Summary:
The recently released movie 'Darkest Hour' about the British resistance to German bombardment of London during World War II stretches the truth in many places to embellish its lead protagonist, Sir Winston Churchill, with an eye towards Academy Award nominations. Churchill's tendency to conflate and hold onto his beliefs steadfastly in the face of contrary evidence (as he himself put it - "I therefore adopted quite early in life a system of believing whatever I wanted to believe while at the same time leaving reason to pursue untethered whatever paths she was capable of treading") would have sufficed to land Gary Oldman an award. From his puffery in The Story of the Malakand Field Force to his disastrous decision to sacrifice 57000 lives in pursuit of a delusional campaign at Gallipoli in First World War to the disastrous handling of India during Second World War, Churchill left enough material to construct a flawed character that would appeal to Academy voters.
During his reign as Prime Minister of Britain during Second World War, Churchill crowed that 'I have not become the King's First Minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire'. However, by the time he was booted out of office in the July 1945 British elections, his resistance to seeing things as they were, had ensured that the liquidation of British Empire would be disorderly and chaotic, leaving millions dead, countless others displaced and giving birth to countries that remain at each others' throats. His conviction that British Empire was good and worth holding onto even after Second World War, precluded any meaningful planning on the part of British for handing over power to Indians. After Labor Party trounced Churchill's Tories in the elections, the retrenchment by British meant that the crown jewel of its empire would become independent but Britain would do it on the cheap and in a hurry, without any proper planning or forethought.
The blood of millions of Indians who lost their lives in famines during British rule and during Partition is on the hands of Britain. The mass death of Indians under British rule was its feature, not a bug. At the beginning of their imperial odyssey, when they became masters of Bengal in 1770's, it saw a massive famine that led to 10 million deaths. Towards the end of their rule, Bengal famine of 1943 killed 3 million, as a conservative estimate. That does not take into account people in Orissa and Madras who died due to starvation in 1943 (because rice from those areas was shifted to Bengal to feed the famine victims after the suffering made headlines across the world). Madras suffered repeated famines in 1783, 1792, 1807, 1813, 1823, 1834 and 1854 to take an example. The British response to the famines and general wretchedness of India was to paint it as essential Indian condition, absolving themselves of any responsibility even though it happened under their watch. In denying their culpability for mass deaths of Indians, Britain in general and Churchill in particular were made for each other. This book is about how Churchill's insistence on treating India as the resource base for military, manufacturing and food for British War effort during Second World War, in conjunction with his avowed racism towards Hindus made the Bengal famine of 1943 even worse than what it would have been under regular British rule.
Stalin and Hitler are rightly condemned as mass murderers but Churchill is feted as a hero for leading the defense of Britain and saving the West, after Second World War. Churchill's delusions about Hindus sets the tone for British policies towards Indians in general (and Hindus in particular) during Second World War that would eventually lead to mass deaths during the famine and culminate in the violence of Partition. It moves forward in 2 parallel tracks - one marshaling evidence (or at least what has been allowed in the public domain by British government) to show how Churchill and British Administration in Colonial India made the famine more devastating in its impact and two, tracing individual Indian characters who fought for Indian Independence and organized Famine Relief. It is very nice to read about heroic work of specific Indian men and women instead of generalities (which never seems to happen to Europeans in history books). The bias in treating Bengali freedom fighters with kid gloves shows throughout the book to the extent even Mir Qasim comes across as a noble character even though Mir Jafar still remains the Raja of Pudukottai of his day.
Analysis:
I watched the movie Gandhi in school when it was released because we were 'encouraged' by our school to go see it. It provided a very simplistic view of how one man, through the force of his ideas, succeeded in getting the British out of India. I was not that interested in history at that time (in spite of my father's attempts to nurture it) but the experience was a lot of fun because I watched it with my classmates. After that, I have seen it one or two times on TV and usually did not have the patience to finish it because my opinion of Gandhi as a leader (and a father) is none too complementary. When I read this book, I remembered not seeing Churchill or a reference to Bengal famine in the movie and
knowing it was primarily a British affair (written and directed by Britons even though it was partly produced by NFDC) made that fact stand out. After all, the context of the movie is the freedom struggle and the primary opponent of Gandhi through Second World War was Churchill. Reading this book gives a good idea why British establishment airbrushed Churchill out of the movie on all matters pertaining to India's freedom struggle.
British poison seeped into India with the acquisition of Bengal by British East India Company in 1770's. Immediately, they set about exporting the riches of Bengal to Britain and the ruthless efficiency of their operations resulted in the famine of 1770's that killed 10 million people, close to a third of the region's population. In mid 1600's, an European travel writer had described Bengal as "the finest and most fruitful country in the world'. Between 1766 and 1768, Bengal exported ten times worth its imports and the profits from those exports flowed to British East India Company. The level of food exports reached 10 million pounds annually by 1900. With the exception of the years from 1856 - 1862 (when Rail lines were being built in India at a feverish pace), Britain exported food and cash out of Colonial India without giving anything consequential in return. In case of Cotton, they exported raw cotton out of Colonial India (because the capacity of arable land in Britain did not suffice to produce the required amount of raw cotton) while dumping finished cotton goods back into Colonial India. This allowed Britain to supercharge its growth through Industrial Revolution and get a head start of almost 50 years over its competitors. Its banks also made money, lending to US and Germany as those countries started on their Industrial Revolution. Within a few years, the 2 countries had outpaced Britain owing to higher productivity and innovation. Britain charged Colonial India a 20 million pounds per year Home Charge that covered the expenses of overseas wars where Colonial Indian soldiers participated, Interest on Railway investments, Pensions for British Citizens employed in Colonial India and all the expenses for India House in London's Leadenhall Street. The Colonial Indian Administration charged rents, Interest and other dues on cultivators to pay the Home Charge back to Britain while at the same time, shipping crop output to Britain. While Railways allowed the different parts of Colonial India to be linked together, debt service on its construction costs was 10,000 Rupees per Indian per Year when the revenue for each Indian was around 20 - 30 Rupees per Year. The sustained level of food exports led to Colonial India becoming a net importer of food under colonial rule, from being a net exporter in pre-colonial days. It also led to famines and death when crops failed. Only now, the famines were spread over a larger area than before because the trains could take away grains from a much larger area. With British rule, famine and hunger became the feature of Colonial Indian life (even though European life in Colonial India continued on without missing a beat). Since Bengal was the richest province when British East India Company's malevolent venture succeeded, it also fell the hardest. Bengal was also the venue for Partition announced by Lord Curzon in 1905. Religion in India has always been important and ill-defined, leading to exchange of ideas between different religious groups. For British (and Europeans in general), any religion other than Christianity was inferior. They begrudgingly treated Islam and Judaism slightly better as fellow religionists of the Book. Polytheistic religions like Hinduism represented depravity to a majority of British officers in the Colonial Indian Administration. Curzon's partition of Bengal was rooted in separating it into religiously contiguous areas. It was withdrawn in 1911 owing to furious resistance in the form of protests and bombings and led to repression from British. British proceeded in baby steps in granting self government to Indians - Montague Chelmsford reforms, Simon Commission etc.,.). Predominantly white Australia, Canada and New Zealand had been granted Dominion status in 1907.
