Thread by @MumukshuSavitri

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FDR didn't even help Indians during the Bengal Famine out of fear of antagonizing Churchill. In 1943, when the UNRRA was formed to provide relief to UN nations it was FDR’s US rep. who REFUSED to allow India to apply for food aid at Britain’s behest while millions starved .

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In 1943, a patriotic Indian activist, Jagjit J. Singh had sent a report on the Bengal Famine to Eleanor Roosevelt who showed it to her husband. FDR had commented that the newly formed UNRRA would be able to take up the matter to provide aid to starving Indians.

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But when India's case was presented to UNRRA, it was FDR's US rep. Dean Acheson who refused saying India was not eligible for aid. British representative Col. John J. Llewellin announced that India was NOT a victim of war so it’s case for food relief could NOT be discussed.

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This was an amazing injustice. India had supplied millions of soldiers & all of her resources to the Allied forces. Yet not only was India denied aid but $30 MILLION of India’s wartime earnings which could have saved its starving people were DONATED by Britain to the UNRRA.

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India had already been forced to export 3,60,000 Tons of wheat & rice to Britain in the early 1943 even as famine loomed, but when millions starved, Churchill ensured shiploads of Australian wheat never went to India, because Hindus were inconsequential & “bred like rabbits”

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Britiain provided a miniscule ration of 400 calories/day to famine victims, LESS than what inmates at Nazi camp Buchenwald were fed at the same time! Only 16% of the wheat India needed from Britain was sanctioned- not even enough to feed the Indian Army, forget starving victims

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FDR supporter, US journalist, I.F. Stone was sympathetic to Singh’s cause for India at the UNRRA. He revealed that there were 50 M tons of food available & that a few 100,000 tons could easily be sent as relief to India, but the US would not do it as it would embarrass Britain.

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US ships sailing to India carried military supplies for Britain, but when they tried to ship food for Indians, the British furiously objected. US forces suspected the materials were to attack Indians not Japanese. FDR’s representative asked him to intervene, but he did nothing.

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Meanwhile Britain had imported a stockpile of 18.5 MILLION tons - the largest in history, of 4M tons wheat, 1.4 M tons sugar, 1.6 M tons meat, 409,000 cattle, 325,000 tons fish, 131,000 tons rice, 206, 000 tons tea, 172,000 tons cocoa & 1.1 M gallons wine for its civilians.

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Britain harvested a bumper crop of 29M tons wheat in 1943-44 plus the 18.5 M stockpile was for 47.7M Britons - a population 14M less than that of entire Bengal. Distributed at 1/2 kg per day, just 360,000 tons of wheat & rice could have saved almost 2M Indians from starvation.

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American & Canadian traders complained that British demand was distorting the market. Australia & Canada's harvests were regarded as part of UK's strategic stockpile for postwar use - so none of it would be shipped to save the millions of irrelevant starving brown Indians.

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The huge amount of wheat stocks the UK wanted meant no relief to India. Any diversion of US food shipped to India would embarrass Britain, because it would reveal what the US suspected all along, that Britain was hoarding all the food stocks, far more than what it needed.

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In 1944 Churchill REFUSED any more food shipments to India claiming that reducing imports would harm Britain, even as signs of a 2nd famine emerged in India. Britain rejected India’s pleas, & DENIED India from appealing to UNRRA again, as India was part of the “British Empire”

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Forget pressuring Britain to give India freedom, FDR & allies denied Indians basic humanitarian food aid, as 5 million starved, despite India's immense contributions to allied efforts during WW2. They cared far more about pacifying a bigoted monster called Winston Churchill

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