Preserving the Empire: Arthur Berriedale Keith and the Indian Constitutional Crisis, 1919–1939

Responding to a shift in global narrative favouring nation’s right to self-determination, Britain became overly protective of its empire during the interwar years (1919–1939). Consequently, in Britain and India, the notion of Dominion Status attained centre stage, resulting in serious intellectual discussions about the nature and function of the concept, limits to the sovereignty of self-governing legislatures and the Dominions’ right to secede from the empire. Arthur Berriedale Keith (1879–1944) (Regius Professor of Sanskrit and Lecturer in the Constitution of the British Empire at University of Edinburgh) was an influential interlocutor in these debates. Through numerous scholarly texts, government reports and press notes, Keith supported political reforms in India through constitutional means. However, he also drew from the prevalent tenets of international law to retain Britain’s control over the colonies and, thereby, secure imperial unity. This article explores the fundamental paradox in Keith’s thinking by focusing on his peculiar constitutional readings of the British Commonwealth, a Dominion’s right to quasi-sovereignty and the purported legality of India’s anti-colonial mass struggle.