The great remembrance divide: Britain fought for freedom in Europe, but against it in the colonies | Mihir Bose
While war raged against Hitler, people in places such as India were brutalised – despite their own sacrifices to the cause
With Remembrance Day coming, arguments about whether poppies should be worn are in full flow. Yet there is one issue that never seems to be heard in the annual debate that now marks this solemn occasion: while Britain fought the second world war to defeat Nazi Germany, putting its own existence as a free country at stake, it denied freedom to its colonies.
Winston Churchill made no secret of his belief that “coloured” people had no right to be free. In August 1941, in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, he signed with the US president Franklin D Roosevelt the Atlantic charter which asserted “the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live”. This was hailed as a great war aim of the allies. Yet on his return, Churchill told the House of Commons that this was not “applicable to coloured races in colonial empire” but only to the states and nations of Europe.
Mihir Bose is the author of Thank You Mr Crombie: Lessons in Guilt and Gratitude to the British
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