15. The British Prime Minister Found Mahatma Gandhi "Nauseating" And Was Willing To Let Him Die From A Hunger Strike
As a firm believer in the British Empire and Commonwealth, Churchill hated the idea of Indian independence - and he despised Mahatma Gandhi, who he saw as a "nauseating Middle Temple lawyer now posing as a fakir of a type well known in the East, striding half-naked up the steps of the Vice-regal palace... to parley on equal terms with the representative of the King-Emperor". Churchill was a founder of the India Defence League - who wanted the preservation of British power in India - and he said in 1930: "The truth is that Gandhi-ism and everything it stands for will have to be grappled with and crushed." In fact, so little did Churchill like Gandhi's peaceful resistance that in 1943, when the Bengal famine forced Indian governors to request urgent food supplies, the Prime Minister replied asking "why Gandhi hadn't died yet".
NUFC editor for WhatCulture.com/NUFC. History graduate (University of Edinburgh) and NCTJ-trained journalist. I love sports, hopelessly following Newcastle United and Newcastle Falcons. My pastimes include watching and attending sports matches religiously, reading spy books and sampling ales.
