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ABSTRACT
Historical research on the ‘Great Bengal famine’ has recently grown more diverse, but is still almost exclusively limited to political and economic dynamics that took place within the province and, at times, wider India. This article provides a fresh perspective on the unfolding disaster by reconstructing the emerging demands for food aid in Britain, arguing that to examine the famine through this lens can enrich the understanding of how (anti-) imperialism, colonialism and humanitarianism converged. It reveals that the responses to the famine, rather than being a seemingly natural expression of compassion and empathy, were conditioned by representations of the famine manufactured by Indian nationalists, anti-imperialists, and apologists of the empire. As information on the deteriorating food crisis in Bengal began to filter through to the metropole in January 1943, both Indian nationalists and the British left merged demands for food relief and claims for Indian self-rule in their anti-famine campaigns. Whereas anti-imperialists used literary and visual representations of the famine to illustrate the British Empire’s failure to care for its colonial subjects, conservatives lapsed into nineteenth-century rhetoric that framed the famine as proof of India’s unpreparedness for self-government. The mobilisation of food aid in Britain, thus, is illustrative of ideological and political contestations that accompanied the last years of the British Raj and the start of the age of decolonisation. At the same time, the delay and the very nature of public debates and responses to the Bengal famine in Britain illustrate the crucial role of the media in raising awareness for distant crises and point to the problematic relationship of mediated representations of humanitarian disasters and the successful mobilisation of aid.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Harald Fischer-Tiné, Maria Framke and the anonymous referees for their helpful comments on earlier versions of the article. As I presented an earlier draft at the GMW Workshop that was conducted by the Chair for History of the Modern World at ETH Zurich in 2017, I would also like to thank Alexander Keese and the other participants for their comments and feedback. Lastly, Vasudha Bharadwaj’s brilliant editorial work has left a visible imprint on the article’s final appearance.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 The meeting took place on 12 Nov 1943. Representatives of the British Council of Churches, the Friends’ Ambulance Unit, the Indian Famine Committee presided by W.G. Cove, the India League’s India Relief Committee, the Indian Social Club, the Save the Children Fund and Lord Wavell’s Central Indian Relief Fund were present. Runganadhan to William Temple, 4 Nov 1943, Archbishops’ Papers, William Temple, Lambeth Palace Library, 345; The meeting was also reported in Indian newspapers. For example see “Fund For Relief Work in Bengal. Collection in London Scores of Official and Non-official Committees Engaged.” Amrita Bazar Patrika, 18 Nov 1943, 2.
2 Cited from Draft Statement Indian Famine Relief. Horace Alexander Papers, Library of the Society of Friends, Temp MSS 577/10/86.
3 In official despatches the term “food crisis” was used whereas words such as “famine” or “starvation” were avoided. Stephens, Monsoon Morning, 188.
4 On 26 Oct 1943 the newly appointed Viceroy Archibald Wavell visited Calcutta and a day after announced the use of the army to provide considerable relief. 15,000 British soldiers were thereafter deployed to render food and medical relief to the worst affected areas of Bengal. For example see Mukherjee, Hungry Bengal, 141–43, 172–75.
5 Mukherjee, Hungry Bengal; Mukerjee, Churchill’s Secret War; Srimanjari, Through War and Famine; Ó Grada, “Sufficiency, Sufficiency and Sufficiency’”; Collingham, “The Bengal Famine,” 141–54.
6 For a series of perspectives on the relation of representations of suffering, the rise of “humanitarian sentiments” and the formation of humanitarian movements and initiatives see Wilson and Brown, Humanitarianism and Suffering.
7 Help For Indian Famine Victims – The Response to the News Chronicle Appeal, Horace Alexander Papers. Temp MSS 577/10/86 (my italics); For the appeal itself see “An Appeal for Help for the Famine Victims in Bengal.” News Chronicle, 27 Oct 1943, 2.
8 For a variety of perspectives on the connection of visuality and humanitarianism see Fehrenbach and Rodogno, Humanitarian Photography.
