How the British Empire Starved Millions of Indians

[jouni]

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[jouni]

Our movies, music and food already have a global appeal. Olympics, never mind. And British taught us English, one of the greatest blunder they did for themselves. I usually see lots of Brits whining how Indians are stealing their jobs due to their English proficiency and low labor cost. There are 1.2 billion of us and with our English proficiency and would quite easily trample over their dominance very easily, just wait for the right time.

Do not underestimate the Olympics, they were huge pr boost for China...

 

[Ray]

Yes, I got it. Luckily it is history and you can look forward.

Not only that, I am labeled as anti-christ also.

It would show them that they did not manage to get you down. Ok, what is the meaning of this thread? To fuel hatred?

It is because, while all knew that the British were responsible for the Bengal Famine, it now in the open with the British media making it a lead story. Indian origin Britons have the opportunity to research from British Archives and the skeletons have stumbled out of the cupboard.

Hence, it brought the memories back.

Once again, it shows how little you know of life beyond the Finnish boundaries and in your brain freeze with the cold.

How Churchill 'starved' India

It is 1943, the peak of the Second World War. The place is London. The British War Cabinet is holding meetings on a famine sweeping its troubled colony, India. Millions of natives mainly in eastern Bengal, are starving. Leopold Amery, secretary of state for India, and Field Marshal Sir Archibald Wavell, soon to be appointed the new viceroy of India, are deliberating how to ship more food to the colony. But the irascible Prime Minister Winston Churchill is coming in their way.

"Apparently it is more important to save the Greeks and liberated countries than the Indians and there is reluctance either to provide shipping or to reduce stocks in this country," writes Sir Wavell in his account of the meetings. Mr Amery is more direct. "Winston may be right in saying that the starvation of anyhow under-fed Bengalis is less serious than sturdy Greeks, but he makes no sufficient allowance for the sense of Empire responsibility in this country," he writes.

Some three million Indians died in the famine of 1943. The majority of the deaths were in Bengal. In a shocking new book, Churchill's Secret War, journalist Madhusree Mukherjee blames Mr Churchill's policies for being largely responsible for one of the worst famines in India's history. It is a gripping and scholarly investigation into what must count as one of the most shameful chapters in the history of the Empire.

The scarcity, Mukherjee writes, was caused by large-scale exports of food from India for use in the war theatres and consumption in Britain - India exported more than 70,000 tonnes of rice between January and July 1943, even as the famine set in. This would have kept nearly 400,000 people alive for a full year. Mr Churchill turned down fervent pleas to export food to India citing a shortage of ships - this when shiploads of Australian wheat, for example, would pass by India to be stored for future consumption in Europe. As imports dropped, prices shot up and hoarders made a killing. Mr Churchill also pushed a scorched earth policy - which went by the sinister name of Denial Policy - in coastal Bengal where the colonisers feared the Japanese would land. So authorities removed boats (the lifeline of the region) and the police destroyed and seized rice stocks.

Mukherjee tracks down some of the survivors of the famine and paints a chilling tale of the effects of hunger and deprivation. Parents dumped their starving children into rivers and wells. Many took their lives by throwing themselves in front of trains. Starving people begged for the starchy water in which rice had been boiled. Children ate leaves and vines, yam stems and grass. People were too weak even to cremate their loved ones. "No one had the strength to perform rites," a survivor tells Mukherjee. Dogs and jackals feasted on piles of dead bodies in Bengal's villages. The ones who got away were men who migrated to Calcutta for jobs and women who turned to prostitution to feed their families. "Mothers had turned into murderers, village belles into whores, fathers into traffickers of daughters," writes Mukherjee.

The famine ended at the end of the year when survivors harvested their rice crop. The first shipments of barley and wheat reached those in need only in November, by which time tens of thousands had already perished. Throughout the autumn of 1943, the United Kingdom's food and raw materials stockpile for its 47 million people - 14 million fewer than that of Bengal - swelled to 18.5m tonnes.

In the end, Mukherjee writes eloquently, it was "not so much racism as the imbalance of power inherent in the social Darwinian pyramid that explains why famine could be tolerated in India while bread rationing was regarded as an intolerable deprivation in wartime Britain". For colonial apologists, the book is essential reading. It is a terrifying account of how colonial rule is direly exploitative and, in this case, made worse by a man who made no bones of his contempt for India and its people

BBC - Soutik Biswas's India: How Churchill 'starved' India

Let the above help you to get educated so that you do not post post with half witted comments.

 

[Sambha ka Boss]

Do not underestimate the Olympics, they were huge pr boost for China...

