Bengal Famine of 1943
- Date
- 1943–1944
- Category
- Social & demographic
- Region
- South Asia
- Era
- Modern
- Significance
The Bengal Famine of 1943 was a catastrophic famine in the Bengal Province of British India (encompassing present-day West Bengal in India and Bangladesh) during World War II, in which an estimated 2 to 3 million people died from starvation, malnutrition, and accompanying disease such as malaria.
Its causes were a compounding mix of wartime disruption and policy failure: the Japanese occupation of Burma in 1942 cut off rice imports, a cyclone and crop disease damaged the autumn harvest, and the colonial administration's 'denial' policies seized rice stocks and tens of thousands of rural boats to deny resources to a potential invader. Rampant inflation, hoarding, and speculation drove rice prices beyond the reach of the rural poor, while the British war cabinet under Winston Churchill diverted shipping and food to military priorities and the Middle East rather than relieving Bengal. Many later analyses concluded the province's overall food supply was not catastrophically short, framing the disaster as a failure of distribution and governance rather than absolute scarcity. The famine became a searing indictment of British colonial rule, intensifying anti-colonial sentiment and feeding the momentum of the Indian independence movement that culminated in 1947.
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Empires active in 1943–1944
- Soviet Union1922 CE – 1991 CE
- Empire of Japan1868 CE – 1947 CE
- French Colonial Empire (Second)1830 CE – 1962 CE
- British Empire1583 CE – 1997 CE
- Spanish Empire1492 CE – 1976 CE
- Portuguese Empire1415 CE – 1999 CE
Related social & demographic events
- The Holocaust and the 'Final Solution'1941–1945
- Influenza pandemic of 1918–19201918–1920
- Emancipation of the serfs in Russia3 March 1861 (19 February O.S.)
- The Great Irish Famine1845–1852
- Kristallnacht Unleashes Nationwide Anti-Jewish Violence1938
- Nazi Germany Enacts the Nuremberg Laws1935
Further reading
The wider story
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