Political isolation: 1929–1939

In the 1929 general election, Churchill retained his Epping seat but the Conservatives were
defeated and MacDonald formed his second Labour government.[335] Out of office, he began work
on Marlborough: His Life and Times, a four-volume biography of his ancestor John Churchill, 1st
Duke of Marlborough.[336] Hoping that the Labour government could be ousted, he gained
Baldwin's approval to work towards establishing a Conservative-Liberal coalition, although many
Liberals were reticent.[336] In August he travelled to Canada with his brother and son, giving
speeches in Ottawa and Toronto, before traveling through the United States.[337] In San Francisco
he met with William Randolph Hearst, who convinced Churchill to write for his
newspapers;[338] in Hollywood he dined with the film star Charlie Chaplin.[339] From there he
travelled through the Mojave Desert to the Grand Canyon and then to Chicago and finally New
York City.[339]

Churchill meeting with film star Charlie Chaplin in Los Angeles in 1929

Back in London, he was angered by the Labour government's decision—backed by the

Conservative Shadow Cabinet—to grant dominion status to India,[340] calling it "a crime".[341] He
argued that giving India this status, which accorded it enhanced levels of home rule, would
hasten Indian calls for full independence from the British Empire.[341] In December 1930 he was
the main speaker at the first public meeting of the Indian Empire Society, set up to oppose the
granting of dominion status.[342] In his view, India was not ready for home rule, believing that
permitting it would leave the Hindu Brahmin caste in control and lead to the further oppression of
both the "untouchables" and religious minorities like Muslims and Christians.[343] When riots
between Hindus and Muslims broke out in Cawnpore in March 1931, resulting in around a
thousand deaths, he cited it in support of his argument.[344]
Churchill called for swift action against any Indian independence activists engaged in illegal
activity;[342] he called for the Indian National Congress party to be disbanded and its leaders
deported.[345] In 1930, he stated that "Gandhi-ism and everything it stands for will have to be
grappled with and crushed."[346][347] After the Viceroy of India agreed to meet with independence
activist Mohandas Gandhi, Churchill stated that "It is alarming and also nauseating to see Mr
Gandhi, a seditious Middle Temple lawyer, now posing as a fakir of a type well known in the
East, striding half-naked up the steps of the Vice-regal palace ... to parley on equal terms with
the representative of the King-Emperor."[348]The views he publicly expressed on this issue
enraged Labour and Liberal opinion although were supported by much of the Conservative
grassroots.[349] Angered that Baldwin was supporting the reform, Churchill resigned from the
Shadow Cabinet.[350]
In October 1930, Churchill published his autobiography, My Early Life, which sold well and was
translated into multiple languages.[351] In the October 1931 general election, Churchill nearly
doubled his majority in Epping.[352] The following month saw the publication of the final volume
of The World Crisis.[353] In December he travelled to the US; in New York City he was hit by a car
and hospitalised. After he published an article about the experience in the Daily Mail, he received
thousands of letters and telegrams from well-wishers.[354] After a brief visit to the Bahamas, he
embarked on a lucrative lecture tour of the US.[355] In August, he visited, Belgium, the
Netherlands, and Germany.[356] In the latter he met Ernst Hanfstaengel, a friend of the
politician Adolf Hitler—who was then rising in prominence—and with whom he raised concerns
about Hitler's anti-Semitism.[356] In September, when back in England, he became seriously ill
after a paratyphoid ulcer haemorrhaged.[357] While he was recovering, the German
Chancellor Franz von Papen requested that the other Western powers accept Germany's right to
re-arm, something they had been forbidden from doing following the First World War. Churchill
backed John Simon's calls to reject the request, believing that if Germany re-armed it would soon
pursue the re-conquest of territories lost in the previous conflict.[358]