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| author | Keith Costello |
| title | The U.S., India, and the Colonial Question: America's Missed Opportunity |
| abstract |
This thesis argues that American relations with India declined significantly during the Second World War. This decline in relations between the two countries
was the direct result of a failed India policy led by President Roosevelt and his State Department. This thesis focuses considerable attention on Roosevelt's
relationship with the Indian National Congress. During World War II, America encountered nationalism in Asia and did not respond correctly to it. How to handle
Indian nationalism became a pressing foreign policy concern for the Roosevelt Administration. As America grappled with its new foreign policy challenge in India,
it began to reconsider some basic assumptions regarding the British Empire. Prior to the Second World War, the British Empire was viewed by American policymakers
as a positive force for global stability. This thesis shows how this assumption was challenged during World War II by certain figures in the State Department.
Roosevelt, however, did not respond adequately to advice regarding how to deal with Indian nationalism. Roosevelt's policy, as well as many in his State Department,
was to avoid antagonizing Winston Churchill over the issue of Indian independence. William Phillips emerged as a key policymaker who urged Roosevelt to take a new
foreign policy approach toward Britain, one that involved putting pressure on the British to offer more self-government to India. The broader implications of this
thesis show that America began to alter its foreign policy approach in the East as a result of its coming to terms with the sweeping changes that were occurring there.
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| school | The College of Liberal Arts, Drew University |
| degree | B.A. (2018) |
| advisor | James Carter |
| committee | Frances Bernstein
Allan Dawson |
| full text | KCostello.pdf |
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