Churchill's view of Indians, shaped by his readings of Charles Darwin, Thomas Malthus and Thomas Babington Macaulay, would now be recognized as Social Darwinism (As he wrote about 1898 famine, "a Philosopher may watch unmoved the destruction of some of the superfluous millions whose life must of necessity be destitute of pleasure'). After his service as a Colonial officer (that primarily included being waited on by servants, reading books and playing polo) in the 4th Queen's Own Hussars, a cavalry regiment, Churchill had been elected to the House of Commons at the young age of 25, riding on the popularity of his books and stood steadfastly against any notion of self-government for Indians. He succeeded in some of his efforts and failed in others - one of his notable successes being the charade that ended up being the First Round Table conference in London with Gandhi (as representative of Congress) seated in equal footing with merchants, princes, landlords and representatives of religious groups. He lost money when Depression hit in 1929. British government continued to collect taxes and duties in Colonial India during Depression while at the same time shipping out melted gold (to the tune of 3.4 billion Rupees) to support London's position as Financial hub. During the 1930's, as British government moved to open up opportunities for Indians in Britain and Colonial India, Churchill's resolute opposition relegated him to opposition back benches.
When Second World War broke out, Churchill became Prime Minister of Great Britain replacing Neville Chamberlain. He appointed his contemporary, Leopold S Amery as the Secretary of State for India. Lord Linlithgow, who was the viceroy of Colonial India at that time, announced its participation in the war without consulting Indian political leaders. In response, Congress was split between different camps - Bose thought Britain and Germany were cut from the same cloth and wanted to use the leverage over Britain during the war to push for Independence, Nehru detested fascism but did not think supporting British without future assurances on Indian Independence was good either, Gandhi abhorred violence but abhorred Nazis even more (and so was more open to supporting Britain during the war than Nehru or Bose). In his desire to stop Bose, Gandhi asked senior Congress leadership to resign their posts when Bose became Congress President in 1939, to prevent him from carrying out his strategy. Bose resigned in protest and struck out on his own. Congress deliberations led to the 'Poona Offer' that promised Indian participation in the war if the Viceroy could give assurances on the status of India after the war. When Lord Linlithgow refused, Congress asked its ministers (who had taken power after the 1937 elections) to resign which provided an open invitation for Muslim League to build and consolidate its political power (which Jinnah promptly proceeded to do). The stalemate in negotiations worked in British favor as they could proceed with ramping up their efforts to put Colonial India's men, material and food supplies in service of the British war effort. Churchill wanted Amery and Linlithgow to make sure Colonial India was fully mobilized for the British war effort and that Congress was suppressed. Linlithgow obliged by sending poorly trained Colonial Indian divisions to Mediterranean and Middle Eastern theater. The decision to send Colonial Indian troops overseas also had to do with British worry that using them to defend Colonial India would lead to a repeat of 1857 War of Indian Independence. At the same time, Churchill did not want to spend any British money on the defense of Colonial India since he and (British leadership) were of the opinion that Japanese would not dare to attack Colonial India, being that they were racially inferior. As a result, Colonial India lay defenseless and unprepared. When Japanese overran Burma, there was a headlong rush by both Europeans and Indians to escape from the clutches of the Japanese forces. Europeans were well cared for in transit camps with provisions of food which Indians and Burmese in the same camp did not get. Indians and Burmese were not allowed to leave the camp owing to fear that they would spread germs.
Hitler viewed Eastern Europe as a potential colony, inspired by the success of British in making Colonial India their own. He generally admired Britain and strove to roll out British inspired colonial measures on a much larger scale. His concentration camps followed from studying the successful effort by British government to isolate Boers in South Africa after victory in the 1899 Boer War. His admiration of Britain and its English race shone through in his books and played a large role in his strategic missteps during the war.Instead of pounding Britain into submission, he diverted his focus to Soviet Union hoping a victory by Germany there would force Britain to acknowledge Germany's superiority and sue for peace. Nordic and English races would then split the world into their possessions as was their rightful due. He did not think Indians had the wherewithal to overthrow British masters and did not want them to. When Britain did not agree with his view of seeing the world, Hitler decided to attack Britain with Luftwaffe. The suffering and deprivation British people suffered as a result of the Luftwaffe attacks have been described in detail by Western authors.
When Japanese swept through South East Asia in Second World War, rice imports from Burma and Thailand (around a million tonnes) into Bengal stopped. At the same time, cash expenditures on military construction and provisions rose for the purposes of setting up defense on Colonial India border against the Japanese incursions. Shipping into Colonial India (as part of the Indian Ocean Area) was restricted so they could be diverted to deliver more food rations to 'hungry' Britons in mainland Britain. This resulted in import of food and consumer goods into India slowing to a trickle as a result of which the people with money (made from war time manufacturing and food export) bid the prices up. Higher prices of food and consumer goods priced poor people out. Colonial government spending was also focused on military purposes leaving very little for domestic spending that would have put money in the hands of people to purchase food. The food that was available domestically within India was commandeered for the war effort as a result of which some landowners decided to hoard grains (to hedge against the lack of food availability).
