Ahem. At last a western historian has the honesty to face up to what India, the middle east, Africa and Barack Obama knew all along. In a new biography of Winston Churchill, British historian Richard Toye exposes the rampant racism of the WWII hero so revered in the west for his fight against the spread of fascism in Europe. In non-white, non-European parts of the world, his exploits were far from heroic.
Winston Churchill is remembered for leading Britain through her finest hour — but what if he also led the country through her most shameful one? What if, in addition to rousing a nation to save the world from the Nazis, he fought for a raw white supremacy and a concentration camp network of his own? This question burns through Richard Toye’s superb, unsettling new history, “Churchill’s Empire” — and is even seeping into the Oval Office.
George W. Bush left a big growling bust of Churchill near his desk in the White House, in an attempt to associate himself with Churchill’s heroic stand against fascism. Barack Obamahad it returned to Britain. It’s not hard to guess why: his Kenyan grandfather, Hussein Onyango Obama, was imprisoned without trial for two years and tortured on Churchill’s watch, for resisting Churchill’s empire.
Can these clashing Churchills be reconciled? Do we live, at the same time, in the world he helped to save and the world he helped to trash? Toye, one of Britain’s smartest young historians, has tried to pick through these questions dispassionately. Churchill was born in 1874 into a Britain that was coloring the map imperial pink, at the cost of washing distant nations blood-red. He was told a simple story: the superior white man was conquering the primitive dark-skinned natives, and bringing them the benefits of civilization.
See the review of Churchill's Empire here for a candid assessment of the cruelty, disdain and outright hostility he exhibited against non-white races and nations. Note how similar his world view ["After being elected to Parliament in 1900, he demanded a rolling program of more conquests, based on his belief that “the Aryan stock is bound to triumph.”] was to that of the German Führer whom he opposed later in life, earning the undying gratitude of the western world. Eleanore Roosevelt was one of the few western political activists who noted the hypocrisy of Churchill's oppressive racism towards the "colonies" and his freedom loving stance against fascism in Europe.
The particular quote that Richard Toye left out, surprising Johann Hari, is a well known Churchillian utterance. It was aimed at Iraqi insurgents during the early 20th century when Britain was trying to gain a firm foothold in the middle east and its vast oil reserves. Churchill recommended the use of poison gas in Iraq while a majority of British citizens opposed it. Churchill's no-nonsense view of poisoning Iraqis reads as follows:
"I do not understand this squeamishness about the use of gas. We have definitely adopted the position …at the Peace Conference of arguing in favour of the retention of gas as a permanent method of warfare. It is sheer affectation to lacerate a man with the poisonous fragment of a bursting shell and to boggle at making his eyes water by means of lachrymatory gas. I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes. The moral effect should be so good that the loss of life should be reduced to a minimum. It is not necessary to use only the most deadly gases: gases can be used which cause great inconvenience and would spread a lively terror and yet would leave no serious permanent effects on most of those affected… We cannot, in any circumstances acquiesce to the non-utilisation of any weapons which are available to procure a speedy termination of the disorder which prevails on the frontier. "
For many more such gems aimed at the "colonies" of the Raj and their leaders, see the Wikiquote page of Winston Churchill.
(a charcoal & ink sketch I made of Churchill as a teenager)
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