China's famine of 1958-1961 was the worst recorded famine in the world history. Nearly three crore people died in this famine. During those days, India's economic condition was not much better than China. Yet, India did not have a famine of the kind like China. Economists think that this was a result of different government policies in the two countries. The existence of democracy in India made the Indian government respond to food scarcity in a way that the Chinese government did not. They point out that no large-scale famine has ever taken place in an independent and democratic country. If China too had multiparty elections, an opposition party and a press free to criticize the government, then so many people may not have died in the famine.