One of the worst criminals Europe ever produced was Leopold of Belgium, whose ownership of and brutalities in… — Tariq Ali

Mukherjee's account makes absolutely clear that, in order to protect the (British) Raj from a Japanese threat that never materialized, the British state sacrificed the lives of some 5 million people. The war cabinet maintained an attitude of callous indifference. In Churchill's case, the indifference was strongly tinged with racism.

What accounts, then, for his elevation to a cult figure?

One could add that the manufactured love for Churchill, and the uses made of him, came to embody the nostalgia for an Empire that was long gone.