Shipping losses expose India's dependence on sea transport

Avoiding war with Japan could reduce the severity of the Indian famine by keeping sea routes safer and making more merchant ships available. Crop failures could still occur, so the scenario does not assume that famine disappears. American and Japanese ships could help fill transport gaps that become harder to cover when wartime losses and Atlantic commitments absorb shipping. One interpretation places particular weight on earlier failures to fund Indian railways and freight infrastructure. Its criticism of Churchill concerns his earlier role as chancellor and the decision to leave railway funding to a colonial government that said it lacked the money. The argument connects the later transport crisis with those earlier investment decisions.