Did Winston Churchill cause the Bengal Famine?

I am seriously concerned about the food situation in India….Last year we had a grievous famine in Bengal through which at least 700,000 people died. This year there is a good crop of rice, but we are faced with an acute shortage of wheat, aggravated by unprecedented storms….By cutting down military shipments and other means, I have been able to arrange for 350,000 tons of wheat to be shipped to India from Australia during the first nine months of 1944. This is the shortest haul. I cannot see how to do more.
I have had much hesitation in asking you to add to the great assistance you are giving us with shipping but a satisfactory situation in India is of such vital importance to the success of our joint plans against the Japanese that I am impelled to ask you to consider a special allocation of ships to carry wheat to India from Australia….We have the wheat (in Australia) but we lack the ships. I have resisted for some time the Viceroy’s request that I should ask you for your help, but… I am no longer justified in not asking for your help

- Winston S. Churchill to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, 29 April 1944. Prime Minister’s Personal Telegram T.996/4 (Churchill papers, 20/163.)

Does this really sound like the writing of a man who has no cares about the people affected? Reality there was a war on, food was in short supply, shipments liable to be blown up on high seas. 20 to 25 million died global of famine in ww2. Tragic but not down to one man.

Hinduism on Pre-Pubescent marriage for girls

SKANDA PURANA 4.40.34-35

34. If a virgin girl has her first menstruation in her father’s house without her marriage being solemnised, her father should be known as a *Bhrūṇahā* (‘destroyer of a foetus’) and that girl a Vṛṣalī (Śūdra (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/shudra#purana) girl). He who, out of delusion, marries her will be the husband of a Śūdra girl.

35. He is an *Apāṅkteya* (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/apankteya#purana) (not fit to sit in the same row as the others at the time of meals). The very conversation with him should be abandoned forever.

SKANDA PURANA 4.40.38-43

38. Women are enjoyed first by Suras (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/sura#purana), Soma (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/soma#purana), Gandharva (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/gandharva#purana) and Vahni (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/vahni#purana). Men enjoy them afterwards. They are not defiled by anything.

39. Soma gave women cleanliness; Pāvaka (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/pavaka#purana) (Fire-god (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/fire-god#hinduism)), purity above all. Gandharvas (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/gandharvas#hinduism) gave them auspicious speech. Therefore, women are always pure.

40. Agni (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/agni#purana) enjoys a virgin at the time of the menstruation, the Moon when the (pubic) hair begin to grow and Gandharvas when the breasts begin to develop. Hence a girl is to be given in marriage before this.

41. A girl with hairs visible (before marriage is consecrated) kills her children; she with the breasts in developed form destroys the family; she who has menstruated destroys the father. Hence one should avoid all (such girls).

42. Hence one who is desirous of the benefit of gift of a virgin should give her in marriage before Agni and others enjoy her. If not, the giver does not enjoy any benefit; one who receives her in marriage falls down (incurs sin).

43. One who gives away a girl not enjoyed by Soma and others, attains the benefit of the religious gift. Giving her who has been enjoyed by Devas, the donor does not attain heavenly pleasures.

SOURCE:

https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-skanda-purana/d/doc423778.html


Hinduism not only promotes pre-pubescent marriage, but also promises disgrace and sin if one doesn't marry his daughter before she starts menstruating.

a) Out of fear of the appearance of the menses let the father marry his daughter while she still runs about naked. For if she stays (in the house) after the age of puberty, sin falls on the father. (Vashishta Dharmasutra, 17.70.

b) A girl should be given in marriage before (she attains the age of) puberty. He who neglects it, commits sin. Some (declare, that a girl shall be given in marriage) before she wears clothes. (Gautama dharmasutra, 18.21-23)

c) Let him give his daughter, while she still goes naked, to a man who has not broken the vow of chastity and who possesses good qualities, or even to one destitute of good qualities; let him not keep (the maiden) in (his house) after she has reached the age of puberty. He who does not give away a marriageable daughter during three years doubtlessly contracts a guilt equal to (that of) destroying an embryo. Such will be the case if anybody asks her in marriage, and also if nobody demands her. Manu has declared that at each appearance of the menses (the father incurs the guilt of) a mortal sin. (Baudhyana Dharamsutra, 4.1.11-13)

This one is interesting in the liberty it gives to men:

A damsel whose menses begin to appear (while she is living) at her father's house, before she has been betrothed to a man, has to be considered as a degraded woman: by taking her (without the consent of her kinsmen) a man commits no wrong. (41) (Vishnu Smriti, 24. 41. {One commentator Nanda says that this rule was made for lower caste women. Though later on, the author who quoted Nanda says that outcasting young unwedded girl has become/is in vogue among Brahmanical families too.}

"The purpose of marraige, he (a hindu) declares, quoting his sacred writs in proof, is to beget sons - as many sons as possible, beginning as soon as possible, of a wife as young as possible". - quoted from Mother India, chapter 4.

Srila prabhupada says: Practically, I'll say, in our childhood age, my sisters were married between nine to twelve years. My eldest sister was married when she was nine years old, before my birth. She is the eldest. And my second sister was married at the age of twelve, twelve years. And my third sister was married at the age of (indistinct) years. So by the (indistinct) years, the marriage must be finished. That was the duty of the father. I remember, because my second sister was going twelve years, my mother said to my father that "I shall go to the river and commit suicide. The daughter is not married." Source: http://www.prabhupada.org.uk/articles1/48_53/48.htm

Rawat was a monster whose death is less unfortunate than his life.

 ****  Rawat was a monster whose death is less unfortunate than his life. *****

India's Chief of Defense General Bipin Rawat died today in a helicopter crash in southern India. His wife & eleven other Indian military personnel were also killed. Condolences for Rawat are pouring in from governments around the world, including the US, Russia, Pakistan. They can stuff all those condolences where the sun don't shine. Rawat was a monster whose death is less unfortunate than his life. The only truly unfortunate thing is that he died before facing an international tribunal for the unspeakable crimes he committed against the people of Kashmir & insurgent peoples in India. We would no more offer condolences for him than we would for Hitler, Stalin, or when Kissinger croaks.

He was the chief architect of the daily military operations (Cordon & Search Operations) with bazookas & high-power rifles in residential neighborhoods in Kashmir where homes are vandalized & razed, residents made homeless, livestock killed, unarmed protesters injured by pellet munitions, & young men executed & framed as terrorists. What's to commiserate about his death when Kashmiris have suffered so much without mercy at his hands? He lived by the bazooka, he got 'hoisted by his own petard'. That's justice short of an international tribunal for war crimes.

In its statement of condolences, the US Embassy in India gave away some revealing information about the US relationship & endorsement of Indian military brutalities. They said Rawat spearheaded a historic period of transformation in the Indian military & was a strong friend & partner of the US, overseeing a major expansion of India's military cooperation with the US. They report that in September he spent five days touring military facilities in the US to 'enhance' that cooperation. Now we know for sure that the US has collusion & some serious culpability for the colonial occupation of Kashmir.

May Bipin Rawat rot in the lowest bowels of hell.

- Mary Scully(US based human rights lawyer)