Timeline of major famines in India during British rule dissolved and the new successor states of Dominion of India and Dominion of Pakistan were established. Timeline of major famines in India during British rule This is a timeline of major famines on the Indian subcontinent during British rule from 1765 to 1947. The famines included here occurred both in the princely states (regions administered by Indian rulers), British India (regions administered either by the British East India Company from 1765 to 1857; or by the British Crown, in the British Raj, from 1858 to 1947) and Indian territories independent of British rule such as the Maratha Empire. Despite the
Colonial India in 1858. A few years later, Queen Victoria took the title of Empress of India. India suffered a series of serious crop failures in the late 19th century, leading to widespread famines in which at least 10 million people died. Responding to earlier famines as threats to the stability of colonial rule, the East India Company had already begun to concern itself with famine prevention during the early colonial period. This greatly expanded during the "Raj", in which commissions were set up after each famine to investigate the causes and implement new policies, which took until the early 1900s to