ABSTRACT
There is no escaping the sudden collapse of the (formal) British empire after 1945. The Second World War may not have shattered public belief in colonial rule, yet it did have deeply ‘corrosive effects at … every level of the imperial connection’. 1 Within a few decades of granting independence to India on 14 August 1947, sixty-four countries and approximately 500 million people had ceased to be ruled by the British. The Commonwealth was the only consolation.
