Synopses & Reviews
Over the course of the twentieth century, the British Raj successfully combined military force and coercion, with modern methods of persuasion, publicity and media manipulation - imperial public relations - in its strategies to engage with the increasingly challenging task of governing its Indian empire. This book focuses on the media environment of empire as a conceptual tool to investigate its political culture and role in shaping the imperial experience. The British national press, Reuters, the BBC, US newspapers and international news agencies such as the Associated Press and the United Press, as well as the Indian media, had a seminal role to play in this process. The interaction of imperial and media cultures is undertaken through in-depth case studies utilising hitherto unseen primary sources and examining the grand pageant of the Coronation Durbar 1911, Gandhian strategies of mass civil disobedience during the 1930s, the new technological revolution of broadcasting and the birth of All India Radio, as well as the endgame of empire and decolonisation in 1947.
Synopsis
Presenting a communicational perspective on the British empire in India during the 20th century, the book seeks to examine how, and explain why, British proconsuls, civil servants and even the monarch George V, as well as Indian nationalists, interacted with the media, primarily British and American, and with what consequences.
About the Author
Chandrika Kaul is Lecturer in Modern History at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. Her research interests include the British media and empire, 1850-1950, modern Indian history and politics, globalization, and, communications in world history. She is the author of the first detailed monograph examining British press coverage of India entitled Reporting the Raj: The British Press and India (2003). She has also edited Media and the British Empire (2006, 2013) and Explorations in Modern Indian History and the Media (2009) and, co-edited International Communications and Global News Networks: Historical Perspectives (2011).
Table of Contents
1. Communications, Media and the Imperial Experience: Perspectives and Perceptions2. Coronation, Colonialism and Cultures of Control: The Delhi Durbar, 19113. India as Viewed by the American Media: Chicago Daily Tribune, William Shirer and Gandhian nationalism 1930-31 4. 'Invisible Empire Tie': Broadcasting and the British Raj in the inter-war years5. 'Operation Seduction': Mountbatten, the Media and Decolonisation in 19476. Concluding remarks