On a promotional tour for his new book “Inglorious Empire”, which is a review of the British Empire and colonialism, Shashi Tharoor compared former British PM Winston Churchill and former German Chancellor Adolf Hitler.
Churchill has been praised internationally for being a great leader and inspirational speaker. Strangely, India is also in awe of him. There are textbooks which still applaud Churchill and his brand of leadership.
Which is troubling, considering Churchill was one of the most overrated, racist, genocidal, warmongering, imperialist of human history.
“Churchill,” Dr Tharoor said, “has as much blood on his hands as Hitler does. The Bengal Famine – millions died because of the decisions he took or endorsed. Not only did the British follow its own policy of not helping the victims of this Famine, Churchill persisted in exporting grain to Europe, not to feed actual ‘Sturdy Tommies’ as he described them, but to add to the buffer stocks that were being piled up in the event of a future invasion of Greece and Yugoslavia.”
The comments were made during an interview with UK Asian. Dr Tharoor continued, “Ships laden with wheat were coming in from Australia docking in Calcutta and were instructed by Churchill not to disembark their cargo but sail on to Europe. And when conscience-stricken British officials wrote to the Prime Minister in London pointing out that his policies were causing needless loss of life all he could do was write in the margin of the report, ‘why hasn’t Gandhi died yet?’ To my mind this remains a permanent stain on Britain’s colonial history and Churchill’s place in history must be re-examined.”
You can read about him here: Winston Churchill’s Death Anniversary: Why Are We Indians Still Praising A Racist War Criminal?
