The British Left and India: Metropolitan Anti-Imperialism, 1885-1947 (Oxford Historical Monographs)

353 Pages·2008·1.89 MB·English

by  Nicholas Owen

THE BRITISH LEFT AND INDIA
OXFORD HISTORICAL MONOGRAPHS
Editors
r. j. w. evans j. harris
j. maddicott j. robertson
r. service p. a. slack
b. ward-perkins
The British Left
and India
Metropolitan Anti-Imperialism,
1885–1947
NICHOLAS OWEN
1
1
GreatClarendonStreet,Oxfordox26dp
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ISBN978–0–19–923301–4
1.Anti-imperialistmovements—GreatBritain—History—19thcentury.2.Anti-imperialist
movements—GreatBritain—History—20thcentury.3.LabourParty(GreatBritain)
4.India—Foreignpublicopinion,British—History—19thcentury.5.India—Foreignpublicopinion,
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Acknowledgements
Material in Crown Copyright is reproduced under the permission
guidelines of the National Archives and the Office of Public Sector
Information. I am grateful to the following for permission to repro-
duceunpublishedmaterialforwhichtheyholdoradministerthecopy-
right.
UniversityofHull:AmmonPapers;TheMasterandFellowsofUni-
versity College, Oxford: Attlee Papers; The Bodleian Library: Dawson
Diary;TheTheosophicalSociety:BesantPapers;SardarPatelMemorial
Trust: Minute Book, British Committee of Congress; William Ready
Division of Archives and Research Collections, McMaster University:
Catlin Papers; The Warden and Fellows of Nuffield College, Oxford:
Cripps Papers, Fabian Society Papers; The National Archives, Kew:
Cripps Papers, J. Ramsay MacDonald Correspondence and Diary;
Gandhi Smarak Nidhi: Gandhi Papers; Lord Gorell: Gorell Diary;
FriendsHouse, London:Indian ConciliationGroup, AgathaHarrison
Papers, Alexander Papers; The Master and Fellows of Trinity College,
Cambridge:MontaguDiaryandPethick-LawrencePapers;TheNehru
Memorial Museum and Library: Motilal and Jawaharlal Nehru Cor-
respondence; the All-India Congress Committee: the V. K. Krishna
MenonPapers;TheMichaelAyrtonEstate:NevinsonDiary;Churchill
Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge: Noel-Baker Papers,
Attlee Papers; Labour History Archive and Study Centre: Papers of
the Labour Party and the Communist Party of Great Britain; London
SchoolofEconomicsandPoliticalScience:PassfieldPapers;Borthwick
Institute for Archives, University of York: Pole Papers; The British
Library: R. P. Dutt Papers; The National Archives of India: Sastri
Papers, Khaparde Diary, Jayakar Papers; Oriental and India Office
Collections,BritishLibrary:SealPapers;ModernRecordsCentre,Uni-
versityofWarwick:TradesUnionCongressPapers;SpecialCollections,
UniversityofSussex:WoolfPapers.
MaterialfromtheRamsayMacDonaldDiariesisreproducedaccom-
paniedbythefollowingstatement:‘Thecontentsofthesediarieswere,
in Ramsay MacDonald’s words, ‘‘meant as notes to guide and revive
memory as regards happenings and must on no account be published
viii Acknowledgements
astheyare.’’’IamgratefultoRamsayMacDonald’sgranddaughterfor
permissiontoquotefromthem.
Everyefforthasbeenmadetocontactothercopyrightholders.
TheresearchforthisbookwassupportedbytheBritishAcademyand
theUniversityofOxford,towhomIamverygrateful.Itspublicationhas
beengreatlyassistedbytheefficiencyoftheeditorsandstaffofOxford
UniversityPress.Therearemanyotherpeoplewhodeservemygratitude
fortheirhelpatvariousstagesoftheresearch,writingandpresentation
of my arguments. They include Paul Addison, Carl Bridge, Judith
M.Brown,DavidCannadine,SuhashChakravarty,PeterClarke,John
Darwin,ParthaS.Gupta,StephenHowe,DavidHowell,AngelaJohn,
SudiptaKaviraj,Wm.RogerLouis,D.A.Low,RossMcKibbin,Robin
J.Moore,S.R.Mehrotra,KennethO.Morgan,KevinMorgan,David
Omissi,TapanRaychaudhuri,AndewS.Thompson,E.P.Thompson,
and Philip Williamson. They have saved me from many errors of fact
and judgement, but none of them, of course, bears any responsibility
forthosethatremain.
Contents
ListofAbbreviations xi
Introduction 1
1. LiberalAnti-Imperialism:TheIndianNationalCongressin
Britain,1885–1906 22
2. DilemmasoftheMetropolitanAnti-Imperialist,1906–10 49
3. EdwardianProgressiveVisitorstoIndia,1905–14 78
4. TheDecline,RevivalandFalloftheBritishCommitteeof
Congress,1915–22 106
5. IndiaandtheLabourParty,1922–8 136
6. IndiaandtheLabourParty,1929–31 170
7. AnAnti-ImperialistJunctionBox?Metropolitan
Anti-Imperialismintheearly1930s 197
8. AnAnti-FascistAlliance,1934–42 235
9. LabourandIndia,1942–7 271
Bibliography 299
Index 333