India: 5,000 Years of History on the Subcontinent

Quotes

1. The British oversaw - and contributed through inaction to - dozens of famines during two centuries of colonial rule, culminating in the 1943 famine (also in Bengal) that cost two millions Indian their lives.

2. 

   Modern historians estimate that 15 to 20 percent of Bengal's population died during the 1769-1770 famine, a starkly different outcome than after earlier failed harvests. For example, 1737 and 1738 witnessed poor harvests in Bengal, but the Mughals and local rulers helped alleviate conditions by buying grain, making loans, and permitting late revenue payments. In contrast, thirty years later, the British did none of those things and, in fact, still tried to collect revenue from starving farmers.

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