In the run up to the unveiling of the statue of Mahatma Gandhi on the grounds of Palace of Westminster in London, our local media, a TV channel, in particular, repeated ad nauseum Winston Churchill’s reference to Gandhi as that half-naked fakir. I have to say, we Indians are a pretty touchy lot. Winston Churchill (not Sir, then), was well-known for being carried away and engage in a tirade of invective against those he considered his opponents. Never a man to pull his punches. In those dark days of World War Two, his reference in Parliament to Adolf Hitler “Corporal Shicklgruber”, is just one example.
While taking umbrage at the insult to the future father of the Indian nation thus, let us not overlook Churchill’s part in defeating Hitler in the end. We know now that Hitler came dangerously close to winning the Second World War. The consequences for the free world, including us, would have been too disastrous to contemplate. Hitler’s advice to the British when Indians were fighting for independence was to just shoot them. And that’s exactly he would have done, if he had won the War, having a supreme contempt for democracy. Gandhi’s advice to the Jews in Germany in 1938 was that they should offer mass civil disobedience to the Nazis. He was not aware of the true horror of the “Final Solution”, and continued to insist that if the Jews had followed his advice, they would have won a moral victory, even though they would have died just the same! By contrast, Churchill ever the practical realist, never wavered in his conviction that Nazism had to be crushed at all costs, as a first priority.
Churchill, the last of the great Victorians, was unashamedly proud of his British Empire. Even the Mahatma once believed that the British Empire existed for the good of mankind. Events later understandably made him change his mind, and strengthened his resolve that Britain should leave India. Even Adolf Hitler had a grudging admiration for the British; how a comparatively few of them managed to govern so successfully a large country like India. In fact, he made an offer to the British that he was prepared to guarantee the British Empire, if Britain allowed him a free hand in Europe. A tantalising offer, indeed. Being a man never to give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense, Churchill did not fall for the bait. We, of the free world, owe Churchill an immeasurable debt of gratitude for his being instrumental, along with the Allies, in defeating Nazis.
Churchill was known for his earthy sense of humour. In a conversation in Libya with General Montgomery during the Second World War, the latter told Churchill he did not believe in being too familiar with his troops. Familiarity, after all, he felt, breeds contempt. Quick off the mark Churchill observed – my dear General, without a certain degree of familiarity, you can breed nothing!
The recent ban on beef would have horrified Churchill. He loved his roast beef and champagne for breakfast, his brandy and mutton chops, and he worked most of the time in a haze of cigar smoke, dying at the respectable age of 91. Despite what we would consider an unhealthy lifestyle, the master wordsmith produced volumes of highly readable prose. Both Churchill and his arch foe, our Mahatma, rightly deserve a place in history as great leaders of the twentieth century.
