With the end of the First World War, India has been promised reform and some form of self government. As the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms are drafted, hardliners within the Government of India write their own law: the Rowlatt Act. Protests erupt across India, mostly peaceful but some violent, and in the Punjab city of Amritsar the British panic. Echoes of the 1857 Mutiny loom large in Anglo-Indian minds, and Brigadier General Reginald Dyer arrives in the city to crush this "rebellion" at Jallianwala Bagh.
 
Thank you to my expert contributors:
<ul>
 <li>
<a href="https://www.qmul.ac.uk/history/people/academic-staff/profiles/wagnerkima.html">Kim Wagner, Professor of Global and Imperial History </a>and author of Amritsar 1919: An Empire of Fear and the Making of a Massacre
</li>
 <li>
<a href="https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/mark-condos">Mark Condos, Senior Lecturer in Imperial and Global History </a>and author of The Insecurity State: Punjab and the Making of Colonial Power in British India, 1849-1935
</li>
</ul>
Thank you to my guest <a href="https://www.wdfpodcast.com/">Zack Twamley, host of When Diplomacy Fails.</a>
Go to AirwaveMedia.com to find other great history shows. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://megaphone.fm/adchoices">megaphone.fm/adchoices</a>

<description>With the end of the First World War, India has been promised reform and some form of self government. As the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms are drafted, hardliners within the Government of India write their own law: the Rowlatt Act. Protests erupt across India, mostly peaceful but some violent, and in the Punjab city of Amritsar the British panic. Echoes of the 1857 Mutiny loom large in Anglo-Indian minds, and Brigadier General Reginald Dyer arrives in the city to crush this "rebellion" at Jallianwala Bagh.



Thank you to my expert contributors:


 
Kim Wagner, Professor of Global and Imperial History and author of Amritsar 1919: An Empire of Fear and the Making of a Massacre


 
Mark Condos, Senior Lecturer in Imperial and Global History and author of The Insecurity State: Punjab and the Making of Colonial Power in British India, 1849-1935



Thank you to my guest Zack Twamley, host of When Diplomacy Fails.

Go to AirwaveMedia.com to find other great history shows.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices</description>

After the Great War, Indians expect reform. The British gives them bullets.

With the end of the First World War, India has been promised reform and some form of self government. As the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms are drafted, hardliners within the Government of India write their own law: the Rowlatt Act. Protests erupt across India, mostly peaceful but some violent, and in the Punjab city of Amritsar the British panic. Echoes of the 1857 Mutiny loom large in Anglo-Indian minds, and Brigadier General Reginald Dyer arrives in the city to crush this "rebellion" at Jallianwala Bagh.



Thank you to my expert contributors:


  
Kim Wagner, Professor of Global and Imperial History and author of Amritsar 1919: An Empire of Fear and the Making of a Massacre


  
Mark Condos, Senior Lecturer in Imperial and Global History and author of The Insecurity State: Punjab and the Making of Colonial Power in British India, 1849-1935



Thank you to my guest Zack Twamley, host of When Diplomacy Fails.

Go to AirwaveMedia.com to find other great history shows.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

S1.E8 - Blood and Dust: Amritsar, 1919

The British Empire goes to war, and India is taken along with it. Hundreds of thousands of Indians are part of the war effort all over the world, and Indian nationalists and British liberals hope this display of loyalty will be rewarded. Indian revolutionaries are not prepared to wait for freedom to come to India, and plot a 2nd Indian Mutiny. The Imperial War Cabinet and the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms offer some concessions, but the Rowlatt Commission is hard at work. Thank you to my guest historians:<ul>
<li>Sam Dalrymple, author of Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Reshaping of Modern Asia (2025)</li>
<li>Mark Condos, Senior Lecturer in Imperial and Global History at King's College London, and author of The Insecurity State: Punjab and the Making of Colonial Power in British India, 1849-1935 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017)</li>
<li>Vineet Thakur, Assistant Professor at Universiteit Leiden, and author of V.S. Srinivasa Sastri: A Liberal Life. (London: Routledge, 2023)</li>
<li>Ayesha Jalal, Mary Richardson Professor at Tufts University, and author of The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League and the Demand for Pakistan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985)</li>
<li>Kim Wagner, Professor of Imperial and Global History at King's College London, and author of The Great Fear of 1857: Rumours, Conspiracies, and the Making of the Indian Uprising (Witney: Peter Lang, 2010)</li>
</ul> Thank you to my guest voice actor, Wesley Livesay, host of The History of the Great War and The History of the Second World War podcasts. Go to AirwaveMedia.com to find other great history shows. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://megaphone.fm/adchoices">megaphone.fm/adchoices</a>

