Total Number of Deaths due to British Made Famines in India

Breakup of the Total Famine Deaths in British ruled India:

Essential Reading:

Before we go any further, I would like to recommend a few books which are essential reading for every Indian, irrespective of whether you like history or not.

1. Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World, Mike Davis, Verso Books.

The book has excellent research drawing on a variety of sources, both Indian and foreign to show the true nature of British rule in India. Gives detail explanations of the deliberate policy of maximising revenue while millions of Indians perished in the famines. Also explodes some myths of “progress” due to the British such as railways, telegraph etc. Get your hands on one and read from beginning till the end.

2. “Famines and Land Assessments in India”, Romesh Chunder Dutt. Available for free download from : http://www.archive.org/stream/faminesandlanda00duttgoog

R C Dutt was a brilliant Bengali economic historian who had served for as a civil servant in the British government in India. His books lay bare the British policy of funnelling wealth and food out of India at the expense of millions of Indian lives.

3. The Economic History of India Under Early British Rule. From the Rise of the British Power in 1757 to the Accession of Queen Victoria in 1837. Vol. I, Romesh Chunder Dutt. The Economic History of India in the Victorian Age. From the Accession of Queen Victoria in 1837 to the Commencement of the Twentieth Century, Vol. II, Romesh Chunder Dutt.

The above two books are specifically focused on the economic loot of India from the time of East India Company (1757 CE onwards) till 1901-1902 CE.A must read to get an idea of the resources and wealth looted from India by the British.

4. Churchill’s Secret War: The British Empire and the Forgotten Indian Famine of World War II, Madhusree Mukherjee, 2010.

References for Figures Listed in the Table :

[i] Dutt, Romesh Chunder (1908). The economic history of India under early British rule, Pg 52

[ii] Grove, Richard H. (2007), “The Great El Nino of 1789–93 and its Global Consequences: Reconstructing an Extreme Climate Event in World Environmental History”, The Medieval History Journal 10 (1&2): 75–98

[iii] ibid

[iv] Reference 1: Digby,William.Prosperous British India,Pg.127. Reference 2 : Dutt,RC.Famines and Land Assessments in India,Pg.3

[v] Reference 1: Digby,William.Prosperous British India,Pg.127. Reference 2 : Dutt,RC.Famines and Land Assessments in India,Pg.4

[vi] Reference 1: Digby,William.Prosperous British India,Pg.127. Reference 2 : Dutt,RC.Famines and Land Assessments in India,Pg.4

[vii] Digby,William.Prosperous British India,Pg.127

[viii] RC Dutt.Famines and Land Assessments in India,Pg.4

[ix] Reference 1: Digby,William.Prosperous British India,Pg.127. Reference 2 : Dutt,RC.Famines and Land Assessments in India,Pg.5

[x] Reference 1: Digby,William.Prosperous British India,Pg.127. Reference 2 : Dutt,RC.Famines and Land Assessments in India,Pg.5

[xi] Reference 1: Digby,William.Prosperous British India,Pg.127. Reference 2 : Dutt,RC.Famines and Land Assessments in India,Pg.6

[xii] Reference 1: Digby,William.Prosperous British India,Pg.127. Reference 2 : Dutt,RC.Famines and Land Assessments in India,Pg.6-7

[xiii] Reference 1: Digby,William.Prosperous British India,Pg.127. Reference 2 : Dutt,RC.Famines and Land Assessments in India,Pg.7

[xiv] Fieldhouse, David (1996), “For Richer, for Poorer?”, in Marshall, P. J., The Cambridge Illustrated History of the British Empire, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 400, pp. 132

[xv] Reference 1: Digby,William.Prosperous British India,Pg.127. Reference 2 : Dutt,RC.Famines and Land Assessments in India,Pg.9

[xvi] Digby,William.Prosperous British India,Pg.128.

[xvii] Dutt,RC.Famines and Land Assessments in India,Pg.9

[xviii] Reference 1: Digby,William.Prosperous British India,Pg.128. Reference 2 : Dutt,RC.Famines and Land Assessments in India,Pg.9

[xix] Digby,William.Prosperous British India,Pg.128

[xx] A Maharatna, The Demography of Famine. quoted by Mike Davis,Late Victorian Holocausts,El Nino Famines and Making of the Third World,pg 7,table P1.

[xxi] R Seavoy,Famine in Peasant Societies,New York 1986,quoted by Mike Davis,Late Victorian Holocausts,El Nino Famines and Making of the Third World,pg 7,table P1.

[xxii] Digby,William.Prosperous British India,Pg.128

[xxiii] Digby,William.Prosperous British India,Pg.128

[xxiv] Digby,William.Prosperous British India,Pg.129

[xxv] Digby,William.Prosperous British India,Pg.129

[xxvi] The Lancet 16 may 1901, quoted in Mike Davis.Late Victorian Holocausts,El Nino Famines and Making of the Third World,pg 7,table P1

[xxvii] A Maharatna, The Demography of Famine. quoted by Mike Davis,Late Victorian Holocausts,El Nino Famines and Making of the Third World,pg 7,table P1.

[xxviii] Cambridge Economic History of India,Cambridge 1983;quoted by by Mike Davis,Late Victorian Holocausts,El Nino Famines and Making of the Third World,pg 7,table P1.

[xxix] Maharatna quoted by Mike Davis,.Late Victorian Holocausts,El Nino Famines and Making of the Third World,pg 174

[xxx] Ibid

[xxxi] Bengal Tiger and British Lion: An Account of the Bengal Famine of 1943,Richard Stevenson,Pg.139

[xxxii] Famines in Bengal:1770-1943,K C Ghosh,pg.111

[xxxiii] Famine Inquiry Commision Report,1943.Pg.110vick