#Bengal Famine

[victusinveritas]

[icedsodapop]

I like to think Churchill is being roasted on a spit by those who died in the Bengal famine right now but I would have loved to see Churchill live long and lucid enough to see the British empire die a sputtering death.

Like bro, what freedom? What truth? You admired the fucking Nazis for a reason.

[drsonnet]

Queuing for soup in Calcutta (Kolkata) in late 1943

(This is a crime done by Churchill)

Bengal famine: Tracking down the last survivors of WW2's forgotten tragedy

Bengal famine: Tracking down the last survivors of WW2's forgotten tragedy - BBC News

Bengal famine: Remembering WW2's forgotten disaster

Bengal famine: Remembering WW2's forgotten disasterClose

In 1943, during World War Two, Bengal in British-run India was hit with a severe shortage of food.

Following the Japanese occupation of Burma, the Allied forces had halted the movement of food in the region.

No one knows how many people died but estimates range between 3m and 5m people.

Professor Rafiqul Islam was a child in Bengal at the time. He spoke to Witness about the little-known famine that claimed so many lives.

Witness is a World Service programme of the stories of our times told by the people who were there.

SubsectionMagazine: Published1 April 2015

[sepiameme]

What about us famine survived colonised generations that have higher concentration of fat cells?

[arianod]

https://twitter.com/VcfCommunism/status/1598917022678601728

[balthazarslostlibrary]

feeling immense rage at colonial exploitation of India rn...

[corvidaedream]

the horror of reading a really bad nonfiction book w terrible takes and then looking up the author and seeing she's been the head of multiple societies and an emeritus professor in the subject for decades

[arunparia]

Tephra, 2019, 1943

A pebble hits and smashes  my morning mirror. Now I am cold as a stone,  stand so remote, before the household’s four-oven fire peering at the glow, imagining —

what a strange block of coal  my great-grandmother poked out from the belly of the earth  in forty-three’s summer.

Instead of being dour, she carried the flaming charcoal home to cook for her boys  burnt taro roots.

(The poem was first published in the May 2023 issue of Poetry India: https://www.ethosliterary.org/poetry-india/may-2023-issue/poems-by-arun-paria)

[communist-ojou-sama]

Polish neonazi who has spent their entire life in Canada and has never set foot on Polish soil: We Poles are just so glad that the evil Soviet Union is gone now so we can venerate our national hero, Władysław the Jew Smiter, without censorship.

Ordinary Polish guy: Idk man it kinda sucks that western financial firms came in and bought all our national industry and our social services are shit now and the picture of "upward mobility" offered to us is going to the UK and picking tomatoes in rural Kent while the inbred grandniece of the architect of the Bengal Famine films herself cracking a whip over our heads for her #girlboss motivational instagram account, and the main outlet for that frustration is catholic christofascism. Maybe it wasn't so bad before the fall of the SU (all of this is in polish so anglophones can't understand it and don't care to translate it)

smug liberal whitey, to me: Don't you hysterical darkies see? ex-soviet people are Glad the soviet union is gone! Look at what all polish people are saying, which in the english language is entirely sentiment one and not sentiment 2!

[frida-kahl-of-the-rocky-horror]

Okay, @sihatn wishes to be so hung up on the particular war crime the Israeli government is using to excessively slaughter innocent Palestinian civilians, so let’s explain the difference between Genocide, Ethnocide, and Ethnic Cleansing:

Genocide: the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group

Examples: The Armenian Genocide (where the term actually originates), the Shoah/Holocaust, Taíno Genocide, and Rwandan Genocide to name a few.

I have seen some Zionists on this platform and on Instagram argue that Israel cannot be committing Genocide because it is a “very specific instance in history that only includes the Holocaust”. That fact is ardently incorrect. For one, the first event to be called a Genocide and where the term was coined was the Armenian Genocide and countless events have been labeled a Genocide since 1943/1944 when the term was initially coined (including events coined after the fact that had already happened like the aforementioned Taíno Genocide).

