Also Bengali Famine, Bengal Famine of 1943

Catastrophic famine that devastated the eastern Indian state of Bengal in 1943 and 1944, during World War II. Severe famines in Bengal had also occurred in both the late 18th and late 19th centuries. A database query syntax error has occurred. ... 1943 is a common year starting on Friday. ... 1944 was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ...

The British had suffered a disastrous defeat at Singapore in 1942 against the Japanese military, which then proceeded to conquer Burma from the British in the same year. British authorities feared a subsequent Japanese invasion of British India proper by way of Bengal (see British Raj), and emergency measures were introduced to stockpile food for British soldiers and prevent access to supplies by the Japanese in case of an invasion. 1942 was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... The British Raj is an informal term for the period of British colonial rule of most of the Indian subcontinent, or present-day India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. ...

The exports of food, appropriation of arable land, and price inflation dangerously disrupted the local Bengali harvests and agriculture, leading in 1943 to the onset of a massive famine similar to those which had killed over 30 million Indians in the late 1800s. Lord Mountbatten, the British commander in Southeast Asia, and Lord Wavell, the Viceroy of India at the time, both endeavoured to draw attention to and provide food aid to citizens in the famine-stricken regions. However, British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill was opposed to any changes in the Bengal policy. Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma (June 25, 1900 – August 27, 1979) was a British admiral and statesman and an uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. ... Archibald Percival Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell (May 5, 1883 - May 24, 1950) was a British General and the commander of British Army forces in the Middle East during World War II. He led British forces to victory over the Italians, only to be defeated by the German army. ... The Governor-General of India (or Governor-General and Viceroy of India) was the head of the British administration in India. ... The Right Honourable Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill KG, OM, CH, PC, FRS MP (November 30, 1874 – January 24, 1965) was a British statesman, best known as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during World War II. At various times an author, soldier, journalist, and politician, Churchill is generally regarded...

The Bengal Famine ultimately killed 3-4 million Bengalis by starvation. American author Mike Davis and Indian author Amartya Sen specifically linked the 1943 famine and its predecessors in the region to British policies in the state of Bengal. Sen was awarded a Nobel Prize in Economics in 1998 for his studies of the Bengal and other famines in Asia and Africa. Categories: Stub ... Amartya Kumar Sen (अमर्त्‍य कुमार सेन) (born November 3, 1933) is an Indian (Bengali) economist best known for his work on famine, human development theory, welfare economics, and the underlying mechanisms of poverty. ... Photographs of Nobel Prize Medals. ... Economics (deriving from the Greek words οίκω [oeko], house, and νέμω [nemo], distribute) is the social science that studies the allocation of scarce resources. ... 1998 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... World map showing location of Asia A satellite composite image of Asia Asia is the central and eastern part of the continent of Eurasia, defined by subtracting the European peninsula from Eurasia. ... A satellite composite image of Africa Africa is the worlds second-largest continent in both area and population, after Asia. ...

References:

Amartya Sen, "Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation," 1984, Oxford University Press. ISBN# 0198284632

Mike Davis, "Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World," 2001, Verso. ISBN# # 1859847390