Sujato Datta (Berlin), Diplomacy ‘Before’ Independence: The British Indian Agent-General in Washington and the Second World War

This paper looks at the relations between British India and the United States between 1938 to 1946, focusing on the office of the British Indian Agent-General in Washington. As the 1930s drew to a close and war broke out, one concern moved to the forefront of the already uneasy relationship between the governments of Britain and the United States : the cause of Indian independence. After the involuntary inclusion of India into the Second World War by the Viceroy Lord Linlithgow, the nationalist movement in India intensified. In a period of wartime anxiety, this put Franklin Roosevelt and his government in a dilemma of whether to stick to their commitment to ‘self-determination’ in foreign policy terms or choose not to irk a fellow Allied power. In this backdrop, in 1941, British Indian appointed Girija Shankar Bajpai (1891-1954) as the Agent-General in Washington. The office of the Agency-General was originally a diplomatic innovation to address the cause of British Indians residing in Commonwealth territories. It was established as a part of the Cape Town Agreement in 1927, between the Government of India (GoI) and the Union of South Africa. The appointment to Washington was the first outside the British Commonwealth. This paper, using archival sources from the US Record Group 59 and Bajpai’s own essays, recounts the history of Indo-US relations starting from discussions for a Draft Treaty of Commerce and Navigation in 1938, under which the Agent-General was appointed, and the withdrawal of the mission in 1946. This work thus uses a ‘thick description’ of Indian diplomacy before independence. In doing so, it posits the question of how British Indian diplomats navigated the tension, of being employees of the British administration, and at the same time, being informed by ruminations of how a post-independence foreign policy might look like.

Jonathan Jackson (Cologne), Their Majesties and the Metropole: King Lewanika of Barotseland in Britain and the Coronation of King Edward VII, 1902

In 1902, King Lewanika of Barotseland travelled from the Upper Zambesi floodplain and his central African capital, Lealui, to London to attend the coronation of King Edward VII. The British South Africa Company hoped the visit would stabilise diplomatic relations with Lewanika and the Barotse nation. Lewanika had his own ulterior motives. Set within a complex set of circumstances, each leveraged the occasion for distinct political ends. Enshrouded by the celebration of sovereignty – British, African, or otherwise – the visit was underlaid by political dealings which went far beyond superficial presentations of his visit as an expression of loyalty and affection. While many histories of colonialism centre conquest and dispossession, and others highlight realities along the ‘resistance–collaboration’ dichotomy, Lewanika was one of few African statespeople to continuously engage colonialism along diplomatic lines. When colonialism came to Barotseland, however, it was not a united force. As much as efforts were made to present the imperial presence as indivisible, Lewanika realised the convoluted relationship between the Company, the Colonial Office, and the Crown. His under-examined visit to the heart of the metropole played a pivotal role in these relations, with much resting on the extent to which the colonial veneer could be restored. The result reveals critical insights into complex and fractious relations with and within ‘the imperial machinery’ at work in Britain and Barotseland. The visit serves as a prism which refracts broader dynamics and throws new light on concepts of sovereignty, kingship, loyalism, and imperialism (both European and African).