Famines in India During the British Colonial Period
Hüseyin GünarslanThis study examines the policies and consequent shortages of the British colonies in India. India is a country that began to get poorer from the day it became a British colony. As a result of the colonial policies of the British in India, the resources of the country were rapidly transferred to the West. Indians were also forced to live under heavy taxes. In India, an agricultural country, people were forced to cultivate products of industrial value, which could be exported by the British instead of traditional agricultural products. As a result of the destruction of India's social and economic structure, millions of people were unable to find food. The railways and irrigation canals that the British built for the development of India were actually the projects that they did to generate more income from the country. These projects were aimed at moving more products from India to the Britain and Europe. People who did not want to lose their land and to pay heavy taxes, produced the products that the British wanted. As a result of the drought triggered by the lack of monsoon rains, the public became unable to find anything to eat. Thus, millions of Indians lost their lives due to starvation and the resulting infectious diseases. The British gave the impression that they were helping the Indians, but in reality they did nothing. The people, who lost the ability to act together, experienced incredible suffering throughout the colonial period.
İngiliz Sömürge Dönemi’nde Hindistan’da Yaşanan Kıtlıklar
Hüseyin GünarslanBu çalışma İngilizlerin kolonileştirdikleri Hindistan´da uyguladıkları politikalar ve onun sonucunda meydana gelen kıtlıkları incelemektedir. Hindistan İngiliz kolonisi olduğu günden itibaren fakirleşmeye başlayan bir ülkedir. İngilizlerin Hindistan´da uyguladığı sömürge politikaları sonucu ülkenin kaynakları hızla Avrupa’ya aktarılmıştır. Ülke insanı da ağır vergiler altında yaşamaya mecbur edilmiştir. Bir tarım ülkesi olan Hindistan´da halk üretimini yaptığı geleneksel zirai ürünler yerine İngilizlerin ihracını yapabileceği sanayi değeri olan ürünler yetiştirmeye zorlanmıştır. Hindistan´ın sosyal ve ekonomik yapısının tahrip edilmesi sonucu milyonlarca insan yiyecek bulamaz hale gelmiştir. İngilizlerin Hindistan´ın gelişmesi adına inşa ettikleri demiryolları ve sulama kanalları da aslında onların ülkeden daha fazla gelir elde etmek için yaptıkları projelerdir. Bu projeler dolayısı ile Hindistan´dan daha fazla ürünün İngiltere´ye ve Avrupa’ya taşınması amaçlanmıştır. Topraklarını kaybetmek istemeyen halk ağır vergileri ödeyebilmek için tüm gücü ile İngilizlerin istediği ürünleri yetiştirmiştir. Neticede Muson yağmurlarının eksikliğinin tetiklediği kuraklıklar sonucu halk yiyecek bir şey bulamaz hale gelmiştir. Böylece açlıktan ve ortaya çıkan bulaşıcı hastalıklardan milyonlarca Hintli hayatlarını kaybetmiştir. İngilizler sözde yardım programları adı altında Hintlilere yardım edildiği izlenimi vermeye çabalamış hakikatte ise hiçbir şey yapmamışlardır. Bir araya gelerek beraber hareket edebilme yeteneğini kaybeden halk sömürge dönemi boyunca inanılmaz acılar yaşamıştır.
The British operations in India began in 1600 with the trading of the East India Company. The company started to trade with Shah Cihangir's permission in 1608. The British East India Company increased its influence in the country to deal with kings and princes on behalf of Britain. The company got bigger day by day and formed a private army of approximately 260 thousand people. As a result of the rapid growth of the British administration, the public hated the British. The British found an opportunity in this land because there was not a strong central Indian power, government. The British relied on the strength of their armies. Although the Indians sometimes rebelled against the British armies, they were easily suppressed. The most important reason behind the failure of the Indians was their inability to come together against their enemies.
With the weakening of the Mughal Empire, the balance of power in the country had changed rapidly. Many local Indian princes and kingdoms were fighting each other. These local powers were unaware of the external threat in their country. They were purged one by one by the British armies. The British had armies in Madras, Bombay and Bengal. There were salaried Indian soldiers under the command of British officers. Tens of thousands of soldiers were serving in the army of Bengal; whose hometown was also the Indian local kingdom of Avadh. With the occupation of this local kingdom by the British, dissatisfaction among the soldiers arose. The troubles were compounded by the selfish and disdainful behavior of the British officers. In addition, many Indian soldiers feared that the British would Christianize them by detaching them from their Hindu and Muslim faith. Indian soldiers revolted as a result of the combination of many factors. According to the Indian historian Javed Iqbal, the rebellion that started in 1857 was also the biggest revolt of the Indians against the British. For this reason, it has become one of the most studied topics in Indian history. The British mercilessly suppressed this revolt of the Indians, which turned into a struggle for independence. Millions of Muslims and Hindu Indians were slaughtered.
After the rebellion, the British parliament revoked the powers of the British East India Company. Thus, the British Crown directly ruled India from 1858 to 1947. With the start of the First World War, the British made their wartime laws permanent in order to govern India more easily. Protests of the Indians led to the Amritsar massacre in 1919, in which British soldiers killed hundreds of civilians. After this incident, Indians under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi entered into a full independence struggle. While more than 100 thousand people were imprisoned, hundreds of Muslims died in the events that took place in Peshawar in 1930. The Bengal famine occurred in 1943, and millions died as a result of British Prime Minister Churchill's continued delivery of food from India to Europe. Meanwhile, Indian soldiers were fighting alongside the British against the Japanese. After the war, 10 thousand Indian soldiers revolted with a desire for independence. When the British were forced to back down a year later, India split and 2 million people died.
While the wealth of this country helped and developed Britain, it impoverished this most developed country of the East. With a one-sided domination policy implemented by the British with the understanding of colonialism and thinking only of their own gains, famines arose one after another in the country, and the people of this rich country of the East, lost millions of lives. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate how millions of people lost their lives due to non-war causes in an Eastern country while developing a Western country. With this study, the policies implemented by the British in India during the colonial period and the shortages that occurred as a result of it were tried to be revealed. It is necessary to know the policies implemented by the British in this country, who directly intervened in the life of the Indian people for their own commercial gains. It is necessary to determine the conditions under which famines occurred in the country. Thus, it would be easier to understand why millions of people lost their lives during famines. The study was done by analyzing the information obtained by searching the resources related to the subject. In the first part of the three-part study, how the British exploited India's existing resources was emphasized. In the second chapter, the effects of railways and irrigation channels on famine were investigated. In the third and last part, the methods of the British to combat these famines and what they did for the people were tried to be revealed.
