§ Bengal famine Secretary for India Leo Amery Bengal second term
Churchill made a number of disparaging remarks about non-white ethnicities throughout his life, including a series of racist comments and jokes about Indian nationalists made to colleagues during the inter-war period and his wartime premiership. Historian Philip Murphy partly attributes the strength of this vitriol to an "almost childish desire to shock" his inner circle. Churchill's response to the Bengal famine was criticised by some contemporaries as slow (see § Bengal famine), a controversy later increased by the publication of private remarks made to Secretary for India Leo Amery, in which Churchill allegedly said that aid would be inadequate because "Indians [were] breeding like rabbits". Philip Murphy says that, following the independence of India in 1947, Churchill adopted a more pragmatic stance towards empire, although he continued to use imperial rhetoric. During his second term as prime minister, he was seen as a moderating influence on Britain's suppression of armed insurgencies against colonial rule in Malaya and Kenya; he argued that ruthless policies contradicted British values and international opinion.
