Communications, Media and the Imperial Experience: Britain and India in the Twentieth Century

by Chandrika Kaul

Overview

Presenting a communicational perspective on the British empire in India during the 20th century, the book seeks to examine how, and explain why, British proconsuls, civil servants and even the monarch George V, as well as Indian nationalists, interacted with the media, primarily British and American, and with what consequences.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780230572584
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	11/27/2014
Edition description:	2014
Pages:	278
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.60(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Chandrika Kaul is Lecturer in Modern History at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. Her research interests include the British media and empire, 1850-1950, modern Indian history and politics, globalization, and, communications in world history. She is the author of the first detailed monograph examining British press coverage of India entitled Reporting the Raj: The British Press and India (2003). She has also edited Media and the British Empire (2006, 2013) and Explorations in Modern Indian History and the Media (2009) and, co-edited International Communications and Global News Networks: Historical Perspectives (2011).

Table of Contents

1. Communications, Media and the Imperial Experience: Perspectives and Perceptions 2. Coronation, Colonialism and Cultures of Control: The Delhi Durbar, 1911 3. India as Viewed by the American Media: Chicago Daily Tribune, William Shirer and Gandhian nationalism 1930-31 4. 'Invisible Empire Tie': Broadcasting and the British Raj in the inter-war years 5. 'Operation Seduction': Mountbatten, the Media and Decolonisation in 1947 6. Concluding remarks

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Chandrika Kaul’s volume is perceptive, multilayered and judicious in its analysis. It is required reading for understanding the role of the media in the closing period of British rule in India. The book combines rigorous scholarship with an engaging and accessible style that makes for both informative and entertaining reading.” (Professor Ian Talbot, University of Southampton)

"This book is a nice piece of media history of the British Empire's 'peripetia' starting at the Empire's heyday shortly before the First World or Great War and ending with British India's independence shortly after the Second World War. With its meticulous source analysis and the variety of sources on British India's and the Empire's perception in Britain and the US, the monograph hints at a desideratum, namely the perception of British rule in South Asia according to English newspapers owned by Indians and local language newspapers." - HistLit (Professor Michael Mann, University of Berlin, 2015)

"Kaul's essays usefully integrate Indian history with media history, and will be read profitably by those working in both fields. She makes a significant contribution to the wider recent attempt by historians to write the mass media into 'mainstream' histories, rather than treat it as a subject for separate study." - The Round Table (Dr Simon Potter, University of Bristol, 2015)

Editorial Reviews

This is a thoroughly admirable book, marked by a depth of research, occupying a hitherto dimly lit crossroads of imperial and media history, and illuminating each.” (Robert E. Upton, 20^th Century British History, Vol. 28 (4), December, 2017)

“This book provides important linkages between the political and historical processes of the empire and colonialism as well as a contemporary study of the impact of communication, news media and globalisation. It will be of value to those with interests in Modern Indian history and politics and communications in world history.” (Romero D’Souza, Media International Australia, Vol. 165 (1), 2017)

“All five of Professor Kaul’s essays are interesting and with this book she will have done much to shore up her reputation as one of Britain’s leading interpreters of the media. … Communications, Media and the Imperial Experience is likely to remain a standard work for many years to come.” (Joel H. Wiener, Journalism Studies, Vol. 16 (5), 2015)

“The major achievement of this book is in the way it integrates imperial and media history to generate an understanding of empire as a ‘media environment’. … provides a new and important perspective on M. K. Gandhi’s relations with the American press. … a meticulously researched, original and important contribution to the media history of the British Empire.” (Peter Putnis, Media History, Vol. 21 (4), October, 2015)

From the Publisher