Abstract
14/15 August 1947 has become seared in imperial consciousness as the date of the first major decolonisation of the twentieth century, altering forever the lives of millions. As John Keay writes, ‘For the Indian subcontinent, as for the rest of the colonial world, the twentieth century peaked at Independence.’1 But what were the popular perceptions of this defining event at the metropolitan heart of empire, particularly as interpreted in the British national media, including the press, radio and newsreels? How did the Raj stage-manage this last act of the imperial drama, and did the British media play a part in furthering the official line on decolonisation? To better appreciate the ‘constitutive impact’ of empire on Britain requires moving beyond generalisations to ‘analysing specific contexts’, claims James Epstein, and this chapter attempts to offer a more empirically sensitive portrayal of one such context to help tease out the ways in which the end of empire was explained to a popular audience.2 It will be argued that the conceptualisation and orchestration of the ‘Raj decolonisation project’ under the guidance of the Viceroy, Lord Louis Mountbatten, was seminal to this endeavour. Such an approach also serves to shine a light on the transformed context within which the public mediation of these events played out. Indeed, as Maria Misra has noted, ‘Whilst partition itself was about blood and violence … in Delhi both Mountbatten and Nehru were determined that Independence would be a celebration.’3
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Notes
J. Keay, India A History, 2000, p. 509.
J. Epstein, ‘Taking Class Notes on Empire’, in C. Hall & S. Rose (eds.), At Home with the Empire, Cambridge, 2006, p. 274.
M. Misra, Vishnu’s Crowded Temple, 2007, p. 253.
D. Cannadine, ‘Independence Day Ceremonial in Historical Perspective’, in R. Holland, S. Williams & T. Barringer (eds.), The Iconography of Independence, Abingdon, 2010, pp. 2–3.
R. J. Moore, Churchill, Cripps and India 1939–45, Oxford, 1979, p. 138.
I. M. Stephens, Pakistan, Middlesex, 1964, p. 148.
N. Thomas-Symonds, Attlee, 2010, p. 180.
Cited in B. Hoey, Mountbatten the Private Story, 1994, p. 4.
J. Terraine, The Life and Times of Lord Mountbatten, 1980, p. 179.
Earl Mountbatten, First Mountbatten Lecture, National Electronics Council, 1978, p. 9.
A. Campbell-Johnson, Mountbatten in Retrospect, South Godstone, 1997, pp. 49–50.
Lord Ismay cited in A. Campbell-Johnson, Mission with Mountbatten, 1951, p. 221.
L. Collins & D. Lapierre, Mountbatten and the Partition of India, Manchester, 1982, Vol. 1, p. 6.
As cited in H. R. Luthra, Indian Broadcasting, New Delhi, 1986, p. 141.
Earl Mountbatten, Time only to Look Forward, 1949, p. 64.
P. Talbot, An American Witness to India’s Partition, Delhi, 2007, p. 305.
IJA Executive Committee Annual Report 1948, 9 December 1948, cited in K. P. V. Ayyar et al. (eds.), The Indian Press Year Book 1948, Madras, 1948, p. 79.
L. Collins & D. Lapierre, Mountbatten and the Partition of India, Manchester, 1982, Vol. 1, p. 6.
See L. P. Chester, Borders and Conflict in South Asia, Manchester, 2009, for discussion of stage management of the Boundary Commission and Partition award.
D. L. LeMahieu, A Culture for Democracy, Oxford, 2002 edn.
K. Martin, Editor, 1968, p. 162
C. H. Rolph, Kingsley, 1973, p. 295.
J. Cameron, Point of Departure, 1967, p. 82.
K. Williams, Read All About It! 2010, pp. 166–170.
Cited in D. Edwards, The Two Worlds of Donald Edwards, 1970, p. 56.
D. Edwards, ‘A Walk with Gandhi’, in W. Crawley (ed.) A Broadcasting Partnership, Indo-British Review, Madras, 1994, p. 113.
Cited in B. Coulton, Louis MacNeice in the BBC, 1980, p. 98.
D. Hendy, ‘Biography and the Emotions as a Missing “Narrative” in Media History’, Media History, Vol. 18, Nos. 3–4, 2012, pp. 361–378.
J. Turner, Filming History, 2001, p. 114.
For a short survey of select Indian press editorials, see S. Kamra, Bearing Witness, Calgary, 2002.
M. Lipton & J. Firn, The Erosion of a Relationship, 1975, p. 86
P. Mountbatten & I. Hicks, India Remembered, 2007, p. 66.
Lord Ismay, The Memoirs of General Lord Ismay, 1960, p. 442.
Cited in A. Chisholm & M. Davie, Lord Beaverbrook a Life, New York, 1993 edn., p. 455.
For an analysis of the tour, see C. Kaul, ‘Monarchical Display & the Politics of Empire: Princes of Wales and India, 1870s–1920s’, Twentieth Century British History, Vol. 17, No. 4, 2006, pp. 464–488.
S. Bose and A. Jalal, Modern South Asia, 1998 edn., p. 198.
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© 2014 Chandrika Kaul
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Kaul, C. (2014). ‘Operation Seduction’: Mountbatten, the Media and Decolonisation in 1947. In: Communications, Media and the Imperial Experience. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137445964_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137445964_5
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