Famines were a recurrent feature of the Indian economy in the pre-independence period. Famines in India resulted in more than 60 million deaths over the course of the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries The last major famine was the Bengal famine of 1943.Some of the causes of outbreaks of famine were:

1. In the pre-independent period, Indian agriculture was heavily dependent on monsoon. A bad monsoon led to the outbreak of famine.
2. Amartya Sen found that the famines during British rule were not due to lack of food but due to inequalities in the distribution of food.
3. Tirthankar Roy suggests that the famines in the British era were due to environmental factors inherent in Indian ecology.

No, I don't think that the Britishers were sensitive to the plight of the starving Indians. No policies or programmes were initiated by the government to reduce prices of food products or to provide relief of any kind.