“Against the Biggest Buccaneering Enterprise in Living History”: Krishna Menon and the Colonial Response to International Crisis

Abstract

This article uses London-based South Asian and other colonial students as lenses to examine the development of anti-colonial alliances during the interwar period. It focuses on responses to three international crises in the 1930s: the Second Italian-Abyssinian War [1935–36], the Spanish Civil War [1936–39] and the Second Sino-Japanese War [1937–45]. The overarching argument is that these international crises stimulated increased cooperation between London-based students and activists from South Asia, as well as Africa and peoples of African descent, and China, and identifies V.K. Krishna Menon and his anti-colonial India League as crucial to facilitating interactions. The article concludes by asserting that efforts to form transnational alliances also highlighted widening divergences between the representatives of colonies, foreshadowing the challenges of creating and maintaining South-South affinities in the postcolonial period.

Keywords:

• V.K. Krishna Menon
• India League
• colonial students
• Abyssinia
• Spain
• China

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 J. Wilkie to Sir Maurice Hankey, September 21, 1926, ED 24/1994, The National Archives [TNA], UK.

2 “Extract from New Scotland Yard report”, no. 118, June 15, 1938, L/PJ/12/451.

3 Extract from New Scotland Yard Report, February 9, 1938, L/PJ/12/451.

4 Ibid

5 Victor Gollancz spearheaded the Left Book Club, which published left-leaning books in Britain from 1936-48. Amitav Ghosh references him in The Shadow Lines, where it is mentioned that Tresawsen worked as an editor for the Left Book Club’s newsletter.

6 Extract from New Scotland Yard Report, October 6, 1937, Menon File, no. 100, L/PJ/12/323.

7 Extract from New Scotland Yard Report, April 2, 1941, no. 190, India League, L/PJ/12/453.

8 Extract from new Scotland Yard report, May 4, 1938, L/PJ/12/451.

9 Menon to the Manager, Westminster Bank ltd, July 12, 1938. box 4, file 4/1, Krishna Menon Papers [KMP], Nehru Memorial Museum and Library [NMML].

10 “Jawaharlal Nehru’s Urgent Appeal to You,” n.d., KMP, box 4, file 4/1, NMML.

11 Menon to Secretary of LSE India Society, July 19, 1938, KMP, box 4, file 4/1, NMML.

12 “Jawaharlal Nehru’s Urgent Appeal to You,” n.d., KMP, box 4, file 4/1, NMML.

13 Mao-Tse Tung to Menon, May 24, 1939. See Ram 1997, 65-66.

14 “Brussels Conference 1927”, part II, subject File 123, J. Nehru Papers, NMML.

15 “Memoranda on India League Conference on Peace and Empire 19 July 1938,” Cross Reference, KV2/2509, TNA.

16 Ibid.

17 “Cross Reference,” July 11, 1939, KV2/2509, TNA.

18 Ibid.

19 “Cross Reference,” July 11, 1939, KV2/2509, TNA.

20 Telephone check, Conversation between V.K. Krishna Menon and B. Bradley, May 12, 1938, KV2/2509, TNA.

21 Ibid.

Additional information

Funding

This research was made possible in part by generous funding from the Fonds de recherche Société et Culture and the Beit Fund.

Notes on contributors

Brant Moscovitch

Brant Moscovitch earned his DPhil in Global and Imperial History at St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford (2019). His research interests include the legacies of imperialism, student migrations and the global diffusion of political ideas through intellectual hubs and networks. In his thesis, ‘A “Seedbed” for Post-Colonial Leaders: Empire, Internationalism and the Left at LSE, 1919–c.1950’, he examined the role of universities, particularly the London School of Economics and Political Science, in fostering networks of graduates who became political leaders and promoted a global exchange of ideas about democracy, liberalism, socialism and internationalism.