The Bengal famine stands as one of the single most horrific atrocities to have occurred under British colonial rule. From 1943 to 1944, more than three million Indians died of starvation and malnutrition, and millions more fell into crushing poverty.
For many years, the British blamed the famine on drought and food shortfalls, as if it were an unavoidable natural disaster. But historians have since proved that there wasn’t a drought at all – in fact, rainfall during that period was higher than average and crop yields were fine. Rather, the famine was caused by war-time inflation that pushed the price of food out of reach.
