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"(A) significant and - to British readers - distressing... It is a ghastly story, and the book's eye-witness accounts of the consequences for the people of Bengal make harrowing reading. Most recent western histories of the war in the east mention the famine as earlier chronicles did not. But Mukerjee's book offers the fullest account I have read...I myself have argued that Churchill's disdain for the interests of black and brown peoples besmirched his awesome wartime record. If the Bengal famine arose from circumstances beyond British control, failure to relieve the starving millions - or even to be seen to care much about them - was in substantial degree our fault."
--Max Hastings, The Sunday Times
"shocking, important study of Britain's treatment of India in the second world war."
--The Sunday Times
--Max Hastings, The Sunday Times
"shocking, important study of Britain's treatment of India in the second world war."
--The Sunday Times
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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. But while he has been widely extolled for numerous successes, parts of Churchill s record have gone woefully unexamined. As journalist Madhusree Mukerjee reveals, at the same time that Churchill brilliantly opposed the barbarism of the Nazis, he governed India with total contempt for native lives. A series of his decisions between 1940 and 1944 directly and inevitably resulted in the deaths of some three million Indians. The streets of 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. Combining close 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 the Second World War, India s fight for freedom and Churchill s enduring legacy. Winston Churchill may have found victory in Europe, but as this groundbreaking historical investigation reveals, his mismanagement facilitated by dubious advice from scientist and eugenicist Lord Cherwell devastated India, and ultimately set the stage for the massive bloodletting that accompanied independence.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Robert Clive had called Bengal `the paradise of the earth'. In 1757 Clive's forces conquered India. By 1770, there was a famine in which 3 million people died.
This brilliant book examines the 1943 famine in Bengal which killed 3.3 million people. British rule over India started and ended with a famine in Bengal.
Churchill did not mention the 1943 famine in his six volumes on the Second World War. He loved the Empire, but hated the peoples it ruled. As he wrote, "I therefore adopted quite early in life a system of believing whatever I wanted to believe ..." Churchill's private secretary John Colville reported that Churchill said, "the Hindus were a foul race" and wished that the head of Bomber Command would `send some of his surplus bombers to destroy them'.
Mukerjee observes, "During his 1930s campaign against Indian self-government, Churchill went so far as to warn of famine engulfing the United Kingdom if, `guided by counsels of madness and cowardice disguised as false benevolence, you troop home from India.' He feared that a full third of the English population would perish if the empire was lost."
In 1942 British forces arrested 90,000 Indians and killed an estimated 10,000. On 10 September 1942 Churchill broadcast the lie that the Indian National Congress had been helped by `Japanese fifth-column work'. In fact, as Churchill well knew, MI6 had been unable to find any evidence linking the Congress with the Japanese.
Viceroy Linlithgow told Bengal's elected Chief Minister Fazlul Huq in January 1943 that he "simply must produce some more rice out of Bengal for Ceylon even if Bengal itself went short!"
Mukerjee sums up, "Whereas India annually imported at least a million tons of rice and wheat before the war, it exported a net 360,000 tons during the fiscal year April 1, 1942, to March 31, 1943. ... On April 22, 1943, more than a month after it had been warned of famine, the Ministry of War Transport recorded with approval `continued pressure being brought to bear upon India to persuade her to release more than the previously agreed quotas of rice and, more recently, cargoes of wheat.' Between January and July of 1943, even as famine set in, India exported 71,000 tons of rice ..."
Throughout the famine, the British government rejected all international offers of aid. Significantly, there have been no famines in India since she won her independence, even with a growing population.
This brilliant book examines the 1943 famine in Bengal which killed 3.3 million people. British rule over India started and ended with a famine in Bengal.
Churchill did not mention the 1943 famine in his six volumes on the Second World War. He loved the Empire, but hated the peoples it ruled. As he wrote, "I therefore adopted quite early in life a system of believing whatever I wanted to believe ..." Churchill's private secretary John Colville reported that Churchill said, "the Hindus were a foul race" and wished that the head of Bomber Command would `send some of his surplus bombers to destroy them'.
