© Rohit Jain ParasDr Tharoor, a former Under-Secretary General of the UN, says the blame for the Bengal Famine rests with Churchill
An Indian politician has said Winston Churchill is no better than Adolf Hitler and the two leaders have equivalent amounts of "blood" on their hands.
Dr Shashi Tharoor, whose new book Inglorious Empire chronicles the atrocities of the British Empire, said the former British Prime Minister should be remembered alongside the most prominent dictators of the twentieth century.
Dr Tharoor, a former Under-Secretary General of the UN, said the blame for the Bengal Famine rested with Churchill. In 1943, up to four million Bengalis starved to death when Churchill diverted food to British soldiers and countries such as Greece while a deadly famine swept through Bengal.
"This is the man who the British insist on hailing as some apostle of freedom and democracy," the author said of Churchill at a launch of his book. "When to my mind he is really one of the more evil rulers of the 20th century only fit to stand in company of the likes of Hitler, Mao and Stalin".
"Churchill has as much blood on his hands as Hitler does," the Indian MP said. "Particularly the decisions that he personally signed off during The Bengal Famine when 4.3 million people died because of the decisions he took or endorsed."
"Not only did the British pursue its own policy of not helping the victims of this famine which was created by their policies. Churchill persisted in exporting grain to Europe, not to feed actual 'Sturdy Tommies', to use his phrase, but add to the buffer stocks that were being piled up in the event of a future invasion of Greece and Yugoslavia".
"Ships laden with wheat were coming in from Australia docking in Calcutta and were instructed by Churchill not to disembark their cargo but sail on to Europe," he added. "And when conscience-stricken British officials wrote to the Prime Minister in London pointing out that his policies were causing needless loss of life all he could do was write peevishly in the margin of the report, 'Why hasn't Gandhi died yet?'"
Talking about the Bengal famine in 1943, the Prime Minister who led Britain to victory in World War Two, said: "I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion. The famine was their own fault for breeding like rabbits."
Dr Tharoor, a former Indian government minister, rose to prominence after his impassioned speech at the Oxford Union in July of 2015 went viral. In the address, he discussed the economic toll British rule took on India.
He said: "India's share of the world economy when Britain arrived on it shores was 23 per cent. By the time the British left it was down to below four per cent. Why? Simply because India had been governed for the benefit of Britain. Britain's rise for 200 years was financed by its depredations in India."
"In fact, Britain's industrial revolution was actually premised upon the de-industrialisation of India."
Dr Tharoor recently gained headlines for suggesting Britons suffer "historical amnesia" over the atrocities and plunder committed by the empire.
Reader Comments
That's true, a lot of Irish do think they're the master race.
Probably 'cause they invented the penny whistle.
Quick. Get that campus snowflake to a safe space, a stack of fricking Enya CD's, and a tub of non-toxic forty-shades-of-green Play-Doh.
( It's a joke.)
But true.
On land, cats are the master killers; and usually operate solo. (As we all know, lions are the exception.) To top it off, they have FIVE (general) weapons: their teeth and claws but really that gets up to 25 for the feet (yes I've got scars from my cats throwing in a thumb claw now and then.) Plus four big
felineteeth (oops, I mean canine teeth)Pound for pound, .... well, picture it. A 100 pound dog and 100 lb small leopard in cage match? Unless the dog got hold of the cat"s neck on his first lunge, he would first be blinded. Then it would be over. A leopard can carry over twice its weight up a tree. I've know cats like Siamese types, that can leap straight up to the top of a refridgerator.
People who pride themselves on hating cats, etc. usually have never been around one to dispel the prejudice they feel. Meanwhile, -- remember we are speaking generally, here - cat folks are the type that love all good critters, dogs welcome, too. (Except Cockroaches, which are alien space invaders.) The largest in the world are right here in Florida and are called the American Cockroach. I just saw in wee wee pee pee aaah, that only the American Cockroach can fly, Yet they claim "American cockroaches can fly short distances, usually starting from high places, but real flight is uncommon against general belief.." THAT is BS. They can and do fly and usually (a) towards your face;(with their abdomen hanging down) or (I've seen this enough to know it's not an exception) under girls dresses.
I had one cat that would kill the things just naturally but never eat them. (Most cats need to eat one, barf it out and then learn just to kill play with them.) She was a Maine Coon who had grown up competing. She preferred indoors, and loved (like all my cats) riding in the car. She knew all of my most common routes and if I turned early to go somewhere en route, she would hop up and meow saying 'you turned to early' OR, if I drove past where I would normally turn, she would do the same. (Several friends driving her to my home saw her do this when they would take a different route with her from my office to my house. (1 mile through a neighborhood with about 15 different ways to do it. Also, when I would get to my destination, I could just open the door and she would stoll up to the front door and wait for me there. (She could do this at about six different places.) One time, I opened the door as we were coming in, and giant Am. Cockroach flew by my head and into the body of a tower computer by the door. I went to bed and she waited....(She would never touch them with her mouth but would catch them and then using a single claw behind the head, put them out of our misery. She would then wipe the claw on the carpet.)
