Paper short abstract:

The Consequences of the end of the War and Montagu Declaration to Indian Decolonisation and British plans to keep the Indian Empire.

Paper long abstract:

The Paris Peace Treaty and Woodrow Wilson's famous Fourteen Points were viewed by many to offer a new world of self-determination and an end to imperialism and external dominations. India had made a massive financial, material and especially human contribution to a very European war. The idealism that came from Versailles reached India where the local elites believed their contribution more than merited a new constitutional trajectory that would lead to self-government within the British Empire and for other full independence. However, many in the British establishment viewed the victory as a validation of imperial rule and the need to keep the Indian Empire ruled by Britain. The Montagu-Chelmsford Reform of 1918 were crafted to try and keep both sides happy with mixed results. This paper examines the consequences of the "Montford" reforms and what it meant to Indian decolonisation and to those who wished to retain the Indian Empire. The paper examines how both the Indian and British leaders viewed the prospect of an Indian Dominion, which few actually knew what this meant, but that the end of the war seemed to promise.