The India League was an England-based organisation established by Krishna Menon in 1928. [1] [2] It campaigned for the full independence and self-governance of British India. [3] It has been described as "the principal organisation promoting Indian nationalism in pre-war Britain". [4]
The India League emerged from the Commonwealth of India League, which was established in 1922 and itself emerged from the Home Rule for India League, established in 1916. When Menon became joint secretary of the Commonwealth of India League, he rejected its previous objective of dominion status for India and instead set the goal of full independence. During the 1930s, the organisation expanded and established branches in cities across Britain. [3]
In 1930s, Menon along with other contributors had created a 554-page report on the situation in India. The report was banned in India. [5] In 1931, Mahatma Gandhi praised the efforts of the Indian League for its "hurricane propaganda on the danger to world peace of a rebellious India in bondage". [6]
Members of the League were largely drawn from the British elite, such as Edwina Mountbatten, Countess Mountbatten of Burma, Bertrand Russell, Harold Laski, Sir Stafford Cripps, Henry Brailsford, Leonard Matters, and Michael Foot, although a branch was established in the East End of London in the early 1940s, in order to attract more supporters from the South Asian community there. [3] According to historian Nicholas Owen, British audiences were reluctant to believe accounts of colonial repression and social conditions in India given by Indians, and so the League sent a British delegation to India to validate its arguments, resulting in the publication in 1933 of The Condition of India. [7]
In 1944, Menon reported that total membership of the league stood approximately at 1,400 members, and that 70 trade and 118 unions and other organisations are affiliated with the league. [8]
The organisation continued to operate after India's independence in 1947 and while it focused mainly on India, "the League was internationalist in its outlook throughout, perceiving India's struggle for freedom as part of a larger struggle against imperialism and capitalism". [3] Following Indian independence, the organisation focused on fostering relations between the UK and India and supporting Indian immigrants in the UK. It held regular meetings at the India Club, London. Latterly, its public presence faded. [9]
In 1947 it was reported that the minimum subscription to the India League was five shillings. Branches could be established by groups of five or more people, subject to the approval of the League's executive committee. Branches were required to pay £2 6 shillings per year to the executive committee. [10]
Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, commonly known as Lord Mountbatten, was a British statesman, naval officer, colonial administrator and close relative of the British royal family. He was born in the United Kingdom to the prominent Battenberg family. He was a maternal uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and a second cousin of King George VI. He joined the Royal Navy during the First World War and was appointed Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia Command, in the Second World War. He later served as the last Viceroy of India and briefly as the first Governor-General of the Dominion of India.
Sarojini Naidu was an Indian political activist and poet who served as the first Governor of United Provinces, after India's independence. She played an important role in the Indian independence movement against the British Raj. She was the first Indian woman to be president of the Indian National Congress and appointed governor of a state.
The Indian Independence Movement was a series of historic events in South Asia with the ultimate aim of ending British colonial rule. It lasted until 1947, when the Indian Independence Act 1947 was passed.
The Partition of India in 1947 was the change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in the Indian subcontinent and the creation of two independent dominions in South Asia: India and Pakistan. The Dominion of India is today the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Pakistan—which at the time comprised two regions lying on either side of India—is now the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the People's Republic of Bangladesh. The partition was outlined in the Indian Independence Act 1947. The change of political borders notably included the division of two provinces of British India, Bengal and Punjab. The majority Muslim districts in these provinces were awarded to Pakistan and the majority non-Muslim to India. The other assets that were divided included the British Indian Army, the Royal Indian Navy, the Royal Indian Air Force, the Indian Civil Service, the railways, and the central treasury. Provisions for self-governing independent Pakistan and India legally came into existence at midnight on 14 and 15 August 1947 respectively.
Vengalil Krishnan Krishna Menon was an Indian academic, independence activist, politician, lawyer, and statesman. During his time, Menon contributed to the Indian independence movement and India's foreign relations. He was among the major architects of Indian foreign policy, and acted as Jawaharlal Nehru's diplomat.
The Constituent Assembly of India was partly elected and partly nominated body to frame the Constitution of India. It was elected by the Provincial assemblies of British India following the Provincial Assembly elections held in 1946 and nominated by princely states. After India's independence from the British in August 1947, its members served as the nation's 'Provisional Parliament', as well as the Constituent Assembly. It was conceived and created by V. K. Krishna Menon, who first outlined its necessity in 1933 and enshrined it as an Indian National Congress demand.
