Military Institute of Science &

Technology
Department of Naval Architecture & Marine
Engineering

NAME-490

(Bangladesh Studies for Naval Architects)

Great Famine of ‘76
Presented by: Sakhawat Hossen(201624012)
What is Famine?
A Famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors
including war, inflation, crop failure, population imbalance, or
government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or
followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased
mortality.

3
Great Bengal famine of 1770

 The Great Bengal Famine of 1770 (Bengali: ৭৬-এর মন্বন্তর, Chhiattōrer monnōntór;
The Famine of '76) was a famine between 1769 and 1773 (1176 to 1180 in the
Bengali calendar) that affected the lower Gangetic plain of India from Bihar to the
Bengal region.
 The Bengali name "Chhiattōrer monnōntór" is derived from Bengali calendar year
1176 and the word for famine ("Chhiattōr"- "76"; "monnōntór"- "famine" in Bengali).

4
Background
 In the 17th century, the English East India Company had been given a grant of the town of
Calcutta by the Mughal Prince Shah Shuja. At this time the Company was effectively
another tributary power of the Mughal. During the following century, the company
obtained sole trading rights for the province and went on to become the dominant power
in Bengal.
 In 1757, at the Battle of Plassey, the British defeated the nawab Siraj Ud Daulah and
plundered the Bengali treasury. In 1764 their military control was reaffirmed at Buxar. The
subsequent treaty gained them the diwani, that is, taxation rights; the Company thereby
became the de facto ruler of Bengal.
 That time Nawab of Bengal were Najabat Ali Khan, Ashraf Ali Khan and Mubarak Ali Khan.
 The decade previous to the famine was noted for the looting raids conducted by the
Maratha bargis mostly from Nagpur. They looted whatever they could and laid waste the
rest. The looting were mainly in those areas which were later most hard-hit by the famine.

5
Where it occurred
 The famine occurred in the territory which was called Bengal, then ruled by the
British East India Company. This territory included modern West Bengal,
Bangladesh, and parts of Assam, Odisha, Bihar, and Jharkhand.

6
Why it occurred
 The famine is one of the many famines and famine-triggered epidemics that
devastated the Indian subcontinent during the 18th and 19th century.
 It is usually attributed to a combination of weather and the policies of the British
East India Company. The start of the famine has been attributed to a failed
monsoon in 1769 that caused widespread drought and two consecutive failed rice
crops. The poor infrastructure investments in pre-British period, devastation from
war, and exploitative tax revenue maximization policies of the British East India
Company after 1765 crippled the economic resources of the rural population.

7
Barbarities of
British East India Company
 As a trading body, the first remit of the company was to maximize its profits and with
taxation rights, the profits to be obtained from Bengal came from land tax as well as
trade tariffs.
 It has been suggested that the Company increased tax rates from 10 percent to up to
50 percent of the value of the agricultural produce, citing the pioneering work of
R.C. Dutt, but in reality he makes no such claim.
 In the first years of the rule of the British East India Company, the total land tax
income was doubled and most of this revenue flowed out of the country. As the
famine approached its height in April 1770, the Company announced that the land tax
for the following year was to be increased by a further 10 percent.

8
Barbarities of
British East India Company
 The historian William Dalrymple has called Robert Clive an "unstable sociopath" due
to these harmful policies and actions that resulted in famines and atrocities towards
local native Indians and peasants. Changes caused by Clive to the revenue system
and existing agricultural practices to maximize profits for the company partially led
to the famine of 1770.
 The British were not far behind in collecting revenue from the peasants. Before the
famine on 1768 the revenue was Tk 1,52,04,856 but after the famine on 1771 the
revenue still grown at Tk 1,57,26,576 although one third of people of the state was
died for famine.

9
Devastating Result of The
Famine
 As a result of the famine, large areas were depopulated and returned to jungle for
decades to come, as the survivors migrated in search of food. Many cultivated lands
were abandoned—much of Birbhum, for instance, returned to jungle and was
virtually impassable for decades afterwards.
 The famine is estimated to have caused the deaths of about 10 million people.
 Warren Hastings's 1772 report estimated that a third of the population in the
affected region starved to death
 The revenues of British East India Company dropped to £174,300 due to the famine.
Tax collection was carried out violently to make up for losses.

10
Picture of
Great Bengal
famine of ‘76

11