Three Million: 6. Silk scarves

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 16 June 2024

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Eighty years ago at least three 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 Puri meets Susannah Herbert the granddaughter of Sir John Herbert, the governor of Bengal, 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. 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. To hear the other episodes in the mini-series Three Million, scroll down to 23 February 2024.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Kavita Puri, and I'm really pleased to be bringing you the latest episode in my series looking at the Bengal famine of
0:07.0	1943. If after listening to this you want to hear more, there are five previous episodes available here in the documentary
0:15.0	telling the story of what happened. If you can't find them just search for 3 million
0:20.3	wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
0:25.0	I was in a friend for dinner
0:27.7	tucking into some roast lamb.
0:29.9	There was someone opposite me who I'd never met before and she told me she'd listen to
0:34.0	three million in one go. She said she was hooked and there was a reason why. Then she
0:41.0	told me her grandfather's name.
0:45.0	I almost choked when I heard it.
0:48.0	John Herbert.
0:51.0	He was the most senior colonial figure in Bengal during the famine.
0:56.0	Do you know much about him?
0:58.0	She asked.
0:59.0	Of course I did.
1:01.0	It's not a great story, I said to her. I know, she replied. What were the chances? I had
1:09.6	a thousand questions. I just spent a year of my life researching the Bengal famine and there I was
1:16.4	sitting opposite the granddaughter of the governor of Bengal. Later in the evening, she came up to me.
1:24.0	She was holding a photo of her grandfather
1:26.0	and her dad as a little boy in Calcutta.
1:29.0	She confessed.
1:30.0	She felt enormous shame about what happened.
	...

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