Bengal famine of 1943

The Bengal famine of 1943 is one among several famines that occurred in British-administered Bengal. It is estimated that around three million people died from starvation and malnutrition during the periodGordon, Leonard A., Review of Prosperity and Misery in Modern Bengal: The Famine of 1943-1944 by Greenough, Paul R., The American Historical Review, Vol. 88, No. 4 (Oct., 1983), p. 1051 (http://www.jstor.org/stable/1874145) making the number of Indian deaths higher than the two world wars, the entire independence movement and the massive carnage that followed the Partition of India.

Background and possible causes

The Second World War began simultaneously with a series of crop failures and famines. By August 1939, out of 14 states in Rajasthan, the nine largest had declared that they were suffering a famine under the Indian Famine Code as it then stood.Tauger, 'The Indian Famine Crises of World War II', British Scholar, Vol. I, Issue 2, 166-96, March 2009, p.186 In Bengal in 1940-41 there was a small scale famine although quick action by the authorities prevented widespread loss of life.

The British Empire had suffered a disastrous defeat at Singapore in 1942 against the......
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