Fw: H-ASIA: Bengal famine query

----- Original Message -----
From: "Linda Dwyer" <dwyer@MAIL.H-NET.MSU.EDU>
To: <H-ASIA@H-NET.MSU.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, January 04, 2012 6:16 AM
Subject: H-ASIA: Bengal famine query

> H-ASIA
> January 3, 2012
>
> Bengal famine query
> ***********
> From: G. Peatling [crssrd03@yahoo.ca]
>
> Greetings to all,
>
> I was informed a while ago about some episodes in regard to the Bengal
> famine of the 1940s. I don't know if these are true and I have been
> unable thus far to obtain any reliable authentication. Can anyone comment
> or suggest sources which confirm or disprove these episodes/anecdotes?
>
> Story 1: During the famine the decision was made to hold as usual some
> festival in the affected area in order to minimise "public panic" and the
> suggestion that there was an abnormal situation. This festival involved
> horse-racing, which meant that supplies of fodder for horses had to be
> transported through famine-affected areas.
>
> Story 2: Similarly in order to suggest that the situation was not abnormal
> and under control, administrators took the decision not to open emergency
> stores of foodstuffs during the famine.
>
> Story 3: At one point during the famine, the Japanese and their Indian
> allies the Indian National Army led by Bose, aware of the situation,
> offered the official administration of Bengal a truce with a view to
> helping supplies reach famine-affected regions. Administrators in Bengal,
> anxious again to suggest that the situation was normal, and particularly
> that they did not need not any help from their wartime opponents in
> governing the area, declined this offer.
>
> Are these truth or rumour?
>
> With thanks
> G. Peatling
> [Independent scholar]
>
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