workingclasshistory:

On this day, 20 October 1877, this drawing was published in Illustrated London News depicting starving people awaiting famine relief in Bangalore, India. During the famine of 1873-4, there were few or even no deaths, as the British Governor, Richard Temple, organised a swift relief effort. However he was strongly criticised by British officials at the time for spending too much. So when the famine of 1876 struck, he would not repeat his earlier “mistake”. While Indians were starving, hundreds of thousands of tonnes of food were exported to England, and only meagre relief was provided. Around 5.5 million people died in what many historians describe as an act of genocide. https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/2113950245456781/?type=3