Bengal Famine 1943: How Churchill Starved 3 Million Indians | Independence Day 2026 | Vantage | 4K — Transcript

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1. 0:00Now, as India prepares to mark 80 years
2. 0:02of independence, we're looking back at
3. 0:04the stories that shaped India's history,
4. 0:06including one of the darkest chapters of
5. 0:07British rule, the Bengal famine, a
6. 0:10catastrophe that left up to 3 million
7. 0:12people dead.
8. 0:13Was it simply a result of war, crop
9. 0:16failure, food shortage, or did British
10. 0:18policies turn a crisis into a
11. 0:19catastrophe?
12. 0:21Over the next few days, we'll bring you
13. 0:23stories from India's past, some dark,
14. 0:25some difficult, and some that deserve to
15. 0:27be remembered. So, keep an eye out. This
16. 0:30is episode one of the story of the 1943
17. 0:33Bengal famine.
18. 0:38>> In the spring of 1943, [music] American
19. 0:41GI John Mule thought he had escaped the
20. 0:44worst of the war.
21. 0:47After months in the dust and deprivation
22. 0:49[music] of Burma, now Myanmar,
23. 0:51he was transferred to Calcutta,
24. 0:55the glittering capital of British
25. 0:57India's Bengal province.
26. 1:00After London,
27. 1:02Kolkata, then called Calcutta, was the
28. 1:04second largest city in the British
29. 1:06Empire.
30. 1:09Known for its grand colonial
31. 1:11architecture, universities, and vibrant
32. 1:14cultural life,
33. 1:17Mule expected comfort, perhaps even a
34. 1:20little luxury.
35. 1:23Instead, he found a city dying.
36. 1:27He saw starving families [music] on the
37. 1:28streets
38. 1:30and children ravaged by disease and
39. 1:32malnutrition.
40. 1:34The city of palaces had become a city of
41. 1:37mass starvation. [music]
42. 1:41This is what Mule wrote in his journal.
43. 1:46>> Calcutta was a city where the dying
44. 1:48agony of the beggar [music] in the
45. 1:49streets existed side by side with
46. 1:51cocktail parties, hors d'oeuvres,
47. 1:53seven-course dinners, and padlocked
48. 1:55garbage cans.
49. 1:58>> Muehl had arrived in Calcutta during the
50. 2:00Bengal famine.
51. 2:03>> [music]
52. 2:03>> A period of starvation, disease, and
53. 2:06mass migration between 1943 and 1944.
54. 2:11Up to 3 million Bengalis would die
55. 2:14during the famine. Most of them among
56. 2:16the poorest in society.
57. 2:19It's a staggering figure. Almost three
58. 2:22times greater than the number of British
59. 2:24soldiers and civilians who died in both
60. 2:27World Wars combined.
61. 2:30>> [music]
62. 2:32>> The Bengal famine didn't happen because
63. 2:35there wasn't enough food.
64. 2:37It happened because of the criminal
65. 2:39neglect of the British Empire.
66. 2:45>> [music]
67. 2:51[music]
68. 3:01>> Today, the memory of the Bengal famine
69. 3:03has all but disappeared.
70. 3:05Those who do remember it still argue
71. 3:08over one question.
72. 3:10Who was responsible?
73. 3:13How could millions starve in one of the
74. 3:16most fertile regions of the world?
75. 3:19And why, more than 80 years later, is
76. 3:22the Bengal famine still one of the most
77. 3:25fiercely debated chapters of the British
78. 3:27Empire?
79. 3:30>> [music]
80. 3:30>> For centuries, famines were blamed on
81. 3:33nature.
82. 3:34A failed monsoon, a drought, or a crop
83. 3:38that simply never came.
84. 3:40But Bengal was different.
85. 3:42There was [music] no catastrophic
86. 3:44drought in 1943.
87. 3:47In fact, modern climate studies [music]
88. 3:48have found that the Bengal famine was
89. 3:51the only major famine in modern Indian
90. 3:53history
91. 3:54not caused by severe drought.
92. 3:57Yes, there were setbacks.
93. 4:00Japan's conquest [music] of Burma in
94. 4:021942 cut off an important source of
95. 4:05imported rice.
96. 4:10A powerful cyclone struck Bengal later
97. 4:12that year destroying homes, damaging
98. 4:15crops, [music]
99. 4:16and contaminating farmland with
100. 4:18seawater.
101. 4:21A fungal disease also affected part of
102. 4:24the rice harvest.
103. 4:26Together, these events put enormous
104. 4:28[music] pressure on food supplies.
105. 4:31But they did not create a shortage large
106. 4:33enough to explain the deaths of nearly 3
107. 4:36million people.
108. 4:38The official famine inquiry commission
109. 4:40estimated [music]
110. 4:41that the food deficit in 1943 was
111. 4:44roughly 6% of Bengal's annual
112. 4:46requirements.
113. 4:506% not 60, 6.
114. 4:54So, where did the food go?
115. 4:57>> [music]
116. 5:02>> Economist Amartya Sen, who won the 1998
117. 5:05Nobel Prize [music] in Economic Sciences
118. 5:07for his work in welfare economics, had
119. 5:10witnessed the famine as a child.
120. 5:13He very famously calls it an entitlement
121. 5:16failure.
122. 5:19The food existed,
123. 5:20but millions lost the ability to buy it.
124. 5:23>> [music]
125. 5:23>> As panic spread, hoarding and
126. 5:26speculation pushed prices even higher.