Olympics is important but still Olympics is not a parameter for global dominance. Regarding China, the country is more like that of human Robots put to assembly lines by CCP, Olympics aspirants should be by passion, not to be put on assembly lines.

 

[Sambha ka Boss]

Do not underestimate the Olympics, they were huge pr boost for China...

Olympics is important but still Olympics is not a parameter for global dominance. Regarding China, the country is more like that of human Robots put to assembly lines by CCP, Olympics aspirants should be by passion, not to be put on assembly lines.

 

[jouni]

It is interesting to compare: Since Indians independence from UK, brits have given a lot of development aid to India. Since Finlands independence from Russia, Finns have given a lot of development aid to Russia.

 

[Sambha ka Boss]

It is interesting to compare: Since Indians independence from UK, brits have given a lot of development aid to India. Since Finlands independence from Russia, Finns have given a lot of development aid to Russia.

That's not aid but peanuts and then they exaggerate it. As I told you most of India's poor gets benefits from government run programs like subsidized fuel, subsidized foodgrain, free healthcare, free schooling. Whatever debt they take from international organization, they repay that, Western country's peanuts contribute negligible except propagating fairy tales about their generous aid.

 

[jouni]

I think you and Ukraine should join forces and make a case in UN. Bengal famen and Holomodor, genocides by UK and Russia.

 

[ladder]

It is interesting to compare: Since Indians independence from UK, brits have given a lot of development aid to India. Since Finlands independence from Russia, Finns have given a lot of development aid to Russia.

Have we asked? NO. Our then finance minister and current President has called it peanuts. But then one wonders why they haven't stopped it? Are they oozing out the white man's guilt like pus? Or because their lackeys their NGO's who do their bidding in our country will not manipulate data and reports suiting Britards if scraps aren't thrown to them? Yes, most of the UK aid goes directly to NGO propped up by the Britards.

If you were intelligent you would have figured out, but unfortunately you are a Finn.

Go to your maths teacher of your school where you studied, to help you recognise the fact that we are buying 123 (+20) Hawk 132 trainers at 18 million USD a pop. Hope she will be able to calculate and tell you how much in a single deal we are ploughing back into their economy.

 

[jouni]

Have we asked? NO. Our then finance minister and current President has called it peanuts. But then one wonders why they haven't stopped it? Are they oozing out the white man's guilt like pus? Or because their lackeys their NGO's who do their bidding in our country will not manipulate data and reports suiting Britards if scraps aren't thrown to them? Yes, most of the UK aid goes directly to NGO propped up by the Britards.

If you were intelligent you would have figured out, but unfortunately you are a Finn.

Go to your maths teacher of your school where you studied, to help you recognise the fact that we are buying 123 (+20) Hawk 132 trainers at 18 million USD a pop. Hope she will be able to calculate and tell you how much in a single deal we are ploughing back into their economy.

We bought barely used BAE Hawks from Switzerland for 2 Million Euros a piece. I guess we like used stuff we also bought Leo 2s for the same price.

 

[jouni]

Have we asked? NO. Our then finance minister and current President has called it peanuts. But then one wonders why they haven't stopped it? Are they oozing out the white man's guilt like pus? Or because their lackeys their NGO's who do their bidding in our country will not manipulate data and reports suiting Britards if scraps aren't thrown to them? Yes, most of the UK aid goes directly to NGO propped up by the Britards.

If you were intelligent you would have figured out, but unfortunately you are a Finn.

Go to your maths teacher of your school where you studied, to help you recognise the fact that we are buying 123 (+20) Hawk 132 trainers at 18 million USD a pop. Hope she will be able to calculate and tell you how much in a single deal we are ploughing back into their economy.

We bought barely used BAE Hawks from Switzerland for 2 Million Euros a piece. I guess we like used stuff we also bought Leo 2s for the same price.

 

[ladder]

We bought barely used BAE Hawks from Switzerland for 2 Million Euros a piece. I guess we like used stuff we also bought Leo 2s for the same price.

Am I surprised?

 

[ladder]

Despite all this, Indians will fall at the feet of a British guy/girl and abuse fellow Indians. Goes to show that Indians suffer from a slave mindset, which the British exploited successfully. Can't blame them, really.

Your trolling and flame-baiting ability is on decline it seems. The above post of yours won't even have half the desired result.
You should have followed Rahul for 'aatmachintan' and 'aatmamanthan' to re-invigorate your once 'legendary' flame-baiting abilities.

Maybe what repeated electoral failure did to Rahul, repetitive temporary bans had the same effect on you. Good Luck.

