It was apt for US President John F Kennedy to have said of Sir Winston Churchill that he mobilised the English language and sent it into battle. Yet, the post-War years have not been kind to him. His virulent racism, imperialistic world view and irascible behaviour — once admired, now detested — make him a conflicted figure. This evening at the Cymroza Art Gallery, Dr Zareer Masani will seek to explain the nuances of Churchill’s history on the whole, rather than through Imperialist or de-colonised views.

“I seek to show Churchill as a product of his times. He had his flaws, and believed the British Empire to be superior, to both European powers and those in the Indian Subcontinent. He had racial views of the Hindu religion, and detested its caste prejudices,” says Masani, historian and biographer of Indira Gandhi and Lord Macaulay.