Book Review: Hunger and Holocaust by Souren Bhattacharya and Subhasree Pal

Hunger and Holocaust is a work of non-fiction written by Souren Bhattacharya and Subhasree Pal that sheds light on three huge famines of Bengal region. By all means, the book is laced with a great chunk of historical knowledge. It not only gives information about those famines that killed millions of innocent people but also studies the impact of colonization during that time.

At the façade, the book offers insights, facts, and stats on The Great Bengal Famine, 1770, The Na-Anka Famine 1866 (Orissa Famine), and The Bengal Famine of 1943.

The Bengal region was a vast area, its expanse included Bihar, Bengal, and Orissa. From 1765 to 1943, this region witnessed most severe famines due to lack of rainfall but it was made worst by the ruling British Raj. This region was a prime target as East India Company was located at the ports of Bengal. The pain and suffering, these famines doled out was no less than a holocaust. If Nazism was a visible holocaust for Jews, then colonization was no lesser than it.

The authors are right in saying that colonizing government was the true perpetrators of holocaust. One of the startling revelations that might jolt is that during 1943 famine, the government banned the use of boats by fear of Japanese invasion. It caused a large distraught to the locals and poor people like fishermen, farmers, artisans, etc. had to bear the brunt of hunger and starvation.

The book is easy to read, the author first discussed the severity of famine. And then studies it further as what triggered that and what could have been avoided or what the government did that made the situation debilitating. From time and again, the authors have presented tables for stats. After reading the accounts of all three famines, readers will resonate with the tagline and find it apt: Three trembling famines of Colonial Bengal.

The book is easy to read with timely reference from many sources. Souren Bhattacharya and Subhasree Pal, both authors did great job by accumulating immaculate information and then putting it into a readable format. All is well covered in 7 chapters. Anyone interested in this piece of history to detailed information on some ravaging famines can definitely look for this book.

Buy from Amazon.

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