At the stroke of midnight hour, the biggest decolonization of the 21st century had taken place, the Imperial Regime had ended and the process of power transferred was complete. India and Pakistan were formed after an intense and well chronicled freedom struggles. With Mountbatten at the helm of affairs, power shifting seemed to be as smooth and as suave as Mountbatten himself was. Partition had a very tragic story to tell while New Delhi had its tryst with Destiny. India, the Republic was ready to surge on, so was the then proclaimed biggest Islamic Republic of Pakistan. All these seem to be something which is already known, nothing new there for sure.
Now enter the “Fleet Street”, Fleet Street? Well the name given to the reputed British Press at that time. Press in general always plays a very important role in these matters; they are the one documenting such historic moments, building the popular opinions and so on and so forth. So during this turmoil-ish kind of situation how did the press fair, was it a commendable performance? An historian notes that “The Imperial hotel in New Delhi looked like a local Fleet Street Club on 14th august 1947”. Clearly this statement reaffirms that the Fleet Street were most definitely in for a performance. A buoyant network of Fleet Street was on guard on 15th August, 1947.
But was the Indian Independence of that importance to the British that they had 15 special correspondents on 15th August from all leading daily newspapers of England, namely The Guardian, The Daily Herald, The London Illustrated News etc.
Here is the list of headlines from the leading newspapers of that time on this momentous event, one such headline read
“India is pledged to peace: Midnight guns greet new Domains; an Accidental Empire Ends”
The press was on an over drive, a self congratulatory tone could be sensed from the Fleet street,the fact that the power transfer was highlighted as a peaceful and structured process even though backdrop of this transfer of power yelled out the massacre which was carried out owing to partition.
The press Baptised the British Raj proclaiming it as an Accidental Empire who had come “Not to conquer but to trade “ The press lauded the every aspect of British advancement so to speak they could find in India. They stated the transfer of power as the “Shining act of justice”.
The ICS was termed as such a unit of integrity that it was a “Priceless heritage of the 2 new domains”
And this act of putting the British at the highest order according to Dr. Chandrika Kaul was not only carried out by the British press only , she notes that the “Tryst with Destiny” was the sagacity of Imperialist gratitude shown by the Indian leaders.
While the transfer of power was the “Breaking News” for the press, a little space was also dedicated to the “unavoidable vulcanization of India, which unfortunately is a tragedy”
And the most interesting fact here was that the sole responsibility of India getting divided by out on the Hindu’s primarily the New India i.e. In their words “Indians decided for a divided India”
Newspapers exaggerated the partition which would lead to something like anarchy and portrayed it as a total systematically collapse of New Delhi.
No discussions on the nationalist movement or the freedom struggle could make it to the Fleet Street.
The Mail had quoted the contributions of India in World War II
“Nationalists came into being because the British were liberal” was the take of The Herald.
Gandhi was portrayed as the sad and lamenting old man who could not reconcile himself into violence and divide.
Overwhelming acknowledgment of transfer of power in Asia was highlighted by the media and also the need of a commonwealth to ensure cooperation. India was proclaimed as the power that would bridge the gap between East and West; ironically this is the notion of the British even today. They said Pakistan would lead the Islamic cohesion after the collapse of Turkish Empire. Most probably this is one notion the British might not believe now.
So in a nutshell as a true media tradition the politics was very well personalised.