<description>The British Empire goes to war, and India is taken along with it. Hundreds of thousands of Indians are part of the war effort all over the world, and Indian nationalists and British liberals hope this display of loyalty will be rewarded. Indian revolutionaries are not prepared to wait for freedom to come to India, and plot a 2nd Indian Mutiny. The Imperial War Cabinet and the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms offer some concessions, but the Rowlatt Commission is hard at work.

Thank you to my guest historians:

Sam Dalrymple, author of Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Reshaping of Modern Asia (2025)

Mark Condos, Senior Lecturer in Imperial and Global History at King's College London, and author of The Insecurity State: Punjab and the Making of Colonial Power in British India, 1849-1935 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017)

Vineet Thakur, Assistant Professor at Universiteit Leiden, and author of V.S. Srinivasa Sastri: A Liberal Life. (London: Routledge, 2023)

Ayesha Jalal, Mary Richardson Professor at Tufts University, and author of The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League and the Demand for Pakistan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985)

Kim Wagner, Professor of Imperial and Global History at King's College London, and author of The Great Fear of 1857: Rumours, Conspiracies, and the Making of the Indian Uprising (Witney: Peter Lang, 2010)


Thank you to my guest voice actor, Wesley Livesay, host of The History of the Great War and The History of the Second World War podcasts.

Go to AirwaveMedia.com to find other great history shows.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices</description>

The British Empire goes to war, and India is taken along with it. 

The British Empire goes to war, and India is taken along with it. Hundreds of thousands of Indians are part of the war effort all over the world, and Indian nationalists and British liberals hope this display of loyalty will be rewarded. Indian revolutionaries are not prepared to wait for freedom to come to India, and plot a 2nd Indian Mutiny. The Imperial War Cabinet and the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms offer some concessions, but the Rowlatt Commission is hard at work.

Thank you to my guest historians:

Sam Dalrymple, author of Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Reshaping of Modern Asia (2025)

Mark Condos, Senior Lecturer in Imperial and Global History at King's College London, and author of The Insecurity State: Punjab and the Making of Colonial Power in British India, 1849-1935 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017)

Vineet Thakur, Assistant Professor at Universiteit Leiden, and author of V.S. Srinivasa Sastri: A Liberal Life. (London: Routledge, 2023)

Ayesha Jalal, Mary Richardson Professor at Tufts University, and author of The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League and the Demand for Pakistan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985)

Kim Wagner, Professor of Imperial and Global History at King's College London, and author of The Great Fear of 1857: Rumours, Conspiracies, and the Making of the Indian Uprising (Witney: Peter Lang, 2010)


Thank you to my guest voice actor, Wesley Livesay, host of The History of the Great War and The History of the Second World War podcasts.

Go to AirwaveMedia.com to find other great history shows.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

S1.E7 - The War to End All Wars

Indian Nationalists split into Moderates and Radicals, as British Viceroys dodge bombs.Subscribe to the mailing list at <a href="https://cms.megaphone.fm/organizations/49030b9e-6e7b-11ec-9fbd-ff69d6d10229/podcasts/f3b6a86a-7c34-11ef-8940-ff30f086e7c7/episodes/6a3c03a0-9d5e-11ef-ac16-679f1a7614af/langnessmedia.com">LangnessMedia.com</a>Thank you to my guest historians:<ul>
<li>Mark Condos, Senior Lecturer in Imperial and Global History at King's College London, and author of The Insecurity State: Punjab and the Making of Colonial Power in British India, 1849-1935 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017)</li>
<li>Vineet Thakur, Assistant Professor at Universiteit Leiden, and author of V.S. Srinivasa Sastri: A Liberal Life. (London: Routledge, 2023)</li>
<li>Ayesha Jalal, Mary Richardson Professor at Tufts University, and author of The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League and the Demand for Pakistan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985)</li>
<li>Peter Heehs, historian living in Pondicherry, India, and author of The Bomb in Bengal: The Rise of Revolutionary Terrorism in India, 1900-1910 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993)</li>
</ul> Go to <a href="https://cms.megaphone.fm/organizations/49030b9e-6e7b-11ec-9fbd-ff69d6d10229/podcasts/f3b6a86a-7c34-11ef-8940-ff30f086e7c7/episodes/b6172322-9d5e-11ef-be1c-2ff62fe02e61/AirwaveMedia.com%20">AirwaveMedia.com </a>to find other great history shows. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://megaphone.fm/adchoices">megaphone.fm/adchoices</a>

