The Great Bengal Famine of 1770
Crop failure and East India Company tax policy combine to kill millions in the province the Company had just conquered
Quick facts
- Region
- Bengal and Bihar
- Estimated deaths
- Contested; figures range from roughly 1 million to 10 million
- Ruling power
- East India Company (post-1765 diwani grant)
What happened
Failed rice harvests in 1768 and 1769, worsened by a smallpox epidemic and peasant migration, produced a catastrophic famine across Bengal and Bihar in 1769 and 1770, remembered in Bengali as Chhiattor-er Monnontor, the Famine of '76. Contemporary and later estimates of the dead range as high as ten million, roughly a third of the affected population, though modern historians treat the highest figures as uncertain given the poor demographic records of the time. The East India Company, which had held the right to collect Bengal's revenue since 1765, continued to press for tax payments through the crisis: British Library India Office records show land tax collection in the famine year of 1770-71 exceeded that of the pre-famine year of 1769-70, and administrators including Reza Khan faced later accusations of profiting from grain monopolies during the famine.
Why it matters
The Bengal famine of 1770 is the starkest early example of a pattern that would recur under British rule in India: a natural crop failure turned into mass death by administrative priorities that placed revenue collection ahead of relief.
How we know
The University of Exeter's Famine Tales project has catalogued and digitized British Library India Office Records documenting the famine, the 1770 grain monopoly, and the accusations of oppression brought against the Company's revenue officers, alongside Bengali and British literary and artistic responses to the disaster.
Sources
- Famine Tales from India and Britain, University of Exeter. Chhiattor-er Monnontor [The Bengal Famine of 1769-70] · Reputable sourcefaminetales.exeter.ac.uk · The domain "faminetales.exeter.ac.uk" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- Famine Tales from India and Britain, University of Exeter. Sources at the British Library · Reputable sourcefaminetales.exeter.ac.uk · The domain "faminetales.exeter.ac.uk" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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Related timelines
- Ancient India → · The famine that exposed the human cost of Company rule after Plassey