The Bengal Famine of 1770: Drought, Tax, and the Great Mortality

In this episode of The Hidden History of Bengal, Lucas and Luna explore the Bengal Famine of 1770—also known as the Great Famine or Chhiattorer Manvantar. Lucas traces the famine's origins to the disastrous policies of the British East India Company after they acquired the diwani of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa in 1765. He explains how the Company's revenue demands, enforced by officials like Harry Verelst and Richard Becher, stripped the peasantry of their grain reserves. Luna asks about the role of the monsoon failure, and Lucas clarifies that while drought triggered the crisis, Company policies turned scarcity into catastrophe. They discuss the infamous 'assessment of 1768' and the callous response of the Court of Directors. Lucas shares descriptions from contemporary witnesses like Warren Hastings and William Bolts, who reported fields of bones and villages abandoned. The episode also covers the aftermath: the Company's attempt to conceal the scale of death, the demographic impact (estimated 10 million dead), and how the famine destabilized the economy, leading to the Permanent Settlement in 1793. Luna reflects on the moral questions raised by colonial rule. The conversation ends with a poignant note on how the memory of the famine faded from official histories, only to resurface in Bengali folk memory and literature. #BengalFamine1770 #GreatFamine #ChhiattorerManvantar #EastIndiaCompany #BritishRaj #Diwani #WarrenHastings #HarryVerelst #RichardBecher #WilliamBolts #PermanentSettlement #Colonialism #BengalHistory #Famine #IndiaHistory #History #FexingoHistory #SouthAsia #PalaEmpire #SenaDynasty Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo