There are some similarities between the Irish and Indian Famines, the most obvious being access to food that was in each country and the lack of response of the British authorities to the starving millions. Food carts in Ireland were ordered to be guarded by police and soldiers as they left the country. Government response was to let nature takes it course and not close the ports to food export which resulted in the deaths of over one million. Trevelyan's report, The Irish Crisis, is an excellent primary source and makes this clear as do comments by the British PM of the time John Russell. Nassau Senior, economic advisor to the British Government, mused about how many Irish dead it would take to solve the economic problems of the island. Any good book on the Irish Famine will document this. Christine Kinealy’ s This Great Calamity. The Irish Famine 1845-52 is a good source.

Similarly in India the lack of British response to the crisis is seen as largely responsible for the deaths. Winston Churchill oversaw and ordered the diversion of food from starving Indians to what are described by some contemporaries as already well-supplied British soldiers and stockpiles in Britain. Churchill's only response to a telegram from the government in Delhi about people perishing in the famine was to ask why Gandhi hadn't died yet. Over 3 million Indians died. All of this is documented in Madhusree Mukerjee's book Churchill's Secret War.