Did European Colonialism change South Asian bodies such that people of subcontinental origin are now at higher risk of heart disease and diabetes and incorrigible stupidity?
Faima Bakar writes at HuffPost-
The East India Company’s raising of taxes, policy failures (including a “denial of rice”), resources being deployed to the military, and droughts that were met with British inaction, resulted in the deaths of millions. In 1943, West Bengal saw the worst of it all, a famine in which up to three million people died of malnutrition.
The East India Company was dissolved in 1874. From 1937 onward, Bengal (not just 'West Bengal') was ruled by elected Muslim leaders. They were corrupt and incompetent. Thus Bengal is unique in that, when elected Bengali Muslim leaders took over the administration, there was, not one, but two famines. The 1943 famine can be blamed on the Japanese. But the 1974 avoidable excess mortality associated with the Bangladesh famine can't be the fault of anybody except Bengali Muslims.
Yet, famines in the British era were not due to a lack of food, but due to the inequalities in the distribution of that food,
What about after the British era? Why did two million die in 1974-75 in East Bengal?
Nobel Prize winning economist Amartya Sen argues, linking this inequality to what he describes as the fundamentally undemocratic nature of the British Empire.
But, in the Twentieth Century, Bengal suffered famine only when there was a transition to Democracy and Muslim leaders were in charge. If there was no democracy or if non-Muslim leaders were in charge, there may have been food shortage but there wasn't excess mortality as a result of food availability deficit. On the other hand, Amartya Sen warned that Britain could experience a serious famine as a result of Mrs. Thatcher's policies. He has shit for brains. But his family had sense enough to get out of East Bengal before Muslims killed them or they starved to death.
You might wonder what’s all this got to do with South Asians now? Well, not only was the “great famine” in Bengal only 79 years ago (for some, a part of living memory),
Why does this lady not mention the Bangladesh famine which was 48 years ago?
but when a group of people are exposed to starvation on this scale, it can affect subsequent generations.
China was exposed to bigger famines during the twentieth century. But then Ukraine experienced a terrible famine under Stalin. India had big famines for millennia. The British created the system which has spared the subcontinent further massive famines- save if elected Bengali Muslims are in charge.
The reason that some Indians have higher propensity to fatal outcomes from 'diseases of affluence' is the same as the reason some Africans- who may never have suffered famines till very recently- share this trait.
Dr Mubin Syed, a 56-year-old radiologist from Ohio who also works in vascular and obesity medicine, recently went viral on TikTok and Instagram for making this crucial link.
As he explains in his video, South Asians have a tendency to generate and store fat and not burn it off, amassing low lean muscle mass. This, he points out, is because South Asians are “starvation-adapted”, due to having to survive at least 31 famines, especially during the 18th and 19th century.
And the 17th and 16th and 15th and 14th century. It may be that Muslim rule exacerbated famine conditions because the rulers were foreigners only concerned with looting the country.
Surviving just one famine doubles the risk of diabetes and obesity in the next generation, even without a famine, according to a study by Brown university.
That study was looking at the victims of Mao's policies in China sixty years ago. But China was never colonized.
The risk of cardiovascular disease increases 2.7 times for their grandchildren.
But most parts of British India were not administered by Bengali Muslims. There was food shortage but not famine. Still, Bengalis are genetically similar to their neighbors and have the same risk factor. Amartya Sen says that during the War famine, some Bengalis ate much better than normal while others starved. However all Bengalis have higher diabetes risk than Europeans who evolved in a colder climate.
Dr Syed, whose research in this area for the past five years led him to these conclusions, tells HuffPost UK: “Exposure to even one famine has a multi-generational effect of causing metabolic disorders including diabetes, hyperglycemia and cardiovascular diseases. Imagine having an exposure to at least 24 major famines in a 50-year period.”
Nobody was exposed to '24 major famines in a 50 year period'. The truth is that famines in the sub-continent led to a fall in the supply of unskilled labor which in turn led to higher real wages. These were Malthusian famines. However, the British did develop an effective Famine code. Thus India was spared the famines and war-lordism of China.
And the problem carries through to the present.
Getting colonized by a numerically tiny number of merchant adventurers suggests that the real problem a people have is stupidity or the utter inability to cooperate and coordinate useful activity.
“In the modern era of abundance, it becomes an evolutionary mismatch. Our adaptation to scarce food availability is no longer suitable for our environment of food abundance,” he says.
