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Comment by ruralthinker | Hacker News Reader

I am offended when many people in the US consider Winston Churchill as a leadership icon. Indian MP, Shashi Tharoor's observation Churchill was no better than the Nazis is the correct one. Winston Churchill had an extremely derogatory attitude towards Indians even for his time. His policies killed millions of Indians. Indians need to re-write history from Indian perspective and tell the true story of Churchill, a genocidal racist who deserves to be in the trash can of history.

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I get where you're coming from, but this comment lacks so much nuance it actively repeats the wrongs it means to correct.

Churchill was a significant leadership icon (WWII). He was also a poor leader (WWI). He held racist views. He was also very witty. People are complex, and one perspective is not enough to do a person justice.

Case in point: many people around the world think of Mahatma Ghandi as a very positive cultural and political icon. Except students in the biggest university in my country, who protested [0] to pull down his statue over his racist views.

[0] https://edition.cnn.com/2018/12/14/africa/gandhi-statue-ghan...

You are missing the point due to your biases, Churchill caused the death of millions, opposed the independence of India. He is not some garden variety racist who just held his offensive views while staying in his basement and did no harm to others.

> Indian MP, Shashi Tharoor's observation Churchill was no better than the Nazis is the correct one.

This is a completely absurd position. The Nazis carried out a deliberate extermination programme, murdering millions their own citizens.

The context is he meant it for Indians, which is true.

Are you trying to claim it is less evil to colonize and cause the death of millions of citizens of another country?

Even the most extreme historians do not claim that Churchill deliberately murdered Indians because he hated them purely based on their race

I am perplexed by your arguments, you seem to be implying Churchill is not as bad Nazis because he didn't hate Indians as much. Well, lot of Indians disagree with your logic, at-least one prominent Indian Shashi Tharoor who isn't an extremist thinks Churchill is no better than the Nazis.

The argument Churchill is great, is the western version of history, a majority of of the world do not agree with that ridiculous assessment, because of the internet western version of history is increasingly getting challenged and I understand it is making you uncomfortable.

No that isn’t what I’m arguing. I’m arguing that your position that Churchill deliberately exterminated Indians is completely absurd

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