Churchill had put in place a Denial policy that required Colonial India to practice scorched earth tactics to stem the progress of Japanese. This included getting rid of bicycles, boats to deprive Japanese of easy means of mobility (as Bengal was navigable by rivers) and commandeer the winter crop that year. The harvested crop was then moved to godowns and British government worked hand in glove with a Muslim League sympathizer, Mirza Ahmed Ispahani to buy up rice on the market. This left the landless exposed (in most cases, literally because the cotton exports from Colonial India for the British War effort had made clothing goods costlier and out of reach for the poor) and without access to food. When the winter crop in October 1942 failed due to cyclone, famine conditions set in. The winter crop would have been harvested in December of that year. The Civil Supplies Department of the Colonial Indian Administration had bought out all the rice on the market, leaving only a quarter of the required rice supply for cyclone relief. With the Japanese occupation of South East Asia, rice imports into Bengal also stopped. Since British priorities during the war were winning the war and suppressing Congress, they did not pay enough attention to the lack of food for the general public.
To ensure favorable exchange rate, Britain had fixed the Sterling Rupee exchange rate. Colonial India and Britain had signed cost sharing pact by which Colonial India would pay for supplies and operations required to protect itself and British Far East possessions while Britain would pay for military supplies produced in Colonial India and manpower used in overseas war operations. Britain agreed to maintain a Sterling account for the expenses incurred which could only be used after the war thereby hobbling Colonial India of cash supply at a crucial time. To keep up with British War Cabinet demands on Colonial India, the Viceroy resorted to printing Rupees against the Sterling balance - Taxes and duties were already very high and so could not be raised even further. This led to inflation that then led to price of essentials goods skyrocketing. Since entire industries in India including Cotton, Jute, Timber were earmarked for British War effort, it swelled the Sterling Balance. In normal times, sustained exports of goods and military supplies would have led to appreciation of the Rupee. However, because of the inflationary policies of the Viceroy, the Sterling Balance ended up being 1/3rd of what it would have been in the absence of Rupee printing.
Britain did not cultivate its own food supply and relied mainly on imports to feed its population. The reach of British Empire provided favorable terms for the food imports. At the beginning of the war, War Cabinet had designated 3 months of food supply as the minimum requirement to withstand supply disruptions. This was based on the experience with supply disruptions when German U-boats sunk British shipping in World War I. Churchill's adviser on food requirements for British Empire was Lord Chrewell. Born Frederick Alexander Lindemann in Germany, he was a vegetarian and teetotaler. He also happened to believe that poverty was the poor person's fault. He provided his analysis for an audience of one (Churchill) over the objections of the rest of the War Cabinet. Since Churchill liked Beef, Chocolate and Candy, they occupied a prime place in Lord Chrewell's requirements for British rations (in spite of studies showing nutrition extraction ratio was better for some powdered foods that did not require refrigeration). The downside to this approach was that these foods had to be refrigerated en route and needed capacity that was only available in troop carriers. To ensure British people did not have to fight on an empty stomach, Churchill depended on Lord Chrewell's analysis in determining shipping tonnage that would be allocated to food imports. US produced the ships and would allocate the shipping tonnage in Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and Britain would do the same for Indian Ocean. US had extended Lend Lease program to Britain before the war so Britain obtained these benefits on relaxed terms.However, Churchill was afraid that the food imports would balloon the debt that Britain would have to pay after the war. Lord Chrewell put up a stiff opposition when Colonial Indian Administration desperately requested rice and wheat supplies to be sent to Bengal to mitigate the famine's impact there. His manipulation of the minimum food requirements needed for Britain public meant that Britain already had civilian food stocks that was 3.1 million tons higher than the essential level (11.5 million tons) mandated by the Shipping Committee during the war and 4.8 million tons above the minimum level (9.8 million tons) specified by the Ministry of Production. Churchill looked at the civilian food stocks as a way of maintaining strategic leverage after the end of the war when food prices would be high and British would have significant amount of debt. To ensure supplies were maintained at this level, he mandated the shipping traffic in Indian Ocean Area be reduced to lower levels to enable the ships to bring food supplies to Britain. Wartime British rations included red meats, butter, Cheese, Tea, Sugar and Jam. In the end, Britain sent 30,000 tons of wheat to Colonial India against a request of 600,000 tons. By that time, the famine had worsened and people started dying in large numbers. Even as the famine was raging on, Bengal exported 70,000 tons of wheat between January and July of 1943. German U-boat attacks effectiveness at sinking Allied ships decreased at the same time US production capacity of those ships increased. Churchill maintained that wheat had to be exported from Bengal to supply Balkans to mitigate food shortages there. The shortage of rice and wheat in Bengal led to thinning of the rice in the gruel used to feed people in famine camps. By 1943, the feeding level came down to 400 Calories per day which is the same amount of calories that Jews in Buchenwald Concentration Camp received.
While the famine was raging, British and American soldiers stationed in India were treated to five course meals owing to their importance for the war effort. The book also discusses the effect of extreme hunger and starvation on people - Children picking and eating undigested grains out of a beggar's diarrheal discharge to a mother hungrily downing rice water in front of her children and wailing after realizing what she had done to dogs gouging out flesh from barely alive people. The only positive thing when reading about the suffering is that there was no observed or recorded case of cannibalism in spite of the total lack of sustenance.
The coverage of famine in Bengal motivated Indian expatriates to announce over Axis Radio that they were ready to send rice and wheat shipments to India to alleviate the famine. Bose also offered to commandeer 100,000 tons of rice shipments for famine relief. The governments of US, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Ireland (under Eamon De Valera) and Canada offered to help with wheat supply. British government denied all the help in stark contrast to Nazi Germany that allowed International Red Cross to feed Greece when it was stricken by famine in 1941. Even after Colonial India administration received new stocks of rice and wheat (owing to some successful minor harvests), they kept most of it for the war effort and assigned pitiful amounts for famine relief. Whenever he was asked, Churchill blamed Indians for their own predicament, conveniently overlooking the fact that the Colonial India Administration and British government were in charge of the country.
The stalemate between Viceroy and Congress led to Congress passing their Quit India resolution on 16 August 1942. British response was immediate and savage and included arresting all the senior Congress leadership and party workers. They also released hard core criminals from jails pointing to the need to use that space for Congress people. The released criminals returned the favor by spying for police in their localities.
Bose had been arrested earlier and put in prison. He went on a fast and was successful in getting himself shifted to house arrest from which he escaped and made his way to Afghanistan. He then flew to Germany from Soviet Union under Italian passport. British government had issued orders to assassinate him and was expecting him to go to Germany via Iran, Iraq and Turkey. Bose entreated Hitler to assist him with an Indian Legion that would then march to Colonial India's doorstep at which point, Bose expected Indian people to rise up and overthrow the British. When Hitler declined, Bose shifted his attention to Japan in the hope that a fellow Asian power would assist him.