Ethnocide: the deliberate and systematic destruction of the culture of an ethnic group or nation without deliberately killing large numbers of people within that ethnic group or nation

Think “kill the Indian, save the man”, the American and Canadian policy against American Indian tribes and First Nations that sought to forcibly assimilate them into W.A.S.P. culture. A similar policy occurred in Hawaii during the “Republic of Hawaii” and “Territory of Hawaii” days, and even the destruction of Yiddish Culture by Zionists in Israel who feared it for being “too Middle Eastern”. Most Re-Education camps fall in this category too.

Ethic Cleansing: the mass expulsion or killing of members of an unwanted ethnic or religious group in a society

This term is relatively new and was coined in the aftermath of the collapse of Yugoslavia and Serbia’s treatment of Croats, Bosnians, and other ethnic minorities, as well as the Stalinist movement of ethnic minorities to different SSRs.

Mass Homicide: the deliberate killing of a large number of people

The only distinction here is the people are not being killed because of their ethnicity or nation, but for ✨ other reasons ✨

Now here’s the kicker, most Zionists would say they are committing Ethnic Cleansing. They might not say it out right, because the term has a nasty connotation, but they will say they’re doing the definition of ethnic cleansing.

Some propaganda reblogging Zionists might claim that they’re just committing Mass Homicide but here’s the thing, almost every example of mass homicide being committed by one nation to another nation has been an example of one of the first three categories. The only real examples of Mass Homicide actually being Mass Homicide occur within a state (see Mao famines, Pol Pot’s mass killings, or the countless purging of communists or anti communists during the Cold War).

Some (wrong) historians may claim the Bengal Famine and Irish Potato Famine were examples of mass Homicide but here’s the thing, in both cases aid from other nations and governments were barred from entering the effected places because the UK forbid it. Food exports were forced to continue to come from Ireland and Bengal because the UK forced it. The reasons these famines were so severe was because the UK had a eugenics inspired belief that the Irish and Bengalis were “sub human animals” and “less deserving of food than the Brits”.

The Irish Potato Famine and Bengali Famine were Genocides, with famine being the preferred method of killing.

Was it intentional at first? Maybe not. Did it become intentional after the fact? Yes.

But this takes us to the most important point. The difference between Genocide, Ethnocide, and Ethnic Cleansing AND Mass Homicide is the intent.

But the intent isn’t truly known until after the fact, when internal government documents are released and the facts of the situation are holistically known.

The Jews/Poles/Romani/etc knew they were going through a Genocide (or well, they didn’t know the word, but they knew what was happening) but most of the outside world didn’t because the N@zis were secretive about it. Yes some activists and Jewish/Polish/Romani/etc diaspora groups warned other governments, but these other governments (US, UK, USSR, China, France, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, Italy even) were skeptical.

We don’t full know intent now, but given Herzl and Jabotinsky’s rhetoric which essentially established modern day Zionism and the Israeli state, and the establishment of Area C for Israeli settlement after conflict in the West Bank, the fact that Israel has threatened a Second Nakba, an event internationally acknowledged as ethnic cleansing, the fact that there are oil reserves underneath Gaza and the forcing of 2 million people into an airport sized camp would allow Israel to open up drilling where the ruins of Gaza city lay, or the fact that Israel is an Ethnonationalist country that relies on the superiority of Israelis over Palestinians and other neighbouring countries in order to exist makes the intent known to those of us familiar with the history of this conflict.

Ok ok ok ok ok here’s where I M. Night Shyamalan this whole thing: Genocide, Ethnocide, and Ethnic Cleansing are all the same crime according to multinational organizations like the United Nations. They are all Genocide.

All Ethnocides are Genocides, but not all Genocides are Ethnocides.

All Ethnic Cleansings are Genocides, but not all Genocides are Ethnic Cleansings.

The Nakba was an Ethnic Cleansing, therefore the Nakba was a Genocide.

The Netanyahu administration claims that their on going attack on Gaza is a “new Nakba”.

Nakba = Ethnic Cleansing = Genocide

The Netanyahu administration claims that their on going attack on Gaza is a “new Genocide”.

