Churchill's Secret War

Churchill's Secret War: The British Empire and the Ravaging of India during World War II is a book by Madhusree Mukerjee about the Bengal famine of 1943 during the period of British rule in India. It was published in August 2010 by Basic Books of New York, and later that month by Tranquebar Press of Chennai. The book examines the role in the famine, and subsequent partition of India in 1947, of Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

Mukerjee claims that Churchill's policies exacerbated the famine, and argues that Churchill and his war cabinet ignored the suffering in Bengal, prioritizing the war effort over humanitarian needs. Her book provides evidence of Churchill's dismissive attitude towards the famine and his decision to continue exporting food from India during the crisis, and writes that the famine killed 1.5 million people according to the official estimate and three million according to most others. The book also explores how, apart from the United Kingdom itself, British India became "the largest contributor to the empire's war—providing goods and services worth more than £2 billion."