Churchill’s Secret War

[Imad]

Hello

Has anyone read Madhushri Mukherji’s book ‘Churchill’s Secret War’?

This book has triggered a spate of online commentary and memes, especially on social media outlets like Facebook.

Churchill is said to have presided over the terrible Bengal Famine of 1943 which took the lives of an estimated 3-4 million. He supposedly diverted shipment carrying badly needed relief in the interests of the war effort, motivated by his racist contempt for Indians.

While I found the book meticulously researched and detailed, the impression I had was that like all works of a tendentious nature, it tends to miss the wood for the trees. Going through the book, you could be excused for forgetting there was a world war on at the time.

1943 was a crucial year for the Allied war effort. The Soviets had just started to push the Germans back and Stalin was incessant in calling the Western Allies for a second front. The U-Boat menace had just barely subsided. The invasion of occupied France and Italy were on the plate. The Japanese were poised to strike into India from Burma. The reconquest of the South Pacific was being contemplated.

In short, Churchill did have other priorities. I’m not sure providing relief to Bengal would have been such an easy matter. For the record he did appeal to the United States and Australia for help but only the Australians responded, presumably because the Americans needed to conserve shipping for Overlord.

In fact in could be argued that Churchill did end the famine by appointing Lord Wavell as viceroy. It was Wavell who initiated the energetic relief effort that broke the famine.

I’m not a fan of Churchill’s tbh. I think he was a racist imperialist warmonger. He also had a scathing contempt for Indians, whom he considered ‘a beastly people with a beastly religion, second only to the Germans’.

In the interest of historical accuracy, however, I find the way he’s being compared to genocidal maniacs like Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot in some circles for his role in the Bengal Famine to be a grotesque misrepresentation of facts. I think it’s high time to set the record straight.

I would love to hear some input on this. Thanks in advance.

[David Thompson]

Imad -- For a fairly extensive forum discussion on the 1943 Bengal famine, see:

1943 famine in India -- British act of genocide?
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=80207