So, Indians are junk food monkeys. The Brits should not have allowed them to enter this country. They are bound to go crazy stuffing themselves with sweeties and thus get diabetes and cost the NHS a pretty penny. Why is a brown woman making this argument?
So, storing nutrients was an evolutionary response to famine, but now, where scarcity is no longer a problem for much of the modern, western world, it creates a conflict, heightening our risk of certain health conditions.
The sensible response to Malthusian famine is to delay age of marriage and reduce family size. Also migration from food deficit regions is the smart thing to do.
“South Asians have a unique physiology,” Dr Syed explains. “For instance, we have higher body fat percentage and lower lean muscle mass.
But this happened thousands of years ago! An article in Nature states 'low lean mass has characterised South Asians since at least the early Holocene (11,000 years ago) and may represent long-term climatic adaptation or neutral variation. This phenotype is therefore unlikely to change extensively in the short term, so other strategies to address increasing non-communicable disease rates must be pursued.
Why blame the Brits for something which worsened during the first agricultural revolution over 5000 years ago?
We have a six times greater risk of developing diabetes, one of the highest rates of diabetes and pre-diabetes in the world, and a four times greater risk to have a heart attack before the age 50. Furthermore, one in three South Asians will die of heart disease before 65.”
But the rate for African American is higher. They may never have had any famine exposure at all
While our genes, inherited from our ancestors, can explain some of these predispositions, diet is another contributor – though not in a straightforward way. “It’s a multifactorial perfect storm,” says Dr Syed. :Genetics is one issue, but of course, lifestyle is always important. But, South Asians have to exercise twice as much as Caucasians to get the same health benefits.”
It appears many also need to be more cautious in matters of diet.
It certainly feels like Indians, Bangladeshis, and Pakistanis, who once made up India, are still reeling from the effects of colonialism, mentally and physically.
They are still reeling from the effects of being shit at governing themselves- which is why the Brits ended up ruling over them in the first place.
My family are certainly still feeling its effects. Though my parents weren’t around when the Bengal famine took place, their generation is impacted; my dad is diabetic while my mum is prediabetic, and this leaves me in a precarious position, too.
This is indeed a common story for many of us- even if we come from districts which never suffered food availability deficit.
Another concern for the community is a lack of awareness about how our past informs our future. This is why filmmaker Phelan Chatterjee, 26, set out to create a short documentary, Straining The Rice that captures the trauma endured by Bengali people, told through the lens of a grandmother, Nana (not his own).
That trauma was created by Bengali people who also did ethnic cleansing against both Hindus and, later on, Bihari Muslims.
He tells HuffPost UK: “I had a lot of conversations with Asian friends and family in the UK. I found very little mention or memorialisation of the catastrophe, despite the enormous number of people who died, and its effects today.
This is because the older generation- people like B.R Sen who was Food Commissioner in 1944 and later on was the head of F.A.O, knew that the fault lay with Muslim politicians like Suhrawardy.
“The sheer number of lives lost, the brutal way in which they perished and the helplessness of those demanding change at the time. It’s difficult to come to terms with the fact that it’s not a part of our national conversation in any meaningful way.”
Mamta's goons will beat you if you tell the truth about this. Academics will get cancelled wherever they might live if they speak out. By contrast, Whitey might pat you on the back for shifting all the blame on to Churchill or whoever. Why? Clearly sub-continentals are as stupid as shit. They can't even feed themselves unless the British Nanny stands over them coaxing them. Meanwhile non-Bengalis- like dishy Rishi and pretty Preeti adorn a Tory Cabinet.
Chatterjee questions those who say the famine was simply an environmental consequence, and asks why there’s no accountability for why such conditions were created.
There was accountability. Bengali politicians had to answer to the voters. But since Muslim voters were in the majority they rewarded the men who got rich of the famine because those men blamed the Hindus and encouraged the ethnic cleansing of them.
“The protagonist of the film, an elderly Bengali woman says the famine sparked a great deal of protest against the colonial government of the day,” he says.
But the Brits had devolved power over food to elected Bengali politicians in 1937. The fact is the Brits were long gone when the second big famine struck East Bengal in 1974.
“This suggests there had always been a keen awareness of the links between policy choices and the famine. But frequently, I’ve experienced famines and similar events to be thought of as beyond human control.