<description>Indian Nationalists split into Moderates and Radicals, as British Viceroys dodge bombs.
Subscribe to the mailing list at LangnessMedia.com
Thank you to my guest historians:

Mark Condos, Senior Lecturer in Imperial and Global History at King's College London, and author of The Insecurity State: Punjab and the Making of Colonial Power in British India, 1849-1935 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017)

Vineet Thakur, Assistant Professor at Universiteit Leiden, and author of V.S. Srinivasa Sastri: A Liberal Life. (London: Routledge, 2023)

Ayesha Jalal, Mary Richardson Professor at Tufts University, and author of The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League and the Demand for Pakistan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985)

Peter Heehs, historian living in Pondicherry, India, and author of The Bomb in Bengal: The Rise of Revolutionary Terrorism in India, 1900-1910 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993)


Go to AirwaveMedia.com to find other great history shows.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices</description>

Indian Nationalists split into Moderates and Radicals, as British Viceroys dodge bombs

Indian Nationalists split into Moderates and Radicals, as British Viceroys dodge bombs.
Subscribe to the mailing list at LangnessMedia.com
Thank you to my guest historians:

Mark Condos, Senior Lecturer in Imperial and Global History at King's College London, and author of The Insecurity State: Punjab and the Making of Colonial Power in British India, 1849-1935 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017)

Vineet Thakur, Assistant Professor at Universiteit Leiden, and author of V.S. Srinivasa Sastri: A Liberal Life. (London: Routledge, 2023)

Ayesha Jalal, Mary Richardson Professor at Tufts University, and author of The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League and the Demand for Pakistan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985)

Peter Heehs, historian living in Pondicherry, India, and author of The Bomb in Bengal: The Rise of Revolutionary Terrorism in India, 1900-1910 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993)


Go to AirwaveMedia.com to find other great history shows.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

S1.E6 - Reform or Revolution

Subscribe to the mailing list at <a href="https://cms.megaphone.fm/organizations/49030b9e-6e7b-11ec-9fbd-ff69d6d10229/podcasts/f3b6a86a-7c34-11ef-8940-ff30f086e7c7/episodes/6a3c03a0-9d5e-11ef-ac16-679f1a7614af/langnessmedia.com">LangnessMedia.com</a>Thank you to my guest historians:<ul>
<li>Mark Condos, Senior Lecturer in Imperial and Global History at King's College London, and author of The Insecurity State: Punjab and the Making of Colonial Power in British India, 1849-1935 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017)</li>
<li>Janam Mukherjee, Associate Professor of History at Toronto Metropolitan University, and author of Hungry Bengal: War, Famine and the End of Empire (Hurst, 2015)</li>
<li>Tanroop Sandhu, PhD Candidate at Queen Mary University of London, and author of 'Interwar India through Bhimrao Ambedkar’s Eyes', Canadian Journal of History, 2021.</li>
<li>Joanna Simonow, Assistant Professor at Universität Heidelberg (Heidelberg University), and author of Ending Famine in India: A Transnationalk History of Food Aid and Development, c. 1890-1950 (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2023)</li>
</ul> Go to <a href="https://cms.megaphone.fm/organizations/49030b9e-6e7b-11ec-9fbd-ff69d6d10229/podcasts/f3b6a86a-7c34-11ef-8940-ff30f086e7c7/episodes/b6172322-9d5e-11ef-be1c-2ff62fe02e61/AirwaveMedia.com%20">AirwaveMedia.com </a>to find other great history shows. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://megaphone.fm/adchoices">megaphone.fm/adchoices</a>

<description>Subscribe to the mailing list at LangnessMedia.com
Thank you to my guest historians:

Mark Condos, Senior Lecturer in Imperial and Global History at King's College London, and author of The Insecurity State: Punjab and the Making of Colonial Power in British India, 1849-1935 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017)

Janam Mukherjee, Associate Professor of History at Toronto Metropolitan University, and author of Hungry Bengal: War, Famine and the End of Empire (Hurst, 2015)

Tanroop Sandhu, PhD Candidate at Queen Mary University of London, and author of 'Interwar India through Bhimrao Ambedkar’s Eyes', Canadian Journal of History, 2021.

