India during World War Two will be the focus of this year’s Raleigh Lecture on History at the University of Bristol on Friday, April 23. 

The lecture, entitled The Nation Within: India at war 1939-45 will be given by Christopher Bayly, Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Maritime History at the University of Cambridge. 

In his lecture, Professor Bayly will seek to analyse India at war in its own right and not within the context of the inter-communal violence and political turmoil which was to follow as the prelude to partition.  Professor Bayly will argue instead that the British Raj was able to recover from defeats in Burma and the Quit India movement of 1942 by drawing on the political loyalty of Indian people to their own emerging nation.

Professor Bayly is a renowned scholar of the history of modern India and of European empires.  He is the author of several books, including Origins of Nationality in South Asia and Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars: North Indian Society in the Age of British Expansion.  His latest book, The Birth of the Modern World, 1780-1914: Global Connections and Comparisons was published in paperback in January 2004. 

The lecture will take place on Friday, April 23 at 5.30pm in the Victoria Rooms, Queens Road.  It is free and all are welcome.