Rule Britannia, Britannia Rules the Salt - The British Empire | BETWEEN 2 WARS I 1930 Part 1 of 1 - YouTube (1)
Without a regular supply of sodium chloride, the main component of salt, you will die.
See, when your blood sodium level falls below a certain amount, you will go into a stupor,
your muscles start twitching and spasming, you get seizures, and then you then slip into
a coma and die. Even just getting too little salt will make you very sick, so when the
British colonial masters have a state monopoly on salt extraction in India, they are restricting
one of the basic necessities of human life. In April 1930 this makes one man, a peaceful
lawyer and civil rights activist, decide to resist an entire empire by taking a long walk.
Welcome to Between-2-Wars, a chronological summary of the interwar years, covering all
facets of life, the uncertainty, hedonism, and euphoria, and ultimately humanity's
descent into the darkness of the Second World War. I'm Indy Neidell.
With spoils of World War One, awarded to Great Britain at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919,
the British Empire reaches its peak in size and population. For over a century it has
already been the largest, richest, and most powerful political entity that the world has
ever seen. It now spans a quarter of Earth's land mass, and the sovereign of the United
Kingdom is the head of state for 450 million people, 23% of the world's population, with
subjects on every populated landmass of the globe. The Empire is also armed to her teeth
with a professional army and the most powerful navy of all time - Britannia rules the waves,
and a huge chunk of the world.
But as the 1920s proceed this vast empire is now also a changing empire. In our 1920
episode on carving up the Middle East, we saw that Britain's colonies and territories
were still vital to its domestic economy while also becoming increasingly troublesome. As
the 1920's roll on, Britain is, however, able to hold onto its territories through
a mixture of concession and repression. Nevertheless, the ‘empire on which the sun never sets'
is maybe not yet declining, but it is undeniably changing.
It is one man in India who will embody the challenges Britannia now faces, he is Mohandas
Karamchand Gandhi, better known as Mahatma Gandhi.
Born to a poor family in India in 1869, he managed to study law in London with financial
support of an uncle. And then went to practice law in South Africa, where over a period of
21 years he established himself as a fervent activist for increased civil rights for the
indigenous population. In 1915, he is asked to return to India and join the movement for
increased independence as the President of the Indian National Congress, the political
party striving for a peaceful path to self-rule.
Now, India is a British colony which means that it has much less autonomy than the more
independent members of the Commonwealth, which are called Dominions. These are the territories
that have long had a large settler presence in them and where institutions and forms of
government have been set up along British lines.
These territories are Newfoundland, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa and
the idea is that, while they are largely autonomous, they all carry a strong sense of “Britannic
nationalism”, a form of imperial patriotism based on the idea of a “Commonwealth of
Nations”, and solidarity between kith and kin across the globe. Way back in 1858, William
Gladstone, later British Prime Minister, captured this idea when he declared that the aim of
colonization “was to reproduce the likeness of England…thereby contributing to the general
happiness of mankind.”
That is not quite the reality on the ground though. Many Canadian settlers are of French
descent, white South Africans are primarily Boers of Dutch heritage, famously once at
war with the English. The Irish who achieve Dominion status in 1922, also after years
of struggle and then war for independence, are hardly enthusiastic about ‘Britannia'.
Not to mention that in most places the settlers are a ruling minority dominating much larger
native populations with fewer rights or even none at all.
The situation in India is a bit different. Here the vast native population dwarfs that
of the British arrivals by a factor of many times, and is by force a part of the administration,
at least at the local level, which gives the indigenous population hope for more rights
by becoming a Dominion. In 1917, the ‘August Declaration' by secretary of state for India,
Edwin Montagu, promises progress towards ‘responsible government'. In 1918, Indian nationalists
get another sliver of hope when India is admitted to the Imperial Conference, a big step considering
that it was previously for White Dominions only.
In 1919, the Government of India Act introduces the idea of dual-rule, and gives Indian legislators
control over things such as agriculture, sanitation, and education. It's not quite democracy
yet though, as these legislators are chosen by an electorate of indigenous landowners
of a certain size, or about 10% of the adult male population and 1% of the adult female.
But that doesn't really matter though, because the process has already been derailed before
it gets going. In parallel to the reforms, British legislators in India extend wartime
security measures to preempt any revolutionary nationalist activity. Security forces can
then detain suspects for one year without trial. Instead of curbing unrest, riots immediately
flare up in response. The Army responds in force and this culminates at Amritsar, Punjab,
when on April 13, 1919 at a peaceful gathering in the square of Jallianwala Bagh, thousands
of unarmed Indians are shot at by troops under the command of Brigadier-General Reginald
Dyer. The shooting lasts for 10 minutes, from a distance of only about 100 yards. The official
death toll is 379, other sources cite as many as 1,600 killed.
The massacre alienates the moderate nationalists, and Gandhi breaks off all negotiations with
the British government, declaring it to be a ‘satanic regime'. He now launches a
non-cooperation campaign that gains a mass following. It is a program for self-sufficiency.
