Churchill & India Flashcards
Why did Churchill like India?
- He served in Bombay India in 1896
- He believed it was the “jewel of the crown”
- He believed in Anglo-Saxon racial superiority
What was British Indian rule like?
- India wanted self-government 1930-30.
- Rowlatt Act 1919 - imprisonment without trial
- Montagu-Chelmford measures - gave local councils power to rebuke these imprisonments
- 1933 India was given self governing rights
- India Act 1935 (set in 1937) expanded electorate to 35 million ( out of 338 million)
Opposition to British rule?
- Opposition led by Gandhi.
- He developed “satyagraha” which means “holding into truth”.
- Non-violent protests
- April 1919 - Led mass campaign against the Rowlatt’s act (Troupes fired on a crowd at Amristan killing 400 and wounding 1200
- 1930, Gandhi led a mass march against the salt tax, and collected natural salt from the sea. He was imprisoned.
- Freed in 1930-31, to attend conference in London. After little sucess, he returned and was arrested.
Why would it have been a good idea to give India self-governing powers?
- Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa had all been given self-governing rights. Yet in WW1 they were loyal to the brits.
- Separate the moderates from the radicals in India
Effects of Churchill’s resistance?
- Stanley Baldwin undermined Churchill in his speeches. He is conservative leader. Mocking references to Churchill’s view.
- Churchill was bitter in his attacks on government ministers over the India reform proposals in 1934. This led to Leo Amery MP saying that Churchill had an “unique achievement to stir up a hornets’ nest where there were no hornets”.
- Churchill threatened to make the Conservative party shatter, as a ploy to convince Sir Samuel Hoare, the Secretary for India, resign. This won him the distrust of Conservative MPs and leaders alike.
Churchill changed his viewpoint when India won its self-governing rights.
When did Ramsay Macdonald win the general election for labour?
May 1929
What did Ramsay Macdonald winning the general election mark the beginning of?
Churchill’s “wilderness years”
When did Stanley Baldwin become prime minister?
1935
What was a more obscure reason for why Churchill was isolated from politics?
He was loyal to a small group of eccentric advisers, like Fredrick Lindemann
Quote from Churchill’s speech in Royal Albert Hall in 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.”
Churchill’s opinion on Gandhi?
“malignant subversive fanatic”
Quote from Geoffrey Best on Churchill in 1930s
“To most of the British Government’s policies vis-à-vis India Churchill took emphatic exception.”
How many Indian soliders fought in WW1?
Over 1 million
Bolshevism
The communist regime, as seen in Russia from 1917. This terrified Churchill.
Resistance to British Rule from educated elite?
They had been campaigning since 1880s.
What Indian political party was formed in 1885?
Indian National Congress
Why didn’t the Indian National Congress appeal to the general public of India until Gandhi?
It was founded by the elite. They were educated in Britain.
Violence in India that Churchill believed the Imperial Rule was preventing?
Hindus and Muslims
To abandon India to the rule of the Brahmins would be an act of cruel and wicked negligence. It would shame for ever those who bore its guilt. These Brahmins who mouth and patter the principles of Western Liberalism… are the same Brahmins who deny the primary rights of existence to nearly sixty million of their own fellow countrymen whom they call ‘Untouchable’.
Who were the “untouchables”?
Those deemed impure by the caste system
Who introduced the Rowlatt’s act?
Imperial Legislative Council
Rowlatt’s act?
March 1919
Certain political cases could be tried without a jury
Suspects could be imprisoned without trial
Restrictions were placed on the press
What was the aim of the Montagu-Chelmsford Act?
To nullify nationalist sentiment. The act gave provincial governments increased autonomy over some issues
Conservatives viewed this as too far. For Indians it was a small reform.
Other name for Amristar Massacre?
Jallianwala Bagh
Who led the protest against the Rowlatt’s act?
Gandhi (April 1919)
Why did riots form in Amristar after Gandhi’s protests?
Indian nationalist leaders were arrested
Response to riots in Amristar?
Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer was sent to stop the movement. His troupes opened fire after the warning that they would use force to disband.
Historian Mihir Bose claims that they only stopped because they “ran out of ammunition”.
Churchill’s response to Amristar massacre?
Spoke in the House of Commons as Secretary of War:
He said it was ‘an extraordinary event, a monstrous event, an event which stands in singular and sinister isolation.’
Opinion of former Prime Minister on Amristar Massacre?
Former Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith
“It is one of the worst outrages in the whole of our history.”
What happened to Reginald Dyer?
He was sacked.
A pro-Imperialist newspaper (the Morning Post) raised £26,000 for Dyer on his return to Britain.
Example of Churchill’s use of journalism?
By November 1929, Churchill had written a long piece in the Daily Mail in opposition to the policies of his own party. This was in responses made in October 1929, by Lord Irwin, Governor-General of India.
When does Churchill comment on Gandhi as a “A Seditious Middle Temple Lawyer”?
When Churchill discovered that Irwin had officially received Gandhi at the Vice-Regal palace in Delhi.
A statement Ramsay released about Churchill after one of his speeches to the Indian Empire Society?
“Blind to every movement in politics”
- The Times
What did Edwin Montagu say in parliament in 1817 on Indian independence?
‘the gradual development of self-governing institutions, with a view to the progressive realisation of responsible government in India as an integral part of the British Empire.’
