Britain and Indian Nationalism: The Imprint of Amibiguity 1929–1942
Cambridge University Press, 9/18/1997
EAN 9780521550178, ISBN10: 0521550173
Hardcover, 378 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm
Language: English
India's struggle for independence was arguably the most momentous of the twentieth century, and central to it was the generation of powerful nationalist forces. In a series of detailed studies Anthony Low shows how the ambiguity of the British position conditioned the distinctive character of this struggle: how the British determination to hold fast their Indian empire (unlike the Americans in the Philippines) prior to 1942 was nonetheless complemented by a reluctance to resist their nationalist opponents in the unyielding ways of the French in Vietnam and the Dutch in Indochina. Much that Gandhi did, Professor Low concludes, would have been unnecessary in the Philippines and impossible in Indonesia and Vietnam, but astutely fitted the peculiar conditions of the nationalist struggle against the British in India. Published on the fiftieth anniversary of Indian independence, Britain and Indian Nationalism makes a major contribution to the historiography of modern India, to Britain's relations with its empire, and to the history of decolonisation in the twentieth century.
Preface
1. Introduction
contemporary encounters
2. Vortex debate
the Purna Swaraj decision 1929
3. Holds barred
anatomy of a Satyagraha, Lucknow May 1930
4. Peace with conflict
the Gandhi-Emerson talks, March-August 1931
5. Thrust and parry
the Mahatma at bay 1932–3
6. Which way ahead? Nehru and congress strategy 1936–7
7. The spider's web
congress and provincial office 1937–9
8. Working with the grain
Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru and the antecedents to the Cripps Declaration 1942
Bibliographical notes
Index.
‘ … this book constitutes a very considerable achievement by a mature and painstaking scholar.’ South Asia
‘I can only hope that in time it will be on the shelves of all those with a serious interest in Western colonial experience …’ The Journal of Asian Studies