In February, an academic event at Oxford University presented an ill-informed historical caricature of Winston Churchill’s role in the Bengal Famine. Whatever one’s views about the man, the subject of history deserves better treatment. Here, Zareer Masani for The Critic provides an alternative, more nuanced account supported by historical knowledge more than personal opinion:
Much of Mukerjee’s case against Churchill rests not on his actions but on hisvarious racist comments about Indians, and Bengalis in particular. Most of these have been taken out of context. Churchill was certainly no friend to Indian nationalist leaders, most of whom he regarded as moralising humbugs. He was an unashamed imperialist, like many of his generation, and committed to maintaining India’s unity within the British Empire.
Photo Credit: Marcos Pena Jnr at Unsplash