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7 - David Low and India

from Part II - The critique of empire and the context of decolonisation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 May 2026

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Summary

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.

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