Lady Pamela Carmen Louise Hicks is a British aristocrat and relative of the British royal family. She is the younger daughter of Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma and Edwina Mountbatten, Countess Mountbatten of Burma. Through her father, Lady Pamela is a first cousin of the late Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and a grandniece of the last Empress of Russia, Alexandra Feodorovna. She served as a bridesmaid and later as a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth II. She is also a great-great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria through her father.
Vappala Pangunni Menon was an Indian civil servant who served as Secretary to the Government of India in the Ministry of the States, under Sardar Patel. By appointment from Viceroy and Governor-General of India Wavell, he also served as Secretary to the Governor-General (Public) and later as Secretary to the Cabinet. He also was the Constitutional Adviser and Political Reforms Commissioner to the last three successive Viceroys during British rule in India. In May 1948, at the initiative of V. P. Menon, a meeting was held in Delhi between the Rajpramukhs of the princely unions and the States Department, at the end of which the Rajpramukhs signed new Instruments of Accession which gave the Government of India the power to pass laws in respect of all matters that fell within the seventh schedule of the Government of India Act 1935.
Before it gained independence in 1947, India was divided into two sets of territories, one under direct British rule, and the other consisting of princely states under the suzerainty of the British Crown, with control over their internal affairs remaining to varying degrees in the hands of their hereditary rulers. The latter included 562 princely states which had different types of revenue-sharing arrangements with the British, often depending on their size, population and local conditions. In addition, there were several colonial enclaves controlled by France and Portugal. After independence, the political integration of these territories into an Indian Union was a declared objective of the Indian National Congress, and the Government of India pursued this over the next decade.
In February 1948, the princely state of Junagadh, located in what is now the Indian state of Gujarat, was annexed to the Union of India after a dispute with the Dominion of Pakistan, regarding its accession, and a plebiscite. Junagadh had been a princely state under the suzerainty of the British Crown, until independence and partition of British India in 1947.
Lieutenant General Kunhirāman Pālātt Kandèt,PVSM was a senior officer in the Indian Army who played a commanding role in the Liberation of Goa from Portuguese control in 1961, and briefly served as the Military Governor of Goa, Daman and Diu.
The Indian Independence League was a political organisation operated from the 1920s to the 1940s to organise those living outside British India into seeking the removal of British colonial rule over the region. Founded by Indian nationalists, its activities were conducted in various parts of Southeast Asia. It included Indian expatriates, and later, Indian nationalists in-exile under Japanese occupation following Japan's successful Malayan Campaign during the first part of the Second World War. During the Japanese Occupation of Malaya, the Japanese encouraged Indians in Malaya to join the League.
The Indian Workers' Association (IWA) is a political organisation in Great Britain which consists of Indian immigrants to Britain and their descendants. IWA branches are organised in some major cities such as Birmingham and London. As one of the oldest and most active groups of immigrants, the organisation has been working in the fields of politics, race relations, industrial relations and social welfare, as well as many cultural issues. At the forefront of the struggle within trade unions, it has campaigned tirelessly against racism and on civil liberties issues.
After the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the British Government took over the administration to establish the British Raj. The British Raj was the period of British Parliament rule on the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947, for around 89 years of British occupation. The system of governance was instituted in 1858 when the rule of the East India Company was transferred to the Crown in the person of Queen Victoria.
The Asian Relations Conference was an international conference that took place in New Delhi from 23 March to 2 April, 1947. Organized by the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), the Conference was hosted by Jawaharlal Nehru, then the Vice-President of the interim Viceroy's Executive Council, and presided by Sarojini Naidu. Its goal was to promote cultural, intellectual and social exchange between Asian countries.
Walter Henry John Christie CSI, CIE, OBE was a British colonial civil servant who played a key part in the independence of India and provided administrative continuity after independence. He was also referred to as John Christie and "Red Christie".
Lieutenant General Shankarrao Pandurang Patil (SPP) Thorat, KC, DSO was a General Officer in the Indian Army. He was the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Eastern Command in the lead up to the 1962 Sino-Indian War.
The India Club was a social and dining club on the Strand in London, England. It was established in 1951 by members of the India League under the leadership of Krishna Menon. It closed in September 2023.
Susheila Nasta, MBE, Hon. FRSL, is a British critic, editor, academic and literary activist. She is Professor of Modern and Contemporary Literatures at Queen Mary University of London, and founding editor of Wasafiri, the UK's leading magazine for international contemporary writing. She is a recipient of the Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature.
V P Hansrani was an Indian Freedom Fighter who was based in Britain. He held leading positions in both the Indian Workers Association and the India League. He was a prolific author who worked with Krishna Menon and Sardar Ajit Singh.