Given the famine conditions, it was a particularly inopportune time for Congress leaders to be arrested in Bengal since that left Indians without a voice and provided Muslim League and Communists with a golden opportunity. They both made good use of it. Communists collaborated with British as soon as Hitler had torn up Molotov Ribbentrop Pact by invading Soviet Union. Till that time, Communists were on the side of freedom fighters. With a stroke of his pen, Stalin succeeded in making collaborators out of Communists. They utilized the opportunity to engage in famine relief, suppress anti British protests and build an enduring political movement in Bengal. They were in a mind meld with British government when they blamed speculators and Japanese for the Bengal famine.
With famine spreading in Bengal, Orissa and Madras, Quit India movement was reduced to a whimper with not enough people strong enough to protest. Churchill was very happy at the turn of events but got blindsided when FDR pressed him to reach an accommodation with Congress. To mollify Americans, he sent Sir Stafford Cripps on a mission he knew would fail. With the failure of Cripps mission, FDR pressed Churchill hard to try again. Churchill vented his fury at the Americans and gloated in his memoir, The Hinge of Fate that FDR's push to make Cripps' mission a success would have left India in anarchy. After FDR died, US tried to push British to put their colonial possessions under International supervision but Britain refused. In July 1944, British appointed a Famine commission that took care to document domestic Indian factors as bring responsible for the famine and intentionally held back (or in some cases destroyed) records that would show Britain's culpability in worsening the famine. The author demolishes each argument put forth by S branch (that Lord Chrewell led during the war) for British War Cabinet's inaction during the famine.
Churchill expected India to be split into 3 states - one for Hindus, one for Muslims and one for Princely states. He envisaged keeping Hindu India in check using Pakistan and the Princely states. With the pressure to provide some sort of self government to Indians increasing, British wanted consensus between Congress and Muslim League before granting Independence (Amery had floated an offer of granting Independence allowing the Indian political parties to stand on their own instead of using British to sway their independence negotiations but was turned down). When the consensus did not happen quickly enough after the war, British announced their date of departure from Colonial India and quit, leading to the horrific violence of the Partition. Knowing they had the support of British, Muslim League and Jinnah played hardball with the negotiations (there have been rumors of Churchill even offering to look the other way if Pakistan invaded a defenseless India after both nations became independent) at the Shimla Conference. Jinnah torpedoed the conference by insisting on the right to only include Muslims affiliated with Muslim League.
Churchill was defeated in British elections held in July 1945 with the end of the war and Labor party came to power. In elections held across India in 1946, Muslim League and Communists did very well as they were the public face of famine relief (with Congress leaders and party workers having been in Jail during that time). Muslim League formed government in Bengal under H S Suhrawardy. Congress did well across India and as a result of some deft political maneuvering, ended up leading the transitional government at the Center in New Delhi. This led Jinnah to call for Direct Action Day on August 16, 1946. Suhrawardy announced at a rally that police would not interfere in the killings of Hindus and the mob took it as a sign and went on a rampage in Bengal. Even as the violence was raging, British were satisfied because no Europeans were harmed and refused to send out Army to contain the violence. By the time they sent it out, the killers had exhausted themselves with their grisly work.
Churchill was very clear on his views of Indians - He took it for granted that British were racially superior and their Imperial hand had kept India in a peaceable state. Amongst Indians, he considered Muslims to be martial and as such, was inclined to support their political aspirations. That it provided a way to pigeonhole Congress into a party for Hindus was just frosting on the cake for him. He was not happy when Muslims in NWFP under Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan took the side of Congress because it seemed to puncture his deeply held views on martial races. He viewed Hindu Muslim unity as anathema to British Empire's sustainability in Colonial India. He used whichever argument was conveniently available to justify holding onto British Empire even after the Second World War. In early 1930's, in his view, British were indispensable in Colonial India to keep the different religious communities from killing each other. In 1940's, his directions to Linlithgow was to ensure that unity among the different religions did not happen since they would then gang up on British. In March 1940, Churchill, referred to the Muslim League demand for Pakistan as 'a new spirit of self-reliance and self-assertiveness'. After the violence in Bengal leading up to Independence, Churchill crowed about being prescient that Indians needed British to live amicably and peaceably with each other, glossing over the intentional policies of Colonial Indian Administration to sow discord between the different religions as a way of holding onto their rule. Churchill's racist views were responsible, in a large part, to him rolling out poorly considered measures that resulted in mass deaths (due to famine) and killings (due to Partition). Later towards the end of his life, Churchill seemed to have a change of heart about Indians but no writings to that effect survive. The published writings of Churchill that are studied and analysed for historical purposes still paint a portrait of Hindus as a 'beastly people with a beastly religion'.
Geneva convention ratified in 1949 after the Second World War says (in part),'To the fullest extent of the means available to it, the Occupying power has the duty of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population; it should, in particular, bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other articles if the resources of the Occupied territory are inadequate'. British War Cabinet had the decisive say in Shipping. Local political representatives (Congress) were put in prison as British military intelligence estimated India to be a hostile or occupied territory. British War Cabinet under Churchill turned down requests from other nations to send food and medical aid. Going by the activities of Winston Churchill led British Government, they could be plausibly be accused of War crimes.
In a functioning democracy like India, famine usually does not occur because political representatives are held accountable by the people who are suffering (and by media who monitor the facts on the ground). The power imbalance in Colonial India between the British Administration and Indian subjects meant Britain could deny famine aid to Indians while at the same time increasing food supplies for the British people (to whom they were accountable). According to Hannah Arendt, Racism is a direct consequence of Imperialism - Race thinking involves slotting humans into various categories based on their perceived characteristics and is done by pretty much everyone. It is only when those categories are ranked from high to low that its real world effects become racist. The only way an Imperial power like Britain can justify its subjugation of Indians was through Racism. Whenever the subject of mass murders are discussed, Stalin and Hitler are the first choices. Churchill should be included in that illustrious company and a possible reason he is not there yet, might be that the victims of Churchill led British government during the war were not white (as was the case with Stalin and Hitler's victims).
