AKDC dancers Mohika Shankar, Abirami Eswar, Jane Chan and Jalpa Vala in Ghost Ships R&D; (c) Roswitha Chesher

In the sweltering summer of 1943, the streets of Bengal were littered with the lifeless bodies of men, women, and children. They were the victims of a famine induced by Britain’s Churchill-era war policies that killed an estimated three million people in eastern India as it syphoned away vital resources to its stockpile.

The Bengal Famine of 1943 was not just an isolated event but one of several devastating famines that scarred Colonial India.

“During the British rule, there were about 12 major famines in India. In Ghosts Ships, it is very important to me to explore these famines because what has happened in the past has shaped the fabric of society in Britain today. But that is a chapter of history that is often overlooked”, says Amina Khayyam, Artistic Director of Amina Khayyam Dance Company (AKDC).

Ghost Ships is a large-scale dance-theatre collaboration between AKDC, Icon Theatre and ZooNation: The Kate Prince Company, set to be staged at The Historic Dockyard Chatham – one of the most historically significant Dockyards in the world. Operating from 1567 to 1984, its ships took part in early naval battles for territories including Jamaica and Barbados. Its ships also brought, supplies, munitions and soldiers to territories across the British Empire including India and Bengal.

Even before 1943, as many as 10 million people had lost their lives in the Great Bengal famine of 1770, which at the time was ruled by the East India Company under a dual governance system, as severe droughts crippled the region.

Ultimately, it was the policies and the stark indifference of the British East India Company that turned a natural calamity into a human catastrophe. During the famine, the Company continued to export grain to meet its commercial interests while leaving the local population to starve. Not much was done in the way of mitigation either, such as any tax reduction or significant relief efforts.

Fast forward to the late 19th century, and India saw another 8.2 million people succumbing to diseases and hunger – their deaths a grim reminder of colonial neglect. The Great Famine of 1876-1878 – which struck southern and southwestern India including the presidencies of Madras and Bombay – is another such example of slow and inadequate response to a crisis of startling magnitude. What was initially induced by crop failures due to poor monsoon rains, was further compounded by the colonial government's insistence on continuing grain exports. 

The common thread that connects all these tragedies, however, is the colonial focus on trade and profit. While India had been transformed into a vast exporter of agricultural goods and raw materials, helping meet the industrial needs of Britain, prices would shoot up locally often leaving the country’s own people hungry. Even the construction of railways across India, which was proudly heralded by the British as a symbol of progress and its work in India, served to allow the movement of grain from starving regions to ports, ready for export to Britain and its many colonies.

Khayyam believes that now more than ever, we must remember the hidden stories of millions who suffered in the shadow of the vast British Empire.

“Ghost Ships provides a huge opportunity to look, explore and examine closer into one of the deepest and darkest moments of our colonial history. This saw the mistreatment of fellow humans on an industrial scale while amassing fortune and wealth for a few. The legacy of which still haunts and impacts us daily. From exploring African slavery to the famines of Bengal, I want to use Kathak’s storytelling to contribute to the making of this work with integrity and sensitivity. Only when we know our history, can we make sense of the world around us today.”

She says, “We are telling the story of what the East India Company and later direct rule by the British government did in India, which isn’t being taught at schools and which the average person may not know.”

AKDC dancers Abirami Eswar and Jalpa Vala in Ghost Ships R&D; (c) Roswitha Chesher

Amina believes Kathak is the perfect tool to portray these hidden stories. 

“The fundamental of kathak is we tell a story and it gives the tools like music, technique - all the stuff that makes up kathak lends itself to telling a story.”

For Khayyam, emotion drives the movement in her work, as opposed to movement driving the emotion. In studio rehearsals with her team of company dancers, her choreography is inspired entirely by the emotions of her characters – questioning what a character feels and how that emotion makes one move.
 

“If you look at the images of Bengal from 1943, it’s quite harrowing and it’s almost like how can the whole city be in this way? How can someone see a whole city in this state and just walk past dying children as if this is normal? So, this normalisation of suffering, this neglect is what I want to look at and what it must have felt like to be hungry, to be destitute and to be treated without empathy from the onlooker. I’m not sure if I’ll find the answers but these are the questions I will be posing in Ghost Ships,” she adds.

Ghost Ships will be staged at The Historic Dockyard Chatham from Wednesday 25 - Saturday 28 September 2024, commemorating 40 years since the former Royal Dockyard’s closure.