Communications, Media and the Imperial Experience

Chandrika Kaul is Lecturer in Modern History at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. Her research interests include the British media and empire, 1850-1950, modern Indian history and politics, globalization, and, communications in world history. She is the author of the first detailed monograph examining British press coverage of India entitled Reporting the Raj: The British Press and India (2003). She has also edited Media and the British Empire (2006, 2013) and Explorations in Modern Indian History and the Media (2009) and, co-edited International Communications and Global News Networks: Historical Perspectives (2011).

"All five of Professor Kaul's essays are interesting and with this book she will have done much to shore up her reputation as one of Britain's leading interpreters of the media. ... Communications, Media and the Imperial Experience is likely to remain a standard work for many years to come." (Joel H. Wiener, Journalism Studies, Vol. 16 (5), 2015) "The major achievement of this book is in the way it integrates imperial and media history to generate an understanding of empire as a 'media environment'. ... provides a new and important perspective on M. K. Gandhi's relations with the American press. ... a meticulously researched, original and important contribution to the media history of the British Empire." (Peter Putnis, Media History, Vol. 21 (4), October, 2015) "This book is a nice piece of media history of the British Empire's 'peripetia' starting at the Empire's heyday shortly before the First World or Great War and ending with British India's independence shortly after the Second World War. With its meticulous source analysis and the variety of sources on British India's and the Empire's perception in Britain and the US, the monograph hints at a desideratum, namely the perception of British rule in South Asia according to English newspapers owned by Indians and local language newspapers." - HistLit (Professor Michael Mann, University of Berlin, 2015) "Kaul's essays usefully integrate Indian history with media history, and will be read profitably by those working in both fields. She makes a significant contribution to the wider recent attempt by historians to write the mass media into 'mainstream' histories, rather than treat it as a subject for separate study." - The Round Table (Dr Simon Potter, University of Bristol, 2015)

• 1. Communications, Media and the Imperial Experience: Perspectives and Perceptions 2. Coronation, Colonialism and Cultures of Control: The Delhi Durbar, 1911 3. India as Viewed by the American Media: Chicago Daily Tribune, William Shirer and Gandhian nationalism 1930-31 4. 'Invisible Empire Tie': Broadcasting and the British Raj in the inter-war years 5. 'Operation Seduction': Mountbatten, the Media and Decolonisation in 1947 6. Concluding remarks