Other Books of Reference:
Churchill and Orwell: The Fight for Freedom Thomas E Ricks
Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age by Arthur Herman
The recently released movie 'Darkest Hour' about the British resistance to German bombardment of London during World War II stretches the truth in many places to embellish its lead protagonist, Sir Winston Churchill, with an eye towards Academy Award nominations. Churchill's tendency to conflate and hold onto his beliefs steadfastly in the face of contrary evidence (as he himself put it - "I therefore adopted quite early in life a system of believing whatever I wanted to believe while at the same time leaving reason to pursue untethered whatever paths she was capable of treading") would have sufficed to land Gary Oldman an award. From his puffery in The Story of the Malakand Field Force to his disastrous decision to sacrifice 57000 lives in pursuit of a delusional campaign at Gallipoli in First World War to the disastrous handling of India during Second World War, Churchill left enough material to construct a flawed character that would appeal to Academy voters.
During his reign as Prime Minister of Britain during Second World War, Churchill crowed that 'I have not become the King's First Minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire'. However, by the time he was booted out of office in the July 1945 British elections, his resistance to seeing things as they were, had ensured that the liquidation of British Empire would be disorderly and chaotic, leaving millions dead, countless others displaced and giving birth to countries that remain at each others' throats. His conviction that British Empire was good and worth holding onto even after Second World War, precluded any meaningful planning on the part of British for handing over power to Indians. After Labor Party trounced Churchill's Tories in the elections, the retrenchment by British meant that the crown jewel of its empire would become independent but Britain would do it on the cheap and in a hurry, without any proper planning or forethought.
The blood of millions of Indians who lost their lives in famines during British rule and during Partition is on the hands of Britain. The mass death of Indians under British rule was its feature, not a bug. At the beginning of their imperial odyssey, when they became masters of Bengal in 1770's, it saw a massive famine that led to 10 million deaths. Towards the end of their rule, Bengal famine of 1943 killed 3 million, as a conservative estimate. That does not take into account people in Orissa and Madras who died due to starvation in 1943 (because rice from those areas was shifted to Bengal to feed the famine victims after the suffering made headlines across the world). Madras suffered repeated famines in 1783, 1792, 1807, 1813, 1823, 1834 and 1854 to take an example. The British response to the famines and general wretchedness of India was to paint it as essential Indian condition, absolving themselves of any responsibility even though it happened under their watch. In denying their culpability for mass deaths of Indians, Britain in general and Churchill in particular were made for each other. This book is about how Churchill's insistence on treating India as the resource base for military, manufacturing and food for British War effort during Second World War, in conjunction with his avowed racism towards Hindus made the Bengal famine of 1943 even worse than what it would have been under regular British rule.
Stalin and Hitler are rightly condemned as mass murderers but Churchill is feted as a hero for leading the defense of Britain and saving the West, after Second World War. Churchill's delusions about Hindus sets the tone for British policies towards Indians in general (and Hindus in particular) during Second World War that would eventually lead to mass deaths during the famine and culminate in the violence of Partition. It moves forward in 2 parallel tracks - one marshaling evidence (or at least what has been allowed in the public domain by British government) to show how Churchill and British Administration in Colonial India made the famine more devastating in its impact and two, tracing individual Indian characters who fought for Indian Independence and organized Famine Relief. It is very nice to read about heroic work of specific Indian men and women instead of generalities (which never seems to happen to Europeans in history books). The bias in treating Bengali freedom fighters with kid gloves shows throughout the book to the extent even Mir Qasim comes across as a noble character even though Mir Jafar still remains the Raja of Pudukottai of his day.
Analysis:
I watched the movie Gandhi in school when it was released because we were 'encouraged' by our school to go see it. It provided a very simplistic view of how one man, through the force of his ideas, succeeded in getting the British out of India. I was not that interested in history at that time (in spite of my father's attempts to nurture it) but the experience was a lot of fun because I watched it with my classmates. After that, I have seen it one or two times on TV and usually did not have the patience to finish it because my opinion of Gandhi as a leader (and a father) is none too complementary. When I read this book, I remembered not seeing Churchill or a reference to Bengal famine in the movie and
knowing it was primarily a British affair (written and directed by Britons even though it was partly produced by NFDC) made that fact stand out. After all, the context of the movie is the freedom struggle and the primary opponent of Gandhi through Second World War was Churchill. Reading this book gives a good idea why British establishment airbrushed Churchill out of the movie on all matters pertaining to India's freedom struggle.
British poison seeped into India with the acquisition of Bengal by British East India Company in 1770's. Immediately, they set about exporting the riches of Bengal to Britain and the ruthless efficiency of their operations resulted in the famine of 1770's that killed 10 million people, close to a third of the region's population. In mid 1600's, an European travel writer had described Bengal as "the finest and most fruitful country in the world'. Between 1766 and 1768, Bengal exported ten times worth its imports and the profits from those exports flowed to British East India Company. The level of food exports reached 10 million pounds annually by 1900. With the exception of the years from 1856 - 1862 (when Rail lines were being built in India at a feverish pace), Britain exported food and cash out of Colonial India without giving anything consequential in return. In case of Cotton, they exported raw cotton out of Colonial India (because the capacity of arable land in Britain did not suffice to produce the required amount of raw cotton) while dumping finished cotton goods back into Colonial India. This allowed Britain to supercharge its growth through Industrial Revolution and get a head start of almost 50 years over its competitors. Its banks also made money, lending to US and Germany as those countries started on their Industrial Revolution. Within a few years, the 2 countries had outpaced Britain owing to higher productivity and innovation. Britain charged Colonial India a 20 million pounds per year Home Charge that covered the expenses of overseas wars where Colonial Indian soldiers participated, Interest on Railway investments, Pensions for British Citizens employed in Colonial India and all the expenses for India House in London's Leadenhall Street. The Colonial Indian Administration charged rents, Interest and other dues on cultivators to pay the Home Charge back to Britain while at the same time, shipping crop output to Britain. While Railways allowed the different parts of Colonial India to be linked together, debt service on its construction costs was 10,000 Rupees per Indian per Year when the revenue for each Indian was around 20 - 30 Rupees per Year. The sustained level of food exports led to Colonial India becoming a net importer of food under colonial rule, from being a net exporter in pre-colonial days. It also led to famines and death when crops failed. Only now, the famines were spread over a larger area than before because the trains could take away grains from a much larger area. With British rule, famine and hunger became the feature of Colonial Indian life (even though European life in Colonial India continued on without missing a beat). Since Bengal was the richest province when British East India Company's malevolent venture succeeded, it also fell the hardest. Bengal was also the venue for Partition announced by Lord Curzon in 1905. Religion in India has always been important and ill-defined, leading to exchange of ideas between different religious groups. For British (and Europeans in general), any religion other than Christianity was inferior. They begrudgingly treated Islam and Judaism slightly better as fellow religionists of the Book. Polytheistic religions like Hinduism represented depravity to a majority of British officers in the Colonial Indian Administration. Curzon's partition of Bengal was rooted in separating it into religiously contiguous areas. It was withdrawn in 1911 owing to furious resistance in the form of protests and bombings and led to repression from British. British proceeded in baby steps in granting self government to Indians - Montague Chelmsford reforms, Simon Commission etc.,.). Predominantly white Australia, Canada and New Zealand had been granted Dominion status in 1907.
