Hungry Bengal: war, famine and the end of empire PDF
Preview Hungry Bengal: war, famine and the end of empire
HUNGRY BENGAL JANAM MUKHERJEE Hungry Bengal War, Famine and the End of Empire A A Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 Copyright © Janam Mukherjee 2015 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available Janam Mukherjee. Hungry Bengal: War, Famine and the End of Empire. ISBN: 9780190209889 “Unknown to me the wounds of the famine of 1943, the barbarities of war, the horror of the communal riots of 1946 were impinging on my style and engrav- ing themselves on it, till there came a time when whatever I did, whether it was chiseling a piece of wood, or burning metal with acid to create a gaping hole, or cutting and tearing with no premeditated design, it would throw up innumer- able wounds, bodying forth a single theme—the figures of the deprived, the destitute and the abandoned converging on us from all directions. The first chalk marks of famine that had passed from the fingers to engrave themselves on the heart persist indelibly.”* — Somnath Hore * Sarkar, Nikhil. A Matter of Conscience: Artists Bear Witness to the Great Bengal Famine of 1943. (Calcutta: Punascha, 1998), pg. 32 CONTENTS Acknowledgements xi Map xiii Introduction: In Search of Famine 1 Framing Famine 1 Total War 7 “The Bengal Famine of 1943” 11 The Calcutta Riots 16 Perspective 19 1. War 23 Food Security 25 Enforcing Morale 30 Hearts and Minds 36 The Countryside 38 Establishing Priorities 41 The Fortress Falls 43 Burmese Days 46 Nobody’s Home 47 Provincial Politics and War 49 2. Denial 55 “Denial” 58 The Denial Resolution 67 Quit India 71 Economic Warfare 74 vii Contents Storm 78 Christmas in Calcutta 81 3. Priorities 85 The “Steel Frame” 87 Imports 92 Starving Indians 94 Hunger Artist 99 De-control 102 Section 93 103 The Scramble for Rice 106 Abandoning the Basic Plan 109 4. Famine 115 Food Drive 116 Last Ditch Denials 121 “Famine” 125 Starvation 128 “Sick Destitutes” 131 Round-ups and Resistance 134 Bengal in Ruins 138 The Good Viceroy 140 5. Japan Attacks 145 The Forgotten Chapter 145 The Port of Calcutta 147 Japan Attacks 150 Damage Control 156 Bodies 157 Settling Accounts 163 Air Raid Damage 167 6. Second Famine 171 Ending Famine 172 Whose Famine? 175 Governing Bengal 181 Imports 184 Famine Enquiry 188 Politics 192 The Lean Season 196 viii
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