VIRTUAL   EXHIBITION   SECTIONS
0 Index, Introduction, Entrance Panel	1 History in the Making	2 Building India's Industries	3 The Land and the People	4 Dance and Temple Sculpture

Subsections of Section 1 (History in the Making)
1.1:   Independence Movement
1.2:   Famine, Riots & Refugees	Part A:   Section Text & "Famine" Panels Part B:   "Riots & Refugees" Panels
1.3:   Political Leaders & Others

Index to Section 1.2 Part A (this page): Famine Panels & Section Text Section 1.2 text Panel 4:   Famine, eastern India Panel 5:   Famine, southern India Part B (next page): Riots & Refugees Panels Panel 6:   Partition, refugees Panel 7:   Partition, riots

Section 1.2 text SECTION 1:   HISTORY IN THE MAKING 1.2   Famine, Riots and Refugees During the last years of World War II, the Japanese had occupied Burma (now Myanmar), which bordered India on the east. The needs of the war diverted whatever attention the British administration had paid to the wants of the Indian people. The country's trains, deployed to transport troops and war supplies, were unavailable to carry food from areas where it was in surplus to areas where it was needed. Stockpiles of grain were commandeered by the British in anticipation of the needs of the troops in the Eastern Front. Black marketeers, expecting large profits from the rising prices of the wartime economy, hoarded food, creating one of the most terrible man-made famines ever, in which millions died. In 1947, the British granted independence to their largest, most-prized colony, the jewel in the crown. But communal distrust and rivalry led to the partitioning of the land along religious lines, into secular India and Islamic Pakistan. Murderous riots broke out, followed by the mass migration of terrified refugees across the newly defined borders of India and the two wings of Pakistan. The impoverished economies of these new states did not make the task of rehabilitating these homeless millions easy. The populations of the overcrowded big cities, where the poor lived in conditions such as those shown in some of these photographs, multiplied several times within months. The refugees built shacks in parks and pavements, in any space they could find. In cities like Calcutta, many live on the streets even now. These famines, riots and the uprooting of millions from their homes had already darkened the dawn of India's freedom. Then came the culminating disaster: the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in October 1948 by a Hindu fanatic named Nathuram Godse.   - Sunil Janah All photographs, and text:   © Sunil Janah 1939-2000

 

Panel 4: Famine, eastern India, 1943-44 Top Row: Women lining up at Calcutta store that was selling grain, just before Bengal famine, 1943.   sf.024 Dog eating a corpse, Orissa, famine 1944.   sf.025 Second Row: Elderly woman in a village, Bengal famine, eastern India, 1943-44.   sf.026 Mother and child on a pavement in Calcutta, Bengal famine, 1943-44.   sf.027 Third Row: Text A Muslim family leaving their village near Chittagong--now in Bangladesh--during Bengal famine, 1943-44.   sf.028 Bottom Row: A field strewn with skeletons, Orissa, 1944. No resources were available to cremate the bodies.   sf.029 Orphans waiting for food at a famine-relief center, Orissa, 1944.   sf.030 Photographs © Sunil Janah

 

Panel 5: Famine, southern India, 1945 Top: Groups of women leaving their villages for the famine-relief centers in the town, Andhra Pradesh, southern India, 1945.   sf.031 Middle Row: Groups of men leaving their villages for the famine-relief centers, Andhra Pradesh, 1945.   sf.032 Woman with her grandchild and empty cooking pot, Andhra famine, 1945.   sf.033 Bottom Row: A famished mother in a crowd waiting for food, Andhra Pradesh, 1945.   sf.034 A woman by the roadside near a famine relief center, Andhra Pradesh.   sf.035 Photographs © Sunil Janah