Three Million: 3. The f-word

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 23 February 2024

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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 famine. A British journalist and editor of the English language Statesman newspaper, in Calcutta, decides to challenge the censor and begins publishing photographs and scathing editorials about what was 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 pressurise 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 Taylor

With thanks to Dr Janam Mukherjee, Professor Joya Chatterji and Dr Diya Gupta

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service.
0:03.7	I'm Kavita Puri, with 3 million.
0:06.8	The story of the 3 million people who died in the devastating famine in Bengal in British India during World War II.
0:17.0	When Ian Stevens wanted to clear his head, he went for a cycle.
0:22.0	I'd script right off, I'd wear nothing but a pair of shorts, khaki shorts and a singlet
0:29.6	and chapplies, let's say, Indian sandals and a wristwatch.
0:34.4	In August 1943, he had a lot on his mind.
0:38.3	On sticky monsoon mornings, he left his modest bachelor pad, ran down two flights of stairs, and jumped on his bike to work.
0:47.0	If it was about a mile along this admirable broad street to my office, well it was a lot of fun. One got sunshine and fresh air on an almost
0:57.6	naked body. Cycling behind him was Rahim, his trusted servant, carrying his freshly ironed off his clothes in a box strapped to the bike carrier.
1:08.0	And one got exercise, which working as I then in wartime had to do often about 14 hours a day
1:15.2	was a difficult thing to contrive and one had a minimum sweat.
1:21.5	Listen to him. He sounds minimum sweat.
1:24.0	Listen to him. He sounds pucker, a part of the colonial establishment.
1:29.0	But Stevens wasn't entirely conventional.
1:32.0	Not only did he cycle half naked he was also addicted to yoga and after 20
1:37.4	years in India he had close Indian friends a rarity back then.
1:43.3	The office he was cycling to was a the statesman, the most widely read English language newspaper
1:49.2	in India.
1:50.2	Stevens was the editor, in the middle of a war. It was a tough job.
1:55.0	The circumstances when I was editor were harsh. There were wartime circumstances, all edges, to to controversy all moral judgments
2:05.6	were harder, rougher quicker.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.