Hungry Bengal War Famine And The End Of Empire – Janam Mukherjee

There are no longer cows to give milk. The deities are starving, for there is no worshipful service. The cultivators have sold their draft cattle for the sake of subsistence and somehow manage to survive, yet even they don’t understand how to carry on. The ponds have dried up, turning to mud. Water is scarce and pure water completely lacking. Numerous diseases have broken out, and the former spontaneous joy of the Bengalis is absolutely ruined…the noose of poverty has entangled them body and soul, and they have become paralyzed.151 The Good Viceroy Substantial help, no matter how late and how insufficient relative to the immensity of catastrophe, was on its way.

Archibald Wavell was sworn in as Viceroy on the 20th of October 1943, and set to work on the famine situation at once. He, like Linlithgow, judged clearing Calcutta to be of primary importance, but he also seems to have been the first British official to view the loss of innocent life in Bengal as a moving priority as well. He set up a Distress Relief Fund within days of assum- ing office and, whereas Linlithgow had failed to visit Bengal himself since December 1942, Wavell was “off to Calcutta” within a week to assess the situation first hand.152 He landed in Calcutta on the afternoon of 26 October and began an “incognito” tour of the city that same evening.

He met with “sick desti- tutes” himself and despite the disguise, some were “scared by the visit, and ran away…others, including those in very bad condition, were indiffer- ent.”153 The next day, again traveling “incognito,” he flew out to Midnapore to survey relief centers, emergency hospitals and general con- ditions there. On the following day, shaken by what he had seen, the new viceroy announced that full use of military resources would be expended to mobilize immediate and extensive famine relief efforts in Bengal.154 The very day he returned from Bengal, he telegraphed the commander-in- chief for India and requested immediate and substantial military assis- tance to cope with the famine in Bengal.

His request was granted without Famine hesitation. Commander in Charge of the Eastern Command, General Mosley Mayne was put in general charge of military aid to Bengal and Major-General A.V. Wakely was put in command of the all-important movement of supplies. At their disposal was a full division of British troops, comprised of 15,000 soldiers. Military lorries, priority rail arrangements, and the Royal Air Force, all of which were already in the region, were also to be deployed in relief efforts immediately.

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Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 Copyright © Janam Mukherjee 2015 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization.

Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available Janam Mukherjee.

Hungry Bengal: War, Famine and the End of Empire. ISBN: 9780190209889 “Unknown to me the wounds of the famine of 1943, the barbarities of war, the horror of the communal riots of 1946 were impinging on my style and engrav- ing themselves on it, till there came a time when whatever I did, whether it was chiseling a piece of wood, or burning metal with acid to create a gaping hole, or cutting and tearing with no premeditated design, it would throw up innumer- able wounds, bodying forth a single theme—the figures of the deprived, the destitute and the abandoned converging on us from all directions.

The first chalk marks of famine that had passed from the fingers to engrave themselves on the heart persist indelibly.”* — Somnath Hore * Sarkar, Nikhil. A Matter of Conscience: Artists Bear Witness to the Great Bengal Famine of 1943. (Calcutta: Punascha, 1998), pg. 32 vii CONTENTS Acknowledgements xi Map xiii Introduction: In Search of Famine 1 Framing Famine 1 Total War 7 “The Bengal Famine of 1943” 11 The Calcutta Riots 16 Perspective 19 1.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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