HUNGRY BENGAL

WAR, FAMINE, RIOTS AND THE END OF EMPIRE

01 October, 2015

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Janam Mukherjee

The years leading up to India’s independence and partition mark a tumultuous period in the history of Bengal. While the British attempted to save the empire from imminent collapse, for the majority of Indians the 1940s were years of acute scarcity, violent dislocation and enduring calamity. This book examines three intricately interconnected events that shaped the social, economic and political context of pre-Partition Bengal: the Second World War, the Bengal famine of 1943, and the Calcutta riots of 1946.

Harpercollins India, 344 pages, Rs 499

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