The 1943 Bengal Famine: Churchill's Man-Made Catastrophe

In 1943, Bengal endured a famine that killed between two and three million people. This episode digs into how it happened: a perfect storm of war, colonial policy, and bureaucratic indifference. We look at the cyclone that destroyed the 1942 rice harvest, the British policy of denying boats to deny them to the Japanese, and the wartime priorities that shipped rice out of Bengal to feed troops in the Middle East. We talk about Churchill's infamous comment that the famine was their own fault for 'breeding like rabbits,' and how the British government refused to divert grain shipments from Europe or Australia. We also cover the role of the Indian National Congress and the Quit India movement, and how the famine fueled the nationalist cause. It's a grim chapter, but an essential one for understanding the roots of the independence movement in Bengal.

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