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The British Empire and the Ravaging of India during World War II
Basic Books
October 2010
On Sale: September 21, 2010
368 pages
ISBN: 0465002013
EAN: 9780465002016
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
In the tradition of The Rape of Nanking and A Problem From
Hell, this account will change the way we think of Churchill
and World War II. In 1943 Winston Churchill and the British Empire needed
millions of Indian troops, all of India's industrial output,
and tons of Indian grain to support the Allied war effort.
Such massive contributions were certain to trigger famine in
India. Because Churchill believed that the fate of the
British Empire hung in the balance, he proceeded,
sacrificing millions of Indian lives in order to preserve
what he held most dear. The result: the Bengal Famine of
1943-44 in which millions of villagers starved to death. Relying on extensive archival research and first-hand
interviews, Mukerjee weaves a riveting narrative of
Churchill's decisions to ratchet up the demands on India as
the war unfolded and to ignore the corpses piling up in the
Bengali countryside. The hypocrisy, racism, and extreme
economic conditions of two centuries of British colonial
policy finally built to a head, leading Indians to fight for
their independence in 1947. Few Americans know that World War II was won on the backs of
these starving peasants; Mukerjee shows us a side of World
War II that we have been blind to. We know what Hitler did
to the Jews, what the Japanese did to the Chinese, what
Stalin did to his own people. This story has largely been
neglected, until now.
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