In 1926 Claude Friese-Greene filmed aq journey
from Land’s End to John o’Groats – St. Ives – Cardiff – London’s Petticoat
Lane. The essence of Britain and her people
The British have emerged from WWI, tired but
triumphant- still has a passion for colonial rule and desire to improve lives
of her subjects
But Britain is divided by class and wealth,
Old industries –ship-building, textiles, coal –
are in decline
Employers reject calls for higher wages. – rise
of trade unions
May 1926 miners strike – then General Strike (a
sin against the obedience we owe to God)
After nine days the general strike is broken,
but it takes eight months before starvation drives the miners back to work,
accept lower wages and longer hours.
The ruling class has crushed the strike, as it
has exercised power across the world, and especially in India
India, December 1911, The Delhi Durbar. George
V is honoured as emperor. The British have been in India for over 200 years.-
imperial splendour
Camel corps, gallop by,
Beneath this display of royalty there lies a
fragile Raj
British rule has been challenged by decades of
national protest and terrorist violence. Viceroy George Hardinge remains
resolute: “No colonial self-government – the idea is ridiculous and absurd.”
But
British power in India is fading.
Deprived the Indian people of their freedom,
but based itself on the exploitation of the masses and ruined India – India
must sever the British connection, attain complete independence. (Jawaharlal
Nehru, President of the Indian National Congress, January 1930)
Indian nationalism has grown. Britain makes
some concessions to self-government. But some people are horrified at the idea
of relinquishing the Raj.
“It has been built by British life and British
capital. If we had not gone there, it would still be semi-barbaric. Our duty
there is to govern.”
Less than 100,000 British ruled 350 million
Indians
“We have nine servants, including the ayah, the
head servant who acts as valet to Colonel Sterling, the kitmugar, who waits at
table and looks after the silver, and the dhobil washerwoman.”
“I have never been nervous of natives, there is
something in our white blood which gives us a feeling of superiority over black
blood.”
“Some 70 bullock skins have been collected,
Katnagoos they are called. When all orifices have been patched, it forms an
immense bladder which is blown up through a leg.”
One third of India consists of the princely
states, ruled by maharajahs and nawabs. The Indian princes are flattered by the
British Raj, since they are useful figureheads, and socially acceptable.
Marriage of the Maharaja Ganga Singh’s
granddaughter to the Prince of Udaipur. The bridegroom arrives on his elephant.
An official paints the ceremonial caste mark on his forehead. Then he is
carried to the temple on a silver palanquin.
The ultimate social occasion for India’s elite
is a tiger hunt in the jungles of Northern India and Nepal. They climb to their
howdahs .
Ring-hunting: Buffalo calves are tied in the
jungle as bait. 50 elephants circle the place where the tiger may hide. Two
elephants go inside and find the tiger. The tiger charges the elephant. After
some time the tiger becomes exhausted and lies down.
With two or three rings a day hundreds of
tigers are shot. In ten weeks one hunt kills 38 rhino, 27 leopards, 15 bears,
120 tigers.
While the British enjoy the luxury of the Raj,
most Indians live in dire poverty. “The British Raj impose taxes for
everything. They plunder us for our money and make us living corpses. In a
railway carriage is breathing space for a gunsack, not for a man. In a train
like this my friend Maupilla died of suffocation.”
British India is divided into seven provinces.
With many languages and religions. Violence between Hindus and Muslims is
commonplace. Nationalists blame the British for a policy of divide and rule.
But one man devotes his life to a united India, Mohandas K. Gandhi.
“The semi-starved masses of India are slowly
sinking to lifelessness. England and the town-dwellers of India will have to
answer if there is a God above.”
By
the 1930s a new generation of British civil servants is beginning to
understand. “The poverty is astounding. Not so poor a 40 years ago, but they
are conscious of their poverty, and they resent it. I don’t know what the
government will do about Gandhi. Unless we are very skilful or lucky, the
situation is going to get worse. I’m in favour of granting dominion status is
10-12 years.”
A new world order is emerging. Atlee’s Labour
government is committed to honouring a pledge to India. In 1942, in exchange
for support in the war, Britain had promised India independence.
India 1945: Viceroy Lord Archibal Wavell: “I
think Labour is likely to be more sympathetic to India. But they must go slow.”
At his lodge he hosts a conference between India’s
political rivals.
Mahatma Gandhi of the Hindu-dominated Congress
And Mohammed Ali Jinnah, leader of the Muslim
League.
After 20 days of discussion they can’t agree on
India’s future.
“To achieve the freedom and independence of the
people of India it is essential to divide India as Pakistan and Hindustan.”
Wavell has failed to bring Hindu and Muslim
together. Communal rioting intensifies. The British are losing control. Atlee
looks for a new viceroy to lead India to independence.
In March 1947 Earl Louis Mountbattn and his
wife arrive in New Delhi. He is the great-grandson of Queen Victoria and cousin
of George VI:
“The scene here is one of gloom. I see little
common ground on which to build the future of India. Unless I act quickly,
there may be civil war.”
By May, attempts to create a unified India have
failed. Gandhi retreats from politics. Mohammed Ali Jinnah of the Muslim league
and Jawaharlal Nehru of the National Congress concede to divide India.
Mountbatten decides to transfer power in August..
There will be two nations, a secular India, and a Muslim Pakistan.
Violence escalates. “Many families have been
completely destroyed. The survivors lived in fear of aggression. The killed,
maimed and homeless, it’s tragic.
After 250 years in India, Mountbatten has given
the British only 73 days to leave.
“I swim and play golf every day, but I hope to
get a passage out of India by the end of August.”
On the eve of independence Nehru addresses the
people of India. “Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time
comes when we shall redeem our pledge, …At the stroke of the midnight hour,
when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.”
15th August 1947 the British Empire
in India has come to an end. Flag-raising and salute. “As the flag broke, a
brilliant rainbow appeared in the sky, which was taken by the crowd as a good
omen.”
“n the 15th August came freedom –
the freedom to burn, loot and murder.” Central Punjab war burning.
Between August 1947 and March 1948 four and a
half million Hindus and Sikhs are forced to migrate from Pakistan to India. Six
million Muslims must move in the opposite direction. Britons and Indians
witness the bloodshed.
“It is a battleground, people have gone mad.
Trains to Pakistan are being looted, occupants slaughtered. “
“The sight from the air was awe-inspiring.
Millions of refugees were struggling to get to India or Pakistan. Thousands of
others were trying to prevent them, murdering them by the hundreds. A death is
nothing, there are things more terrible than death.”
The worst atrocities are in the newly-divided
Punjab. Refugees are terrified that their women will be raped.
“We were completely surrounded. We had no
weapons We took the decision that all the women, our own family must be killed.
First we killed the young girls with our own hands. Kerosene was poured over
them and they were set on fire. Women and children Where would they have gone?”
“My mother saw my father being killed, they cut
him up into a hundred pieces, I was trembling. At my feet there were many
bodies, there were fires all around, and then they threw the children into the
fire. My mother hid me by my father’s body.”
Ten million people are displaced in the
partition of India, one million are dead.
By the summer of 1948 most British have left.
“The viceroy rode past with a cavalry in red
coats. I have seen the greatness of the British in India, but now it is all
ended, and we are the last to leave, tidying up the mess.”
Britain has lost its greatest imperial
possession. Mahatma Gandhi once said, that if India became free, the rest of
the empire would follow.
In the next ten years the fire of India’s independence will spread around the globe, from the Middle East to Africa.