Winston Churchill was closely connected with India from 1896, when he landed in Bombay with his regiment, until independence in 1947. No other British statesman had such a long association with India―or interfered in its politics so consistently and harmfully. Churchill strove to sabotage any moves towards independence, crippling the Government of India Act over five years of dogged opposition in the 1930s. As Prime Minister Churchill frustrated the freedom struggle from behind the scenes, delaying independence by a decade. To this day he is ‘the’ imperialist villain for Indians, held personally responsible for the Bengal Famine. At the Colonial Office Churchill was outstandingly liberal, risking his career with his generosity to the Boers and the Irish, and later speeding up independence in the Middle East. Why was he so strangely hostile towards India?
Walter Reid was educated at the Universities of Oxford and Edinburgh. His books include Fighting Retreat: Churchill and India (2024); Neville Chamberlain: The Passionate Radical; Churchill 1940-1945: Under Friendly Fire; and several works on the First World War.
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