HIDDEN HISTORIES
Kavita Puri is a journalist and broadcaster for BBC Radio 4. Her new series about the Bengal famine, Three Million, is now available to stream on BBC Sounds
I HAVE SPENT A LOT OF TIME OVER THE PAST year interviewing eyewitnesses and reading archival material relating to the 1943 Bengal famine. It has all been part of the research for my new BBC Radio 4 series Three Million, which I wrote about in last month’s issue of BBC History Magazine.
The famine – which took place in British India in the middle of the Second World War – was devastating, and through my investigations I told some of the stories of those who helped ensure that the crisis was reported. One of the people I got to know quite well when researching the series was a man named Ian Stephens (1903–84), who served as the editor of a British-owned newspaper named The Statesman, which was based in Calcutta (now Kolkata). His courageous editorial decisions meant the world learned about what was happening, and arguably saved many thousands of lives.
By the time the famine occurred, Stephens had been in India for 13 years. He was part of the colonial class, but also rather unconventional. Unlike most other Britons, he preferred to cycle to work shirtless on hot days, rather than take a driver. He was also addicted to yoga and had many close Indian friends.
But following the outbreak of the Second World War, things changed. As Stephens would explain in a radio interview in the 1970s, work on the newspaper became a lot more difficult: “The circumstances when I was editor were harsh. They were all wartime circumstances... all moral judgments were harder, rougher, quicker.”
In the summer of 1943, Stephens faced probably the biggest moral judgment of his career. The streets of Calcutta had been transformed: it was the height of the famine, and the city was full of people who had come in from the rural areas hoping for aid. They collapsed on the pavements and around dustbins, often dying silently. Yet under the colonial government’s emergency rules, he was not allowed to publish the word ‘famine’ for fear that the enemy could utilise it for propaganda purposes. Initially, he toed the line, but he soon found himself wrestling with his conscience: was his job to be patriotic, or to report what was really going on?
Eventually, Stephens decided to test the censors, and on 22 August 1943 he began publishing a series of photographs showing the extent of the famine in Calcutta. In one picture, a mother is seen lying on the floor cradling her children; behind her is an emaciated man. It’s unclear if they are alive or not.
The newspapers flew off the stand. The censors couldn’t really say much, as Stephens hadn’t technically broken any rules – the guidelines mentioned nothing about publishing photos. Stephens was emboldened, and the following week he published further images and a scathing editorial entitled “An All-India Disgrace”. By late September 1943, he was describing the unfolding events as a “sickening catastrophe” that was “manmade”. Crucially, he was also describing what was happening as a “famine”.
The news soon reached Delhi, and it wasn’t long before it was being reported in the international press. In the end, it became apparent the colonial authorities wouldn’t be able to keep a lid on the situation, and Britain’s parliament began debating “the India food situation” in early November 1943. It was no doubt one of the reasons India’s new viceroy, Field Marshal Archibald Wavell, went to visit the famine-stricken areas in person and initiate substantial relief efforts.
Upon Stephens’ death in 1984, the economist and philosopher Amartya Sen – who witnessed the famine as a little boy – said that the late newspaper editor had potentially saved hundreds of thousands of lives. In fact, while he may be largely forgotten in Britain, Stephens’ decision to publish the images is still remembered by people in India and Bangladesh today – a sign of the power an individual can have in changing the course of history.
This shows how one individual can change the course of history