Summary of [[https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/4/1/churchills-policies-to-blame-for-1943-bengal-famine-study][Churchill’s policies to blame for 1943 Bengal famine: Study | News | Al Jazeera]] A study on the history of droughts in India found that the Bengal famine of 1943 was not entirely due to soil moisture deficit or crop failures. In fact, the region received above average rainfall during the 1943 monsoon. Causes for the food shortage might be the war, refugees from Myanmar and Burma, and the wartime grain import restrictions of Churchill. Amartya Sen pointed this out in 1981, and Tharoor recently in his book Inglorious Empire. Churchill had an animus against Indians, blamed the famine on Indians "breeding like rabbits," and asked why Gandhi was still alive. While British policy was the underlying cause, Madhushree Mukherjee thinks crop shortage might also be a factor. Famine deaths have been substantially eliminated since independence despite huge population growth.