They boycott elections, British schools, British goods, and British courts, challenging the
Raj at every level. In September the Indian National Congress officially sanctions it
with the aim of bringing ‘swaraj' (self-rule) in one year.
But by January 1922 little progress has been made, so the National Congress calls for increased
civil disobedience, including the refusal to pay taxes. Things quickly turn violent,
and Gandhi is forced to call off the campaign already in February after rioters in the town
of Chauri Chaura set fire to a police station, killing 22 officers inside. Gandhi is jailed
soon after, his movement loses momentum, and by 1923 mainstream political opinion in India
has drifted back to an acceptance of moderate constitutional reform.
Meanwhile it is the Dominions that are demanding more autonomy, just when Britain has realized
how much it depends on its Empire.
The war had clearly shown the British government how essential these territories are, and it
is also clear that they will be needed again should another war happen. And it is not only
the need for military support which the Great War has driven home. Growing competition from
the much more modernized economies of countries such as the United States means Britain is
increasingly relying on imperial trade to aid its post-war recovery. There's a problem
though, you see economic nationalism in the Dominions, and their autonomous constitutional
systems means that Britain lacks the legal and political avenues to create an imperial
network of trade under its own control.
British officials realize that their only option is to encourage voluntary economic
cooperation, and The Empire Marketing Board is established in 1926. Tasked with “bringing
the empire alive”, the Board produces vibrant posters encouraging consumers in both British
and Dominion markets to buy Empire-produced goods. They have spiffy slogans like “Buy
Empire Everyday” or “From Christmas to Christmas May Empire Trade Increase” Radio
programs celebrate Empire and cover events such as imperial exhibitions and royal addresses
to colonial listeners.
So, the
war may have brought home how much Britain needs its Dominions, but it has also furthered
a sense of nationalism within the Dominions themselves.
By 1910, they had become self-governing in their domestic politics, with Ireland joining
the fold in 1922, and they are now all pushing for further independence. The trauma of the
war, and the slaughter on battlefields such as Passchendaele and Gallipoli, has made many
question how Britannic they want to be. As historian Jay Winter tells us, “the men
who returned from the field were less British than those who had gone off to fight. The
tie to Britain was still there, though palpably and permanently transformed.”
The Dominion governments now make it clear that they have no wish to become embroiled
in another unnecessary European war. During the Turkish War for independence, Churchill,
who at this point heads the colonial office, calls on Dominion military aid to protect
British post-Ottoman interests, but he is promptly rebuked and met with refusal by Canada's
Prime Minister. Continued appeals for Dominion contributions to imperial defense also repeatedly
fall on deaf ears.
It all comes to a head at the 1926 Imperial Conference, where a committee led by Lord
Balfour defines the constitutional status of the Dominions. They declare that the Dominions
are to be “autonomous Communities within the British Empire, equal in status, in no
way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though
united by a common allegiance to the Crown, and freely associated as members of the British
Commonwealth of Nations.” The wording is a delicate compromise between the needs of
the Empire and the desires of the Dominions, though the Dominions are now effectively sovereign
states and can be as independent as they want to be. When Britain declared war in 1914,
all of its empire was automatically involved, but in future Britain cannot fall back on
its Dominions by default should it find itself in another major conflict.
And it is this freedom and sovereignty that the people of the Indian subcontinent are
after too.
After the collapse of the first passive resistance campaign, the Indian National Congress is
more fragmented compared to the unity of 1919 and 1920. This is good for Britain who remain
reluctant to give greater autonomy to India. To begin with it would break some of the cultural
taboos surrounding what races are able and unable to rule themselves. But direct rule
over India is also necessary should any conflict in Asia break out. Its huge population provides
a vast pool of labor and military resources already present on the continent.
It is a massive market for Britain's industrial products and the receiver of huge injections
of investments and loans. Imperial leaders have long recognized this. In 1901, Viceroy
Curzon stated that “As long as we rule in India…we are the greatest power in the world.
If we lose it we shall drop straight away to a third rate power”. In 1930 Churchill
declares that “The loss of India…would be final and fatal to us…The British Empire
would pass at stroke out of life and into history”.
The British see the gradual constitutional movement as a good way to keep the independence
movement working on their terms. In February 1928, Sir John Allsebrook Simon, is sent
to India to set up a commission to review the Government of India Act of 1919 and investigate
further reform. The commission is pretty controversial; it has no Indian members, and both the Indian
National Congress and the Muslim League boycott its findings and organize mass protests against
it. Still, in August, a joint declaration of the Indian independence parties reaffirms
that India should hold Dominion status within the British Empire. They are given further
hope in October 1929 when the Viceroy, Lord Irwin, declares that Dominionhood is the intended
outcome. And yet, things seem to be again sliding out of British control.
The global economic recession is also hitting India, and another wave of nationalist violence
