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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territory designated to Pakistan, and of Muslims from Indian territory. Maharajas,
Rajas and Nizams
joined the most appropriate of the new states.

In
Pakistan, Mohammed Ali Jinnah became the Governor-General. Lord
Mountbatten served briefly as the
Governor-General of India where Nehru
became the Prime Minister. Gandhi, who had mobilised the masses
behind
Congress and had campaigned to the last to avoid communal violence, was
assassinated by a
Hindu extremist five months after independence. Jinnah died
towards the end of 1949. As was shown in
Chapter Three of this thesis, there yet
came a further British-style compromise, in 1949. Although the
Indians decided
to remain in the Commonwealth, they wanted to be a republic. In order to
accommodate
such a demand for republican status within the Commonwealth,
the British government produced a new
formula, in consultation with the
Commonwealth Prime Ministers at the conference of 1949. The chief
innovation
was the description of the monarch as ‘head of the Commonwealth’. It
became
possible that within two years of its independence India should have trimmed the
title of the
British sovereign in this way, provided that Commonwealth interests
were supported. India was regarded an
economic advantage to Britain and thus
Britain reacted to maintain a close relationship with that
country.

The
progress towards the independence of India, as had been anticipated,
opened the way to all the colonies
first in Asia, then in Africa, and finally in the
other parts, for advancing towards independence.
Subsequent movements
towards independence took place in Burma and Ceylon in Asia. As for Burma,
it
had never allowed the British fully to reinstate themselves after the defeat of the
Japanese. It
could be said that the abrupt defeat of the British at Singapore in 1942
became an encouragement for all
the colonies to struggle for their independence.
Professor Carrington has put it this way: “The
capture of Singapore by the
Japanese in February 1942 was a far greater disaster to the Commonwealth
and
Empire as a whole and, accordingly to the British as an imperial power, than the

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