9 For an elaboration of the conflation of political and humanitarian rhetoric and action see the introduction of Humanitarian Photography, 7.
10 See Fehrenbach and Rodogno, Humanitarian Photography; Franks, Reporting Disasters; Chouliaraki, The Ironic Spectator. For a brilliant discussion the problematic nature and arbitrariness of the representation of contemporary disasters see Nixon, Slow Violence.
11 See the special issue of The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History “Empire and Humanity” and in particular: Skinner and Lester, “Humanitarianism and Empire”; Ribi Forclaz, Humantiarian Imperialism; Barnett, Empire of Humanity; Baughan,“’Every Citizen of Empire’”.
12 This also included human resources. About 2.5 million Indians served in the war. Lahiri, “From Empire to Decolonisation, 1901–1947,” 150.
13 Khan, The Raj at War, 93–95; Mukherjee, Hungry Bengal, 7–10.
14 In mid-1942 the provincial government of Bengal, instructed by Delhi, began to introduce a scorched earth campaign in the coastal areas of Bengal that were particularly vulnerable to Japanese infiltration. The campaign included the confiscation and destruction of boats and the purchase of rice – two measures that were thought to deprive potential invaders of the means to sustain their presence in Bengal. Mukherjee, Hungry Bengal, 55–71; Khan, The Raj at War, 95–97 and 200–19.
15 For example see Mukherjee, Hungry Bengal, 78–81.
16 Brennan, “Government Famine Relief in Bengal,” 541–66; Tauger, “Entitlement, Shortage,” 45–72; De, “Imperial Governance,” 1–42.
17 See Bhattacharya, Propaganda and Information in Eastern India.
18 For the press regulations in place for example see Mukherjee, Hungry Bengal, 125–26.
19 Alarm was also raised by Indian soldiers who received troubling information about the famine from their families. Khan, The Raj at War, 203–206. This led the colonial authorities to think about incentives which would motivate soldiers’ relatives in rural Bengal “to write more cheerfully” in order to increase the morale of Indian soldiers. Economic conditions in soldiers’ homes and the desirability of making families write cheerfully, Home Department Files. Files No. 465/43, West Bengal State Archives.
20 This first group of immigrants consisted mainly of students, princes, soldiers, seamen, and nurses who accompanied English families on their journey to Britain and were abandoned upon arrival. These groups were joined by businessmen and visitors who temporarily increased the presence of Indians in the metropole. See Lahiri, Indians in Britain, 1–18; Ibid., 50–53; Owen, The British Left and India; Visram, Asians in Britain, 254–99; for early Indian radicalism in the metropole see Fischer-Tiné, Shyamji Krishnavarma.
21 Relying on information provided in the Indian National Congress Survey of 1932, Visram states that at this time approximately 7,000 Indians lived in Britain whereas the total population in the UK was 44 million. In mid-1942 circa 3,000 Indians worked in different industries. Visram, Asians in Britain, 254 and 268.
22 Ahmed, “Networks of Resistance,” 70–87
23 Ibid.
24 Amongst others, V.K.K. Menon was the first High Commissioner of India in Britain (1947–52) and represented India repeatedly at the United Nations (1952–62).
25 This was a well-used strategy of Indians in Britain to circumvent National Service. See Report to Mr. Silver, 1 Feb 1943, APAC. IOR/L/P&J/12/455. File 721/32: 19–20.
26 Chakravarty, V. K. Krishna Menon.
27 In this role of a broker, Menon had garnered Indian support for humanitarian relief activities in response to the Chinese nationalist revolution in 1927 as well as during the Spanish Civil War (1935–39). By 1943, demands for the mobilisation of aid to Spain and China were already steeped in nationalist rhetoric and directed towards fostering Indian independence. Indian nationalists in Britain and India sought to distance themselves from imperial foreign policy through engaging in international crisis management. Framke, “Political Humanitarianism,” 63–81.
28 Howe, Anticolonialism in British Politics, 128.
29 Much to the regret of Menon by 1943 the CPGB had the power to determine the content and outlook of the India League’s campaigns as, both in terms of financial and human resources, the League depended on the Party’s support. Howe, Anticolonialism in British Politics, 107; Owen, The British Left, 265.
