Amritsar and Bengal Famine
British colonial massacre and engineered hunger in India
British rule in India combined exemplary massacre with famine policies that starved millions. Amritsar's 1919 Jallianwala Bagh killings and the 1943 Bengal famine stand as twin instruments of imperial discipline.
Damage
Amritsar massacre and Bengal famine mark British India’s coercive and extractive extremes.
Lives lost
Amritsar hundreds to over a thousand; Bengal famine ~2–3 million
Record Points
- Troops under Dyer fired on an unarmed crowd at Jallianwala Bagh, killing hundreds and wounding many more.
- Martial law and public humiliations followed as collective punishment across Punjab.
- The 1943 Bengal famine killed an estimated two to three million under wartime rice denial and prioritization of military stocks.
- Churchill's cabinet records show resistance to diversion of food despite clear warnings.
- British memory still isolates Amritsar as a rogue officer incident and Bengal as wartime misfortune.
Perpetrator(s)
Victims
IndiaBengal