Churchill's view of Indians, shaped by his readings of Charles Darwin, Thomas Malthus and Thomas Babington Macaulay, would now be recognized as Social Darwinism (As he wrote about 1898 famine, "a Philosopher may watch unmoved the destruction of some of the superfluous millions whose life must of necessity be destitute of pleasure'). After his service as a Colonial officer (that primarily included being waited on by servants, reading books and playing polo) in the 4th Queen's Own Hussars, a cavalry regiment, Churchill had been elected to the House of Commons at the young age of 25, riding on the popularity of his books and stood steadfastly against any notion of self-government for Indians. He succeeded in some of his efforts and failed in others - one of his notable successes being the charade that ended up being the First Round Table conference in London with Gandhi (as representative of Congress) seated in equal footing with merchants, princes, landlords and representatives of religious groups. He lost money when Depression hit in 1929. British government continued to collect taxes and duties in Colonial India during Depression while at the same time shipping out melted gold (to the tune of 3.4 billion Rupees) to support London's position as Financial hub. During the 1930's, as British government moved to open up opportunities for Indians in Britain and Colonial India, Churchill's resolute opposition relegated him to opposition back benches.
When Second World War broke out, Churchill became Prime Minister of Great Britain replacing Neville Chamberlain. He appointed his contemporary, Leopold S Amery as the Secretary of State for India. Lord Linlithgow, who was the viceroy of Colonial India at that time, announced its participation in the war without consulting Indian political leaders. In response, Congress was split between different camps - Bose thought Britain and Germany were cut from the same cloth and wanted to use the leverage over Britain during the war to push for Independence, Nehru detested fascism but did not think supporting British without future assurances on Indian Independence was good either, Gandhi abhorred violence but abhorred Nazis even more (and so was more open to supporting Britain during the war than Nehru or Bose). In his desire to stop Bose, Gandhi asked senior Congress leadership to resign their posts when Bose became Congress President in 1939, to prevent him from carrying out his strategy. Bose resigned in protest and struck out on his own. Congress deliberations led to the 'Poona Offer' that promised Indian participation in the war if the Viceroy could give assurances on the status of India after the war. When Lord Linlithgow refused, Congress asked its ministers (who had taken power after the 1937 elections) to resign which provided an open invitation for Muslim League to build and consolidate its political power (which Jinnah promptly proceeded to do). The stalemate in negotiations worked in British favor as they could proceed with ramping up their efforts to put Colonial India's men, material and food supplies in service of the British war effort. Churchill wanted Amery and Linlithgow to make sure Colonial India was fully mobilized for the British war effort and that Congress was suppressed. Linlithgow obliged by sending poorly trained Colonial Indian divisions to Mediterranean and Middle Eastern theater. The decision to send Colonial Indian troops overseas also had to do with British worry that using them to defend Colonial India would lead to a repeat of 1857 War of Indian Independence. At the same time, Churchill did not want to spend any British money on the defense of Colonial India since he and (British leadership) were of the opinion that Japanese would not dare to attack Colonial India, being that they were racially inferior. As a result, Colonial India lay defenseless and unprepared. When Japanese overran Burma, there was a headlong rush by both Europeans and Indians to escape from the clutches of the Japanese forces. Europeans were well cared for in transit camps with provisions of food which Indians and Burmese in the same camp did not get. Indians and Burmese were not allowed to leave the camp owing to fear that they would spread germs.
Hitler viewed Eastern Europe as a potential colony, inspired by the success of British in making Colonial India their own. He generally admired Britain and strove to roll out British inspired colonial measures on a much larger scale. His concentration camps followed from studying the successful effort by British government to isolate Boers in South Africa after victory in the 1899 Boer War. His admiration of Britain and its English race shone through in his books and played a large role in his strategic missteps during the war.Instead of pounding Britain into submission, he diverted his focus to Soviet Union hoping a victory by Germany there would force Britain to acknowledge Germany's superiority and sue for peace. Nordic and English races would then split the world into their possessions as was their rightful due. He did not think Indians had the wherewithal to overthrow British masters and did not want them to. When Britain did not agree with his view of seeing the world, Hitler decided to attack Britain with Luftwaffe. The suffering and deprivation British people suffered as a result of the Luftwaffe attacks have been described in detail by Western authors.
When Japanese swept through South East Asia in Second World War, rice imports from Burma and Thailand (around a million tonnes) into Bengal stopped. At the same time, cash expenditures on military construction and provisions rose for the purposes of setting up defense on Colonial India border against the Japanese incursions. Shipping into Colonial India (as part of the Indian Ocean Area) was restricted so they could be diverted to deliver more food rations to 'hungry' Britons in mainland Britain. This resulted in import of food and consumer goods into India slowing to a trickle as a result of which the people with money (made from war time manufacturing and food export) bid the prices up. Higher prices of food and consumer goods priced poor people out. Colonial government spending was also focused on military purposes leaving very little for domestic spending that would have put money in the hands of people to purchase food. The food that was available domestically within India was commandeered for the war effort as a result of which some landowners decided to hoard grains (to hedge against the lack of food availability).
