The Bengal famine, that claimed millions of lives, was orchestrated by the colonial government’s egregious acts of omission and commission (OpEd page, “The preventable Bengal famine”, September 17). On a par with the Holocaust for its inhumanity, the Bengal famine, however, remains hidden in the obscure corners of history books. The colonial government was never held accountable for this monstrous crime. Western historians wanted to hide the harsh fact that a liberal democracy that took pride in the enlightenment values such as rationality and humanitarianism perpetrated a hideous crime against humanity. The present rulers of Britain should demonstrate the humility to apologise for the starvation-induced mass deaths caused by their insensitive colonial predecessors. The disturbing fact that greedy Indian farmers and corrupt bureaucrats also were complicit in the famine could be the reason why Indian historians failed to effectively project the Bengal famine as a dark chapter in the colonial project.
V.N. Mukundarajan,
Thiruvananthapuram