30 After the Soviet Union’s entry into the war in June 1941, Communists in Britain and beyond were obligated to endorse the war efforts of the allied powers. Prior to that date, Communists had withdrawn their support based on the declaration that the war was ‘imperialistic’.
31 Opposition against the war in Britain, however, had manifested earlier with the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 when the British Government declared India’s support of the British war efforts without prior consultation with the Indian political elite. This resulted in the final decision of the INC to boycott the War and many Indians in Britain declared their support of the INC.
32 In summer 1942, after negotiations of the Indian National Congress and the British Government had failed, the former demanded that the colonizers “quit India”. As a consequence the leadership of the INC was jailed and, lacking political guidance, the protests of Indian sympathizers grew increasingly violent. The INC was banned and its leaders remained in detention until the end of the war. See Metcalf and Metcalf, A Concise History of Modern India, 104–107; Mukherjee, Hungry Bengal, 68–74.
33 Brockway, Indians in Britain.
34 Lahiri, “From Empire to Decolonisation”.
35 Howe, Anticolonialism in British Politics, 117–21; Owen, The British Left, 251–70.
36 Kent, “‘A Paper Not so much for the Armchair,” 208–26.
37 Brockway to Nehru, 6 Aug 1938, Jawaharlal Nehru Papers. Correspondence, Vol. 10.
38 Howe, Anticolonialism in British Politics, 67–71.
39 While Labour’s position towards the question of self-rule of British colonies was far from uniform, a major current that emerged in the inter-war period and manifested in the 1940s was the belief in trusteeship and the gradual attainment of political self-government through British imperial assistance. The left within and outside the Labour Party objected to this idea, demanding more commitment to the protection of native rights and to the preparation for self-government. Howe, Anticolonialism in British Politics, 82–139. Whereas the Labour Party joined the war coalition, according to Fenner Brockway “no Socialist – indeed, no sincere democrat – can identify himself with Imperialism against Nazism” cited in Ibid., 115.
40 Kent, “‘A Paper Not so much for the Armchair,” 208–26.
41 Owen, Anticolonialism in British Politics, 268; also see “Swaraj House,” Making Britain, accessed May 19, 2017, http://www.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/makingbritain/content/swaraj-house.
42 House of Commons Debate, 28 Jan 1943. Food Situation. Relief Measures, Hansard 1803–2005, Vol 386 cc.597–9. One of the MPs raising questions about the food situation in India was Reginald Sorensen, who was also a Member of the India League and the Bengal Relief Committee.
43 Gangulee, Famine? India’s Destitute Millions.
44 Swaraj House, London: activities of members and meetings, April 9 1943, APAC, IOR/L/P&J/12/658, File 2572/42: 27.
45 New Scotland Yard Report No. 174, 21 Aug 1940, APAC, IOR/L/P&J/12/616, File 842/38: 4.
46 Gangulee, Famine? India’s Destitute Millions; Ibid., Health and Nutrition; Ibid., The Indian peasant; Ibid., Problems of Rural India.
47 “The Royal Commission on Agriculture in India was appointed in 1926 to examine and report on the present condition of agriculture and rural economy in British India and to make recommendations for the improvement of agriculture and the promotion of the welfare and prosperity of the rural population.” Madan, India’s Developing Villages, 35.
48 New Scotland Yard Report No. 950, 21 July 1943, APAC, IOR/L/P&J/12/616, File 842/38: 25.
49 New Scotland Yard Report No. 174.
50 For example see: New Scotland Yard Report no. 235, 23 Dec 1942, APAC, IOR/L/P&J/12/455, File 721/32: 5; New Scotland Yard Report No. 237, 20 Jan 1943, Ibid, 11.; New Scotland Yard Report No. 234, 9 Dec 1942, APAC, IOR/L/P&J/12/658, File 2572/42: 4–5; In Oct Gangulee gave a talk about causes and remedies for the current crisis at a conference organised by the Swaraj House that was reported in length by Indian newspapers. For example see “Dr Gangulee’s Suggestions.” Amrita Bazar Patrika, 14 Oct 1943, 2.
51 New Scotland Yard Report No. 239, 17 Feb 1943, APAC, IOR/L/P&J/12/455, File 721/32: 48.
52 Gangulee’s Famine, APAC, IOR/L/P&J/12/616, File 842/38: 24.
53 Standing Committee of Swaraj House, April 9 1943, APAC, IOR/L/P&J/12/658. File 2572/42: 27.
54 For both quotes see Gangulee, Famine? India’s Destitute Millions, 6.
55 Notes on India; Menon, Unity with India.
56 New Scotland Yard Report No. 238, 3 Feb 1943, APAC. IOR/L/P&J/12/455. File 721/32: 38; In Aug Menon visited the Midland Regional Committee of the India League stating: “India was the land of hunger. Food is not available in greater part of India, and inhabitants have been compelled to eat lotus. The food situation is far worse than that contemplated in occupied countries after the war” cited in “India – Our Responsibility.” The Town Crier, 21 Aug 1943, 8.
57 Ayub Ali was a Bengali ex-seaman and founder of the Indian Seaman’s Welfare League. Through the Welfare League Ali supported Indian seamen in the management of their daily lives in Britain, their fight for the improvement of their precarious living conditions and their quest for equal payment. Visram, Asians in Britain, 257.
58 New Scotland Yard Report No.248, 23 Jun, 1943, APAC, IOR/L/P&J/12/455. File 721/32: 81.
59 Howe, Anticolonialism in British Politics, 112–13; Visram, Asians in Britain, 225–53.
60 This was the case of the mainstream press. A series of socialist papers, such as the New Leader, the Socialist Appeal, and the Student Forward featured accounts of the famine in Bengal as early as the first quarter of 1943. Howe, Anticolonialism in British Politics, 113.
61 According to James Vernon “For many the beginning of the end of colonial rule came on 22nd 1943”, when The Statesman in Calcutta published photographs of starving women and children on the streets of “the Empire’s Second City” cited from: Vernon, Hunger. A Modern History, 148.
62 This way of framing was restated in a second publication in mid-October, wherein a double paged article titled “60,000,000 of our Empire Citizens are in danger of starving like this” used two other photographs of The Statesman for illustration. “60,000,000 of Our Empire Citizens are in Danger of Starving like this.” Sunday Pictorial, 17 Oct 1943, 6.
63 Curran and Seaton, Power without responsibility, 62–66.
64 “Thousands Die of Famine. First Full Story of Indian Horror.” Sunday Pictorial, 19 Sep 1943, 8.
65 Ibid.
66 “Millions Starve.” Socialist Appeal, Oct 1943, 1; “If Music Be the Food of Love.” Daily Worker, 22 Sep 22 1943, 2.
67 Cited from: “If Music Be the Food of Love.”
68 “Famine Sweeps India,” NewsIndia.
69 The News Chronicle for which Vicky worked repeatedly tried to challenge the general silence of the British press with regard to the famine conditions in East India. Its ability to inform the public was due to the work of its correspondent Stuart W. Emeny, who was sent to Calcutta in 1942 to report about the war. Until his tragic death in a plane crash in 1944, Emeny provided the paper with “impressive descriptive accounts” from India. “The Story of Stuart Emeny.” News Chronicle, 3 April 1943, 2.
70 This becomes evident in some of his drawings, which merged multiple scenes depicted in separate photographs into one appalling account.
71 Unlike its “First Full Story” that did not include images, the Sunday Pictorial published two photographs in a follow-up in late Sep. See: “They Are Dying,” Sunday Pictorial, 26 Sept, 7.