Mukerjee observes, "During his 1930s campaign against Indian self-government, Churchill went so far as to warn of famine engulfing the United Kingdom if, `guided by counsels of madness and cowardice disguised as false benevolence, you troop home from India.' He feared that a full third of the English population would perish if the empire was lost."
In 1942 British forces arrested 90,000 Indians and killed an estimated 10,000. On 10 September 1942 Churchill broadcast the lie that the Indian National Congress had been helped by `Japanese fifth-column work'. In fact, as Churchill well knew, MI6 had been unable to find any evidence linking the Congress with the Japanese.
Viceroy Linlithgow told Bengal's elected Chief Minister Fazlul Huq in January 1943 that he "simply must produce some more rice out of Bengal for Ceylon even if Bengal itself went short!"
Mukerjee sums up, "Whereas India annually imported at least a million tons of rice and wheat before the war, it exported a net 360,000 tons during the fiscal year April 1, 1942, to March 31, 1943. ... On April 22, 1943, more than a month after it had been warned of famine, the Ministry of War Transport recorded with approval `continued pressure being brought to bear upon India to persuade her to release more than the previously agreed quotas of rice and, more recently, cargoes of wheat.' Between January and July of 1943, even as famine set in, India exported 71,000 tons of rice ..."
Throughout the famine, the British government rejected all international offers of aid. Significantly, there have been no famines in India since she won her independence, even with a growing population.
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is a work of monumental proportions that sheds new light on Indian and British history. Not only has Madhushree trawled through British archives and personal accounts from Chruchill's own right hand men, but she has also conducted original research by interviewing the survivors of the 1943 Bengal Famine.
Being a science writer, Madhushree analyses and lays out the facts in a meticulous and academic style. But do not be fooled into thinking that this is a dry academic read; her book draws the reader into the personal accounts and tragedies of the famine victims as well as the mixed joy of eventual freedom and partition. My advice is - do not read this book in bed - it will give you sleepless nights due to the personal harrowing accounts.
In Britain our education system still to some extent gives us a rose-tinted view of colonialism -spreading civilisation, removing savage practices, building railways etc. Madhushree shatters this image in the very first chapter but detailing how within 20 years of the battle of Plassey in 1757, the British East India Company brought poverty and terrible famine to this once richest and most prosperous corner of the planet - causing the deaths of millions of Bengalis. Again, with Churchill, our historical teaching tends to portray him only as a national hero, whilst dismissing as irrelevant his racism - e.g. his description of Hindus as "A beastly people with a beastly religion". Madhushree, through her meticulous research lays down a compelling case for how this racism was responsible for the deaths of so many in Bengal 1943. Whilst Churchill fans no doubt will be critical of Madhushree's work, even they cannot argue against the fact that 3 million people, under direct British protection, starved to death whilst British ships carrying grain were allowed to sail by. These deaths should be explained, although belatedly, and Madhshree deserves high praise for her painstaking research and highly readable account of this holocaust.
Being a science writer, Madhushree analyses and lays out the facts in a meticulous and academic style. But do not be fooled into thinking that this is a dry academic read; her book draws the reader into the personal accounts and tragedies of the famine victims as well as the mixed joy of eventual freedom and partition. My advice is - do not read this book in bed - it will give you sleepless nights due to the personal harrowing accounts.
In Britain our education system still to some extent gives us a rose-tinted view of colonialism -spreading civilisation, removing savage practices, building railways etc. Madhushree shatters this image in the very first chapter but detailing how within 20 years of the battle of Plassey in 1757, the British East India Company brought poverty and terrible famine to this once richest and most prosperous corner of the planet - causing the deaths of millions of Bengalis. Again, with Churchill, our historical teaching tends to portray him only as a national hero, whilst dismissing as irrelevant his racism - e.g. his description of Hindus as "A beastly people with a beastly religion". Madhushree, through her meticulous research lays down a compelling case for how this racism was responsible for the deaths of so many in Bengal 1943. Whilst Churchill fans no doubt will be critical of Madhushree's work, even they cannot argue against the fact that 3 million people, under direct British protection, starved to death whilst British ships carrying grain were allowed to sail by. These deaths should be explained, although belatedly, and Madhshree deserves high praise for her painstaking research and highly readable account of this holocaust.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Madhusree Mukerjee has produced a well researched and well written account describing and analysing the causes and course of the famine that struck Bengal and other areas of India during 1943-44.
