What is Bengal famine of 1943?
{{Infobox famine | image =Dead or dying children on a Calcutta street (the Statesman 22 August 1943).jpg | image_size = 270px | alt = A healthy young Indian woman wearing traditional Indian clothing sits on her haunches in a street, tenderly touching the smaller of two very emaciated, dead or dying children. Her facial expression is sad and concerned. | caption= From the photo used in ''[[The Statesman (India)|The Statesman]]'' on 22&nbsp;August 1943 showing people in famine in Calcutta. | country = [[British Raj|British India]] | location = {{flatlist | *[[Bengal]] *[[Bengal Province|Orissa]] }}{{sfn|Maharatna |1992|pp=320–333}} | period = 1943–1944 | total_deaths = Estimated 2.2 to 3 million in Bengal alone }} The '''Bengal famine of 1943''' was a [[famine]] in the [[Bengal Presidency|Bengal province]] of [[British Raj|British India]] during [[World War II]]. Between 2.1 and 3 million people died in the famine.<ref>{{harvtxt|Maharatna|1996|pp=214–231}}</ref><ref>{{harvtxt|Dyson|Maharatna|1991}}</ref> They died mainly of [[starvation]], [[malaria]], and not having the right [[health care]]. [[Historians]] usually say that the famine was caused by [[policy|policies]] by the British government at the time. Food prices rose because of war-related buying and became too expensive for poor people.{{sfnm|1a1=A. Sen|1y=1976|2a1=A. Sen |2y=1981a |3a1=Ó Gráda |3y=2015|3p=90}} The region of Bengal in India suffered a devastating famine from 1940 to 1943. Some of the key reasons for this famine are:<ref>{{Cite book| publisher = Basic Books| isbn = 978-0-465-00201-6| last = Mukerjee| first = Madhusree| title = Churchill's secret war: the British empire and the ravaging of India during World War II| url = https://archive.org/details/churchillssecret0000muke| location = New York| date = 2010}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book| publisher = Oxford University Press| isbn = 978-0-19-975349-9| last = Khan| first = Yasmin| title = India at war: the subcontinent and the Second World War| location = New York| accessdate = 2023-08-31| date =