India League

The India League was an England-based organisation that campaigned for the full independence and self-governance of India. The League was established in 1928 by Krishna Menon and has been described as "the principal organisation promoting Indian nationalism in pre-war Britain".

History

The India League emerged from the Commonwealth of India League, which was established in 1922 and itself emerged from the Home Rule for India League, established in 1916. When Menon became joint secretary of the Commonwealth of India League, he rejected its previous objective of dominion status for India and instead set the goal of full independence. During the 1930s, the organisation expanded and established branches in cities across Britain.

Members of the League were largely drawn from the British elite, although a branch was established in the East End of London in the early 1940s, in order to attract more supporters from the South Asian community there. According to political historian Nicholas Owen, British audiences were reluctant to believe the accounts of British repression and social conditions in India given by Indians, and so the League sent a British delegation to India to validate its arguments, resulting in the publication in 1933 of The Condition of India.

The organisation continued to operate after India's independence in 1947 and while it focused mainly on India, "the League was internationalist in its outlook throughout, perceiving India's struggle for freedom as part of a larger struggle against imperialism and capitalism". Following Indian independence, the organisation focused on fostering relations between the UK and India and supporting Indian immigrants in the UK. It held regular meetings at the India Club, London. Latterly, its public presence faded.

In 1947 it was reported that the minimum subscription to the India League was five shillings. Branches could be established by groups of five or more people, subject to the approval of the League's executive committee. Branches were required to pay £2 6 shillings per year to the executive committee.

1928 Institute

In 2020, a think tank co-founded by two academics at the University of Oxford was established, "to continue the work of the original India League". It is the continuation of the original India League(est. 1928), with prominent members including Krishna Menon, Bertrand Russel, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Michael Foot.

Initially using the India League name, the think tank rebranded itself the 1928 Institute in October 2020. The 1928 Institute has run an online survey of British Indians, collecting socioeconomic data as well as information on political opinions, media representation of the community, religious identity, experience of racism and domestic violence, and the COVID-19 pandemic. In January 2021, the Institute announced that its research showed that 56 per cent of British Indians would take a COVID-19 vaccine, compared to 79 per cent of the overall population. One of the Institute's co-founders stated that "It seems that the Indian/south Asian population in general have been really falling prey to [misinformation] through things like WhatsApp forwards and fake news. And a lot of it seems to be directed at fertility, which is, I think, very interesting because there is no evidence to suggest that the vaccine causes fertility issues".

Writing for Byline Times, Amrit Wilson wrote that "while the India League saw the struggle in India as part of a larger struggle against imperialism and racism – and included such socialists and anti-imperialists as Harold Laski, Bertrand Russell and Fenner Brockway – the 1928 Institute's list of 'notable members' includes a corporate billionaire who admires [Narendra] Modi. Even the Prince of Udaipur, scion of one of India's most wealthy oppressor caste Rajput dynasties, is on board". The organisation responded by stating that it had "diverse members with no influence over the organisation".