Churchill's Secret War by Madhusree Mukerjee

The author's centerpiece is a chronicle of the 1943 Bengali famine, in which at least 1.5 million died while British authorities continued exporting Indian grain. Mukerjee (The Land of Naked People) surveys a country seething with violence, as Congress Party militants agitating for independence turned to rioting and assassination campaigns after bloody police crackdowns, and an army of Indian guerrillas fought alongside the Japanese against the British. Publisher: Basic Books ISBN: 9780465024810 Number of pages: 368 Weight: 410 g Dimensions: 234 x 153 x 25 mm You may also be interested in.Misremembered as a placid imperial bastion during WWII, India was in fact racked by famine and insurrection, according to this searching history. Winston Churchill may have found victory in Europe, but, as this ground-breaking historical investigation reveals, his mismanagement- facilitated by dubious advice from scientist and eugenicist Lord Cherwell- devastated India and set the stage for the massive bloodletting that accompanied independence. The streets of eastern Indian cities were lined with corpses, yet instead of sending emergency food shipments Churchill used the wheat and ships at his disposal to build stockpiles for feeding postwar Britain and Europe.Ĭombining meticulous research with a vivid narrative, and riveting accounts of personality and policy clashes within and without the British War Cabinet, Churchill's Secret War places this oft-overlooked tragedy into the larger context of World War II, India's fight for freedom, and Churchill's enduring legacy.

A series of Churchill's decisions between 19 directly and inevitably led to the deaths of some three million Indians. As journalist Madhusree Mukerjee reveals, at the same time that Churchill brilliantly opposed the barbarism of the Nazis, he governed India with a fierce resolve to crush its freedom movement and a profound contempt for native lives.

But while he has been widely extolled for his achievements, parts of Churchill's record have gone woefully unexamined. A dogged enemy of Hitler, resolute ally of the Americans, and inspiring leader through World War II, Winston Churchill is venerated as one of the truly great statesmen of the last century.

Churchill's Secret War by Madhusree Mukerjee