Mukerjee manages to weave narrative and analysis together and combine insights from a variety of sources - diaries, unpublished and published memoirs, official records - to present a thorough and in-depth account that must now be the definitive account, atleast in popular format, of the Bengal famine. Indeed, the first person accounts are the great strength of the book; the Indian independence activists, British and colonial officials, the letters home of a British soldier, famine survivors.
The British government knew that famine was a likelihood in Bengal in late 1942 but chose other priorities, including saving face in front of the Americans, above the survival of Bengalis. Warnings were ignored. Offers of assistance were spurned and, when it came to an enquiry into the famine, key evidence went missing and is missing still - presumably destroyed.
The key motive for doing nothing very much seemed to come from the view that India was a country in rebellion, the account of RAF planes strafing Indian civilians is one disturbing episode, and, indeed, the British seem to have regarded India as an occupied nation, combined with Churchill's hatred of Indians and his racist contempt for them together with S-Branch chief Lord Cherwell's eugenicism helps illustrate the ideological background to what can only be described as a war crime.
Mukerjee is careful with regards to evidence throughout the book and the same applies to her conclusions regarding the number of famine victims. These stand at about 3.5 million in Bengal alone without regards to other famine hit areas such as Bihar, Orissa and Madras. Mukerjee doesn't venture to estimate the number of victims from these areas.
Great book. Deserves to be widely read.
Mukerjee manages to weave narrative and analysis together and combine insights from a variety of sources - diaries, unpublished and published memoirs, official records - to present a thorough and in-depth account that must now be the definitive account, atleast in popular format, of the Bengal famine. Indeed, the first person accounts are the great strength of the book; the Indian independence activists, British and colonial officials, the letters home of a British soldier, famine survivors.
The British government knew that famine was a likelihood in Bengal in late 1942 but chose other priorities, including saving face in front of the Americans, above the survival of Bengalis. Warnings were ignored. Offers of assistance were spurned and, when it came to an enquiry into the famine, key evidence went missing and is missing still - presumably destroyed.
The key motive for doing nothing very much seemed to come from the view that India was a country in rebellion, the account of RAF planes strafing Indian civilians is one disturbing episode, and, indeed, the British seem to have regarded India as an occupied nation, combined with Churchill's hatred of Indians and his racist contempt for them together with S-Branch chief Lord Cherwell's eugenicism helps illustrate the ideological background to what can only be described as a war crime.
Mukerjee is careful with regards to evidence throughout the book and the same applies to her conclusions regarding the number of famine victims. These stand at about 3.5 million in Bengal alone without regards to other famine hit areas such as Bihar, Orissa and Madras. Mukerjee doesn't venture to estimate the number of victims from these areas.
Great book. Deserves to be widely read.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Was this famine REALLY forgotten?
Having lived and worked for some years on the Sub-Continent and being somewhat of a student of WW II I approached this book with an open mind. Read more
Published 6 months ago by mufuliraman
A terrifying story
I can only endorse the other reviewers that this in an important book that reveals terrible events in Bengal in 1943-44 and at the same time shows up some of the worst side of... Read more
Published 10 months ago by A. D. Smith
Excellent Scholarly Narrative
Ms Mukherjee has produced a truely remarkable chapter in the Indo-British era in the 20th century,from written documents. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Historybuff
Truth will out
Whoever proclaims that he will be judged kindly in history because he intends to write it must surely be a man that cannot be trusted. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Hande Z
Excellent...
A very well documented and detailed account of the thoughts and strategies that were in play by the Empire and the results which were forced upon India.
Published 18 months ago by Gooner1970
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