Crisis and Survival in Midnapore: Bengal Famine of 1943 through the lens of Weekly Nihar
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31305/rrijm.2026.v11.n08.010Keywords:
Bengal Famine of 1943, World War II, Colonial Bengal, Midnapore, NiharAbstract
The Bengal Famine of 1943 is largely seen as a man-made disaster that occurred under British colonial rule, in which about three million people died from starvation, malnutrition, and epidemic diseases. However, this was not solely due to a food shortage but rather to wartime policy, administrative failures, and economic distress. This study offers a historical understanding of the devastating Bengal Famine of 1943, focusing on the acute experience and aftermath in the Midnapore district through the lens of weekly Nihar. It also critically examines important regional and national newspapers from 1942-1945, bringing together government relief and eyewitness accounts in the context of colonial rule and wartime. Contemporary journalistic records reveal discrepancies between the reality of the famine in Midnapore and public representation. Journalistic reports by the local newspaper Nihar established a connection between the 1942 Midnapore cyclone and the subsequent food crisis.
References
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While several economic historians have analyzed British land revenue systems, the characterization of these policies as “manipulative” or as a systematic perversion of economic laws is most strongly associated with the early nationalist economic critics, specifically Romesh Chandra Dutt and Dadabhai Naoroji. See- Dadabhai Naoroji, Poverty and Un-British Rule in India, Swan Sonnenschein & Co., London, 1901; R. C. Dutt, The Economic History of India, Vol. 1., Reprint by Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, London, 1960.
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The publication of the Nihar newspaper was temporarily suspended for a few days in 1942 due to the Durga Puja festival. During this period, a severe cyclone hit coastal Bengal. The newspaper resumed publication at the beginning of November and provided detailed accounts of the chaos that followed in Midnapore district in the days after the storm (16th October, 1942) and the sea waves.
Nihar, 3rd November, 1942.
John Woodhead, Famine Inquiry Commission’s Report on Bengal, p. 1.
A. Mitra, Census 1951: District Handbooks Midnapur, West Bengal Government Press, Alipore, 1953, p. pp. xxxiii-xxxiv.
Nihar, Issue- 13, 1st December, 1942; Dhananjoy Bhattacharya, ‘The Great Famine of 1943 and North Bengal: Revisiting its Genesis and its Genesis and its Impact’, Karatoya: NBU J. Hist. Vol. 14, p. 55.
Nihar, Issue- 15, 15 December, 1942; Nihar, 12 January, 1943.
John Woodhead, Famine Inquiry Commission Report on Bengal, Government of India Press, 1945, p. 1.
Nihar, Issue-10, 10th November, 1942.
Ibid.
Nihar, Issue-14, 8 December, 1942.
Nihar, 23rd February, 1943.
Nihar, Issue- 14, 21 December, 1943.
The ‘Friends Ambulance Unit’ was a volunteer emergency relief organization founded by British Quakers (members of the Religious Society of Friends). During the Bengal Famine of 1943, it played a critical role as one of the few international non-governmental organizations providing direct medical and nutritional aid on the ground.
Nihar, Issue- 26, 2nd March, 1943.
Uttorer Saradin, 31 October, 2023, p. 6.
Nihar, 9th February, 1943.
Nihar, 8th June 1943.
Nihar, 3rd November, 1943; Nihar, 15 June 1943.
Nihar, Issue-31, 6th April, 1943.
Nihar, Issue-24, 16 February, 1943.
Nihar, 12 January, 1943; T.K. Dutt, Hungry Bengal, Indian Printing Works, Lahore, 1944, pp. 4-5.
Nihar, Issue- 25, 23rd February, 1943.
Nihar, Issue-18, 5 January, 1943.
Nihar, 12 January, 1943; Nihar, Issue- 25, 23rd February, 1943.
Nihar, Issue-49, 10 August, 1943; Nihar, 17 August 1943.
Nihar, 16 November, 1943.
Nihar, 7th December, 1943.
