Churchill’s policies to blame for millions of Indian famine deaths, study says
https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/29/asia/churchill-bengal-famine-intl-scli-gbr/index.html
Why post an article by CNN. They have no credibility.
Hmmm.
“Not everyone lays the blame at the Prime Minister’s door, however. Churchill biographer Andrew Roberts wrote in an opinion column on Britain’s i news website last year that Churchill “did all he could to relieve the terrible Bengal Famine subject to the exigencies of the Japanese holding Burma and their submarines infesting the Bay of Bengal.”
Hmmm. The Japanese didn’t feed them?
“During the Japanese occupation of Burma, many rice imports were lost as the region’s market supplies and transport systems were disrupted by British “denial policies” for rice and boats (a “scorched earth” response to the occupation). The Bengal Chamber of Commerce (composed mainly of British-owned firms),[16] with the approval of the Government of Bengal, devised a Foodstuffs Scheme to provide preferential distribution of goods and services to workers in high-priority roles such as armed forces, war industries, civil servants and other “priority classes”, to prevent them from leaving their positions.[17] These factors were compounded by restricted access to grain: domestic sources were constrained by emergency inter-provincial trade barriers, while aid from Churchill’s War Cabinet was limited, ostensibly due to a wartime shortage of shipping.[18] More proximate causes included large-scale natural disasters in south-western Bengal (a cyclone, tidal waves and flooding, and rice crop disease). The relative impact of each of these factors on the death toll is a matter of controversy.”
Hmmm. No bias here! Lol
“At the end of 1943, the Indian Army, based in Bengal, began an assault on Japanese forces in Burma with soldiers who had been well fed, well rested, well trained, and amply protected against malaria – at a time when thousands all around were dying daily from lack of food and medicine. Clearly, the soldiers’ entitlements far exceeded those of Indian civilians. Even enemy soldiers (tens of thousands of Italian prisoners of war interned in India, many of them in the eastern provinces) enjoyed greater entitlement to food than Indian civilians, being so well fed that during the famine a camp’s commander asked a visiting scientist “how to make compost out of surplus bread; that was when people were starving” (Ghosh 1944: 71, footnote). And, of course, not a single white person, soldier or civilian, perished in the famine.”
Hmmm. So he should have just surrendered to the Japanese in your view?
“The Japanese campaign for Burma set off an exodus of more than half of the one million Indians from Burma for India....”
So who’s policies caused the refugees? The Amish perhaps?
“May hav” not DID.
“The number of refugees who successfully reached India totalled at least 500,000;
tens of thousands died along the way.
In later months, 70 to 80% of these refugees were afflicted with diseases such as dysentery, smallpox, malaria, or cholera, with 30% “desperately so”.[79]
The influx of refugees created several conditions that may have contributed to the famine.
Their arrival created an increased demand for food,[72] clothing and medical aid, further straining the resources of the province.[80]
The poor hygienic conditions of their forced journey sparked official fears of a public health risk due to epidemics caused by social disruption.[81]
Finally, their distraught state after their struggles[82] bred foreboding, uncertainty, and panic amongst the populace of Bengal; this aggravated panic buying and hoarding that may have contributed to the onset of the famine.”
Churchill should have shipped them more wheat. Oh wait ! Nevermind.
“By April 1942, Japanese warships and aircraft had sunk approximately 100,000 tons of merchant shipping in the Bay of Bengal.[83] According to General Archibald Wavell, Commander-in-Chief of the army in India, both the War Office in London and the commander of the British Eastern Fleet acknowledged that the fleet was powerless to mount serious opposition to Japanese naval attacks on Ceylon, southern or eastern India, or on shipping in the Bay of Bengal
Churchill should have sent more wheat by rail then ... Oh wait.
“For decades, rail transport had been integral to successful efforts by the Raj to forestall famine in India.[84]
However, Japanese raids put additional strain on railways, which also endured flooding in the Brahmaputra, a malaria epidemic, and the Quit India movement targeting road and rail communication.[85]
Throughout, transportation of civil supplies were compromised by the railways’ increased military obligations, and the dismantling of tracks carried out in areas of eastern Bengal in 1942 to hamper a potential Japanese invasion.”
No ships or rail? Well Churchill should have imported more rice from Burma. Oh wait.
It’s those pesky Amish again.
“The fall of Rangoon in March 1942 cut off the import of Burmese rice into India and Ceylon.”
Oh, military bases did it? Snicker !
“Military build-up caused massive displacement of Bengalis from their homes. Farmland purchased for airstrip and camp construction is “estimated to have driven between 30,000 and 36,000 families (about 150,000 to 180,000 persons) off their land”, according to the historian Paul Greenough. They were paid for the land, but they had lost their employment.”
Shame on Churchill for causing those disasters... /sarc
“Bengal was affected by a series of natural disasters late in 1942. The winter rice crop was afflicted by a severe outbreak of fungal brown spot disease, while, on 16–17 October a cyclone and three storm surges ravaged croplands, destroyed houses and killing thousands, at the same time dispersing high levels of fungal spores across the region and increasing the spread of the crop disease.[182] The fungus reduced the crop yield even more than the cyclone.”