The British Imperial Establishment, Post Imperial Era, and the ‘Churchillian’ World View, 1945-2016. (Adjustments & Challenges in Contemporary British Diplomatic Strategy)

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This
examination firmly indicates that the Labour party is overtly
ideological. It stresses the need for
equality – equality between classes and
between races. It insists on equality of opportunity and, even,
equality or near-
equality of rewards. Social provision is given a very high priority by the
Labour
Party. It advocates an extension of public ownership and/or control. In foreign
affairs the
Labour Party is “far less hesitant about cutting defence expenditure
and closing overseas bases than
any Conservative government is ever likely to
be.“27 It is
“parochial and fervently anti-colonial.”28

Relinquishing India can be considered an appropriate start to investigate
the attitudes and policy
ideas of the Labour political elite in regard to the process
of the decolonisation of the British Empire
and the establishment of the Modern
Commonwealth. This approach is taken for two reasons. Firstly,
because India
had always been regarded by the British political elite as the ‘jewel’ of the
British
Empire, it could be said that, in fact, one of the reasons that the British Empire
became so
vast in the east was to protect India. It was always believed that if the
Empire lost India the other
colonies would follow suit. Such a belief became a
reality. Once India won independence from Britain, the
rest of the colonies in
Asia and Africa followed India’s path. We could go as far as saying that, in
the
developing world, India became a model for political independence. The second
reason for
selecting India as a case study is due to the fact that the Indian question
had indeed become a pressing
issue for the Labour Government and therefore
they had the urge to come to grips with it. This was
because the situation in India
was getting more and more dangerous.

For
decades the ultimate transfer of power to India had been foreseen, but
not even until 1939 had it been
realised how fast the granting of independence to
the Indians would be carried out. The antagonism felt
by Hindus and Muslims for
each other, and the failure of the Congress and other Indian parties to
help
guarantee either internal stability or resistance to aggression from outside,

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