"At the Stroke of the Midnight Hour": The British Press and Indian Independence in 1947

The year 2007 witnessed an unprecedented commemoration in the British media of the 60^th anniversary of Indian Independence (and the birth of the new state of Pakistan). However, how did the British media report on the actual events and issues during 1947?

The Independence of India represented the first major decolonisation of the twentieth century and this paper will focus on the key months during the spring and summer of 1947 when momentous decisions regarding the partitioning of the sub-continent and the creation of two new states of India and Pakistan were announced and then made a reality. How were these events mediated by the press? How did British political leaders seek to justify withdrawal and partition to a public who had been led to believe that India was pivotal to Britain’s global power and economic prosperity? What was the impact on British public opinion and how far was there both popular and political support for these developments?

The paper will examine issues of official publicity and the role of the media in portraying an image of empire and by implication of Britain, in a precarious post war world, where imperial certainties appeared to crumble. The research is based on previously un-utilised India office records, newsreel footage as well as the files of all major national newspapers and periodicals. It also involves a new evaluation of the role of Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy, in the process of official media manipulation. As such it offers a study of perceptions of decolonisation in the metropolitan heart of empire that is both new and innovative.