1943 – 1944

During World War II in 1943, a famine broke out in the Bengal province of British India, in what is now Bangladesh and eastern India. The famine had catastrophically disrupted the social fabric of the region, causing millions to become impoverished as the crisis overwhelmed large segments of the economy. 2.1 to 3 million people died of starvation, malaria, and other diseases aggravated by malnutrition, population displacement, and unsanitary conditions. Many men were forced to sell farm land to look for work or join the British Indian Army; women and children became homeless migrants in search of organized relief.

For many years, the British claimed that the famine was brought upon by inescapable weather conditions and crop failure—when, in actuality, the famine was man-made. The wartime colonial policies of the time had created and exacerbated the crisis. As part of the Western war effort, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, had ordered the diversion of food from starving Indians to already well-supplied British soldiers and stockpiles in Britain and elsewhere in Europe.