Le Monde diplomatique, avril 2003

The Bengal Famine: How the British engineered the worst #genocide in human history for profit

The British had a ruthless economic agenda when it came to operating in India and that did not include empathy for native citizens. Under the British Raj, India suffered countless famines. But the worst hit was Bengal. The first of these was in 1770, followed by severe ones in 1783, 1866, 1873, 1892, 1897 and lastly 1943-44. Previously, when famines had hit the country, indigenous rulers were quick with useful responses to avert major disasters. After the advent of the British, most of the famines were a consequence of monsoonal delays along with the exploitation of the country’s natural resources by the British for their own financial gain. Yet they did little to acknowledge the havoc these actions wrought. If anything, they were irritated at the inconveniences in taxing the famines brought about.

http://d152j5tfobgaot.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Churchills-man-made-famine.jpg http://d152j5tfobgaot.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/1943.jpg

Late Victorian Holocausts - by MIKE DAVIS
▻http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/d/davis-victorian.html

Toutes les famines des siecles derniers furent l’oeuvre du capitalisme sauvage.
▻http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/Graphic2-1877.JPG

“Here’s the northeast monsoon at last,” said Hon. Robert Ellis, C.B., junior member of the Governor’s Council, Madras, as a heavy shower of rain fell at Coonoor, on a day towards the end of October 1876, when the members of the Madras Government were returning from their summer sojourn on the hills.

“I am afraid that is not the monsoon,” said the gentleman to whom the remark was made.

“Not the monsoon?” rejoined Mr. Ellis. “Good God! It must be the monsoon. If it is not, and if the monsoon does not come, there will be an awful famine.”

La plus vieille démocratie du monde n’a jamais aidé les plus pauvres.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8b/Madras_famine_1877.jpg

Like other architects of the Victorian Raj, Salisbury was terrified of setting any precedent for the permanent maintenance of the Indian poor. As the Calcutta Review pointed out in 1877, “In India there is no legal provision made for the poor, either in British territory, or in the native states; [although] the need for it is said by medical men and others, to be exceedingly great.” Both Calcutta and London feared that “enthusiastic prodigality” like Buckingham’s would become a trojan horse for an Indian Poor Law. In its final report, the Famine Commission of 1878-80 approvingly underscored Lord Lytton’s skinflint reasoning: “The doctrine that in time of famine the poor are entitled to demand relief ... would probably lead to the doctrine that they are entitled to such relief at all times, and thus the foundation would be laid of a system of general poor relief, which we cannot contemplate without serious apprehension....” None of the principal players on either side of the House of Commons disagreed with the supreme principle that India was to be governed as a revenue plantation, not an almshouse.

▻http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famine_in_India
▻http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Famine_Codes
▻http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_famine_of_1899%E2%80%931900
▻http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_famine_of_1896%E2%80%9397
▻http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_of_1876%E2%80%9378
#histoire #capitalisme #crise #famine #colonialisme