Onset of Bengal Drought

Background. Bengal in 1769 was governed under a dual system: the East India Company held the diwani, the right to collect revenue granted by the Mughal emperor, while civil administration formally remained with the Nawab of Bengal, Najmuddin Ali Khan (Nazm-ud-Daula), who reigned from 1765 to 1772. A failure of monsoon in Bengal and Bihar had already led to a partial shortfall of produce in 1768, and market prices were higher than usual by early 1769.

Onset of the Drought. After usual rains in 1769 briefly eased conditions—grains were even exported to Madras Presidency—the season turned dry. On 18 September 1769, Naib Nazim of Dhaka Mohammed Reza Khan informed Harry Verelst, President of the Council at Fort William, about the "dryness of the season". Crop failure in autumn 1768 and summer 1769, alongside a smallpox epidemic, were later identified as the manifest causes of the ensuing famine. By the end of 1769 rice prices had risen two-fold.

Company Response. In October 1769 the Company requested that storehouses be constructed in Patna and Murshidabad. City officials were instructed to prevent monopoly of trade and to have farmers raise every sort of dry grain possible. These measures did not prevent escalation: rice prices rose a further three-fold in 1770, and by the summer of that year people were dying everywhere across the affected region.