The British left and India : metropolitan anti-imperialism, 1885-1947 / Nicholas Owen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Owen, Nicholas (Nicholas J.)

Series:

Oxford historical monographs

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Anti-imperialist movements--Great Britain--History--19th century.

Anti-imperialist movements.

Anti-imperialist movements--Great Britain--History--20th century.

Labour Party (Great Britain).

History.

India--Foreign public opinion, British--History--19th century.

India.

India--Foreign public opinion, British--History--20th century.

Public opinion--Great Britain--History--19th century.

Public opinion.

Great Britain.

Public opinion--Great Britain--History--20th century.

Physical Description:

xii, 340 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2007.

Summary:

From the formation of the Indian National Congress in 1885 to the winning of independence in 1947, this book follows the complex and often troubled relationship between anti-imperialist campaigners in Britain and in India. Nicholas Owen traces the efforts of British Radicals and socialists to identify forms of anti-imperialism in India which fitted comfortably with their existing beliefs and their sense of how authentic progressive movements were supposed to work. On the other side of the relationship, he charts the trajectory of the Indian National Congress, as it shifted from appeals couched in language familiar to British progressives to the less familiar vocabulary and techniques of Mahatma Gandhi. The new Gandhian methods of self-reliance had unwelcome implications for the work that the British supporters of Congress had traditionally undertaken, leading to the collapse of their main organization, and the precipitation of anti-imperialist work into the turbulent cross-currents of left-wing British politics. Metropolitan anti-imperialism became largely a function of other commitments, whether communist, theosophical, pacifist, socialist or anti-fascist. Revealing the strengths and weaknesses of these connections, The British Left and India looks at the ultimate failure to create the durable alliance between anti-imperialists which the British Empire's governors had always feared.

Drawing on a wide range of newly available archival material in Britain and India, including the records of campaigning organizations, political parties, the British government and the imperial security services, this book is a powerful account of the diverse and fragmented world of British metropolitan anti-imperialism.

Contents:

Liberal anti-imperialism: the Indian National Congress in Britain, 1885-1906

Dilemmas of the metropolitan anti-imperialist, 1906-10

Edwardian progressive visitors to India, 1905-14

The decline, revival and fall of the British Committee of Congress, 1915-22

India and the Labour Party, 1922-8

India and the Labour Party, 1929-31

An anti-imperialist junction box?: metropolitan anti-imperialism in the early 1930s

An anti-fascist alliance, 1934-42

Labour and India, 1942-7.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [299]-331) and index.

ISBN:

9780199233014

0199233012

OCLC:

156784913