Latest / The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History
The Bengal Famine of 1770: When the East India Company Starved a Million
Before the great famines of the twentieth century, Bengal suffered a catastrophe that killed nearly a third of its population in the early 1770s. This episode explores the Great Bengal Famine of 1770, a disaster caused not by drought alone, but by the rigid extraction policies of the newly formed British East India Company following their victory at Plassey. We examine how Warren Hastings and Robert Clive maintained revenue collection even as crops failed, ignoring pleas for relief to protect the Company’s bottom line. Through the lens of contemporary accounts from Dutch traders and British…
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