127. 5:31And in early 1942,
128. 5:32>> [music]
129. 5:33>> a mound of rice, which was roughly 37 kg
130. 5:36of rice and a standard measure used in
131. 5:38markets across British India, cost less
132. 5:41than 6 rupees.
133. 5:42By the middle of 1943,
134. 5:44it sold for more than 30 rupees.
135. 5:47In some districts, prices [music]
136. 5:49crossed 100 rupees.
137. 5:53What that means in 1940s British India?
138. 5:56It means that a day's wages could no
139. 5:59longer buy a family's daily [music]
140. 6:01meal.
141. 6:06Agricultural laborers,
142. 6:08fishermen, rickshaw pullers, factory
143. 6:11workers [music] were simply left to fend
144. 6:14for themselves.
145. 6:15No longer able to afford food for
146. 6:17survival.
147. 6:20Food remained in warehouses. It remained
148. 6:24in markets.
149. 6:25But for [music] millions, it had become
150. 6:27impossible to afford.
151. 6:31Mind you, this was happening at the
152. 6:32height of the Second [music] World War.
153. 6:35After Japan captured Burma in 1942,
154. 6:38British officials feared a Japanese
155. 6:40invasion [music] of Eastern India.
156. 6:45Their response was the denial policy. A
157. 6:47military strategy designed to deny food
158. 6:50and transport to an advancing enemy.
159. 6:54But on the ground, the policy crippled
160. 6:56Bengal itself.
161. 6:58Thousands of boats, the very lifeline
162. 7:00[music] of its rivers, were confiscated
163. 7:03or destroyed.
164. 7:06Rice stocks from vulnerable coastal
165. 7:08districts were seized or relocated.
166. 7:11The result was that food stopped
167. 7:13reaching the very people who needed it
168. 7:16the most.
169. 7:17>> [music]
170. 7:20>> Fishing communities lost their
171. 7:22livelihoods. Villages became isolated.
172. 7:25And the local trade networks that had
173. 7:27sustained Bengal for generations began
174. 7:30to collapse.
175. 7:33And what was the British Raj doing as
176. 7:35the crisis escalated? [music]
177. 7:37India's newly appointed Viceroy, Lord
178. 7:40Wavell, sent repeated urgent appeals to
179. 7:43London asking for emergency grain
180. 7:45shipments.
181. 7:48>> [music]
182. 7:48>> He requested around million tons of food
183. 7:50grain to halt the catastrophe.
184. 7:54Cabinet records today reveal that
185. 7:56British officials in India repeatedly
186. 7:58warned London that millions were facing
187. 8:00[music] starvation.
188. 8:06But Britain, it was fighting [music] for
189. 8:08survival.
190. 8:09During the Battle of the Atlantic of
191. 8:11World War I,
192. 8:12German U-boats had sunk thousands of
193. 8:14Allied merchant ships, creating a severe
194. 8:17shortage of cargo [music] vessels.
195. 8:20Every available ship was being allocated
196. 8:23to move soldiers, ammunition, fuel, and
197. 8:26food to active theaters of war.
198. 8:31So despite calls from British India,
199. 8:33only a small fraction was initially
200. 8:35approved by then Prime Minister Winston
201. 8:38Churchill's war cabinet. The bulk of the
202. 8:40imports arrived [music] well after the
203. 8:42famine had already reached its deadliest
204. 8:45phase.
205. 8:53Churchill himself is reported to have
206. 8:55dismissed the crisis saying Indians were
207. 8:58breeding like rabbits.
208. 9:00Churchill also frequently expressed deep
209. 9:03hostility toward the Indian independence
210. 9:05movement.
211. 9:07He had once peevishly [music] asked
212. 9:08during Mahatma Gandhi's political fast,
213. 9:11why Gandhi had not yet died.
214. 9:13This was the racial [music] attitude
215. 9:15that influenced Britain's response.
216. 9:21By the end of 1944,
217. 9:23up to 3 [music] million people
218. 9:25were dead.
219. 9:28Many did not die from starvation [music]
220. 9:29alone,
221. 9:30but succumbed to malaria,
222. 9:32cholera,
223. 9:33smallpox, and dysentery.
224. 9:36Diseases that spread rapidly through
225. 9:38bodies already [music] weakened by
226. 9:40hunger.
227. 9:42The relief from the British Raj came
228. 9:44much [music] too late
229. 9:46and it was nowhere near enough to match
230. 9:48the scale of the catastrophe.
231. 9:50Around 700,000 [music]
232. 9:52families lost their livelihoods
233. 9:55while millions more were forced to sell
234. 9:57their land, livestock, tools and homes
235. 10:01just for one more meal.
236. 10:04Those who survived carried [music] the
237. 10:06trauma for generations.
238. 10:10>> It has been our duty to record disaster
239. 10:12as it occurred.
240. 10:13A million and a half of the poor of
241. 10:15Bengal fell victim to circumstances
242. 10:17[music]
243. 10:17which it was within the power of human
244. 10:19foresight to avert.
245. 10:22>> More than eight decades later,
246. 10:25there is no major international memorial
247. 10:27or museum dedicated to the millions who
248. 10:29perished.
249. 10:31Remembering the Bengal famine means
250. 10:33confronting an uncomfortable truth. That
251. 10:36one of the deadliest disasters of the
252. 10:3720th century was not simply the result
253. 10:40of bad weather. It was a colonial
254. 10:43catastrophe [music]
255. 10:44orchestrated by the British Empire.