Churchill's Indian Famine

international | anti-war / imperialism | other press

Tuesday November 09, 2010 13:59

by Marcus McSpartacus

Churchill's Secret War: the British Empire and the ravaging of India during WWII

Harper's Magazine interviews Madhusree Mukerjee who "has published a bombshell book about Churchill’s attitudes toward India and the steps that he took during World War II that contributed to a horrific famine in Bengal in 1943." Like Ireland a century before, India was a food exporter at the time due to British suzereignty.

Churchill's Secret War: the British Empire and the ravaging of India during WWII

- Hitler mistakenly thought Churchill would be content for British Empire to be junior partner in Nordic empire dominating Europeans - step too far - as well as Africans and Asians (as Churchill had made excuses for Italians and Japanese conquering Abyssinia and Manchuria, respectively);
- Churchill used religious and ethnic divide-and-conquer strategy to sabotage Indian freedom movement;
- Churchill opportunistically condemned British Army Indian massacre when Indians in Army were still largely loyal in 1920's (at same time as gassing rebellious Iraqis/Kurds); later sent increasingly independent-minded Indians to front - leaving India defenceless; when Japan reached borders, British used "scortched earth" tactics which contributed to famine;
- "The [British] War Cabinet received repeated warnings that famine could result from its exhaustive use of Indian resources for the war effort—and ignored them."
- Powerful Churchill advisor Lord Cherwell "regarded colonial subjects as 'helots,' or slaves, whose only reason for existence was the service of racial superiors. In drafts of this talk, he outlined how science could help entrench the hegemony of the higher races. By means of hormones, drugs, mind control, and surgery, one could remove from slaves the ability to suffer or to feel ambition—yielding humans with 'the mental make-up of the worker bee.' Such a lobotomized race would have no thought of rebellion or votes, so that one would end up with a perfectly peaceable and permanent society, 'led by supermen and served by helots.'"
- Cherwell also "urged Churchill to hold firm against demands for famine relief" on Malthusian grounds; despite the fact that India was a food exporter to build British stockpiles; Australian relief ships also bypassed India to build stockpiles for Europeans in anticipation of war's end;
- "... indictment is based on what Churchill did, not on what he said."

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Churchill's Indian Famine