Churchill’s Famine: The killing of three million is a story waiting to be retold
<i>&quot;Famines struck India from almost the beginning of British colonial rule. In 1770, over one million people died of starvation in Bengal, 13 years after Robert Clive’s seizure of the region following the Battle of Palashee (Plassey). Famines across India followed: the most devastating were in 1783-84, 1791-92, 1837-38, 1860-61, 1876-78, 1896-97 and 1899-1900.&quot;</i><p>This is very deceptively phrased. It suggests that there was no famine in India before, and somehow Britain caused that problem to arise for the first time.<p>Other famines in India:<p>1. 1335-1342<p>2. 1460<p>3. 1520<p>4. 1555<p>5. 1629-1632, the biggest famine in Indian history<p>6. 1655<p>7. 1682<p>8. 1702-1704<p>The rule of the East India Company started in the 1750s. The British Raj (Empire proper) in the mid 1800s. Famines continued up to the green revolution.<p>The way the article presents famine as some sort of direct consequence of one set of empires being replaced by another suggests that the article has an agenda that goes beyond history.