Introduction

The Introduction provides the historical context for the Bengal famine of 1943. It focuses on correspondence among imperial officials regarding the famine and the Famine Inquiry Commission's Report on Bengal. These narratives blame the famine on natural disaster, war, exploitation by merchants, and incompetent local officials rather than imperial policy and have remained dominant in the global public imaginary. The introduction also situates the works examined in the book in relation to the disciplines of literary studies, art history, trauma theory, postcolonial studies, and economic history. Most of the texts have remained marginalized in academic disciplines and remain difficult to locate in comparison with imperial sources readily found in archives.