Churchill had put in place a Denial policy that required Colonial India to practice scorched earth tactics to stem the progress of Japanese. This included getting rid of bicycles, boats to deprive Japanese of easy means of mobility (as Bengal was navigable by rivers) and commandeer the winter crop that year. The harvested crop was then moved to godowns and British government worked hand in glove with a Muslim League sympathizer, Mirza Ahmed Ispahani to buy up rice on the market. This left the landless exposed (in most cases, literally because the cotton exports from Colonial India for the British War effort had made clothing goods costlier and out of reach for the poor) and without access to food. When the winter crop in October 1942 failed due to cyclone, famine conditions set in. The winter crop would have been harvested in December of that year. The Civil Supplies Department of the Colonial Indian Administration had bought out all the rice on the market, leaving only a quarter of the required rice supply for cyclone relief. With the Japanese occupation of South East Asia, rice imports into Bengal also stopped. Since British priorities during the war were winning the war and suppressing Congress, they did not pay enough attention to the lack of food for the general public.
To ensure favorable exchange rate, Britain had fixed the Sterling Rupee exchange rate. Colonial India and Britain had signed cost sharing pact by which Colonial India would pay for supplies and operations required to protect itself and British Far East possessions while Britain would pay for military supplies produced in Colonial India and manpower used in overseas war operations. Britain agreed to maintain a Sterling account for the expenses incurred which could only be used after the war thereby hobbling Colonial India of cash supply at a crucial time. To keep up with British War Cabinet demands on Colonial India, the Viceroy resorted to printing Rupees against the Sterling balance - Taxes and duties were already very high and so could not be raised even further. This led to inflation that then led to price of essentials goods skyrocketing. Since entire industries in India including Cotton, Jute, Timber were earmarked for British War effort, it swelled the Sterling Balance. In normal times, sustained exports of goods and military supplies would have led to appreciation of the Rupee. However, because of the inflationary policies of the Viceroy, the Sterling Balance ended up being 1/3rd of what it would have been in the absence of Rupee printing.
Britain did not cultivate its own food supply and relied mainly on imports to feed its population. The reach of British Empire provided favorable terms for the food imports. At the beginning of the war, War Cabinet had designated 3 months of food supply as the minimum requirement to withstand supply disruptions. This was based on the experience with supply disruptions when German U-boats sunk British shipping in World War I. Churchill's adviser on food requirements for British Empire was Lord Chrewell. Born Frederick Alexander Lindemann in Germany, he was a vegetarian and teetotaler. He also happened to believe that poverty was the poor person's fault. He provided his analysis for an audience of one (Churchill) over the objections of the rest of the War Cabinet. Since Churchill liked Beef, Chocolate and Candy, they occupied a prime place in Lord Chrewell's requirements for British rations (in spite of studies showing nutrition extraction ratio was better for some powdered foods that did not require refrigeration). The downside to this approach was that these foods had to be refrigerated en route and needed capacity that was only available in troop carriers. To ensure British people did not have to fight on an empty stomach, Churchill depended on Lord Chrewell's analysis in determining shipping tonnage that would be allocated to food imports. US produced the ships and would allocate the shipping tonnage in Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and Britain would do the same for Indian Ocean. US had extended Lend Lease program to Britain before the war so Britain obtained these benefits on relaxed terms.However, Churchill was afraid that the food imports would balloon the debt that Britain would have to pay after the war. Lord Chrewell put up a stiff opposition when Colonial Indian Administration desperately requested rice and wheat supplies to be sent to Bengal to mitigate the famine's impact there. His manipulation of the minimum food requirements needed for Britain public meant that Britain already had civilian food stocks that was 3.1 million tons higher than the essential level (11.5 million tons) mandated by the Shipping Committee during the war and 4.8 million tons above the minimum level (9.8 million tons) specified by the Ministry of Production. Churchill looked at the civilian food stocks as a way of maintaining strategic leverage after the end of the war when food prices would be high and British would have significant amount of debt. To ensure supplies were maintained at this level, he mandated the shipping traffic in Indian Ocean Area be reduced to lower levels to enable the ships to bring food supplies to Britain. Wartime British rations included red meats, butter, Cheese, Tea, Sugar and Jam. In the end, Britain sent 30,000 tons of wheat to Colonial India against a request of 600,000 tons. By that time, the famine had worsened and people started dying in large numbers. Even as the famine was raging on, Bengal exported 70,000 tons of wheat between January and July of 1943. German U-boat attacks effectiveness at sinking Allied ships decreased at the same time US production capacity of those ships increased. Churchill maintained that wheat had to be exported from Bengal to supply Balkans to mitigate food shortages there. The shortage of rice and wheat in Bengal led to thinning of the rice in the gruel used to feed people in famine camps. By 1943, the feeding level came down to 400 Calories per day which is the same amount of calories that Jews in Buchenwald Concentration Camp received.
While the famine was raging, British and American soldiers stationed in India were treated to five course meals owing to their importance for the war effort. The book also discusses the effect of extreme hunger and starvation on people - Children picking and eating undigested grains out of a beggar's diarrheal discharge to a mother hungrily downing rice water in front of her children and wailing after realizing what she had done to dogs gouging out flesh from barely alive people. The only positive thing when reading about the suffering is that there was no observed or recorded case of cannibalism in spite of the total lack of sustenance.
The coverage of famine in Bengal motivated Indian expatriates to announce over Axis Radio that they were ready to send rice and wheat shipments to India to alleviate the famine. Bose also offered to commandeer 100,000 tons of rice shipments for famine relief. The governments of US, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Ireland (under Eamon De Valera) and Canada offered to help with wheat supply. British government denied all the help in stark contrast to Nazi Germany that allowed International Red Cross to feed Greece when it was stricken by famine in 1941. Even after Colonial India administration received new stocks of rice and wheat (owing to some successful minor harvests), they kept most of it for the war effort and assigned pitiful amounts for famine relief. Whenever he was asked, Churchill blamed Indians for their own predicament, conveniently overlooking the fact that the Colonial India Administration and British government were in charge of the country.
The stalemate between Viceroy and Congress led to Congress passing their Quit India resolution on 16 August 1942. British response was immediate and savage and included arresting all the senior Congress leadership and party workers. They also released hard core criminals from jails pointing to the need to use that space for Congress people. The released criminals returned the favor by spying for police in their localities.
Bose had been arrested earlier and put in prison. He went on a fast and was successful in getting himself shifted to house arrest from which he escaped and made his way to Afghanistan. He then flew to Germany from Soviet Union under Italian passport. British government had issued orders to assassinate him and was expecting him to go to Germany via Iran, Iraq and Turkey. Bose entreated Hitler to assist him with an Indian Legion that would then march to Colonial India's doorstep at which point, Bose expected Indian people to rise up and overthrow the British. When Hitler declined, Bose shifted his attention to Japan in the hope that a fellow Asian power would assist him.
