we can judge by the standards of the time when the potato crop failures across belguim northern franc germany and the ukraine didn't result in famine because those backward countries fed their citizens. the english on the other hand were committed to laissez faire capitalism, much like the neo liberals today, and that belief was akin to any other totalitarian belief and resulted in mass starvation of citizens, for their own good.

it is basic racism to suggest the english and their imperial leaders were not the cause of the mass deaths