An analysis of the British press representation of the Partition of India

The British press played a crucial role in establishing the first draft of Partition history in Britain. They did so through the lens of a colonial regime aiming to frame a moment of inglorious retreat as the fulfilment of a long civilising mission in the sub-continent. The representation of Partition did not conclude in 1947, but instead continues in later press coverage. Less attention has been paid to the later drafts of history that the press has written on Partition. This thesis fills this lacunae by examining when and how journalists mobilise memories of the Partition in the British press.

This thesis therefore focuses both on the representation at the time of the event, and how it has been reported in later coverage. Using a combination of different qualitative and quantitative methods, the study assesses several aspects of the representational pattern of the Partition of India. It does so over four empirical chapters, which together, provide the most comprehensive textual analysis of the representation of Partition in the British press.

Together the four empirical chapters of this study reveal that the press privileged a political frame of understanding the events. Focus was on a select few elite individuals, in a few select major metropolitans’ areas. The key theme of violence in reporting was also largely understood for its political implications, rather than for its social and human dimensions. Vernacular voices were marginalised in coverage, whilst British political actors such as Viceroy Mountbatten were able to define the key narrative of events.

This thesis reveals that over time the press has re-negotiated their position on the Partition. At the time of the event, newspapers uniformly encouraged the pace of which Partition was carried out, and lauded praise on the last Viceroy. But since they have come to condemn Mountbatten’s actions in India, and he has become the embodiment of a shameful part of British history. The press has described Mountbatten as inept and calamitous and have targeted the private dimensions of his life deconstructing the myth which they helped establish at the time of the event.

In more recent decades, there has been an increase in the number of Partition survivor accounts in the British press. This has marked a significant leap forward from the previous occupation on elite perspectives. But this thesis argues, that the ‘job is not done’ regarding press representations of the Partition as there is a continued tendency to address the audience as Partition consumers, rather than citizens who should reflect on Britain’s colonial past.