Fighting Retreat: Churchill and India w/ Walter Reid

Why was Churchill so vindictive towards India and Indians? Join Walter Reid for an online discussion of his latest book, Fighting Retreat, and the thorny questions of why Churchill had such a negative view of India, and whether his stubbornness over Indian independence helped fuel the bitterness that led to Partition.

Winston Churchill was closely connected with India from 1896, when he landed in Bombay with his regiment, until 1947, when independence was finally achieved. No other British statesman had such a long association with the sub-continent—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 to its passage in the 1930s. As Prime Minister during the Second World War, 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.

This book reveals Churchill at his worst: cruel, obstructive and selfish. The same man was outstandingly liberal at the Colonial Office, 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?

About the author

Walter Reid is an historian educated at the Universities of Oxford and Edinburgh, a fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and the author of several acclaimed books on British politics and history, including Neville Chamberlain: The Passionate Radical. He raises sheep and cattle in Scotland and grows olives in France.