Smoke pillars writhed skyward last week from Calcutta's five burning ghats. Emaciated Indians shoveled at least 100 Hindu dead into the ancient fires each day. Possibly greater numbers of Moslem corpses were buried, fellow victims of a bitter, ten-month-old Indian food shortage now grown to famine proportions.
Through Calcutta's crowded streets a destitute army over 100,000 strong roamed foodless, homeless, hopeless. Families were jerked apart as mothers peddled daughters for a few rupees. Sons committed suicide to conserve scanty family stores. All around lay the hunger-shriveled dead awaiting, sometimes for hours, the arrival of corpse-removal squads.
In the famine provinces of...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
