“In the week ending September 18 there were 1,319 deaths … Since August 16, 4,338 sufferers from starvation have been admitted to the city’s hospitals of whom 972 have died. Corpses of starved people removed from the streets and hospitals by the police Corpse Disposal Squad and the two non-official agencies since August 1 have been 2,527.”

– September 23, 1943, The Statesman

In September 1943, Bengal was in the grip of a man-made famine that claimed thousands of lives each week. India, still under British colonial rule, had entered World War II in 1939 as a supplier of troops, exports and credit, and as a strategic theatre in the Allied campaign against Japan. In 1942, the colonial authorities imposed a modified “scorched earth” policy across Assam, Bengal, Bihar, Orissa and parts of Mad

See Full Page