Beyond Famines: The Wartime State, Society and Politicization of Food in Colonial India, 1939-1945

The Second World War represents a particularly important moment in the development of the postcolonial Indian state’s welfare policies. Wartime measures regarding state-provisioning of food far outlived the war, and became permanent fixtures of the post-war and post-colonial structure of governance in India. Long after the war had finished and even as far as today, the post-colonial Indian adopted food austerity measures as part of its campaign to ‘remake’ Indian diets, for instance asking Indian citizens to accept substitute foods in place of rice and wheat to ease the pressure on these staple grains. This book charts the germination of these policies during the conflict.