Then next moring, I looked for it by the door, kicked the tower to see if anything was in it. Nope. I went to the kitchen (about 20 feet away) and there it was. She had batted it all that way across carpet to place it next to her empty cat bowl, meaning, "I may kill them for you / us, but I damn sure don't eat them."**
(I've likewise trained my current cat to kill them too and she knows she gets a treat when she kills one.)Once, I put her in a spare room as a guest who was somewhat allergic to cats was visiting. While she was stuck in there, I guess she was hungry, she foun a 1.5" one, killed it, and slid out out under the door, like some inmate banging their cup for chow time!
R.C.
P.s., If you have an overweight cat that you feed only dry food too, here is how to fix it. Let them eat all the dry food they want all day. Then, every night give them 1/3 or 1/2 a can of decent cat food like purina 'prime filets', etc.* Then, the cat learns to save its appetite for the good stuff, and in one year it will be at a healthy weight. (I've taught this to countless folks and it works!) (Multiple cats can make it complex so you should separate them when it's time for the goodies.)
Also, be on the lookout for BOGO's*** for canned tuna four packs, because they can get down to near or equal to cat food can prices.)
** She was accidentally killed by our local drug or terror warriors (I don't know what they considered themselves) - who would not have been where they were to accidentally set a death trao for her, without it (the drug/terror war). She was age 9. Long sad story;
* ** Buy one get one free.
RC
Now I don't hate cats but man the neighboring cats made my life frustrating by constantly digging up my veggie patch to do their doo doos and stinking it out.
Until I got Nina...Now there's no cats around but unfortunately Nina doesn't mind a bit of soil cultivation her self.
Well the good part is...no cats...deeper holes which I intelligently directly plant into...and no cat toilet smells..
What this has to do with Churchill and Hitler I really don't know but from these two to cats to sharks and now dogs seems logical.
HFL... where are you?? Baybars? EagleAnna?
I would not and do not lie. The roach up the dress was on my first date with a girl who became my undergraduate girlfriend. I came in her house, and she had a new roommate who had brought in stuff from storage... (Always a risky proposition in Florida.)
Sure as shit, one took off flying at her and as she ran down the hall it flew up her flowing dress - she looked around... where is it? I told truth (my nature) and she ripped off her dress in an instant. I was laughing so hard I could harldly kill the thing as it tried to negotiate the plush carpet. She's now a very successful landscaper architect, and I guarantee she remembers.
Another girlfriend, when she was 12?, had one crawl up her dress at church and her father (he was a less than great guy) wouldn't let her leave as he didn't see it (she didn't either but she felt it) Aside from that, they DO fly directly at people's faces.
R.C.
But I'll tell you another true story that happen to me a few years back.
My son (25) and my daughter (16) and I were on a trip visiting Krka National Park in Croatia.
The daughter was lagging behind sightseeing as son & I were walking well ahead when we heard an almighty scream and a repeated call of "dad" "dad."
We turned and ran back towards her and noticed her bent over with her jeans around her ankles...meantime, the son being younger and fitter than my self, got to her well before me. By the time I got there he was fighting with two tourists accusing them of trying to rape his sister...which is what it looked like...A young girl screaming in the bushes with her pant down with two young guilty looking bucks next to her.
What he didn't hear in his excitement was his sister screaming at him...Daniel it's a Bee hey it's a Bee...A dammed Bee had flew under her jeans trouser leg and crawled right up to you know where that forced her to try and rip her jeans off in panic right in front of the two male tourists.
What an embarassing situation for us...One must feel for the two young guys who were shaking with fear.
As a matter of fact bees are very attracted to me for some freaking reason and I often end up being bitten by them.
Daughter must've inherited my problem.
I keep a frying pan handy when at home as a precaution.
Can't miss with that.
OK..from article to cat..dogs..roaches.....sea lions to now bees...
At least LindaMay enjoys our stories...Thanks LM...
i am i am enjoying... but the girls were in 'no funny situations'. Pretty brutal to live thru. Gosh!! My horror stories revolve around non-living human critters.
Lysna... look up bee animal totem and while you re at it lynx (which all you intellectuals hold (not me).
Critters (including insects) show up in our lives for verrrry specific reasons (dont join me in the ring on this one lol). I ve learned that when the earwig calls on me... i know i m being forewarned to slip on my boxing gloves cause another dandy is on its way. No shit!
She shoots n scores
OK..from article to cat..dogs..roaches.....sea lions to now bees...
... earwig.
HFL?? bloke critter story?
See I'm an honest upright person and don't pull legs..Better send me that Canadian quarter now.
... this is what i thought was leg-pulling lysna (that RC may have felt you were serious about ... but hell! why am i getting in the way of a literal food /word fight.
(I love foodfights though, just love em!!)
Duck! In-Coming .....
Lovely phrase
Often wondered what story they told their kinfolk when they got home.
I get the impression he's still somewhat venerated by old people in former Nazi occupied countries. F'rinstance, in Northern France, everywhere you look it's: 'Cours Winston Churchill' this, 'Avenue Winston Churchill' that, and 'Boulevard Winston Churchill', the other. Which might not necessarily mean all that much anymore.
In St. Pierre-sur-Dives where my girlfriend's Maman lives, they still do this kind of thing every year...[Link]
And what did your Grandaddy do in the fight-to-the-death against The Third Reich, daddio(s)?
Northern Manitoba town desperate for groceries after series of blizzards
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