72 The English-owned The Statesman was known to be a conservative newspaper and loyal to the British regime in India. However during the famine it increasingly became critical of governmental inaction. Unlike contemporary Anglo-Indian newspapers in Bengal, The Statesman’s status as a well-reputed English language newspaper provided it with the necessary leverage to experiment with the legal press regulations in place and led to the courageous decision to print images of victims of starvation in the streets of Calcutta. Photographs of the famine appeared in The Statesman between Aug 22 and Oct 24 1943 and they were subsequently reprinted in Jan 1944 in a special edition titled “Maladministration in Bengal”. The decision of the editorial board of The Statesman to publish famine photographs was important in sparking international media attention. Stephens, Monsoon Morning, 183–97; Masani, Indian Tales, 44–45; “Bengal’s Foodless.” The Statesman, 22 Aug 1943
73 “They Are Dying,” Sunday Pictorial.
74 Levine, “States of Undress,” 189–219; Ryan, Photographing Empire; Pinney, The Coming of Photography.
75 See the introduction in Fehrenbach and Rodogno. Humanitarian Photography.
76 For the use of famine photography in connection to calamities in nineteenth century India see: Twomey and May, “Australian Responses,” 233–52; Twomey, “Framing Atrocity”; Curtis, “Depicting Distant Suffering”.
77 In 1941 Germany occupied Greece and procured its already meagre food supplies for its troops. With Churchill’s decision to establish a sea blockade that prohibited the shipment of food supplies and relief to beleaguered European countries, the food scarcity in Greece developed into famine. Reports on the ensuing crisis in Greece trickled into Britain from autumn 1941 onwards. These were largely based on eyewitness accounts of Turkish Red Cross workers who provided graphic descriptions of the harrowing scenes. For a reaction to the crisis in Greece and the renunciation of Churchill’s blockade, See Collingham, “Feeding Germany,” 165–72; Black, Oxfam, 1–21.
78 “They Are Dying,” Sunday Pictorial.
79 For example see “Starvation.” The Western Morning News, 22 Jan 1943, 2.
80 Cited from: Gangulee, Famine? India’s Destitute Millions, 6.
81 Black, Oxfam, 1–21; Clogg, Bearing Gifts to the Greeks; Hionidou, Famine and Death; Mazower, Inside Hitler's Greece.
82 Cited from: “Starvation”. These photographs were published in a booklet called “Starvation in Greece”. In addition the Derby Food Relief Committee used the publicity created for the famine in Greece through the movie “Greek Testament” which included scenes of starvation to solicit donations. See “Horrors of Famine.” Derby Evening Telegraphy, 6 Aug 1943, 2.
83 Demands to aid Greece could therefore be based on the innocence and suffering of fellow human beings.
84 See Lambert and Lester, “Geographies of colonial philanthropy”; For a perspective on the practice of British famine relief see: Sasson and Vernon, “Practicing the British Way”; Brewis, “’Fill Full the Mouth’”; Davis, Late Victorian Holocausts; One the British civilisation mission in India see Fischer-Tiné and Mann, Colonialism as Civilizing Mission.
85 Banerjee, Becoming Imperial Citizens; Gorman, Imperial Citizenship.
86 Pinney, The Coming of Photography, 98–99; Twomey and May, “Australian Responses,” 233–52; Twomey, “Framing Atrocity”.
87 Cited from: “Indian Incompetence. Famine in Bengal.” The Press and Journal, 30 Sept 1943, 3. It seems that Alfred Watson’s remarks on the Bengal famine hit a nerve. His statements, which diluted British responsibility for the crisis, have been widely cited: “There are certain people who account every evil that happens in India to the direct fault of the British Government. Following their usual habit, they have talked much and critically recently about the famine in Bengal. They have sought to prove that this famine shows that we are unfit to administer the country […]” cited from: “Bengal Famine.” Newcastle Journal and North Mail, 30 Sep 1943, 2.
88 “What We Have We Hold.” New Leader, 16 Oct 1943, 3.
89 Cited from “Mr. Herbert Morrison and the British Empire. ‘I want it to Last, Because It is Good and Will be Better Yet’.” The Scotsman, 11 Jan 1943, 6; The quote is also given by Gerhard Altmann who explains its context in: Altmann, Abschied vom Empire, 44.
