From “Imperial Caravan” to “Wind of Change”: A Journey through Decolonization

History

The Wind of Change has on the whole been gentle to Mauritius. Any administration seen as less than satisfactory came about through the free and fair choice of the electorate, and no one can complain

By ParamanundSoobarah

We are very fortunate to be living in an era when change comes with gentle winds. In a broad historical perspective, the Independence of Mauritius, celebrated last month, was but a gentle ripple. It has not always been so. There have been times when strict monotony was the order of the day. And there have been times when change came with hurricane speed and force.

Churchill: “I have not become the King’s First Minister to preside over the dissolution of his Empire…” Pic – Grunge

“The dogs can bark, but the Imperial Caravan will pass.” This was a statement that I often heard being repeated in my childhood (spanning the 1930s and 40s). It used to be attributed to Winston Churchill, then Prime Minister of Britain. But I have not been able to confirm this authorship from online sources. The saying is itself a slight modification of a common Arab dictum – caravans and camels were a normal part of life in the Middle East. The addition of the word “Imperial” could only have come from an English-speaking imperialist familiar with the Arab world; Churchill, having played a prominent part in the redrawing of the Middle East map after the fall of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the First World War (1914-1918), was one such.

Churchill became Prime Minister in May 1940 not long after the start of the Second World War. He had been unflinchingly opposed to Germany in contrast to his predecessor Neville Chamberlain who was regarded as an appeaser and who finally lost a vote of confidence in Parliament. Churchill led his nation through a difficult war to victory, but what concerns us here is his staunch opposition to any talk of independence for any of the territories of the enormous British Empire.

Churchill was also very contemptuous of the coloured races who constituted the bulk of the inhabitants of his empire. Speaking in the House of Commons in November 1942, he said: “I have not become the King’s First Minister to preside over the dissolution of his Empire.” But the war he wagged was so expensive that it so impoverished Britain to the point that it was no longer in a position to rule the overseas territories it had amassed. Churchill was defeated in the elections that followed shortly after the war, and Clement Atlee, leader of the Labour Party, succeeded him.

The British government under Labour Party found itself struggling with economic constraints and increasing opposition to foreign rule from within territories of the Empire. To continue its role as a world power Britain would need strong American support, but America, sadly for Britain, was against the imperialistic tendencies and was calling on European countries to withdraw from the countries under their rule. Furthermore, the Labour Party had promised to engage in social reconstruction at home.

Faced with these difficulties Britain has evolved a policy of developing the ingredients of democracy leading to autonomy for all its colonies and their full independence at some stage. The principal constraint to this policy was not opposition to it from within Britain, although this was there, but the difficulties prevailing within the colonies themselves; it would take time to educate the elites and the masses, usually with opposed views, and warring factions to accept majority parliamentary rule as it was understood in Britain. Besides, very few in the colonies believed in the genuineness of the British policy statements. After Churchill’s statements, who would?

Subhash Chandra Bose& Indian Naval Mutiny

In those days, the Congress Party in India, led by the immensely popular, widely respected, and even worshipped Mahatma Gandhi and other party members, had been conducting a non-violent movement for the independence of the country, but it is widely believed that two other separate events accelerated the independence process for India.

One was the fact of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army, comprising former British Army soldiers who had been taken prisoner by the Japanese and who had volunteered to join Bose’s movement to fight the British for Independence; evidently, they lost out when the Japanese surrendered and were even court-martialled by the victorious British administration. But their action had shaken the faith of the British Government in their ability to control India using Indian personnel; they would never have been able to rule India as they did with only metropolitan British forces.Read More… Become a Subscriber

Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 18 April 2025