<description>&lt;p&gt;Kavita Puri goes to India to meet some of the last survivors of the 1943 Bengal famine. She looks for traces of how war and famine impacted Kolkata and then travels from the city along the road to where the story of famine begins.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kavita goes deep into the countryside and the jungle in West Bengal to find people who lived through that devastating time more than 80 years ago. These are voices that are almost never recorded and have never been broadcast before. For the past year and a half Kavita has been asking why there is no memorial to the three million people who died. But then in the Bengal jungle she finally finds it – it’s not what she expected.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Presenter : Kavita Puri
Series Producer: Ant Adeane
Editor: Emma Rippon
Sound design and mix: Eloise Whitmore
Production Coordinator: Brenda Brown&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;With thanks to Manoshi Barua for her translation work and to her, Bhasker Patel, Moazzem Hossain and Jesmin Ahmed for voicing up the Bengali-language interviews.&lt;/p&gt;</description>

Kavita meets some of the last survivors of the 1943 Bengal famine.

Kavita Puri goes to India to meet some of the last survivors of the 1943 Bengal famine. She looks for traces of how war and famine impacted Kolkata and then travels from the city along the road to where the story of famine begins.Kavita goes deep into the countryside and the jungle in West Bengal to find people who lived through that devastating time more than 80 years ago. These are voices that are almost never recorded and have never been broadcast before. For the past year and a half Kavita has been asking why there is no memorial to the three million people who died. But then in the Bengal jungle she finally finds it – it’s not what she expected.Presenter : Kavita Puri
Series Producer: Ant Adeane
Editor: Emma Rippon
Sound design and mix: Eloise Whitmore
Production Coordinator: Brenda BrownWith thanks to Manoshi Barua for her translation work and to her, Bhasker Patel, Moazzem Hossain and Jesmin Ahmed for voicing up the Bengali-language interviews.

7. Road to the Past

<description>&lt;p&gt;80 years ago at least 3 million Indians, who were British subjects, died in the Bengal famine. But today different generations in Britain are coming to terms with this difficult past.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kavita meets the granddaughter of a senior colonial figure, who is only just learning about her grandfather's role in the famine. Initially she feels shame, but discoveries in her family archive change her perspective. What will she do with this new understanding of her family's history? A 97 year-old British man makes a surprising revelation about his role in the Bengal famine. And three generations on, British Bengalis mark the famine in Britain, in an unexpected way.&lt;/p&gt;</description>

How the legacy of the Bengal famine of 1943 lives on in Britain today.

80 years ago at least 3 million Indians, who were British subjects, died in the Bengal famine. But today different generations in Britain are coming to terms with this difficult past.Kavita meets the granddaughter of a senior colonial figure, who is only just learning about her grandfather's role in the famine. Initially she feels shame, but discoveries in her family archive change her perspective. What will she do with this new understanding of her family's history? A 97 year-old British man makes a surprising revelation about his role in the Bengal famine. And three generations on, British Bengalis mark the famine in Britain, in an unexpected way.

6. Silk Scarves

<description>&lt;p&gt;The Bengal Famine, particularly the experiences of people in the rural areas who suffered the most, is not well remembered today. There is no memorial, museum, or plaque to the victims or survivors anywhere in the world.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;One man has made it his life’s work to record their testimonies with paper and pen. Kavita hears from him - and tries to understand more about why the three million people who perished aren’t better remembered or memorialised in India, Bangladesh and Britain.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Presenter Kavita Puri
Series Producer: Ant Adeane
Editor: Emma Rippon
Sound design and mix: Eloise Whitmore
Production Coordinators: Maria Ogundele and Sabine Schereck
Original music: Felix Taylor&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;With thanks to Dr Janam Mukherjee, Professor Joya Chatterji and Dr Diya Gupta.&lt;/p&gt;</description>

Three million people died - but why are they not better remembered?

The Bengal Famine, particularly the experiences of people in the rural areas who suffered the most, is not well remembered today. There is no memorial, museum, or plaque to the victims or survivors anywhere in the world.One man has made it his life’s work to record their testimonies with paper and pen. Kavita hears from him - and tries to understand more about why the three million people who perished aren’t better remembered or memorialised in India, Bangladesh and Britain.Presenter Kavita Puri
Series Producer: Ant Adeane
Editor: Emma Rippon
Sound design and mix: Eloise Whitmore
Production Coordinators: Maria Ogundele and Sabine Schereck
Original music: Felix TaylorWith thanks to Dr Janam Mukherjee, Professor Joya Chatterji and Dr Diya Gupta.

