Despite American reluctance to let the Russia-Ukraine conflict end, many believe that the outcome of the recently held elections in the U.K. and France might finally enable them to reinvent their role in geopolitics by Gopal Misra
The new British leadership, led by Labour Party Prime Minister Keir Starmer, is faced with the twin tasks of reviving the country’s perennially ailing economy and reclaiming its cherished role in geopolitics.
It reminds us of the role the Labour Party had played during the post World War-II years, when the then Prime Minister Clement Atlee had finally conceded the demand for Indian independence. However, the partition of India was also legitimized during his tenure by an Act of British Parliament. Keir Starmer is talking about strategic ties with India and is also ready for free trade partnership, but the new ruling party has already been asking for a UN-led referendum in Kashmir. The Indian strategic affairs experts, however, are amused by this resolution. It is being stated that since the Kashmir issue is directly related to the British Act partitioning India, that too under the Labour Party regime, therefore, it should have been asking for a referendum in Sindh, Baluchistan and the north-western frontier, now renamed as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
It, indeed, is quite difficult for the present leadership of the Labour Party to reassert the role of Britain in geopolitics. If Clement Atlee had not implemented the plan of India’s partition envisaged by the outgoing PM Winston Churchill, a journalist-turned politician, an independent united India might have been an asset to the U.K.
The British politicians as well as academicians of its much-acclaimed universities have paid little attention to the historical blunder of communalising India’s plural society. The deliberate fragmenting of the jewel of the British crown i.e. India, has finally relegated Britain as just one of the European powers, perhaps much weaker than its rivals Germany and France.
Pax Britannica
The British politicians may be hesitant to discuss and reinterpret the concept of Pax Britannia. The hope, however, has been rekindled following the electoral victory of the Labour Party in the recently held polls. It is being asked whether the concept of Pax Britannica, for ending conflicts across the continents, is still relevant. The peace or truce during the colonial era among the then world powers vying with each other in occupying or subjugating vast territories in Africa, Asia, Australia and Americas had retained peace among themselves under this concept.
