The 1974 Famine: Bangladesh's First Trial as a Nation

In 1974, just three years after independence, Bangladesh was struck by a famine that killed an estimated 1.5 million people. This episode explores the causes: the devastating floods of 1974, the global oil crisis and grain price hikes, the failure of the newly independent government's distribution systems, and the controversial role of US food aid under the Nixon-Kissinger doctrine. We examine how Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's administration struggled to manage the crisis, the political fallout that weakened his government, and how the famine shaped Bangladesh's later agricultural policies, including the Green Revolution in rice. We also discuss the ongoing debate among historians about whether this was a natural disaster or a man-made catastrophe, and how it compares to the earlier Bengal famines of 1770 and 1943. This is a story of a young nation's trial by fire, revealing both the resilience of its people and the fragility of its institutions.

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