Just three years after achieving independence in 1971, Bangladesh faced a devastating famine in 1974 that claimed an estimated 1.5 million lives. The crisis unfolded in a nation already grappling with widespread poverty, malnutrition, and post-war economic devastation. Despite its scale, the famine has largely been overlooked in global discourse, except in studies like Amartya Sen’s seminal 1981 work on famine causes.

The famine was driven by a convergence of multiple crises, including environmental shocks, economic fragility, and governance failures. The war of liberation had destroyed infrastructure, transport networks, agriculture, and industry, leaving Bangladesh unable to recover quickly and making its population extremely vulnerable to natural and economic disruptions.

Between April and July 1974, severe floods damaged crops and disrupted rural employment, triggering widespread hunger. Food prices soared, with coarse rice rising by nearly 240%, forcing thousands of farmers to sell their assets for survival. Urban centres witnessed a surge of starving migrants seeking food, while feeding centres and Red Cross relief efforts struggled to meet the overwhelming demand.

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Eyewitness accounts describe scenes of mass suffering, with streets crowded with the starving and unclaimed bodies. Municipal authorities in Dhaka collected an average of 25 bodies daily, highlighting the severe scale of the humanitarian crisis. Scholars, including Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, noted that inflated expectations of future food shortages amplified the crisis, worsening starvation and panic.

Relief kitchens fed millions at their peak, but allocations were often insufficient, and corruption hampered aid distribution. The famine exposed fundamental weaknesses in food distribution, disaster preparedness, and governance, shaping Bangladesh’s political and economic thinking for decades.

While the 1943 Bengal famine remains more widely known, the 1974 Bangladesh famine stands out as one of the deadliest post-colonial disasters in South Asia. The tragedy resurfaces in relevance as Bangladesh approaches its 2026 general elections following political upheavals, highlighting persistent concerns about governance, infrastructure, and disaster management.

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