Genocide carries with it negative connotations. If the term was as widely used in 1944 as it is today, Hitler would deny genocide allegations, just as the Turkish continue to deny genocide allegations from the Armenian Genocide, why the Japanese continue to deny Genocide Allegations during their rule of Korea, Taiwan, parts of Micronesia, Manchuria, and Nanjing. Why the British refuse to acknowledge the Irish Potato Famine or Bengal Famine as Genocides. Why the conservative right want to ban the teaching of American genocides against countless groups (namely Native Americans, African Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Chicanos). And why Zionists get so offended when you refer to the actions of Israel as a Genocide.

Those who commit Genocide will never acknowledge that they are committing genocide. The fact that the current mainstream Zionist reaction, like @sihatn, is to deny that the ongoing genocide exists just proves that one is happening… if the horrific videos didn’t prove it enough (this one is from an American pro Israel source, but it doesn’t not take long to find ones from individuals in Gaza)

In conclusion, Israel is committing a genocide, and if you say otherwise, you are blinded by Ethnonationalism just like the Germans were in the 30s/40s, the Turks were during the 10s/20s and onward, the Brits were for (well forever), and the American right wing is.

If you don’t acknowledge the fact that Israel is committing a Genocide you are part of the problem shawty, and it’s not a good look 😬

[metamatar]

As the 19th century gave way to the 20th, the caricature of the enemy shifted more decisively from the West to the Muslim. As the desire to homogenise the Hindu community took hold, Hindu Right organisations began engaging with Bengal’s marginalised castes in a way the Left did not even contemplate doing till the late-20th century. The slow incorporation of lower castes within the Hindu fold went hand-in-hand with the steady expulsion of Muslims from the national body.

Organisations like the Bharat Sevashram Sangha and Hindu Mahasabha played a crucial role in both processes, often providing what we can call intellectual justifications for such strategies. If Mukherji propagated demographic fears, the Mahasabha and the Sangha worked on the ideological mission of keeping the Hindu community together. This required preventing restless and assertive lower caste communities from breaking away from the dominance of the upper caste bhadralok.

Founded by Swami Pranabananda in 1917, one of the Sangha’s primary missions was urging Hindus to fortify themselves as an unbreachable, unified community. Such a mission called for an end to caste discrimination and the practice of untouchability. To achieve its ideological ends, Hindu organisations identified tribals and Dalits as their primary target groups. [...] The campaigns, aimed at reorganising the village economy, carried out social work in backward areas. [...]

By 1926, the Sangha ran more than a dozen ashrams in areas of eastern and southern Bengal dominated by marginalised caste communities. The organisation founded Hindu Milan Mandirs, conceptualised on the lines of mosque gatherings, apart from launching Rakshi Dals comprising armed volunteers to defend Hindus against enemies. This movement for the assimilation of Hindus (Hindu Samanvyay Andolan) worked on multiple registers. The Hindu Milan Mandir provided spaces to hold prayers, conduct rituals and festivals, and deliberate on issues related to Hindu society. The young were taught history, the elderly given an education in the Shastras. There were libraries with books on Hinduism and the Hindu way of life. Schools of martial arts training were set up for self-defence.

Through the 1930s and 1940s, both the Mahasabha and the Sangha worked in tandem to fortify the Hindu community as one. Even as the BSS urged upper castes to end untouchability, it also asked lower castes to integrate themselves with the larger Hindu community by giving up their “hatred” of upper castes. These organisations wanted to direct Dalit anger at Muslims, representing them as the primary other and threat to Hindus. The Sangha’s spaces of Hindu congregation, Pranabananda believed, would facilitate organising as a homogenous, non-porous community. They served, or at least attempted to serve, the purpose of subsuming smaller oppositional caste-based identities into a sweeping fold of Hindu identity. Such a ubiquitous Hindu identity, proponents hoped, would steer groups away from caste antagonism and towards building a Hindu Dharma Rashtra. In some ways, the scale and operations of this intricate organisational network resembled the structure of the RSS, founded in 1925. During riots and famines, Hindu Milan Mandir volunteers would rush to the aid of Hindus, collecting monthly subscriptions and food from each member.

