At the initial stage, the Bengal Governor John Herbert, was not willing to put the blame on the ministry. To him "politics were the root of all the difficulties". T.Rutherford succeeded Herbert. In his opinion situation worsened because of hoarding by dishonest grain traders and big cultivators. Those were mostly Hindus and were trying to discredit the Ministry owing to their hostile political feelings.
But the opposition parties were exposing the lapses of the provincial government.M.H.Ispahani, a friend of Surawardy and a leading Calcutta based Muslim Business magnet, was appointed the sole procuring agent. The famine enquiry commission noted that the firm of Ispahani was doing the wrong thing. Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee identified Ispahani and his company the main culprit.
This was noted here that Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee did a lot during this famine.
Famine in British India: Indian economy resulted in a decline in the standard of living.
While famines had ocurred in Indian sub-continent before British occupation , in many instances the consequences of mansoonal failure and resultant draught were addressed urgently by the indegenous rulers. Thus irrigation works , public works employment and food purchase and distribution were useful responses to such impending disasters.
The British brought an unsympathetic and ruthless economic agenda to India. Economic exploitation damaged the indegenous Indian economy so as to decline in the standard of living. The British disinclination to respond with urgency and vigour to food deficits resulted in the succession of about 2 dozen appalling famines during the British occupation of India.
These famines swept away tens of millions of people . One of the worst was that of 1770 that killed an estimated 10 millionpeople in Bengal ( one third of the population) and which was execrbatedby the rapaacityof the East India Company. Bengal suffered further famines in 1783, 1866,1873-74, 1892, 1897, and 1943-44.
