By Obulose Chidiebere N.
For Family Writers Press
It is really shamefully disappointing to note the barrage of "celebrated" British atrocities committed variously against humanity with absolutely no commensurate reparations paid to survivors of such henious crimes nor the acclaimed world power made to show remorse for it's barbarism. The British crimes and atrocious treatments which are mentioned from time to time, fall on deaf ears as it goes in a saying that "Great thieves punish little ones". Mark Twain also in his statement said that "A crime perpetrated in thousand centuries ceases to be a crime, and becomes a virtue". This has inadvertently become law of custom and custom supersedes all other forms of law.
Just as Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the ebullient and highly enlightened leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) worldwide stated, "Britain has never helped any Indigenous Christian Nation to regain her freedom". They only hunt the Indigenous Peoples for pleasure with starvation and every other form of dehumanisation ever known in human history. In all human historical records, Britain would be adjudged the greatest war criminal that had ever existed in the entire world. Starvation was a very potent tool in British colonial projects. This is yet being employed as a weapon till date.
Over half of Yemenis population, 28 million people were said to be short of food. All this while, Britain's counsel to her junior puppeted oppressor and partner - the Saudis in that region has been where their airstrikes should hit. It comes as a little surprise therefore that the Agricultural Industry in Yemen is being deliberately targeted for bombardment.
It suffices here therefore, to outline the British long history of starvation policy of death against cross sections of people all in the name of maintaining an empire, viz:
* Ireland:
The great famine in Ireland began as a natural catastrophe of extraordinary magnitude but its effects were severely worsened by the actions and inactions of the Whig government which was headed by Lord John Russell in the crucial years ranging in between 1845 - 1852. It was purely man made and an instrument of war and conquest. Over a million Irish citizens were killed by starvation while the British rule in that country held sway. A million and a half more of the Irish people departed from their country amongst whom, many left on "coffin ships". During "Black 47", the worst year of the so-called famine, almost 4,000 vessels left Ireland shores carrying food to the ports of Bristol, Glasgow, Liverpool and London to feed English people. If we take butter alone, well over 800,000 gallons were exported from Ireland at gunpoint - the English could not survive without this commodity while the Irish citizens were systematically being exterminated through the instrumentality of well orchestrated starvation policy of the British. And Prior to this planned genocide, the Irish population stood at over 8million. 150 years later, the population has refused to peak to the initial figure.
* India:
Mass starvation drive was articulated against this nation and it was really a regular feature perfected and carried out against the people by the British, whose rule was in place there. The last "famine" that was inflicted on Indians was in the year 1943, when over 4million people perished in Bengal. The British Army took millions of tons of rice from starving Indians away. Even when other sympathetic nations of the world were trying to send aid materials to the people of Bengal, India, Winston Churchill, the then British Prime Minister tacitly refused to allow the offers into India. This is what Winston Churchill had to say about India then:, "I hate Indians. They are beastly people with a beastly religion. The famine was their own fault for breeding like rabbits".
Major famines that took place under the despotic British rule across the world are as follows:
* The Great Bengal Famine (1769-1770) - over 10 million deaths were recorded. It wiped out one third of the population of Bengal, India. John Fiske in his book titled "The Unseen World", stated that the famine between 1769 and 1977 in Bengal was far deadlier than the Black Plague that terrorised Europe in the 14th century. Plague that Madras City and surrounding areas (1782-1783) and Chalisa famines (1783-1784) - total deaths for both accounts recorded well over 11 million.
Doji Bara Famine (1791-1792) - over 11 million deaths were recorded.
Agra Famine
(1837-1838) - close to 1 million deaths were recorded.
Upper Doab Famine
(1860-1861) - 2 million deaths were recorded.
Orissa (Odisha) Famine
(1866) - over 1 million deaths were recorded.
Rajputana Famine
(1868-1870) - over 1.5 million deaths were recorded.
Bihar Famine
(1873-1874) - relief efforts for this famine were deemed "excessive" and so it was decided that future relief be "thrift".
Great Famine
(1876-1878) - 5.5+ million deaths were recorded.
Ganjam/Orissa/Bihar
(1888-1889) - Hundreds of deaths were recorded.
Indian Famine
(1896-1897) - millions of deaths were recorded.
Indian Famine
(1899-1900) - 1+ million deaths were recorded.
Bombay Presidency Famine (1905-1906) - hundreds of thousands of deaths were recorded.
Bengal Famine
(1943-1944) - over 4+ million deaths were recorded.
The British government ran what they termed "relief works" during some of the famines. Indians were worked to death even in their own God given domain. During the Bihar famine experience, it was declared that the relief given to the starved was too generous and thus it was decided that such must be thrifted in future.
Lord Salisbury was convinced then by senior civil servants that it was "a mistake to spend so much money to save a lot of black fellows". A famine relief coin was given out during the Great Famine of 1876-1888, in which over 5.5 million people died. One of the cruel methods the British devised for the starving Indians who earnestly desired relief aids, was the "distance test". They were made to walk long distances of over 10 miles to and fro as relief packages. Less food was handed out to them at slave camps than what transpired at Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald.
The annual death rate in the year 1877 was 94%. Britain's imperial project in India, it's aims and methods were not to prevent famines, but to engineer them ostensibly in furtherance of their own selfish interests even at the price of death of the oppressed.
........To be continued......
Edited by Peter Oshagwu
For Family Writers Press