The Bengal Famine of 1770: When Empire Turned Famine into Revenue

Long before the better-known 1943 Bengal famine, another catastrophe devastated the region in 1770. Lucas and Luna explore how the British East India Company's revenue policies under Governor Cartier turned a natural drought into a demographic disaster that killed millions. They discuss the Company's decision to maintain tax collection at pre-famine levels, the disappearance of rice from markets as grain exporters profited, and the long-term depopulation of villages that still showed effects decades later. The episode also covers the famine's role in exposing Company corruption, leading to the Regulating Act of 1773 and Warren Hastings' contested governorship. Specific voices include the contemporary account of W.W. Hunter's 'Annals of Rural Bengal' and the East India Company's own internal reports that downplayed the scale of death. The hosts examine the mechanics of famine: how weather patterns, revenue demands, and market forces combined to create a 'perfect storm' of suffering, and why this event remains a controversial chapter in Bangladesh's colonial history.

#BengalFamine #GreatFamine1770 #BritishEastIndiaCompany #WarrenHastings #WWHunter #RegulatingAct1773 #CompanyRaj #RevenuePolicy #ColonialIndia #BengalHistory #Drought #Famine #SouthAsia #EighteenthCentury #Calcutta #Murshidabad #History #FexingoHistory

Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo