Great Bengal famine of 1770

More than a century later, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s influential novel Anandamath, published in 1882, evoked the Great Bengal famine of 1770, contributing to its cultural memory and linking the tragedy to broader Bengali identity and anti‑colonial thought.

By 1773, as Bengal slowly recovered, Company officials recognized that economic revival required substantial return‑migration from adjacent territories such as Awadh. Efforts to repopulate and restore cultivation began, though recovery remained uneven.

In the aftermath of the famine, the East India Company consolidated its control by ending dual governance and assuming full civil administration in Bengal. This marked a turning point in colonial consolidation of power.

By the end of 1770, numerous villages lay deserted or overgrown, with abandoned settlements widespread especially in north and central Bengal and Bihar. This physical desolation reflected lasting demographic collapse and rural destabilization.

With the arrival of the 1770 monsoon, rains returned to Bengal. However, the rains brought disease to populations weakened by starvation. Many succumbed to epidemics like smallpox, malaria, and cholera, further increasing fatalities.

On July 12, 1770, officials reported that approximately 500 people were dying every day in Murshidabad alone, with conditions even worse in rural hinterlands. The scale of daily mortality underscored the famine’s severity.

By mid‑May 1770, famine conditions had erupted into mass starvation across Bengal. Reports described lakhs of people dying daily, widespread fires, and empty water tanks. Food trade collapsed, enhancing the crisis.

On February 28, 1770, the East India Company Council, citing continued revenue needs, raised tax collection despite widespread distress and failed harvests. This exacerbated the suffering of peasants already facing starvation.

By the end of 1769, rice prices in Bengal had doubled compared to 1768 levels. This rapid inflation intensified food insecurity among the poor, signaling the deepening economic crisis that preceded the famine’s worst phase.

On September 23, 1769, Council agents reported “great dearth and scarcity” in Murshidabad, triggering initial, limited relief actions such as emergency rice purchases for the army. This illustrated early official awareness but insufficient mitigation measures.

In early 1768, Bengal and Bihar experienced deficient monsoon rains, leading to partial crop failure. This initial environmental stress set the stage for the catastrophic famine that would strike the region in subsequent years.

On August 10, 1765, following the Battle of Buxar, the Mughal Emperor granted the East India Company the diwani—rights to collect revenue over Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa. This marked the beginning of dual governance, where the Company handled revenue while civil administration remained with the Nawab, laying the fiscal foundation that intensified vulnerability during the famine.