After Plassey: The Famine That Forged British India

In 1770, while the British East India Company was still learning to rule Bengal, a famine of unimaginable scale killed perhaps ten million people. This episode follows the famine's origins in the Company's catastrophic tax policies, Warren Hastings's failed relief efforts, and the political firestorm back in London that nearly brought down the Company itself. Lucas and Luna explore how the famine exposed the moral contradictions of colonial rule, sparked Edmund Burke's lifelong crusade against imperial corruption, and led to the first British government regulation of a private corporation. Along the way they meet the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II, the Nawab of Bengal Najm-ud-Daula, the great famine chronicler John Shore, and the artist James Rennell who mapped the disaster. This is the story of how exploitation, drought, and bureaucracy converged into a humanitarian catastrophe that reshaped the British Empire's relationship with India. #BengalFamine1770 #EastIndiaCompany #WarrenHastings #EdmundBurke #NajmUdDaula #ShahAlamII #JohnShore #JamesRennell #DiwaniGrant #Murshidabad #CompanyRule #ColonialFamine #BritishRaj #MughalDecline #RegulatingAct #History #FexingoHistory #Colonialism Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo