After you've heard a dramatic portrayal of India's famine on the Pacific Story, keep tuned to 660 for NBC's Midnight News summary, brought to you each evening at 12 over WEAF, NBC in New York. The National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated stations present The Pacific Story. This is the story of the Pacific, the drama of the millions of people who live around this great sea, where the United States is now committed to a long-term policy of keeping the peace. This is the background story of the events in the Pacific and their meaning to us and to the generations to come. Once Ab própria wenn in India. Not a cloud in the sky. No. Not a breath of wind. And the earth is fevered. Perhaps tonight the wind will come and bring the clouds. No. It is too late. The monsoons come tonight or tomorrow. The sea is dead in the ground. The sky is clear and blue. They must come. It is time to suffer and die. The first warning came in September 1945. Millions of Indians stood on their seared soil, shaded their eyes from the sun, and looked to the southwest. The monsoons were late. The monsoons would blow in off the sea and bring water-filled clouds. This meant the rains would fail, the crops would fail, and the people would suffer and die. Today a population almost equal to that of the United States faces famine in India. Famine is an old story in India. A very old story. It's been going on for thousands of years. This is an historian. In the famine of 1770, for example, a third of the population of the province of Bengal died. And how many was that? Oh, roughly 10 million persons. 10 million deaths in one famine. Yes. There is a widespread famine in India about every 12 years or so. And then several times a century, there are even more serious ones. In the famine of 1876, for example, five million persons died. Around the turn of the century, about one million more died. Dying from hunger is an old story in India. Monsoon failures mean death. Yet, year in and year out, enough rain falls in India to secure a good harvest. Ah, we will have more than enough rain this year, and it is coming just at the right time. Look at it come down. The thirsty soil drinks up the water, and under the tropical sun, the seeds swell with life and burst out of the ground. But at the same time, farmers in other sections of India look up from their parched land into the blue sky. Not a breath of air stirs. Rain is falling in the other provinces. They will have crops. But now the price will be high. Yes. And with no work, how can we buy? This is another reason Indians starve. But there are a hundred reasons. India is always near the danger line of hunger. Most Indians live their entire lives in dangerous poverty. I have never had enough to eat. Never. Between 80 and 100 million Indians have never had a satisfying meal. They live out their lives hungry. And because they live so close to the edge of hunger, any one thing can push them below the danger line. Floods, monsoon failures, epidemics, war. But there are still deeper causes for India's hunger. These are as deep as the soul of India. For all its riches, India is a poor land. Its people are poor. They are farmers. They depend on their crops. We have hardly enough to live on day by day. They live from hand to mouth. The monsoon has failed. We will starve. India to begin with is poor. Its people are tied to the soil. When for any reason the crops fail, the people starve. India has a population of nearly 400 million. That's three times the population of the United States. Under present conditions, the land can support only about one half the people of India on any satisfactory basis. There are more than 400 Indians for every square mile of land under cultivation. And at the present rate of increase in population day by day, there are more and more mouths to feed. Yes. Here, look at this report. Figure. Sum. Well, tell our radio audience. The population of India is increasing at the rate of five million a year. Five million. Let me see that report. Yes, right there. In the last 10 years, India's population has increased 50 million. 50 million. Well, that's more than... More than the population of England itself. Yes. We estimate that by 1960, India's population will have increased at the rate of 12 million a year. 400 million people. The land yielding under best conditions, only enough to feed about half that number. And the population increasing by millions each year. This is the mass situation. Along with this, there is the matter of the individual. Look at the green fields. This year we will have plenty. You ought to put some away for the bad times. The bad times? You don't get the rain you got this year. We will get along. Wouldn't it be better if you planned for the years ahead? How can we? Can't you lay by enough to tide you over? The bunyas take everything we can lay by and at last, they take our land. The bunyas? Yes. When we do not have enough money to pay the government the revenue on the land, we must borrow from the bunya. I see. We eat when we can. When there is no food, we must go and find some. The Indian has learned to expect nothing. For years, he has been unable to lay by enough to feed him through the bad years and pay revenue to the government. He borrows money at an exorbitant interest. The bunyas, for security, take a mortgage on his land. The interest rate compounds until the farmer is paying in some cases 100% interest. What can we do? Perhaps if you were a little more thrifty. It is hopeless. The moneylenders grow fat. The farmers grow poorer. And when the famine comes, those who do not die outright from starvation die of disease. Even under best conditions, more than 100 million Indians suffer from malnutrition. This is a doctor. These millions are so undernourished all their lives that they are unable to make much of an effort to survive. When famine comes, disease comes. Cholera, dysentery, malaria, influenza, pneumonia, and death comes as a blessing. The doctor bends over a stricken patient. This man has malaria. Can you do anything for him, doctor? He has nothing to fight with. He has been undernourished all his life. But couldn't you? Beyond medicine or anything else. So famine comes and finds the masses with nothing, finds them hungry, finds them resigned to suffering, finds them hopeless. The oppression of the ages is upon them, finds them ready to die. We must have more industries. This is one Indian view. If you have more industries, that means that some of the people now working on farms will have to work in factories. Too many are now working on farms. Yes, more than 80 percent. If fewer could produce enough for all the people, then the others could do other work. If it can be done. Russia did it. But Russia is a different country. To begin with, India does not have the key resources. She lacks coal and oil and other basic raw materials. Also, after the revolution, the people of Russia had a higher standard of living than the people of India. So the Russians were able to cut down on the consumption of the people and throw all the resources saved in this way into building up their industry. In India, it's not possible to cut down on the consumption of the people. They are always on the borderline of hunger. And second, it takes a strong and vigorous government to do what Russia did. After India's years of hunger and disease, there is a great question if she could do it. So, day by day, with the increasing population, more and more Indians are dependent upon the land. Year by year, measures are taken to reduce the danger of famine or to reduce its terror when it strikes. Railroads will help meet the crisis in time of famine, taking food to stricken areas. But we have only 25,000 miles of railroads. We need more. The canals help us. The water they bring helps us irrigate and helps us grow our crops. When the drought is too great, then they cannot help us if we only had more reservoirs. We are going away. I do not know where we are going. But where they are taking us, there will not be so many people. And they say the soil is good and there is water for the crops. Measures to help, but the specter of famine remains. The specter rose out of Burma in 1942. Spearheaded by a merciless bombing by Japanese planes, strong forces of Japanese troops are now smashing into Burma. They have already been beyond Burma. Japanese ground forces driving into Burma are swarming over the rice country which supplies 1,500,000 tons of rice each year to India. Desperate efforts are being made. Burma has fallen. Allied troops have been driven out. The great resources of rice have been captured by the Japanese. The power of the Japanese is growing. A damaging blow has been dealt to India in the fall of Burma. Cut off from the 1,500,000 tons of Burmese rice, India now faces a grave shortage of food. Fear is rising. Listen to me. Listen. We must not let the disaster in Burma throw us into a panic. Strong forces have been sent to the frontier of Burma. The province of Bengal here grows more rice than any other province in all of India. But not enough to feed the people of Bengal. No, not even in good times. That is why we have come to you today. We must grow more food. The government of India has launched a Grow More Food campaign and will back every one of us. We will start at once every one of us to increase the production of food. Alarms spread all along the East Coast from Madras to Calcutta and throughout the province of Bengal. The Japanese had struck the first blows against India from the sea. Perhaps they would not strike from Burma into India at all, but would make amphibious landings. The threat of invasion grew. Oh, I said those boats over there are fire too. But if you burn up all the boats. They are greater danger to them, good. If the Japanese should get possession of them. But how will those who work on the land get to their work if all the boats are burned? It is their only way. That whole bunch over there too set fire to all of them. The Japanese are not here yet. We've got to stop them from landing if we can. But how are we going to move the rice hill and with no boats? We've moved all the rice hill and that we can move. Hurry over there. There is no time to lose. We won't leave one boat for the Japanese. When it was done, the Indians stood by and looked with hollow eyes. The boats were burned to the water line. Only smoking, smoldering hulks remained. How can we work on our land now with no boats to take us there? We cannot. We cannot. We cannot. The land that had yielded food was thrown out of cultivation. Much of the rice had been moved inland. But more articulate Indians asked questions. Why is Bengal foodstuff being exported? For years, Bengal rice and other foodstuffs had been exported. Famine was looming. Still, no order was issued by the central government to stop the export. Every pound of rice exported is a pound taken out of the mouths of the people. Why is it not stopped? The exports went on. The reserves dwindled. By midsummer, hunger was haunting the land. Those who could still work their farms stood on their parched soil, shaded their eyes, and looked into the sky. It is dark. We will get rain. Those no longer on the land started the trek to the cities to find food. Look at the sky. Yes. Storms are coming. Oh, the wind, the dust. It is a tornado. We must find shelter. We must. Lie down in the ditch. Lie down or it will blow us away. It's going to rain. We will have to get out of this ditch. No, no. We cannot. It will blow us like a sliver across the earth. The rain. The rain. The rain. The rain. The rain. The rain. The rain. Bengal Lake Wiberee. Disaster had come. Air raids and droughts and floods had come. The people were tied to the land and the land was devastated. In the 30 years past, the population of Bengal had increased 50 percent and the area of land under cultivation had increased less than 1 percent. And now much of this land lay devastated and now bickering among the native politicians came and corruption came and famine came. The government of India moved into the crisis. The rice crop of Bengal has been cut from 9 million to 7 million tons of rice by the cyclone and tidal wave. That's a cut of nearly 25 percent. Yes. And we have not only to feed the people and the thousands of refugees from Burma, but also the military forces now here as well as those overseas. I ask again, why is rice still being exported when it is so badly needed here? We have commitment. But the people. The government of India will set up a department of food. It will be the responsibility of this department to take all possible measures for the best management of the food situation. The first food conference was held in December 1943. Actually, India has more grain this year than last year or the year before. More than 53 million tons. I say we should share the food. But that would be to admit that there is a surplus. We have a surplus. Let us use it. Under the circumstances, that would be unwise. I say that we should establish price control and that the food that we have should be rationed. No, no, no. Rationing would never work. No, neither would price control. Price control would fail. I recommend the removal of price control from wheat. So the price control on wheat was removed and neither price control nor rationing went into effect. Prices shot up. How can we live? How can we eat? The price of wheat has gone up two and one half times. Must we die when there is grain? A second food conference was called in February 1943. I tell you that salvation is coming. And with it, disease that may also take us who stand here in this room. The talks broke down. Food hoarding began. The small farmer would not bring his surplus rice to market. He knew what it meant to starve. And the merchant would not sell the supplies he had. He wanted to wait for higher prices. Rice has gone up from two cents a pound to 16 cents a pound. Help us, please. Please. The government of India announced a plan. All provinces with the surplus will send food to the provinces in need. All provinces agreed to the plan. But when it came to helping starving Bengal, some of the provinces with surpluses delivered nothing. By May 1943, the pinch was beginning to tell. The government of India made another decision. Effective immediately, there will be free trade in the Bengal and the other eastern provinces. This helped, but not enough. Why is Bengal still exporting foodstuffs? We are starving. Starving time had come. People were beginning to die in the streets. Food. Food. Please. Food. The beggars and the untouchables wandered the streets, rubbing their swollen bellies and extending their skinny arms to all who passed. When they could walk no more, they sat down on the sidewalks. Food. Please. Food. Good heavens. Can't anything be done for these people? There is no food. There must be food in places like Fur Poes and the American Kitchen and the Gold Dragon. There is. Would you think they'd get together and mob the restaurants? No. Don't they even try to break into the warehouses? No. Look at them huddle together there on the sidewalk. All they can do is moan. Several of those are probably dead. Good heavens. That woman. See? She is keeping watch over her husband. He is probably dead. Well, what do they do then? They