The Question of India: The Battle between the Die-Hards and the Reformers in Britain, 1929–1935

  • Lena Tan
Chapter

Abstract

When India became an independent and sovereign nation in 1947, Britain appeared to have given up the lynchpin of its empire and its “secret to the mastery of the world”1 without as much as a whimper. In 1947, this may have appeared to be the case but the profound changes leading to the end of this imperial relationship did not only begin during the 1940s. Substantial changes also took place in 1919, and between 1929 and 1935. The latter period, culminating in the 1935 Government of India Act, challenges most perspectives that portray Britain’s disengagement from India as one that was uncontested. It was, in fact, the period in which the fiercest and most sustained political battle was fought in twentieth-century British politics over India or, more generally, over any colony of the British empire. This six-year battle and its outcome was a major turning point in British politics regarding the question of India and forms the focus of this chapter.2

Keywords

Party Leader Civil Disobedience Veto Player Labour Party Liberal Party 
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Notes

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© Lena Tan 2015

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  • Lena Tan

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