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India
“Fighting Retreat” by Walter Reid: Did Churchill Really Hate India?
26
Feb
2024
By ZAREER MASANI
The promise of Dominion status required only that Congress, the Muslim League and the princes agree on power-sharing at a federal Centre. To blame Churchill for the internal divisions that obstructed such a coalition obfuscates reality. A power-sharing deal between Nehru and Jinnah would have made nonsense of Churchill’s fears. Instead, India’s fragile imperial unity fell apart under majoritarian strains. That gave Churchill the dubious distinction of being proved right.
Best and Jenkins on Churchill, Empire, India and the Middle East
07
Dec
2023
By LARRY P. ARNN
“Let us say, for example, that we form the view that children in some distant land should not be taught the method and the rightness of suicidal murder of civilians. Let us say that they should not be taught to kill people because of their race or religion. Let us say that their families should not be paid large sums when they do it; that teenagers should not be instructed how to carry ugly bombs around as if they were knapsacks. Let us say that we propose to stop this. This is a lot to prevent.”
Conclusions of the 1943-44 Bengal Famine Commission
23
Oct
2023
By THE CHURCHILL PROJECT
“It has been for us a sad task to inquire into the course and causes of the Bengal famine. We have been haunted by a deep sense of tragedy. A million and a half of the poor of Bengal fell victim to circumstances for which they themselves were not responsible. Society, together. with its organs, failed to protect its weaker members. Indeed, there was a moral and social breakdown, as well as an administrative breakdown.” —Commission conclusion
Kishan Rana on Churchill and India: A Misunderstood Relationship
15
May
2023
2
By ANDREAS KOUREAS
The most common misconceptions about Churchill and India are no better misrepresented than by former Indian Ambassador Rana. Ladled on wholesale are false accusations of genocide, imperial hatred and invented conspiracies. The ridiculous price for so short a book may do more than anything to prevent people from reading it. Which, given the contents, may not altogether be a bad thing.
Abstract: Judging the British Empire by its Aims and Intentions
22
Mar
2023
By ZAREER MASANI
The costs and benefits of empire are not morally commensurate and incapable of being compared in those terms. Outcomes good and bad are historically and ethically complex. The best we can do is to make balanced moral judgments of the Empire’s aims and intentions, even if their execution was often flawed or the consequences sometimes unintended. As for the charge of imperial nostalgia, there can be none, since the British Empire, so long past, never can return.
Churchill on Amritsar: An Imperialist Speaks Out for Human Rights
12
Aug
2022
1
By Martin Gilbert
“What I mean by frightfulness is the inflicting of great slaughter or massacre upon a particular crowd of people, with the intention of terrorising not merely the rest of the crowd, but the whole district or the whole country. We cannot admit this doctrine in any form. Frightfulness is not a remedy known to the British pharmacopoeia.” —WSC
Winston Churchill, Algernon West and “Superfluous Millions,” 1898
11
Aug
2022
By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
Churchill’s did tell West that “a philosopher,” not himself, might be unmoved by the loss of “superfluous millions.” That doesn’t altogether divorce him from what must seem a heartless remark today. In 1898 he was very young. Few of us would welcome hearing some of our words at age 24 represented as our lifetime philosophy. And Churchill is one of the most quoted historical figures.
“Why hasn’t Gandhi died yet?” Another Remark Churchill Never Said
16
Jul
2022
By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
Wavell’s and Churchill’s actions to ease the Bengal Famine are explained elsewhere. We focus here only on a misrepresentation of Churchill based on Viceroy Wavell’s diary: “Winston sent me a peevish telegram to ask why Gandhi hadn’t died yet!” Wavell did write this but it was not a quote—and fairly peevish itself. Why don’t the critics publish what Churchill actually said? Here it is…
Cambridge University Ends its Commission on Churchill’s Racism
29
Jun
2021
7
By LARRY P. ARNN
To understand Winston Churchill, should we not be concerned with the truth—the actual evidence of what happened in the past?
The Effects of Race and Caste on Relief in the Bengal Famine, 1943-44
29
Jan
2021
4
By ABHIJIT SARKAR
Communalization and politicization of food during the Bengal famine widened the chasm in Bengali society along the lines of religion.
Churchill and the Genocide Myth: Last Word on the Bengal Famine
27
Jan
2021
11
Fake History Abounds in the film, “Viceroy’s House”
29
Apr
2017
5