just can't... Oh, here comes the truck. All right. Hold on. All right. All right. Go ahead. All right. Go ahead. All right. Go ahead. All right. Go ahead. Go ahead. The trucks do not come around often enough to keep the streets clear of all the dead. Come. This cannot be. It is as old as India. Look. That dog. He is after the one in that group that has died. Just ahead there. A dog after the body of a human? Starving time is feasting time for the dogs of Calcutta. The starving from the country around poured into the streets of Calcutta. They fought for garbage until the garbage cans were padlocked. When they could talk no more, they patted their bellies and begged for food with their eyes. Cattle wanted the streets and carefully stepped over the prostrate bodies. But no man ate the cattle. Death came to Calcutta. In July 1943, an announcement was made in New Delhi. In view of the gravity of the rise position in India, the central government finds it impossible to undertake until further notice, further exports of rice from India. A third food conference was held. I'll tell you what's at the bottom of this crisis. Free trade. We should never have gone on free trade. I say it should be abolished at once. So free trade in Bengal and in other eastern provinces was abolished. But the situation grew worse. Those with enough food walked by the dying without so much as a glance. This will carry us over this food. If more trainloads of food were brought in, what more rice will not come in? Will not? The provinces that sent this food have become suspicious of how it is being used here in Bengal. On Chowringi Road there was food and at Furpos and at the American Kitchen and at the Golden Dragon. But at the famine and relief station, the lines grew longer and the gutters were cluttered with dead. All right, take hold of him. Got him. All right. Up, up. Ready? A fourth food conference was held. Those who can raise, those who raise food must be induced to bring it to market and we must establish price control over food grains. Our only hope is control of the price of foodstuff. A million and a half Indians had died. War had come. And droughts had come. And a tornado and a cloud burst and a tidal wave had come. Famine came with these. But disaster came with the breakdown of responsibility and with the inflation that followed. Famine is an old story in India. So the historians say. It's been going on for thousands of years. It's three years since that last famine in Bengal. Today, famine is again facing the people of Bengal. In 1943, the government has worked out some significant measures. Yes. Yes. First, a basic food plan for the entire country. Second, government procurement. Third, price control. And fourth, rationing. So rationing and price control had to be established after all. Yes. Thanks to these measures, India has struggled through with less than half the imports she should have had the last two years. But now the barrel has been scraped dry. And the other things, the things that have happened a hundred times over, have happened again. Drought has scourged the land. Perhaps tonight the wind will come and bring the clouds. The seed is dead in the ground and the sky is clear. The crops have died in most parts of India. Tornado! Tornado! Run for shelter and lie down! Run! Run! In the wake of the cyclone, a tidal wave today hit Madras. A massive wave roared up out of the sea and swept over the area already suffering from the cyclone. The death toll is high. A famine even greater than the famine of 1943 now faces India. In the province of Madras, the shortage will be about 25% by May 1st. The shortage in Bengal in 1943 was 5%. The Government of India has appealed to Britain for one million tons of rice and half a million tons of wheat. The British Food Mission has placed India's case before the Combined Food Board in Washington. But India may not get the food, she asks. Some Indians see a relationship between the recent visit of the Crips Mission to India and the impending famine. It is nothing but a smokescreen to perpetuate British domination of India without regard to the disaster that faces us. But to the penniless Indian, there is only one meaning to what has happened. It is time to suffer and die. You have been listening to the Pacific Story presented by the National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated independent stations to clarify events in the Pacific and to make understandable the cross-currents of life in the Pacific Basin. For a reprint of this Pacific Story program, send ten cents in stamps or coin to University of California Press, Berkeley, California. May I repeat? For a reprint of this Pacific Story program, send ten cents in stamps or coin to University of California Press, Berkeley, California. The Pacific Story is written and directed by Arnold Marquis. The original musical score was composed and conducted by Thomas Paluso. Your narrator, Gaine Whitman. Programs in this series of particular interest to service men and women are broadcast overseas through the worldwide facilities of the Armed Forces Radio Service.
