DOI: 10.25136/2409-868X.2022.7.36051

Abstract: The subject of the study is the reflection of the activities of the Indian National Congress and the national movement in India in the works of A. E. Snesarev, a Russian and Soviet military commander and orientalist. The article examines the history of the study of the Indian national movement in Russia by A. E. Snesarev's predecessors in this field - I. P. Minaev and E. Lamansky (1870-1890s). The reasons for A. E. Snesarev's appeal to the development of socio-political and economic thought of British India are analyzed. Special attention is paid in the article to the work "India as the main factor in the Central Asian issue" and the analysis of the attitude of Indian society to British rule carried out in it. In the course of the study, the following conclusions were made: the national movement in India and the activities of the Indian National Congress were not the main subject of research by Russian orientalists in the pre-revolutionary period, however, interest in the development of socio-political thought in British India and the problems of the relationship of Indian society with the British colonial authorities intensified as the confrontation between the Russian and British empires in Central Asia intensified. Asia during the "Big Game", an example of which was the work of A. E. Snesarev, who, despite the limited range of available sources, was one of the first in Russian historiography to turn to the study of Indian nationalism.

DOI: 10.25136/2409-8744.2022.5.37273

Abstract: The subject of this article is the Anglo-Indian community - a stratum of the population of British India consisting of Englishmen born in India or permanently residing in it. In the early 1880s, the community faced a new factor in political life - the rapid development of Indian nationalism, and the community's reaction to new trends was reflected in the political satire of the period under study - in particular, in Thomas Hart-Davis's pamphlet "India in 1983" The pamphlet describes a hypothetical society of India of the future, which was freed from British rule, but proved incapable of independent existence.   As a result of the conducted research, it was concluded that in the early 1880s the Anglo-Indian community was a closed, isolated stratum of the population, which negatively reacted to the demands of the Indian intelligentsia to expand the rights of the indigenous population in the governance of the country. Criticism of the demands of the nascent national movement found expression in political satire, one example of which was T. Hart-Davis's pamphlet "India in 1893", which reflected the ideas of the Anglo-Indian community about the immaturity and groundlessness of the political demands of the figures of the Indian National Congress and the national movement as a whole.

DOI: 10.25136/2409-868X.2022.2.35137

Abstract: The subject of this article is the memoirs of the British Methodist missionary Henry Lunn about his stay in India and the activities of the Indian National Congress (INC) in 1887-1888. On the basis of G. Lanna's letters from the Madras presidency, his memoirs and newspaper publications, the ideas of a metropolitan resident about the socio-political life of India and the participation of the Christian community in it, the role and place of the INC in the national movement, the weaknesses and advantages of ideas and demands, the formation of oppositional INC currents are revealed. The composition and features of the social development of the Christian population of South India are considered. В  The main conclusion of the study is that the British rule in India entailed significant changes in the spiritual sphere of Indian society, which resulted in an increase in the Christian population in the country and a wide spread of missionary activity. The Christian community, relatively small in comparison with others, was socially active, its representatives played a significant role in the formation of the INC and its activities in the early years of its existence. This was reflected in the memoirs of G. Lannes, who considered the emergence of the INC as a consequence of the progress brought to India by British rule and defended the idea of the need for the INC to cooperate with the colonial administration.

DOI: 10.25136/2409-868X.2021.6.33220

Abstract: The subject of this research is the documents from the archive of the viceroy of India Minto, which contain the records about the Indian National Congress. The author examines the history of studying the archive of Minto in foreign scientific literature. Special attention is given to correspondence of Minto with the Secretary of State for India Lord John Morley and their deputies that covers the period from the first Partition of Bengal (1905), split in the Indian National Congress (1907), and draft of the Morley-Minto reform, which involved the members of the Indian National Congress. The article also discusses the activity of the Indian Parliamentary Committee in the British House of Commons, and the response of the colonial authorities to hire pro-Indian parliamentarians in London. The conclusion is made that the documents on the history of the Indian National Congress from Minto’s archive reveal the peculiarities of interaction between the British colonial administration and the national elites, which was aimed at preserving the loyalty of the most moderate representatives of the Indian National Congress, as well as at weakening the national liberation movement that manifested in countering by the colonial administration the significant extension of rights of the Indian nationals and implementation of “separate electorates: within the framework of the Morley-Minto reform.  The documents from Minto’s archive reflect the perspective of the colonial administration on the path of further development of India within the empire by preserving British power.