[tamamita]

How do Zionists even come up with these sort of arguments to deny the genocide of Palestinians?? Are they trying to say that nuking Gaza like Hiroshima and Nagasaki wouldn't be considered genocide? What about the Bengal famine of 1943?

[indelen]

Our history teacher in gr. 10 had us read "All quiet on the western front" when we covered WWI and then one assignment for that unit was to write a "letter home" and a "private diary entry or a more objective retelling in the style of the book". It specifically was set to make us realize people writing about the war to their families might not mention everything or that their recollections in private might be different from what they send home. And so we can't rely on letters alone when researching the war. I remember writing mine from the POV of a nurse writing to her mother. She spares her mother the worst of the news because she knows her brothers are also at war, but agonizes about it in private. What is this if not a fanfic exercise?

"I know your school didn't teach you how to write fanfic-" I know this is something said in response to Americans whining about their education system in response to racism, but my school English class actually did have us write an epilogue to a book we were reading as an assignment, so in a way my school did teach me how to write fanfic. I have no point to make with this point and I don't care to i just wanted to share a tidbit about my life

[workingclasshistory]

On this day, 30 January 1965, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's funeral took place. One of its most memorable moments was when cranes on the London docks dipped as his funeral barge went past. However, it later emerged that the dockworkers had originally refused to dip the cranes as they "didn't like" Churchill and had to be paid extra to do it. While typically depicted as a national hero today, in fact, Churchill was hated by many, especially working class people, hence why he lost the 1945 election. And despite being presented as an anti-fascist, Churchill actually supported fascism. He declared that Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini was "a really great man" and wrote that he "whole-heartedly" supported Mussolini "from the start of the finish in [his] triumphant struggle against the bestial appetites and passions of Leninism" and supported Mussolini's invasion of Abyssinia (now Ethiopia), describing the independent African nation as not "civilised". Churchill also supported the military coup of general Francisco Franco and his fascist army in Spain and wrote of his admiration for Adolf Hitler in Germany, with whom he also advocated appeasement until late in 1938, even after Hitler's invasion of Czechoslovakia. In his younger days, Churchill also opposed the vote being given to women or working class men. Famously, he was a virulent racist, who supported using poison gas on civilians, and he sent troops against striking British workers. During World War II, he was also a key architect of the manufactured Bengal famine, which killed between two and four million people. * If you value our work researching and promoting people's history like this, please consider supporting our work and access exclusive content and benefits at https://patreon.com/workingclasshistory https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/2197887470396391/?type=3

[carsonjonesfiance]

I am slightly curious how much the hesitancy of the historical community to label the holodomor a genocide comes from the dissonance of knowing that if the Holodomor is a genocide then it follows that the Great Hunger was a genocide and the 1943 Bengal famine was a genocide and both of those are uncomfortable things for Anglosphere historians to admit.

[ainescribe]

the irony of being indian and supporting israel is completely omitting british colonialism from your history and walking over the sacrifices of people who were labeled terrorists, who died to free us. we're a free people because of them. and supporting israel is pure disrespect to that.

what would bose say? gandhi say? nehru say? all these men were not perfect human beings. they had flaws. but they wanted us to be free. they were arrested, assassinated, silenced, humiliated as they rallied for freedom. india once stood for palestine. a lot of us still do, those who refuse to let people suffer, those who still hold their humanity close.

you call yourselves nationalists yet you forget the scars the west brought upon us. you forgot jallianwala bagh. you forgot the bengal famine. you forgot the artisans who lost their businesses, their hands and pieces of our culture. you forgot the farmers who lost their revenues, razing their crops and their source of income and food down to plant indigo just to dye british clothes. you forgot the women raped, the children murdered, the traditions lost, the cultures appropriated, the razing of queer and sexual identity to the ground. all of them. you have forgotten all of them.

in the end, the extremists in this country are bootlickers to white supremacy and islamaphobic rethoric. we're already mimicking the actions of our oppressors. we're already silencing the voices of minorities. we're already letting states burn and hate crimes run rampant as we begin a regime of fascism of our own.

we're still the west's dogs in the end.

we were never free.