Hi!! I am Monish Borah, Ph.D. I work as a lecturer of History at Saddleback College and California State University, Fullerton.
I received my Ph.D. degree in June 2025, from the Department of History at the University of California, Irvine. My Ph.D. research explored the global history of the Bengal famine of 1769-70. My research examines the socio-political, economic, and environmental landscape of eighteenth-century Bengal. I argue that the famine was a pivotal event that reshaped the histories of India, the British Empire, the British East India Company (EIC), and the global economy. It highlights the formation of exploitative fiscal and administrative systems during the early years of British colonialism. The research also examines the role of environmental factors like rivers and forests during the famine. Furthermore, the dissertation critiques the role of corporations in governance as the EIC prioritized profit over famine relief. The many failures of the EIC led to the British government’s increased involvement in Indian affairs that paved the way for the Imperial Rule of India under the British crown in the mid-nineteenth century. The dissertation concludes by showing that the population loss caused by the famine shaped British fiscal-administrative policies, that trapped South Asia in a cycle of famines and droughts that persisted until the end of British rule in the mid-20th century.
This work saw me directly engage with literature and debates on famines, floods, epidemics, colonization, capitalism, mercantilism, financial contagion, revolutions, and print media amongst others. Temporally this work engages with both the early modern and the modern world. Spatially the work is located in Asia, Europe, and North America. I began working on this project in the fall of 2018 and have visited over 14 physical archives in the US, UK, and India, and used several online archives to complete my work.
Previous Work:
By now I have received four university degrees in history from three countries on three different continents (India, the UK, and the US) and so I have worked on a variety of historical projects over the years. I wrote my first master’s dissertation at the London School of Economics and Political Science on the Allied Strategic Bombing of Nazi Germany’s synthetic fuel supply. I have also conducted extensive research on the intersection of human health and historical studies into standards of living. I have also worked as a historical researcher for Orange County Parks in California. Additionally, I have also carried out diasporic research on the South Asian community in Southern California and the Chinese community in Northeast India.
You can find my full CV here: borah-cv
Contact email: monish.borah@gmail.com