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11 - Churchill, India and Race

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 January 2023

Allen Packwood
Affiliation:
Churchill College, Cambridge
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Summary

The chapter sees India as a stain on Churchill’s reputation. As a young officer, Churchill spent twenty-two months in India, representing his longest concentrated stay outside of Britain, but his prejudice against Anglo-Indians meant that he engaged only with the elites of British India and remained isolated. The Empire and its permanence became the bedrock of a deep-seated conviction just at the time of India’s nationalist upsurge for self-rule and independence. He condemned the Amritsar massacre but thereafter opposed all ideas for Indian political evolution. The fact that he held no responsibility for India affairs apart from May 1940 to July 1945 did not stop him speaking about the subcontinent. His campaign against the India Act of 1935 was conducted at enormous political cost to himself and left the leaders of the Indian independence movement embittered, contributing to Hindu–Muslim polarisation. During the Second World War Churchill manipulated Britain’s response to the Indian independence movement, titling policy in favour of Jinnah and the creation of Pakistan. His response to the Bengal Famine has to be framed in terms of race.

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Chapter
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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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References

Further Reading

Brendon, P., The Decline and Fall of the British Empire, 1781–1997 (London: Vintage, 2008)Google Scholar
Churchill, W. S., India (London: Butterworth, 1931)Google Scholar
Herman, A., Gandhi and Churchill (New York: Bantam Dell, 2008)Google Scholar
Mukerjee, M., Churchill’s Secret War: The British Empire and the Ravaging of India During World War II (London: Basic Books, 2010)Google Scholar
Rana, K. S., Churchill and India: Manipulation or Betrayal? (New Delhi: Routledge, 2022)Google Scholar
von Tunzelmann, A., Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire (London: Simon & Schuster, 2007)Google Scholar

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