure the human suffering caused by the food crisis in Bengal in 1943. Even if such parameters existed, it would still be impossible to fully comprehend the collective trauma that food insecurity on such a scale could inflict. In our technologically advanced world, characterized by efficiency, abundance, resourcefulness, and connectivity, famines have largely become tales of the past for most of us. However, let us not forget that prolonged wars can disrupt local trade relationships, and militant uprisings could render targeted damage to the reserves, which can lead to famines if a country is not strategically prepared to mitigate shortages.
Wars should be obsolete
In general, wars propel humans to normalize apathy and racial discrimination. In dire circumstances, humans awaken their animalistic instincts to survive, often losing touch with their human virtues. It's not so much a folly as it is a survival mechanism. Apathy creates significant rifts in the collective consciousness. Those on the receiving end of apathy often lose their ability to connect meaningfully or to practice compassion. Wars create broken humans, who in turn break society, perpetuating more wars. This transpires into a vicious cycle of social metamorphosis, taking on increasingly gruesome forms with each advancing stage.
I believe that only a radical transformation of our democratic and social frameworks can lead us to our desired goal of making wars obsolete. We live in a reality where everything we hold dear could burn down to ashes as soon as tomorrow, due to the inflated egos of mercurial men. If we deny this reality, we will inevitably create worlds too brittle to inhabit.
To lift the world out of its pitiful mess, we, as a collective, must find a framework for evolution that keeps us constantly in touch with our empathy. We must create a system incapable of harm, hate, prejudice, or inflicting pain. Unless we achieve this goal collectively, we will remain unsuspecting wild beasts caught in our apathetic slumber of greed, ultimately shattering our beautiful abundant world into pieces.
As for me, I am aware that some part of my ancestors' indelible suffering is still etched in me. Thus, I actively seek healing from this collective trauma to move past the shadows of yesteryears. And I admit, on the days when I see lush green farms with crops ready to harvest, I feel immensely grateful for having all that I need—love, abundance, and an immediate reality devoid of wars, while also being painfully aware of the ephemeral nature of it all.
Your writing is incredible, Swarnali. My breath was taken away with your powerful style.
The subject matter is also so ridiculously heartbreaking and anger inducing. British colonialism in India boils my blood every time.
When I was in 6th grade, I had a British Economics teacher tell a class filled with students from all over the world that the smartest Indians had below average IQ. I lived in Dubai at the time — and until then, I hadn’t lived in India before. Being Indian was something that I was so ashamed of, living outside of India most of my life. When he said that, I felt like I wanted to disappear. I wanted to strip myself from my Indianness.
To so many levels was his statement wrong and so ridiculous — but at the time, none of the other Indian students in that class including myself knew enough to contradict him. Now every time I think of that incident — I wished I had said something instead of sitting there mute and swallowing it.
British colonialism has been so devastating on our country and to the world as a whole and the global order is STILL entrenched in a colonialist mindset. And the worst part of it all is that students in England or following the British curriculum world over do not learn about it properly. It is an optional part of the course and even when it is occasionally taught, the full extent of what the British perpetuated does not come across. British museums and English historical sites are still in denial of the extent of damage they caused on nations world over.
It breaks my heat because we still see the consequences of their rule to this day. On the lines of the famines, recent data actually found that because the British starved our nation so much, it changed our DNA — our bodies have learnt to retain as much sugar and fat as possible, something that people during the famines had to rely on to survive. But because we don’t live in a world where we are perpetually forced to endure artificial famines, it results in us being more vulnerable to diabetes. It’s so insane that it boggles my mind!
Just some thoughts. Thank you so much for your writing ❤️
I'm coming back to this for a second re-read. Starvation as a weapon of war is as old as war itself, and is still with us. Denial of water, too.
It's also been a weapon of colonialism, from the famines in Ireland and Scottish highands, to Native Americans, to Ukrainians under Stalin.
And you are so right that we must evolve past this. On a good day, I can feel that new world trying to be born.
Thank you.