90 Instead of soliciting donations for famine relief, the IFC requested the public to contribute in raising £500 in order to print photographs of the Indian famine on hoardings all over Britain. See Indian Freedom Campaign, Send Food Now.
91 New Scotland Yard Report No. 257, 27 Oct 1943. APAC. IOR/L/P&J/12/658. File 2572/42: 40–42.
92 The Indian Worker’s Association (IWA) gave support to its members by rendering assistance through a number of services, such as helping workers to claim compensation in case of injuries at the workplace or offering a range of educational programmes. Indian elites in Britain saw education as the key to grow support for the Indian nationalist movement, because they believed that through education workers and seamen became aware of contemporary political contestations and would endorse ideas on political self-determination and national independence. After the India League failed to officially align itself with the IWA, Swaraj House successfully collaborated with the latter in April 1943 through the newly founded Federation of Indian Associations in Great Britain (FIAGB). After this, Swaraj House and the Indian Worker’s Association became closely entangled. While the India League thus seemed to have lost ground to its small but active opponent, it could still count on the support of central individuals of the working class movement. Examples include the Dhani R. Prem and Ayub Ali. See: Visram, Asians in Britain, 269–73; Owen, The British Left, 268.
93 Press Service of the Famine Campaign of The Federation of Indian Associations in Gt. Britain, 7 Dec 1943, Archbishops’ Papers, 351.
94 “Famine Menace in India. Profiteering and Hoarding Blamed.” The Nottingham Evening Post, 23 Sep, 1943, 1.
95 “Amery Gets the Bird.” Socialist Appeal, Nov 1943, 3; “Police Protection for Amery.” The Town Crier, 18 Dec 1943, 1.
96 “Amery Gets the Bird.” Socialist Appeal, Nov 1943, 3.
97 “The terrible food crisis in India, which is daily causing the death of hundreds, has resulted from the Government’s failure to make preparations to meet such a shortage. We are shocked that such a ghastly situation has arisen, and call on the Government to take immediate steps to relieve the shortage”. Cited from “The Famine in India.” Bedfordshire Times and Standard, 1 Oct 1943, 7.
98 In late Nov the Daily Worker republished images of The Statesman to join demands for the establishment of an Indian National Government and two weeks later employed images of starving children to solicit donations for the India League’s India Relief Committee. “India Needs Food, Not Pity.” Daily Worker, 29 Nov 1943, 2.; “Starving Children Lie Down to die in Calcutta streets.” Daily Worker, 13 Dec 1943, 4.
99 Olorenshaw, Our Forces in India; “Only a free India, enjoying democratic liberties and a Provisional Government chosen by its own people, can fully mobilise India’s millions for the defeat of Japanese aggression and victory over Fascism and for a solution of the terrible food crisis.” London District Communist Party, What are the Proposals, 15.
100 “Starvation in India.” Daily Worker, 14 Sep 1943, 2.; “’Help Tackle Food Hoarders’ Call to Indian People.” Daily Worker, 28 Sep 1943, 4; “Workers Demand Relief for Starving India.” Daily Worker, 27 Sep 1943, 3; “NCOs-Army and ATS-Tell Govt. ‘Starving People of India are Our Fellow Citizens’”. Daily Worker, 1 Oct 1943, 3.
101 Rajani Palme Dutt (1896–1974) was the son of Upendra Krishna Dutt and the Swedish writer Anna Palme. Since his childhood Dutt was surrounded by leading figures of the British labour movement as his parents’ home provided a meeting place for the British left in Cambridge. Educated at Cambridge and Oxford, Rajani Palme Dutt first joined the Independent Labour Party and later co-founded the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1920. He also edited the Labour monthly for more than fifty years. Dutt was a Stalinist and a staunch supporter of Indian nationalism. See Visram, Asians in Britain, 290. For his full biography see Callaghan, Rajani Palme Dutt.
