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The ripple that drowns? Twentieth‐century famines in China and India as economic history1

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  • CORMAC Ó GRÁDA

Abstract

The twentieth century saw the virtual elimination of famine across most of the globe, but also witnessed some of the worst famines ever recorded. The causes usually given for these twentieth‐century famines differ from those given for earlier famines, which tend to be more often blamed on harvest failures per se than on human agency. This paper reassesses two of the last century's most notorious famines, the Chinese Great Leap Famine of 1959–61 and the Great Bengal Famine of 1943–4, in the light of these rival perspectives.

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  • Cormac Ó Gráda, 2008. "The ripple that drowns? Twentieth‐century famines in China and India as economic history1," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 61(s1), pages 5-37, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ehsrev:v:61:y:2008:i:s1:p:5-37
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0289.2008.00435.x
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    1. Matthieu CLEMENT, 2010. "Food Availability and Food Entitlements during the Chinese Great Leap Forward Famine: A dynamic panel data analysis (In French)," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2010-03, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).
    2. Nicholas Crafts, 2012. "Economic History Matters," Economic History of Developing Regions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(S1), pages 3-15.
    3. Raghav Gaiha & Katsushi S. Imai & Kenneth Hill & Shantanu Mathur, 2009. "On insect infestation and agricultural productivity in developing countries," Economics Discussion Paper Series 0910, Economics, The University of Manchester.

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