FOR ALL WITH AN INTEREST IN THE HISTORY
OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY AND THE BRITISH RAJ
ONLINE LECTURES
Online lectures run from November to April. They are broadcast via Zoom and are available UK-wide and to an international audience. Lectures are recorded and will be available online for two weeks for those unable to attend and those in different time zones. Links are emailed to all ticket-holders.
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LECTURE PROGRAMME 2024–25
TUESDAY 15 APRIL 2025 18.30-20.00 BST (ZOOM)
Fighting Retreat: Churchill and India
Walter Reid
Winston Churchill was closely connected with India from 1896, when he landed in Bombay with his regiment, until independence in 1947. No other British statesman had such a long association with India―or interfered in its politics so consistently and harmfully. Churchill strove to sabotage any moves towards independence, crippling the Government of India Act over five years of dogged opposition in the 1930s. As Prime Minister Churchill frustrated the freedom struggle from behind the scenes, delaying independence by a decade. To this day he is ‘the’ imperialist villain for Indians, held personally responsible for the Bengal Famine. At the Colonial Office Churchill was outstandingly liberal, risking his career with his generosity to the Boers and the Irish, and later speeding up independence in the Middle East. Why was he so strangely hostile towards India?
Walter Reid was educated at the Universities of Oxford and Edinburgh. His books include Fighting Retreat: Churchill and India (2024); Neville Chamberlain: The Passionate Radical; Churchill 1940-1945: Under Friendly Fire; and several works on the First World War.