Given the famine conditions, it was a particularly inopportune time for Congress leaders to be arrested in Bengal since that left Indians without a voice and provided Muslim League and Communists with a golden opportunity. They both made good use of it. Communists collaborated with British as soon as Hitler had torn up Molotov Ribbentrop Pact by invading Soviet Union. Till that time, Communists were on the side of freedom fighters. With a stroke of his pen, Stalin succeeded in making collaborators out of Communists. They utilized the opportunity to engage in famine relief, suppress anti British protests and build an enduring political movement in Bengal. They were in a mind meld with British government when they blamed speculators and Japanese for the Bengal famine.
With famine spreading in Bengal, Orissa and Madras, Quit India movement was reduced to a whimper with not enough people strong enough to protest. Churchill was very happy at the turn of events but got blindsided when FDR pressed him to reach an accommodation with Congress. To mollify Americans, he sent Sir Stafford Cripps on a mission he knew would fail. With the failure of Cripps mission, FDR pressed Churchill hard to try again. Churchill vented his fury at the Americans and gloated in his memoir, The Hinge of Fate that FDR's push to make Cripps' mission a success would have left India in anarchy. After FDR died, US tried to push British to put their colonial possessions under International supervision but Britain refused. In July 1944, British appointed a Famine commission that took care to document domestic Indian factors as bring responsible for the famine and intentionally held back (or in some cases destroyed) records that would show Britain's culpability in worsening the famine. The author demolishes each argument put forth by S branch (that Lord Chrewell led during the war) for British War Cabinet's inaction during the famine.
Churchill expected India to be split into 3 states - one for Hindus, one for Muslims and one for Princely states. He envisaged keeping Hindu India in check using Pakistan and the Princely states. With the pressure to provide some sort of self government to Indians increasing, British wanted consensus between Congress and Muslim League before granting Independence (Amery had floated an offer of granting Independence allowing the Indian political parties to stand on their own instead of using British to sway their independence negotiations but was turned down). When the consensus did not happen quickly enough after the war, British announced their date of departure from Colonial India and quit, leading to the horrific violence of the Partition. Knowing they had the support of British, Muslim League and Jinnah played hardball with the negotiations (there have been rumors of Churchill even offering to look the other way if Pakistan invaded a defenseless India after both nations became independent) at the Shimla Conference. Jinnah torpedoed the conference by insisting on the right to only include Muslims affiliated with Muslim League.
Churchill was defeated in British elections held in July 1945 with the end of the war and Labor party came to power. In elections held across India in 1946, Muslim League and Communists did very well as they were the public face of famine relief (with Congress leaders and party workers having been in Jail during that time). Muslim League formed government in Bengal under H S Suhrawardy. Congress did well across India and as a result of some deft political maneuvering, ended up leading the transitional government at the Center in New Delhi. This led Jinnah to call for Direct Action Day on August 16, 1946. Suhrawardy announced at a rally that police would not interfere in the killings of Hindus and the mob took it as a sign and went on a rampage in Bengal. Even as the violence was raging, British were satisfied because no Europeans were harmed and refused to send out Army to contain the violence. By the time they sent it out, the killers had exhausted themselves with their grisly work.
Churchill was very clear on his views of Indians - He took it for granted that British were racially superior and their Imperial hand had kept India in a peaceable state. Amongst Indians, he considered Muslims to be martial and as such, was inclined to support their political aspirations. That it provided a way to pigeonhole Congress into a party for Hindus was just frosting on the cake for him. He was not happy when Muslims in NWFP under Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan took the side of Congress because it seemed to puncture his deeply held views on martial races. He viewed Hindu Muslim unity as anathema to British Empire's sustainability in Colonial India. He used whichever argument was conveniently available to justify holding onto British Empire even after the Second World War. In early 1930's, in his view, British were indispensable in Colonial India to keep the different religious communities from killing each other. In 1940's, his directions to Linlithgow was to ensure that unity among the different religions did not happen since they would then gang up on British. In March 1940, Churchill, referred to the Muslim League demand for Pakistan as 'a new spirit of self-reliance and self-assertiveness'. After the violence in Bengal leading up to Independence, Churchill crowed about being prescient that Indians needed British to live amicably and peaceably with each other, glossing over the intentional policies of Colonial Indian Administration to sow discord between the different religions as a way of holding onto their rule. Churchill's racist views were responsible, in a large part, to him rolling out poorly considered measures that resulted in mass deaths (due to famine) and killings (due to Partition). Later towards the end of his life, Churchill seemed to have a change of heart about Indians but no writings to that effect survive. The published writings of Churchill that are studied and analysed for historical purposes still paint a portrait of Hindus as a 'beastly people with a beastly religion'.
Geneva convention ratified in 1949 after the Second World War says (in part),'To the fullest extent of the means available to it, the Occupying power has the duty of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population; it should, in particular, bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other articles if the resources of the Occupied territory are inadequate'. British War Cabinet had the decisive say in Shipping. Local political representatives (Congress) were put in prison as British military intelligence estimated India to be a hostile or occupied territory. British War Cabinet under Churchill turned down requests from other nations to send food and medical aid. Going by the activities of Winston Churchill led British Government, they could be plausibly be accused of War crimes.
In a functioning democracy like India, famine usually does not occur because political representatives are held accountable by the people who are suffering (and by media who monitor the facts on the ground). The power imbalance in Colonial India between the British Administration and Indian subjects meant Britain could deny famine aid to Indians while at the same time increasing food supplies for the British people (to whom they were accountable). According to Hannah Arendt, Racism is a direct consequence of Imperialism - Race thinking involves slotting humans into various categories based on their perceived characteristics and is done by pretty much everyone. It is only when those categories are ranked from high to low that its real world effects become racist. The only way an Imperial power like Britain can justify its subjugation of Indians was through Racism. Whenever the subject of mass murders are discussed, Stalin and Hitler are the first choices. Churchill should be included in that illustrious company and a possible reason he is not there yet, might be that the victims of Churchill led British government during the war were not white (as was the case with Stalin and Hitler's victims).
Other Books of Reference:
Churchill and Orwell: The Fight for Freedom Thomas E Ricks
Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age by Arthur Herman
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