Timeline of major famines in India during British rule 1871 to 382 million in 1941. At least 15-35 million people may have died in famines caused by droughts and the El Niño–Southern Oscillation phenomenon during the British rule. The year 1765 is chosen as the start year because that year the British East India Company, after its victory in the Battle of Buxar, was granted the "Diwani" (rights to land revenue) in the region of Bengal (although it would not directly administer Bengal until 1784 when it was granted the "Nizamat", or control of law and order.) The year 1947 is the year in which the British Raj was
Colonial India of Wandiwash, after which the British East India Company was the supreme military and political power in southern India as well as in Bengal. In the following decades it gradually increased the size of the territories under its control. The enclaves of Pondichéry, Karaikal, Yanam, Mahé and Chandernagore were returned to France in 1816 and were integrated with the Republic of India in 1954. Denmark–Norway held colonial possessions in India for more than 200 years, but the Danish presence in India was of little significance to the major European powers as they presented neither a military nor a mercantile threat.