I wonder how Indians will react to it since many consider the white man as god. Churchill to blame for Bengal famine: Book
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Churchill-to-blame-for-Bengal-famine-Book/articleshow/6521955.cms AGENCIES, Sep 9, 2010, 03.02am IST NEW DELHI: British prime minister Winston Churchill deliberately let millions of Indians starve to death, the author of a new book has claimed, alleging he was motivated in part by racial hatred. As many as three million people died in the Bengal famine of 1943 after Japan captured neighbouring Burma — a major source of rice imports — and British colonial rulers in India stockpiled food for soldiers and war workers. Panic-buying of rice sent prices soaring, and distribution channels were wrecked when officials confiscated or destroyed boats and bullock carts in Bengal to stop them falling into enemy hands if Japan invaded. Rice became scarce and, as worsening hunger spread through villages, Churchill repeatedly refused pleas for emergency food shipments. Emaciated masses drifted into Kolkata, where eye-witnesses described men fighting over foul scraps and skeletal mothers dying in the streets as British and middle-class Indians ate large meals. The "man-made" famine has long been one of the darkest chapters of the British Raj, but now Madhusree Mukerjee says she has uncovered evidence that Churchill was directly responsible for the appalling suffering. Her book, "Churchill's Secret War", quotes previously unused papers that disprove his claim that no ships could be spared from the war and that show him brushing aside increasingly desperate requests from British officials in India. Analysis of World War II cabinet meetings, forgotten ministry records and personal archives show that full grain ships from Australia were passing India on their way to the Mediterranean region, where huge stockpiles were building up. "It wasn't a question of Churchill being inept: sending relief to Bengal was raised repeatedly and he and his close associates thwarted every effort," Mukerjee said.
