‘Operation Seduction’: Mountbatten, the Media and Decolonisation in 1947

Abstract

14/15 August 1947 has become seared in imperial consciousness as the date of the first major decolonisation of the twentieth century, altering forever the lives of millions. As John Keay writes, ‘For the Indian subcontinent, as for the rest of the colonial world, the twentieth century peaked at Independence.’1 But what were the popular perceptions of this defining event at the metropolitan heart of empire, particularly as interpreted in the British national media, including the press, radio and newsreels? How did the Raj stage-manage this last act of the imperial drama, and did the British media play a part in furthering the official line on decolonisation? To better appreciate the ‘constitutive impact’ of empire on Britain requires moving beyond generalisations to ‘analysing specific contexts’, claims James Epstein, and this chapter attempts to offer a more empirically sensitive portrayal of one such context to help tease out the ways in which the end of empire was explained to a popular audience.2 It will be argued that the conceptualisation and orchestration of the ‘Raj decolonisation project’ under the guidance of the Viceroy, Lord Louis Mountbatten, was seminal to this endeavour. Such an approach also serves to shine a light on the transformed context within which the public mediation of these events played out. Indeed, as Maria Misra has noted, ‘Whilst partition itself was about blood and violence … in Delhi both Mountbatten and Nehru were determined that Independence would be a celebration.’3