7 David Low and India
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David Lockwood
Abstract
This chapter explores the attitude towards British imperialism in India as expressed by the radical cartoonist David Low, in his work for the Star and the Evening Standard. Holding diametrically opposed views from those of his employer – Lord Beaverbrook – Low took a largely socialist and anti-imperialist line when dealing with India, which nonetheless did not preoccupy him to the same degree as the rise of fascism, Nazism, and Soviet communism. Drawing links between the known attitudes towards imperialism in India among the British middle classes, this chapter draws attention to the probable sympathy held by the Evening Standard’s readers towards Low’s approach. While Low himself believed that he had shaped this middle-class opinion into a broad conformity with his own, it seems more likely that the message of his cartoons against imperialism in India struck a chord with already existing middle-class opinions in the interwar period – this despite the pro-imperialism of the paper’s editor.
Abstract
This chapter explores the attitude towards British imperialism in India as expressed by the radical cartoonist David Low, in his work for the Star and the Evening Standard. Holding diametrically opposed views from those of his employer – Lord Beaverbrook – Low took a largely socialist and anti-imperialist line when dealing with India, which nonetheless did not preoccupy him to the same degree as the rise of fascism, Nazism, and Soviet communism. Drawing links between the known attitudes towards imperialism in India among the British middle classes, this chapter draws attention to the probable sympathy held by the Evening Standard’s readers towards Low’s approach. While Low himself believed that he had shaped this middle-class opinion into a broad conformity with his own, it seems more likely that the message of his cartoons against imperialism in India struck a chord with already existing middle-class opinions in the interwar period – this despite the pro-imperialism of the paper’s editor.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures vii
- List of contributors xvi
- Acknowledgements xxi
- 1 Introduction 1
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PART I: High imperialism and colonialism
- 2 Courting the colonies 31
- 3 ‘Master Jonathan’ in Cuba 66
- 4 ‘The international Siamese twins’ 92
- 5 ‘“Every dog” (no distinction of color) “has his day”’ 134
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PART II: The critique of empire and the context of decolonisation
- 6 The making of harmony and war, from New Year Prints to propaganda cartoons during China’s Second Sino-Japanese War 161
- 7 David Low and India 192
- 8 Between imagined and ‘real’ 216
- 9 The iconography of decolonisation in the cartoons of the Suez Crisis, 1956 242
- 10 Punch and the Cyprus emergency, 1955–1959 277
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PART III: Ambiguities of empire
- 11 Outrage and imperialism, confusion and indifference 305
- 12 Ambiguities in the fight waged by the socialist satirical review Der Wahre Jacob against militarism and imperialism 334
- 13 The ‘confounded socialists’ and the ‘Commonwealth Co-operative Society’ 362
- 14 Australian cartoonists at the end of empire 393
- Index 426
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures vii
- List of contributors xvi
- Acknowledgements xxi
- 1 Introduction 1
-
PART I: High imperialism and colonialism
- 2 Courting the colonies 31
- 3 ‘Master Jonathan’ in Cuba 66
- 4 ‘The international Siamese twins’ 92
- 5 ‘“Every dog” (no distinction of color) “has his day”’ 134
-
PART II: The critique of empire and the context of decolonisation
- 6 The making of harmony and war, from New Year Prints to propaganda cartoons during China’s Second Sino-Japanese War 161
- 7 David Low and India 192
- 8 Between imagined and ‘real’ 216
- 9 The iconography of decolonisation in the cartoons of the Suez Crisis, 1956 242
- 10 Punch and the Cyprus emergency, 1955–1959 277
-
PART III: Ambiguities of empire
- 11 Outrage and imperialism, confusion and indifference 305
- 12 Ambiguities in the fight waged by the socialist satirical review Der Wahre Jacob against militarism and imperialism 334
- 13 The ‘confounded socialists’ and the ‘Commonwealth Co-operative Society’ 362
- 14 Australian cartoonists at the end of empire 393
- Index 426
