Pretty much everything they claim Stalin did, Churchill actually did.
Very few in Britain know about the genocide in Bengal let alone how Churchill engineered it. Churchill’s hatred for Indians led to four million starving to death during the Bengal ‘famine’ of 1943. “I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion” he would say.
Bengal had a better than normal harvest during the British enforced famine. The British Army took millions of tons of rice from starving people to ship to the Middle East – where it wasn’t even needed. When the starving people of Bengal asked for food, Churchill said the ‘famine’ was their own fault “for breeding like rabbits”. The Viceroy of India said “Churchill’s attitude towards India and the famine is negligent, hostile and contemptuous”. Even right wing imperialist Leo Amery who was the British Secretary of State in India said he “didn’t see much difference between his [Churchill] outlook and Hitler’s”. Churchill refused all of the offers to send aid to Bengal, Canada offered 10,000 tons of rice, the U.S 100,000, he just point blank refused to allow it. Churchill was still swilling champaign while he caused four million men, women and children to starve to death in Bengal.
Throughout WW2 India was forced to ‘lend’ Britain money. Churchill moaned about “Indian money lenders” the whole time. The truth is Churchill never waged war against fascism. He went to war with Germany to defend the British Empire, he said this about India during WW2 “are we to incur hundreds of millions of debt for defending India only to be kicked out by the Indians afterwards”.
In 1945 Churchill said “the Hindus were race protected by their mere pullulation from the doom that is due”. The Bengal famine wasn’t enough for Churchill’s blood lust, he wished his favourite war criminal Arthur Harris could have bombed them.
"America = bad" while a good rule of thumb, is not a correct understanding of history. Mid-war is different from the late 30s for starters, but more than that, the war made it obvious that the British Raj could not last. American self-image was that of a liberator, even if we literally were retaking colonies Japan had taken from us, and on some level we believed it so long as it didn't challenge OUR hegemony.
This is why the US initially backed Ho Chi Minh, and FDR was strongly in support of Indian independence. When you are not the profiteer, it is easier to see the injustice and what has to be done. The US pressured Churchill during the war to give India independence, which incensed Churchill, but he played along by the end. Some of his more sympathetic quotes about India come in memos the US would read, so he actively tried not to seem craven.
Not only can state actors be contradictory, I wouldn't even call sending aid to India a contradiction here. US support for India was not exactly a secret, heck US troops had been advised to not harm or harass Indian troops of the Indian National Army who had joined the Axis powers in Thailand and Myanmar, but rather to treat them better than the British in order to prove the Allies where not all like the UK. Which certainly helped negotiations become an actual reality, as opposed to cutting a deal with the British
There's also the fact that a US helmed by FDR was probably the least willfully malicious it's ever been (excepting, possibly, the Lincoln administration). FDR was a racist socdem shit, but comparatively moderate beside the extremely racist hyper-capitalist (or aristocratic slaver, before that) shits that were in charge at all other times. Had he survived longer it's even conceivable the Cold War would have been averted or delayed, though it's likely that his successors would have pivoted to imperialist aggression immediately regardless of how much relations between the US and USSR warmed.
People sometimes forget that liberals can be genuine ideologues and not just cynical opportunists.
Pretty much everything they claim Stalin did, Churchill actually did.
And that's just about India: There's more
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"America = bad" while a good rule of thumb, is not a correct understanding of history. Mid-war is different from the late 30s for starters, but more than that, the war made it obvious that the British Raj could not last. American self-image was that of a liberator, even if we literally were retaking colonies Japan had taken from us, and on some level we believed it so long as it didn't challenge OUR hegemony.
This is why the US initially backed Ho Chi Minh, and FDR was strongly in support of Indian independence. When you are not the profiteer, it is easier to see the injustice and what has to be done. The US pressured Churchill during the war to give India independence, which incensed Churchill, but he played along by the end. Some of his more sympathetic quotes about India come in memos the US would read, so he actively tried not to seem craven.
Not only can state actors be contradictory, I wouldn't even call sending aid to India a contradiction here. US support for India was not exactly a secret, heck US troops had been advised to not harm or harass Indian troops of the Indian National Army who had joined the Axis powers in Thailand and Myanmar, but rather to treat them better than the British in order to prove the Allies where not all like the UK. Which certainly helped negotiations become an actual reality, as opposed to cutting a deal with the British
There's also the fact that a US helmed by FDR was probably the least willfully malicious it's ever been (excepting, possibly, the Lincoln administration). FDR was a racist socdem shit, but comparatively moderate beside the extremely racist hyper-capitalist (or aristocratic slaver, before that) shits that were in charge at all other times. Had he survived longer it's even conceivable the Cold War would have been averted or delayed, though it's likely that his successors would have pivoted to imperialist aggression immediately regardless of how much relations between the US and USSR warmed.
People sometimes forget that liberals can be genuine ideologues and not just cynical opportunists.