Wallace Aykroyd, the leading international expert on nutrition and public health, came to India at the same time as Viceroy Linlithgow. Sadly, power over food and agriculture had passed to Indian politicians who- at least in Bengal- didn't give a shit for the malnourished. Aykroyd headed the Government lab at Coonoor. The research done there into how to enhance nutritional benefit from 250 basic foods- stuff like reducing risk of beri beri by milling rice in a different manner- was world class. But Indian politicians didn't care about such findings. Aykroyd served on the Famine Inquiry Commission. He calculated how much illegal profit was made on each excess death. However, the Government could not afford to alienate the Muslim League- which had gotten busy killing Hindus and thus was more popular than ever- and so the conclusion of the Report is quite mild
‘Whilst others starved, there was much indifference in the face of suffering. Corruption was widespread throughout the province and in many classes of society. ‘It has been a sad task to inquire into the course and the causes of the Bengal famine. We have been haunted by a deep sense of tragedy. A million and a half of the poor of Bengal fell victim to circumstances for which they themselves were not responsible. Society failed to protect its weaker members. Indeed there was a moral and social breakdown as well as an administrative breakdown. ’
“I wonder what a reappraisal of those policies might bring, and how that could inform the way we understand contemporary famines, global inequality – including health inequality – and climate change.”
This is the sciencey sort of stuff which the Brits pioneered in India and which spread across the globe. Indian scientists, statisticians and administrators understood the importance of this work which is why later on, under B.R Sen, F.A.O and other international organizations were able to make great strides in improving nutrition, public health and avoiding famine across the globe. It is important to remember that Europeans too suffered famine or malnourishment during that period. Scientific research and technocratic administration were able to raise nutrition levels in the post-War world and thus create an 'affluent society'. Sadly, Bengalis made little contribution to this. They preferred to blame abstractions- 'the Raj', 'Hindu banias', Capitalism, Neo-Liberalism etc, etc. Thankfully Bangladesh took a more sensible course and thus its per capita Income has risen above Pakistan and Mamta's West Bengal. But Biden won't invite Sheikh Hasina to his Democracy Summit. It seems America is still miffed that the Bangladeshis had the guts to rebel against, Kissinger's great pal, Yahya Khan.
If schools, for instance, taught students about these historical atrocities
Students would become stupid and paranoid. You need to teach kids about science not brainwash them into thinking everything is the fault of Whitey.
and their contemporary implications on us mentally and physically, we might have a better understanding of how to navigate our lives now. Healthcare research and responses might even cater better to our bodies, as a result.
Science needs to proceed in the manner of Wallace Aykroyd- i.e. by doing scientific research and collecting accurate Statistics. How does it help anybody to tell fairy tales about evil White peeps who turned Brown folk diabetic by taking away all their grandparents' food and causing them to starve?
But, despite the risks and impact of inequalities on South Asians today, Dr Syed says it doesn’t mean ill health is inevitable for us.
Very good of him, I'm sure.
“It’s not a doom and gloom scenario,” he says. “The risks are avoidable, we just have to pay closer attention to diet, exercise/fitness, sleep, stress and other substances.”
So, the guy isn't saying that we should constantly blame Whitey for robbing granny of her grub. That's not going to improve our health.
This means how much alcohol and tobacco we consume, says Dr Syed, and for South Asians who enjoy it, consumption of betel nut or supari.
“Even our dental health,” he adds. “The key thing is awareness, getting regular check-ups, including lipid profiles, is critical. Do not assume you are healthy, as normal height/weight BMIs are misleading for South Asians.”
Which is why I have reclassified myself as Dutch.
Many South Asians in the West who are told “colonialism was a long time ago” and not to “dwell on the past” will struggle with all these conflicting messages.
Because they are as stupid as shit. True, being as stupid as shit was what got them colonized in the first place. But Colonialism can't make a profit nowadays. Nor can whining about Colonialism. Seriously, folks, Whitey be laughing at you.
We certainly can’t nor should forget a history that still continues to impact us. And there are many who still remember the harshness of colonial times.
But what they actually remember is the shitty administration provided by elected Indian politicians presiding over an increasingly Indianized Civil Service.
For those who came before us, as well as ourselves, it’s imperative we keep educated and informed of our past and how plays a crucial role in our future.
No. It is crucial we tell this stupid woman to stop writing nonsense. Seriously. She is making us all look bad.
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