India on film, 1939-1947

This chapter examines documentary films made about India during the period 1939-47. It contrasts the output of the official Indian film organisations Film Advisory Board and Information Films of India, with films produced by British governmental and military departments, and films produced by the commercial American company March of the Time. These films are revealing both of attitudes towards India and the question of independence, and of the nature of the Allied partnership during World War II. The work is part of the AHRC-funded project, Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire, and is the result of primary research into films held by the BFI and the Imperial War Museum, and India Office documents held at the British Library.

Richard Osborne, India on Film 1939-1947, 2011, Palgrave Macmillan, reproduced with permission of Palgrave Macmillan. This extract is taken from the author's original manuscript and has not been edited. The definitive version of this piece may be found in Film and the End of Empire edited by Lee Grieveson and Colin MacCabe which can be purchased from www.palgrave.com