Undercurrents in American foreign relations: four studies

No COUNTRY has contributed more than the United States of America in the last few years to help India overcome deficits in food supplies. The banishment of the spectre of famine, which this assistance has made possible, has been a fairly significant factor in promoting political stability and economic development in India, the world's largest democracy." American realization of the importance of helping India with food could be said to have begun with the India Emergency Food Assistance Act of 1951 under which two million tons of wheat were made available under terms very favourable to India. The attitude of the United States in 1951 was significantly different from what it was in 1943 and 1946 when India was beset with serious food shortage. An analysis of the two earlier stages in the evolution of American food policy towards India, which naturally was an aspect of United States foreign policy, will be undertaken in this chapter and the next.
The present essay will concern itself with the response of the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt to a disastrous famine in India in 1943 and its aftermath. That response was a reflection of Roosevelt's attitude towards the struggle of the Indian people for freedom which was then in its final and most crucial stage. The President's attitude was influenced greatly by his nation's involvement in the war against the Axis Powers and by its alliance with Great Britain. The overriding objective of winning the war and the desire to avoid any action that might be unacceptable to the British ally were factors to which a great deal of weight was given by the elite groups of the United States.