102 Butler, The Red Dean.
103 Bradley to P.C. Joshi, 15 Oct 1943, APAC. IOR/L/P&J/12/455. File 721/32, 126–27.
104 “This conference expressed its concern and horror at the ghastly famine situation in India, which has been developing to the present crisis for well over a year, and the extent and severity of which has been concealed from the peoples of Britain by censorship […] The responsibility of this present grim and deteriorating situation rests on the British Government and the British authorities in India. […] This conference therefore urges that the British Government shall immediately […] facilitate the setting up of a National Government in India”. Cited from New Scotland Yard Report No. 256, 13 Oct 1943, APAC, IOR/L/P&J/12/455. File 721/32: 137–50.
105 “The Indian Famine.” The Western Morning News, 12 Oct 1943, 2.
106 New Scotland Yard Report No. 157; “Organisations such as the India League were appealing to the British public on humanitarian grounds, but Swaraj House regarded the famine as a political issue and was therefore taking no steps to collect funds for relief purposes”. Cited from New Scotland Yard Report No. 257.
107 In addition to Birmingham, the IRC expanded to Bristol, Coventry, Essex, Leeds, Newcastle, Nottingham, and Worcester. See India Famine Emergency Assembly. Invitation Sent by the India Famine Relief Committee, People’s History Museum (PHM), ID/IND/i/103; The Birmingham branch of the Committee quickly acquired wide societal backing: The Labour Party, the Communist Party of Great Britain, the Society of Friends, the Women’s International League, the Young Women’s Christian Association, the Heads of Churches and the Trades Council were amongst its supporters. See India Relief Committee Birmingham. Annual Report, 1943–44. Horace Alexander Papers.
108 In addition to the Communist People’s Relief Committee and the Friends’ Ambulance Unit, benefactors included the Ramakrishna Mission, the Servants of India Society and the All India Women’s Conference. See Prem, Indian National Congress, 3.
109 Mulk Raj Anand (1905–2004) came to Britain in 1924 as a PhD candidate in Philosophy which he completed at the University College of London five years later. In Britain, Anand became involved in socialist circles and made himself a name as a novelist, essayist and literature critic. He co-founded the Progressive Writers’ Association in London in 1935 which encouraged Indian authors to address contemporary social and political ills in their writings. Anand returned to India in 1945 where he, until his death, continued to play an active role as an author, critic and activist. See Ranasinha, South Asian Broadcasters; “Mulk Raj Anand,” Making Britain, accessed 19 May 2017, http://www.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/makingbritain/content/mulk-raj-anand.
110 “The India Relief Committee.” NewsIndia. Volume 6, Oct 1943, 2; Appeal for Immediate Relief for the Victims of Famine, Pestilence and Distress in India, PHM, ID/IND/i/86; Davies, Famine in India.
111 Hansard, HC Deb 15 April 1943 vol 388 cc1365–6; Ibid., HC Deb 05 Aug 1943 vol 391 cc2440–1 1803–2005; Ibid., HC Deb 28 Oct 1943 vol 393 cc351–4.
112 Sorensen, Famine, Politics, 14.
113 Another continuous supporter of the India Relief Committee who had joined earlier events of the India League was the actress Sybill Thorndike. Thorndike was a member of the Peace Pledge Union that united pacifists in Britain to oppose the war and also publicly supported the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief. In connection to her support for the India Relief Committee, she had been widely cited in the British and Indian press as saying “if we sent six ships that should have armaments with food in them, they would do more good than all the guns in the world.” Cited from “Swift Action Needed. Famine in India.” Amrita Bazar Patrika, 3 Nov 1943, 1; Hirsch, “Authorship and Propaganda,” 57–72.
114 Carnall, Gandhi’s Interpreter, 61–80.
115 Cited from Lord Linlithgow to Mr. Amery, 5 and 6 July 1943, APAC. IOR/L/PJ/5935 File 4186/1943: 25.
116 Carnall, Gandhi’s Interpreter. 174.
117 Daniels, “Cranswick, Geoffrey Franceys”.
118 Cranswick to the Archbishop, Oct 7 1943, Archbishops’ Papers, 318–20. The Archbishop took up the task immediately and appealed to the British public through the British Council of Churches as well as organised a day of prayer on Nov 28th 1943. However, the Archbishop was only able to raise a comparatively small sum of £2,500. (For this figure see “Britain’s Relief.” The Pioneer (Lucknow), 27 Nov 1943, 8). Moreover, the efforts of the CMS were not well received even in India, where the day of prayer was ridiculed by the Indian press. Letter to the Archbishop, 13 Jan 1944, Archbishops’ Papers, 367.
