Churchill and India #2 Flashcards
Quote from Churchill’s speech at the Royal Albert Hall, March 1931
“India is no more a political personality than Europe. It is a geographical term. It is no more a united nation than the Equator.”
Geoffrey Best on Churchill in the 1930s.
“Churchill took emphatic exception.”
Churchill on Gandhi
“malignant subversive fanatic”.
Best’s view of Empire before WW1
“a great fact that could be
taken for granted”
How many Indian troops fought in ww1?
Over 1 million
August 1917 - British War Cabinet belief on Indian self-rule?
It would take 500 years for them to learn to be successful
Churchill’s favourite poem / importance
‘Recessional’ by
Rudyard Kipling, which warned of the demise of the British Empire.
In a 1931 speech, Churchill told the Indian Empire Society:
Brahmins […] deny the primary rights of existence to nearly sixty million […] ‘Untouchable’.
Roberts (historian) on churchill’s racism
Roberts writes that
he possessed a “Victorian sense of racial superiority”
When was the Indian National Congress formed?
1885
History of the Indian National Congress
Originally appealed to elite
1920s (Gandhi’s leadership) opened appeal
Who introduced laws in India?
Imperial Legislative Council
Rowlatt Act (Black Act):
March 1919
1) Certain political cases could be tried without a jury
2) Suspects could be imprisoned without trial
3) Restrictions were placed on the press
Montagu-Chelmsford Act:
1919
The act gave provincial governments increased autonomy over some
issues.
Amritsar Massacre:
April 1919
- Nonviolent protest
- General Reginald Dyer restored order
- Banned all public meetings and announced force
- 400 dead and 1,200 wounded
Mihir Bose (historian) suggests that Dyer withdrew as his troops ran out of ammunition.
Reactions to the Amritsar Massacre?
Churchill ‘monstrous’ and ‘stands in singular and sinister isolation’.
Former Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith (right): ‘worst outrages in the whole of our history.’
Morning Post (pro-imperialist paper) started a fund which raised £26,000 for Dyer after he was fired.
Viceroy (who)?
Lord Irwin (governor-general of India)
Quote from October 1929 from Viceroy:
‘natural issue of India’s constitutional progress… is the attainment of Dominion status.’
Where did Churchill publish his piece against Indian independence?
Daily Mail
How did Churchill react when he found out that Viceroy had received Gandhi at the Vice-Regal Palace in Delhi?
‘seditious Middle Temple lawyer’
- Irwin responded ‘completely and utterly hopeless’ attitude. ‘That conception of Empire is finished.’
How did Ramsay Macdonald dismiss Churchill’s views?
‘nothing except an antiquated relationship’ published in The Times following Churchill speech at Indian Empire Society.
Satyagraha
a policy of nonviolent resistance, generally used to
refer to Gandhi’s opposition to
British rule in India
Salt March:
1930
240-mile march
Gandhi gave speeches about the unfairness of the salt tax, highlighting how it affected poor Indians
By the end of the year, fully 60,000
people involved in the movement had been jailed.
Gandhi released for Round Table Conferences.
Government of India Act 1935
- Came into effect 1937
- 35 million (10% of pop) added to electorate
Vote 386 to 122
Why was Government of India Act logical?
- Australia
- New Zealand
- Canada
- South Africa
granted dominion status before WW1
Churchill reaction to Government of India Act?
1934 - Attached Secretary of State for India (Sir Samuel Hoare)
- Attacks were so bitter that Leo Amery (former Churchill supporter) criticised Winston’s “unique achievement to stir up a hornets’ nest where there were no hornets”.
Best suggests that Churchill has Proto human-rights at heart
“had the interests of the ‘untouchables’ particularly at heart…
How did Churchill view Indianisation?
He had said previously in 1930 that this would be a “crime against civilisation” and in 1935 argued it would be “a catastrophe which
will shake the world”.
How many speeches did Churchill make?
68
Churchill lunched with a supporter of Gandhi after the Bill’s passage.
“Make the reforms a success!”
