What Caused the Great Bengal Famine 1943-44? A Closer Look at Natural, Socio-economic and Political Causes

Seminar paper from the year 2023 in the subject History - Asia, grade: 1, University of Vienna (Südasien-, Tibet- und Buddhismuskunde), language: English, abstract: The aim of this paper is to give a picture of the famine and all its elements as complete as possible within the restraints of this paper, as well as discussing several different theories as to the cause of the famine, e.g. food availability decline and food entitlement decline. At the end of the paper, the question ¿What caused the Great Bengal Famine?¿ will be extensively answered from as many perspectives as possible by comparing and criticizing them throughout the text.

Establishing the incidence, spread, and severity of famines in the past has never been easy. There is a plethora of preconditions, causes and hazards coming together resulting in disaster. This is no different in the case of the Great Bengal Famine or Ponchasher Monnontor in 1943-44. In examining the causes of this particular famine, not only are there a lot of different factors to consider, but there are many contradictory theories surrounding the events taking place in the province of Bengal during that time period. Further complicating the research is the uncertainty on circumstances surrounding the famine and the official inquiry published by the colonial government. Over and beyond there does not seem a complete study on the Great Bengal Famine considering and comparing all aspects of the time and most of the theories surrounding it.

This goal is going to be accomplished by discussing the general history and the key data of the Bengal famine 1943-44 in the first chapter. The following and main chapter of the paper concentrates on causes and hazards in regard to the Great Bengal Famine and is threefold. First, there is a discussion about natural causes including a description of the natural hazards occurring at the beginning of the famine, a description of the consequential rice shortage and a closer look at the food availability decline (FAD) approach. Second, the socio-economic causes of the famine will be examined in connection with the concept of vulnerability, the food entitlement decline (FED) approach and the hoarding and speculation claim by the colonial government will be discussed. Third, a closer look will be taken at political causes of the famine including the war related policies instated during the Second World War in Bengal and famine relief policies as well as the general approach to the Great Bengal Famine the colonial government exhibited. At the end, the different causes are being put in relation to each other and their interplay is discussed.