Indian Famine -- Background and More Facts Page: 1 of 4
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INDIAN FAMINE-BACKGROUND AND MORE FACTS
From the Tribune of London, October 22, 1943 (Published
by Sir Stafford Cripps). We publish excerpts of an article
called:
THEWHOLE GHASTLY STORY, by V. S. Tata
Because (2 people are-dying weekly in the
streets of Calcutta, the Second City of the British Empire,
from starvation and disease, the "India famine story" has
in recent weeks become good enough "copy" for the'popu-
lar press in this country. In truth, however, there has been
widespread famine, death and disease in India for more
than a year now; only, the weekly death roll has not been
as staggering as it is now.
Tribune was the first British journal to publish a full
and reliable eye-witness account of the Indian food crisis.
This it did over three and a half months ago. "Little has
been heard in this country," the journal wrote, "of the
great agricultural crisis which is sweeping India, bringing
famine, disease, and death in its trail. So vast is this prob-
.m that it threatens to engulf every other consideration-
military or political-in the Far East." The warning went
unheeded by the powers that be, and today the hungry
masses of India are dying faster than they can be buried
by the authorities.
Despite the belated publicity to the grim tragedy and
horror which is facing the people of India today, the Brit-
-sh public has yet to be told the whole truth about the
Indian food situation. Firstly, the famine in India is not
confined to Bengal only. Barring the Punjab and Sind, the
whole of India is in the grip of severe and acute famine.
The death roll in Bengal, however, is the highest; Cochin,
Travancore and parts of the Deccan are a close second,
the rest of India a close third. Secondly, not only have
food grains like rice, wheat, bajiri, pawari, bachani and
sawa "disappeared" from India's homes and markets, many
other articles of food such as meat, eggs, milk and milk
products, vegetables of all kinds and sugar are almost
unobtainable, except at fantastically high prices which the
poor cannot afford....
Now, in order to give you an adequate idea of the colos-
sal tragedy which today faces India's teeming millions, it
is necessary to recall the following peace-time pen-picture
which occurs in an official report by the Director of Public
Health, Government of Bengal:-
"The present peasantry of Bengal are in a very large
proportion taking to a dietary on which even rats could
not live for more than five weeks. Their vitality is now so
undermined by inadequate diet that they cannot stand
the infection of foul diseases. Last year 120,000 people
died from cholera, 350,000 from malaria, 250,000 from
tuberculosis, 100,900 from enteric. On an average, 55,000
new-born infants die every year of tetanus." Examination
of official reports of the Public Health Departments of
other provinces and States in India tell the same tale of
appallingly high death-rates due to malnutrition, starva-
tion, malaria, tuberculosis and cholera.
Whether the world has known it or not is a different
matter, but famine has in fact been a permanent feature
of peacetime India for several years. The extent of damage
wrought, the number of people affected-these factors,
doubtless, have varied from year to year. But the kind of
=orrifying scenes now being witnessed-and far more im-
rtant, reported-in the city streets of Calcutta and rural
tal were not altogether uncommon in peace-time India.
omen and children washing cow-dung to get a few
tested grains of wheat from it for their own food,on berries from withered trees, hungry destitutes overhaul-
ing dust-bins in street corners in the hope of finding some
morsels of food-these were familiar sights in pre-war
India.
A Mere Handful Of Rice
In fact, it used to be said, rather cynically but truthfully,
that the Indian peasant "can live on the smell of an oiled
rag, or at least a mere handful of rice, and is content to
do so." But even that bare maintenance-of-life-diet-a
mere handful of rice-was not there for many millions of
Indian peasants and workers. India's peace-time food pro-
duction was as low as it is today, there was not enough
food to go round assuming that all the food produced
stayed within the country and one had the money to buy
it with. True, India used to import about 3% of her an-
nual rice consumption from Burma; but this was offset by
her exporting a little over 7% of other foodstuffs grown
in the country. In effect, however, at least 43 million of
her population used to go hungry every year.
When the war broke out in September, 1939, almost
the first thing that the Government of India and the
Provincial Governments did was to buy foodstuffs of all
kinds in large quantities without any consideration what-
ever to the normal consumer demands in the country. Mil-
itary requirements quite obviously demanded priority over
civilian needs, but this justification notwithstanding, fever-
ish Government buying in the open market shot up the
prices of food commodities. Neither the Central nor the
Provincial Governments did anything to check the in-
crease-not until the prices had gone up nearly 200%.
Then, some of India's 11 provinces enacted price control
laws, some did not. Nor were the price levels uniform:
they varied from province to province. . . . Movement of
food grains inevitably followed the price levels. This made
for abnormal strain on the country's not-so-good transport
system, and created chaos in food distribution... .
The Central Government was superbly indifferent to all
that was happening on the food front: its only concern
was to buy more foodstuffs, and yet more foodstuffs wher-
ever available and at whatever price. With every increase
in prices caused by Government buying, food receded far-
ther and farther from the buying capacity of India's poor
millions, compelling them gradually but unmistakably to
starvation, disease and death... .
Details of what the Government did with the huge quan-
tities of food bought are not yet fully known to the public
in India. A greater quantity of this was exported to the
Middle East and other war theatres; a part was sold to
industrial concerns engaged in war-work-mostly for Eu-
ropean-owned mills and factories-presunably for resale
to the laborers. Some grain was also distributed through
Government grain shops.
By the middle of 1942, the Indian food situation had
assumed crisis proportions. Food riots broke out all over
the country-both in rural and urban areas. Hunger mar-
ches became an everyday feature. The police and military
"brought the situation under control" by the customary sim-
ple method of firing into the hungry "mobs." . . . Neither
the Central nor the Provincial Governments enjoy any
public support or confidence. Today, as never before, the
State and the public in India are far removed from each
other. Distrust, dissaffection and irresponsibility is mutual.
Official Apologists
Official apologists have for month b-n baroinr on
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Indian Famine -- Background and More Facts, pamphlet, 1944~; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1479740/m1/1/?q=+date%3A1941-1945: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Private Collection of Mike Cochran.