01-02-2006, 05:51 AM
`Churchill was willing to let Gandhiji die'
Hasan Suroor
Winston Churchill
LONDON: A day after he invoked the words of Mahatma Gandhi to inspire his party members, Tory leader David Cameron was facing embarrassment on Sunday as declassified documents revealed how the wartime Conservative Prime Minister Winston Churchill was prepared to let the Mahatma die, when he threatened a hunger strike in prison during the Quit India Movement, than make any concessions to him.
Cabinet minutes
According to the minutes of the Cabinet meetings, released by the National Archives, Churchill was vehemently opposed to handing over what he regarded as a moral victory to the Mahatma because of his threat to go on hunger strike.
<img src='http://www.hindu.com/2006/01/02/images/2006010205381301.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
"I would keep him there let him do as he likes," Churchill wrote even as his Cabinet colleagues warned that if anything happened to the Mahatma while in custody it could have serious consequences.
"He is such a semi-religious figure that his death in our hands would be a great blow and embarrassment to us," warned Stafford Cripps, who was Minister for Aircraft Production.
A similar warning came from Lord Halifax, former Foreign Secretary. He noted: "Whatever the disadvantages of letting him out, his death in detention would be worse."
The Cabinet notes which relate to the period 1942-43, reveal that Churchill was almost isolated on the issue with his colleagues strongly in favour of releasing the Mahatma before he embarked on a hunger strike. The Mahatma was detained in August 1942 and there were widespread fears for his life if he stopped eating.
As pressure on Churchill grew, he finally agreed in January 1943 to release the Mahatma on compassionate grounds noting: "Let him out as an act of State, rather than an act of submission to G' [Gandhi's] will... "
Hasan Suroor
Winston Churchill
LONDON: A day after he invoked the words of Mahatma Gandhi to inspire his party members, Tory leader David Cameron was facing embarrassment on Sunday as declassified documents revealed how the wartime Conservative Prime Minister Winston Churchill was prepared to let the Mahatma die, when he threatened a hunger strike in prison during the Quit India Movement, than make any concessions to him.
Cabinet minutes
According to the minutes of the Cabinet meetings, released by the National Archives, Churchill was vehemently opposed to handing over what he regarded as a moral victory to the Mahatma because of his threat to go on hunger strike.
<img src='http://www.hindu.com/2006/01/02/images/2006010205381301.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
"I would keep him there let him do as he likes," Churchill wrote even as his Cabinet colleagues warned that if anything happened to the Mahatma while in custody it could have serious consequences.
"He is such a semi-religious figure that his death in our hands would be a great blow and embarrassment to us," warned Stafford Cripps, who was Minister for Aircraft Production.
A similar warning came from Lord Halifax, former Foreign Secretary. He noted: "Whatever the disadvantages of letting him out, his death in detention would be worse."
The Cabinet notes which relate to the period 1942-43, reveal that Churchill was almost isolated on the issue with his colleagues strongly in favour of releasing the Mahatma before he embarked on a hunger strike. The Mahatma was detained in August 1942 and there were widespread fears for his life if he stopped eating.
As pressure on Churchill grew, he finally agreed in January 1943 to release the Mahatma on compassionate grounds noting: "Let him out as an act of State, rather than an act of submission to G' [Gandhi's] will... "