The Distortion of British History

Our veneration of Winston Churchill is a stark example of how British history is airbrushed and twisted to serve ongoing, repugnant power structures.

Churchill was an efficient war-time prime minister. He also directly contributed to a genocide in India, where 4 million Indians died in the Bengal Famine of 1943. This has appropriately lead Dr Shashi Tharoor to describe Churchill as one of "the worst genocidal dictators". This comment may inspire shock in some readers, but this is only because it goes against the established, unfounded narrative fed to us about Churchill. Some people, I imagine, will be so indoctrinated that they will try and find any way to counter this comment by Dr Tharoor, even if that means lying or continuing to distort historical truths.

Of the 1943 Bengal Famine, Churchill stated: "I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion. The famine was their own fault for breeding like rabbits".

Boris Johnson's veneration of Churchill tells us a lot. I have rarely seen him express such passion and energy than in some of his recent tweets, where he has vehemently opposed the defacing of Churchill's statue during the Black Lives Matter protests. I personally agree that Churchill's statue shouldn't have been defaced, but I wish Boris would have channelled such passion and energy into preparing for the global pandemic that we are in the midst of. Boris missed 5 Cobra meetings during this crisis and the UK has the second worst death toll in the world. A clear argument could be made that Boris, whose priorities are deeply immoral and skewed, has a lot of blood on his hands. But of course, Boris is just one embodiment of a sick, corporate culture that doesn't value human life.

In praising Churchill, Boris plays into a specific, nationalistic image of Britain as a great, righteous nation whose civilising mission has done the world a lot of good. This image conveniently leaves out the hidesouly violent and murderous practices of British colonial rule and how we are still complicit in global atrocities.

An example of a murderous event carried out by Britain was when Kenyans rose up and demanded their land back from British colonists. This took place between 1952-1960. As punishment for demanding their land back, Kenyans were thrown into torture camps. In some cases, in these camps, mens testicles were crushed with pliers and glass bottles were forced into womens vaginas. An example of complicity in a current global atrocity is the fact that Britain continues supplying weapons to Saudi Arabia, who have been bombing Yemeni civilians for the past 5 years.

I am not by any means saying we should vilify Britain. Please don't misunderstand me. I am saying that we need to have an accurate, multi-faceted view of history and current affairs. We need truth. Only by understanding things truthfully can we begin to make the right choices.