119 The Government of India Act had established the principle of provincial autonomy through allowing the election of legislative assemblies in the provinces. The central government in Delhi retained the right to dismiss any elected Ministry by invoking Emergency, a measure it repeatedly used during the War to maintain control of provincial politics. See for example Mukherjee, Hungry Bengal, 8. When the press in Britain started to report about the crisis in Bengal, those defending the colonial government argued that the crisis was the responsibility of the provincial government. For example see “Indian Incompetence.”
120 Correspondence between the High Commissioner, L.S. Amery, the Mayor of London and John Anderson, APAC, IOR/L/I/1/651: File 442/B.
121 Turnbull to Azizul Haque, 31 Dec 1942, APAC, IOR/L/I/1/651: File 442/B.
122 Cited from Amery to the Governor of Bengal, 31 Dec 1942, APAC, IOR/L/I/1/651: File 442/B.
123 Morley to Rushbrook Williams, 27 Sep 1943, APAC. IOR/L/I/1/651: File 442/B.
124 “Lord Wavell opened a fund known as the Viceroy’s Distress Relief Fund, to deal with the distribution of money received for the relief of distress in Bengal and other parts of India. In announcing this, a press note refers to a joint appeal issued by the Secretary of State, the Lord Mayor and the High Commissioner for India regarding the Bengal distress saying that the High Commissioner for India ’will be happy to receive and acknowledge contributions and will pass them to the Viceroy for distribution, according to their needs to the different private agencies operating in those parts of India where there is distress’.” cited from “Viceroy’s Fund for Bengal Relief.” The Pioneer (Lucknow), 25 Oct 1943, 3; see also: “Viceroy’s Relief Fund.” Aberdeen Press and Journal, 25 Oct 1943, 3; “India Famine Relief Fund.” Birmingham Daily Post, 26 Nov 1943, 1.
125 Mukherjee, Hungry Bengal, 172–73.
126 “Wavell Gives Bengal Light in Darkness.” Daily Mirror, 30 Oct 1943, 8; “The Viceroy and Lady Wavell at a Free Kitchen in Calcutta.” Illustrated London News, 20 Nov 1943, 580; “Army Convoys Race Food to Famine Areas.” The Daily Mirror, 15 Nov 1943, 2; “R.A.F. Feeds Starving Indians.” Evening Telegraph, 13 Nov 1943, 1; “Action to End India Famine. MP’s Tribute to Viceroy.” The Press and Journal, 5 Nov 1943, 3.
127 Sen, Poverty and Famines, 215.
128 Symonds to William Temple. The Relief Needs of Bengal, 24 July 1944. Archbishops’ Papers, 396–97.
129 New Scotland Yard Report No. 275, 5 July 1944, APAC, IOR/L/P&J/12/455. File 721/32: 158.
130 Cited from Urgent Communication, 24 Sep 1944, TEMP MSS 577 12 114, Horace Alexander Papers.
131 Why India Starves, Indian Freedom Campaign, 1944. Horace Alexander Papers, Temp MSS 577/10/86.
132 The most recent publications include: Mukherjee, Hungry Bengal; Mukherjee, Churchill’s Secret War; Srimanjari, Through War and Famine; De, “Imperial Governance”.
An early example of a study that explores reactions to the Bengal famine outside India is Venkataramani, Bengal Famine of 1943.
133 For an exploration of narrative strategies in other contexts see for example: Heerten, “‘A’ as in Auschwitz; Twomey and May”; “Australian Responses”; Laqueur, “Mourning, Pity”; Ibid., “Bodies, Details”.