1,943
Bengal Famine
The Bengal Famine of 1943 caused catastrophic hunger and death across Bengal. Wartime disruption, rice-market inflation, transport strain, relief failure, and policy breakdown under British colonial administration intensified the crisis, devastating rural households, laboring families, and urban poor communities alike.
1,947
Partition and Eastern Bengal
In 1947, British India was divided into India and Pakistan, and Bengal itself was split into West Bengal and East Bengal. The chapter is not only about constitutional division: the delayed Radcliffe boundary, minority insecurity, refugee movement, and administrative rupture reshaped everyday life and set the stage for later struggles over language, autonomy, and state legitimacy in East Bengal.
