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Actually British ruled India from 1750-1950 ..thats 200 years. 1858 is the year when the Queen officially declared herself the head od state of India. Before that British ruled India as under East Indi Company.

270 million may be a strech ...but there were 50-60 serious artifically created famines during the 200 year British rule. Estimates are during each famine , 2-3 million poor Indians were starved to death. Thats easily 100 million starvation deaths. Considering the subcontinent's population was maintained constantly at 350 millionm (1750)-550 million(1940) ...that was still manageable.

Famines never happened before British came to India. As I said before they were artifically created by British by heavy taxation of poor farmers and holding of food stocks.

You may not have heard of it because the historians in the west have deliberately ignored the ill effects of British rule to make it look like even benign and kindhearted.But every Indian school kid is taught a slightly different version.

But thats okay..lot of water has flown below the bridge and we have moved on.

Yes, I wasn't counting the East Indi Company, as they had a separate mandate, but I'll take your point. It was somewhat meaningless to Indians whether it was British troops or East Indian Troops. However, wasn't the territory under the Raj much smaller before 1858? I apologize for sketchy memory here.

Cash crops caused catastrophic famines elsewhere, so it certainly seems understandable.

Anti-British feeling and anti-colonial imagery were very popular in the United States up to WWII. In fact, the United States pushed Britain on India in the 20's and 30's, so I'm surprised that I haven't read about the famines. I read a book on the Raj a few years ago that wasn't complimentary, but I don't recall any mention there either.

Do you have any good suggestions for reading (in English) that covers the period well from the Indian perspective?