5. Ghosts

<description>&lt;p&gt;Kavita discovers a set of cassette tapes containing rare interviews with Indian civil servants who were on the ground across Bengal during the famine, shedding new light on colonial responsibility. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And as the need for relief in Bengal becomes ever greater, more pressure is put on the British government from India’s new Viceroy. He asks for more food imports. Could the War Cabinet and Prime Minister Winston Churchill have done more to help alleviate the famine in the middle of the war? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Presenter Kavita Puri
Series Producer: Ant Adeane
Editor: Emma Rippon
Sound design and mix: Eloise Whitmore
Production Coordinators: Maria Ogundele and Sabine Schereck
Original music: Felix Taylor&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;With thanks to Dr Janam Mukherjee and Professor Joya Chatterji&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Interviews conducted by Lance Brennan courtesy of University of Cambridge&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Interviews with GS Khosla courtesy of University of Cambridge&lt;/p&gt;</description>

The discovery of cassette tapes throw new light on colonial responsibility.

Kavita discovers a set of cassette tapes containing rare interviews with Indian civil servants who were on the ground across Bengal during the famine, shedding new light on colonial responsibility. And as the need for relief in Bengal becomes ever greater, more pressure is put on the British government from India’s new Viceroy. He asks for more food imports. Could the War Cabinet and Prime Minister Winston Churchill have done more to help alleviate the famine in the middle of the war? Presenter Kavita Puri
Series Producer: Ant Adeane
Editor: Emma Rippon
Sound design and mix: Eloise Whitmore
Production Coordinators: Maria Ogundele and Sabine Schereck
Original music: Felix TaylorWith thanks to Dr Janam Mukherjee and Professor Joya ChatterjiInterviews conducted by Lance Brennan courtesy of University of CambridgeInterviews with GS Khosla courtesy of University of Cambridge

4. The Tapes

<description>&lt;p&gt;Colonial authorities wanted to censor the famine. They were worried that Britain’s wartime enemies - the Germans and the Japanese - would use it as propaganda against them.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But as more and more starving people arrive in cities across Bengal, it becomes harder to suppress. Indian writers, photographers and artists document the humanitarian catastrophe, but it was risky as the censor forbade mention of the word famine. A British journalist and editor of the English language Statesman newspaper, in Calcutta, decides to challenge the censor and begins publishing photographs and then scathing editorials about what is really going on in Bengal. It shocks the world. In London, the BBC reports on “famine conditions” and, as we uncover, the British government tries to pressurize the broadcaster to tone down its coverage.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Presenter Kavita Puri
Series Producer: Ant Adeane
Editor: Emma Rippon
Sound design and mix: Eloise Whitmore
Production Coordinators: Maria Ogundele and Sabine Schereck
Original music: Felix Taylor&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;With thanks to Dr Janam Mukherjee, Professor Joya Chatterji and Dr Diya Gupta.&lt;/p&gt;</description>

Famine grips Bengal but publicly, no-one is calling it a famine.

Colonial authorities wanted to censor the famine. They were worried that Britain’s wartime enemies - the Germans and the Japanese - would use it as propaganda against them.But as more and more starving people arrive in cities across Bengal, it becomes harder to suppress. Indian writers, photographers and artists document the humanitarian catastrophe, but it was risky as the censor forbade mention of the word famine. A British journalist and editor of the English language Statesman newspaper, in Calcutta, decides to challenge the censor and begins publishing photographs and then scathing editorials about what is really going on in Bengal. It shocks the world. In London, the BBC reports on “famine conditions” and, as we uncover, the British government tries to pressurize the broadcaster to tone down its coverage.Presenter Kavita Puri
Series Producer: Ant Adeane
Editor: Emma Rippon
Sound design and mix: Eloise Whitmore
Production Coordinators: Maria Ogundele and Sabine Schereck
Original music: Felix TaylorWith thanks to Dr Janam Mukherjee, Professor Joya Chatterji and Dr Diya Gupta.

3. The F-Word

"The best history podcast I've heard in years." - The Sunday Times
 
"Three million is great radio... and needs to be heard." - The Observer.
 
During the Second World War, at least three million Indian people, who were British subjects, died in the Bengal Famine. It was one of the largest losses of civilian life on the Allied side. But there is no memorial to them anywhere in the world - not even a plaque. Can three million people disappear from public memory?
 
From the award-winning creator and presenter of Partition Voices and Three Pounds in My Pocket, this is the story of the 1943 Bengal Famine in British India - the forgotten story of World War Two. For the first time it is told by those who were there - farmers and fishermen, artists and writers, colonial British and everyday citizens. Nearly all of the testimony in the series has never been broadcast before.
 
Eighty years on, those who lived through it are a vanishing generation. Time is running out to record their memories.

Three Million

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