Culture Wars: Times review agrees Churchill was racist
A review of a new book in the Times (6th January) was headed BLM were right. Churchill was racist.
This was of course a book review not the Times Editorial policy but even so in the long running culture war on Churchill it was a surprising statement in a surprising place.
The book in question is Fighting Retreat, Churchill and India by Walter Reid. It was published on 4th January and the book reviewer was Gerard DeGroot
DeGroot underlines that Reid while not a professional historian is a well respected one with a significant publishing history. He is described as ‘white, late middle aged and as a landowner rather posh’.
Even so Reid has looked at Churchill’s long history of engagement with India from the late nineteenth century to the Second World War. He concludes that while Churchill liked India the country and saw it as an essential part of the British Empire, he was at all times racist towards Indians including Ghandi.
Of course the charge sheet of racism and imperial endeavour against Churchill goes far wider than this but the book reflects both an important statement given its provenance and a reminder that research history is about asking questions the answers to which may not be what was expected.
Walter Reid did not expect to find that Churchill was a racist on India but that is what his researches demonstrated.
It can only have been news to him!