Spain! Why? Jawaharlal Nehru, Non-Intervention, and the Spanish Civil War

Abstract

This article analyzes British non-intervention in the Spanish Civil War through the lens of Indian anti-fascism. To date, non-intervention, Aid Spain campaigns, and appeasement have dominated the historiography of Britain and the Spanish Civil War. Prime Ministers Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain faced an impossible decision between supporting fascism or communism (as some in Britain understood it). In due course, they tried to contain the conflict. However, Indian intervention in the Spanish Civil War complicates this narrative of non-intervention. I contend that in addition to a difficult crisis for England, the Spanish Civil War was also an opportunity for Indian anti-colonialists to demonstrate their independence from the British Empire.