 

[Bangalorean]

It is interesting to compare: Since Indians independence from UK, brits have given a lot of development aid to India. Since Finlands independence from Russia, Finns have given a lot of development aid to Russia.

Ah, I see you are still stuck on the "aid" shit.

For the benefit of those who haven't seen my earlier replies to you:

1. Britard "aid" is peanuts, and accounts for such a miniscule portion of India's GDP, its not funny when Britards constantly expect Indians to be beholden to them for their pittance.
2. Indian politicians, including the President (Pranab Mukherjee) have openly told Britain to kindly stop sending peanuts - "just stop the damn aid" was the unequivocal message sent by Pranabda to Britards when they began whining too much about aid.
3. British politicians pleaded that the Indian government should not refuse the aid, but continue to accept it!!

Strange, innit? Doesn't seem to make sense at all, considering the outrage among common Britards when it comes to the "aid" issue. Well, this might help clear it up:

4. Britard "aid" is not meant for poverty alleviation - it has three purposes:
a) Use the "aid" to gain leverage and bargaining power, especially to lobby for massive defence contracts.
b) The "aid" is funneled through NGOs, where a great proportion goes back to Britards, in the form of administrative expenses, salaries, etc.
c) A lot of this "aid" is given to NGOs specifically involved in proselytizing and propagation of missionary Christianity.

And @jouni expects us to hang our tongues out and salivate at the feet of Britards for this!!! Just look at the chutzpah.

 

[Bangalorean]

Despite all this, Indians will fall at the feet of a British guy/girl and abuse fellow Indians. Goes to show that Indians suffer from a slave mindset, which the British exploited successfully. Can't blame them, really.

You are the typical example of such a person, who bashes and abuses fellow Indians. The only slight difference is that you fall at the feet of Muslims, and not British.

 

[jouni]

 

[jouni]

Ah, I see you are still stuck on the "aid" shit.

For the benefit of those who haven't seen my earlier replies to you:

1. Britard "aid" is peanuts, and accounts for such a miniscule portion of India's GDP, its not funny when Britards constantly expect Indians to be beholden to them for their pittance.
2. Indian politicians, including the President (Pranab Mukherjee) have openly told Britain to kindly stop sending peanuts - "just stop the damn aid" was the unequivocal message sent by Pranabda to Britards when they began whining too much about aid.
3. British politicians pleaded that the Indian government should not refuse the aid, but continue to accept it!!

Strange, innit? Doesn't seem to make sense at all, considering the outrage among common Britards when it comes to the "aid" issue. Well, this might help clear it up:

4. Britard "aid" is not meant for poverty alleviation - it has three purposes:
a) Use the "aid" to gain leverage and bargaining power, especially to lobby for massive defence contracts.
b) The "aid" is funneled through NGOs, where a great proportion goes back to Britards, in the form of administrative expenses, salaries, etc.
c) A lot of this "aid" is given to NGOs specifically involved in proselytizing and propagation of missionary Christianity.

And @jouni expects us to hang our tongues out and salivate at the feet of Britards for this!!! Just look at the chutzpah.

It is not so easy giving up development aid, it is so deep in peoples psyche to at least Christmas time to remember the less fortunate.

 

[Ray]

It is not so easy giving up development aid, it is so deep in peoples psyche to at least Christmas time to remember the less fortunate.

In India, it is a religious duty since the religion began to give alms.

So, who are you lecturing to?

 

[Ray]

Despite all this, Indians will fall at the feet of a British guy/girl and abuse fellow Indians. Goes to show that Indians suffer from a slave mindset, which the British exploited successfully. Can't blame them, really.

Have you been doing the same?

Seems that is why you are so sure about it.

Can't blame you, you seem to be white skin toe swizzler.

 

[Bangalorean]

It is not so easy giving up development aid, it is so deep in peoples psyche to at least Christmas time to remember the less fortunate.

This is such a pile of stinking bullshit. :bs:

Surprisingly, every Britard who comments online only whines about the aid that is going out of the nation. I haven't seen a single Britard in favour of the aid.

If anyone still thinks that the "aid" is meant to "help the less fortunate", after reading my posts, he needs mental help.

I can understand if there are some innocent people in the West who really think that the money is going for the benefit of poor people somewhere in the world. But I hope at least you don't think that way anymore.

So, I hope at least you stop donating to the "help India" Church-based charities. Of course, I am assuming that your intention is to really help poor people and not to promote proselytizing.

Next time you feel an itch to help poor Indians, do let me know. I will provide you the website of a real aid organization that does actual great work on the ground in Bangalore. You can donate to that organization and get some good karma and goodwill.