The Press, Empire and Historical Time: The Times and Indian Self-government, c. 1911–1947

Journalistic invocations of past, present and future are a recurring feature of The Times’ analysis of Indian affairs, especially after 1911, a manifestation of shifting imperialist conceptions of India and the consequent role of The Times in promoting constitutional reform. Initially hostile, imperialist intellectuals, senior Conservatives, and The Times shifted from reluctant acquiescence, to the 1911 durbar declaration, to active support; of the 1919 Government of India Act, the 1929−33 Round Table process and 1935 India Act; to siding with those in the 1940−45 wartime government who, against Churchill, advocated the necessity of full self-government. Throughout, The Times’ extensive coverage of Indian affairs contained a subtext, sometimes explicitly stated, that presented a framework of historical time—a coherent sense of past, present and future—intended to legitimize new directions in Indian policy by reconciling change and continuity in a way that was satisfying to Conservative perceptions of British imperial history.