Gandhi turned great for Churchill only after death
Akanksha Banerji / CNN-IBN
Published on Mon, Sep 29, 2008 at 14:07, Updated on Mon, Sep 29, 2008 at 14:51
in Lifestyle section
London: Winston Churchill once called Mahatma Gandhi a 'bad man who should have
been done away with'. These secret conversations have now been revealed by
British historian Andrew Roberts in his latest book, Masters and
Commanders.While Churchill led the British Empire to victory in World War II,
Mahatma Gandhi broke the same Empire's back, winning its largest colony
freedom.It's not surprising that Churchill disliked Mahatma Gandhi.'It was not
until 1920s when Gandhi posed a serious threat to the British Empire, which was
so dear to Churchill, that Churchill developed a 'hatred for Gandhi. He thought
he was dangerous, a fraud, he even feared him,' Roberts said.In his book,
Roberts quotes verbatim notes of Churchill's wartime Cabinet meetings.
In one such meeting, he reportedly told Field Marshall Jan Smuts of South
Africa, 'You are responsible for all our troubles in India. You had Gandhi for
years and did not do away with him.'Smuts replied, 'When I put him in prison
three times, all Gandhi did was make me a pair of bedroom slippers.'When
Mahatma Gandhi went on hunger strike, Churchill reportedly told his Cabinet,
'Gandhi should not be released on account of a mere threat of fasting. We
should be rid of a bad man and an enemy of the Empire if he died.'And it did
take Mahatma Gandhi's death for Churchill to appreciate his greatness.'When
Gandhi was assassinated, by then India had its independence and it wasn't top
of the political agenda for Churchill. So it was only then that Churchill could
see Gandhi in the round,' Roberts said.Mahatma had finally conquered even the
tenacious man once likened to a bulldog.
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Keywords: Masters And Commanders, Winston Churchill
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