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Winston Churchill, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, has a history of speech and actions that have widely been viewed as racially-charged. He has been accused of being "a passionate believer in British superiority" and "white supremacist". According to John Charmley, "Churchill certainly believed in racial hierarchies and eugenics."

Points of Controversy

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Palestine

In 1937, he told the Palestine Royal Commission "I do not admit for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place." Churchill referred Palestinians as "barbaric hordes who ate little but camel dung."

India and Gandhi

According to Churchill himself, he "hated the Indians." He told Amery that " are a beastly people with a beastly religion." He believed the Bengalis themselves were to blame for the Bengal famine of 1943 "for breeding like rabbits". Churchill also despised the Indian independence movement and Mahatma Gandhi, whom he described as "half-naked" and a "seditious fakir".

Usage of chemical weapons against "uncivilised tribes"

After 1920 Iraqi revolt against the British, Churchill wrote that "I cannot understand this squeamishness about the use of gas", which has sometimes been taken as a sign of his support for the use of chemical weapons against races he considered inferior." However, the full text of the memorandum clearly shows that Churchill had tear gas ("lachrymatory gas") in mind, and that he regarded this as a means of dispersing rebels without necessarily resorting to lethal force:

I do not understand this squeamishness about the use of gas. We have definitely adopted the position at the Peace Conference of arguing in favour of the retention of gas as a permanent method of warfare. It is sheer affectation to lacerate a man with the poisonous fragment of a bursting shell and to boggle at making his eyes water by means of lachrymatory gas.

I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes. The moral effect should be so good that the loss of life should be reduced to a minimum. It is not necessary to use only the most deadly gasses: gasses can be used which cause great inconvenience and would spread a lively terror and yet would leave no serious permanent effects on most of those affected.

See also

• Racial policy of Nazi Germany
• Racial views of Donald Trump

References

1. "Opinion: The trouble with Winston Churchill is that he was a hero partly because he was such a daft racist". The Independent. 2019-02-14. Retrieved 2019-09-29.
2. ^ Heyden, Tom (2015-01-26). "The 10 greatest controversies of Winston Churchill's career". Retrieved 2019-09-29.
3. Attar, Samar (2010-04-13). Debunking the Myths of Colonization: The Arabs and Europe. University Press of America. ISBN 9780761850397.
4. Hamid, Sadek. "Was Winston Churchill a racist?". alaraby. Retrieved 2019-09-29.
5. ^ "The real Darkest Hour: Churchill's role in murdering 3 million Bengalis". South China Morning Post. 2019-04-12. Retrieved 2019-09-29.
6. ^ "Analysis: 5 of the worst crimes of Winston Churchill". CommonSpace. Retrieved 2019-09-29.
7. "The dark side of Winston Churchill's legacy no one should forget". The Washington Post.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
8. "Leading Myths: "Churchill Advocated the First Use of Lethal Gas"". WinstonChurchill.org. Retrieved 2019-11-02.

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