Famine Inquiry Commission
The Famine Inquiry Commission, also known as the Woodhead Commission, was appointed by the Government of
After
The commission published its report in May 1945,[1] absolving the British government of most of the blame for the deaths during the famine.[2] According to the inquiry, shortage in the rice harvest was one of the main causes of the famine. It also found that the shortage only amounted to three weeks and that shortage had been more serious in 1941, a year in which there had been no famine.[8] The report acknowledged some failures in British price controls and transportation efforts[6] but reserved its most forceful finger-pointing for local politicians in the (largely Muslim)[9] provincial Government of Bengal:[10] As it stated, "...after considering all the circumstances, we cannot avoid the conclusion that it lay in the power of the Government of Bengal, by bold, resolute and well-conceived measures at the right time to have largely prevented the tragedy of the famine".[11] The Famine Inquiry Commission's position with respect to charges that prioritised distribution aggravated the famine is that the Government of Bengal's lack of control over supplies was the more serious matter.[12] American writer Madhusree Mukerjee questions the accuracy of some of the inquiry's figures, claiming that the final report altered the figures from some sources.[13] The estimate of the number of deaths, at 1.5 million, is much lower than the commonly accepted estimates today.[6]
At the time, Indian nationalists – though notedly not
References
Citations
- ^ a b c Population Index 1946, p. 171.
- ^ a b Siegel 2018, pp. 25, 43; Ó Gráda 2008, p. 24 note 78.
- ^ Limaye, Yogita (20 July 2020). "Churchill's legacy leaves Indians questioning his hero status". BBC News. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
- ^ a b c Mukerjee 2014, p. 71.
- ^ Ó Gráda 2009, p. 161.
- ^ a b c d Siegel 2018, p. 43.
- ^ a b Mukerjee 2014, p. 72.
- ^ Mukerjee 2014, pp. 71–72.
- ^ J. Mukherjee 2015, p. 185.
- ^ Ó Gráda 2015, p. 39.
- ^ Famine Inquiry Commission 1945, p. 105.
- ^ Famine Inquiry Commission 1945, pp. 100–102.
- ^ Mukerjee 2014, pp. 72–73.
- ^ Siegel 2018, pp. 43–44.
- ^ "Professor Siddiqur Osmani". Ulster University.
- ^ M. Rahul (1 December 2013). "A veteran journalist recounts some prized scoops". Caravan Magazine.
- ^ Osmani 1993, p. 41.
- ^ Ó Gráda 2009, p. 179.
- ^ Bowbrick 1985, p. 57.
Sources
- Bowbrick, Peter (March 1985). How Sen's Theory Can Cause Famines (PDF). Agricultural Economics Society Conference.
- Famine Inquiry Commission (May 1945). Report on Bengal (PDF). New Delhi: Manager of Publications, Government of India Press.
- Mukerjee, Madhusree (2014). "Bengal Famine of 1943: An Appraisal of the Famine Inquiry Commission". Economic and Political Weekly. 49 (11): 71–75.
- Mukherjee, Janam (2015). Hungry Bengal: War, Famine and the End of Empire. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-061306-8.
- S2CID 219968323.
- Ó Gráda, Cormac (2009). Famine: A Short History. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-12237-3.
- Ó Gráda, Cormac (2015). "'Sufficiency and Sufficiency and Sufficiency': Revisiting the Great Bengal Famine of 1943–44". Eating People Is Wrong, and Other Essays on Famine, Its Past, and Its Future. Princeton University Press. pp. 38–91. ISBN 9781400865819. An earlier and somewhat different version is available in a conference paper at UCD Centre for Economic Research (Working Paper Series). Retrieved 9 February 2016.
- Osmani, S. R. (1993). The Entitlement Approach to Famine: An Assessment (PDF) (Technical report). Helsinki: The United Nations University/World Institute for Development Economics Research. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
- "India. The Famine Inquiry Commission". Population Index. 12 (3): 171–173. 1946. JSTOR 2730240.
- Siegel, Benjamin Robert (2018). Hungry Nation: Food, Famine, and the Making of Modern India. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-42596-4.