Joanna Simonow, Assistant Professor at Universität Heidelberg (Heidelberg University), and author of Ending Famine in India: A Transnationalk History of Food Aid and Development, c. 1890-1950 (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2023)


Go to AirwaveMedia.com to find other great history shows.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices</description>

Famine strikes the new British Raj, as the foundations of Indian nationalism are laid.

Subscribe to the mailing list at LangnessMedia.com
Thank you to my guest historians:

Mark Condos, Senior Lecturer in Imperial and Global History at King's College London, and author of The Insecurity State: Punjab and the Making of Colonial Power in British India, 1849-1935 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017)

Janam Mukherjee, Associate Professor of History at Toronto Metropolitan University, and author of Hungry Bengal: War, Famine and the End of Empire (Hurst, 2015)

Tanroop Sandhu, PhD Candidate at Queen Mary University of London, and author of 'Interwar India through Bhimrao Ambedkar’s Eyes', Canadian Journal of History, 2021.

Joanna Simonow, Assistant Professor at Universität Heidelberg (Heidelberg University), and author of Ending Famine in India: A Transnationalk History of Food Aid and Development, c. 1890-1950 (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2023)


Go to AirwaveMedia.com to find other great history shows.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

S1.E5 - Victorian Holocaust

British retaliation for the massacres and mutinies of 1857 is immediate and brutal. Mass executions of Indian prisoners and civilians follow the armies of reconquest, with only minimal interest in whether any of them were guilty. The leaders of the rebellion - Nana Sahib, the Rani of Jhansi, Tatya Tope, and the last Mughal, Bahadur Shah - are defeated, driven into exile, or killed in battle. But the East India Company does not survive either. The government of Queen Victoria dissolves its Indian Empire, and takes it under direct royal control as a crown colony - the British Raj.Subscribe to the mailing list at <a href="https://cms.megaphone.fm/organizations/49030b9e-6e7b-11ec-9fbd-ff69d6d10229/podcasts/f3b6a86a-7c34-11ef-8940-ff30f086e7c7/episodes/6a3c03a0-9d5e-11ef-ac16-679f1a7614af/langnessmedia.com">LangnessMedia.com</a>Thank you to my guest historians:<ul>
<li>Christina Welsch, Assistant Professor of History at the College of Wooster, and author of The Company's Sword: The East India Company and the Politics of Militarism, 1644-1858 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022)</li>
<li>Kim Wagner, Professor of Imperial and Global History at King's College London, and author of The Great Fear of 1857: Rumours, Conspiracies, and the Making of the Indian Uprising (Witney: Peter Lang, 2010)</li>
<li>Mark Condos, Senior Lecturer in Imperial and Global History at King's College London, and author of The Insecurity State: Punjab and the Making of Colonial Power in British India, 1849-1935 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017)</li>
<li>Rudrangshu Mukherjee, Chancellor and Professor of History at Ashoka University, and author of Awadh in Revolt, 1857-58: A Study of Popular Resistance (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985)</li>
<li>Benjamin R. Siegel, Associate Professor of History at Boston University, and author of Hungry Nation: Food, Famine, and the Making of Modern India, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018).</li>
<li>Joanna Simonow, Assistant Professor at Universität Heidelberg (Heidelberg University), and author of Ending Famine in India: A Transnationalk History of Food Aid and Development, c. 1890-1950 (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2023)</li>
</ul>Thank you to my guest voice actors:<ul><li>Bry Jensen, co-host of Pontifacts.</li></ul> Go to <a href="https://cms.megaphone.fm/organizations/49030b9e-6e7b-11ec-9fbd-ff69d6d10229/podcasts/f3b6a86a-7c34-11ef-8940-ff30f086e7c7/episodes/b6172322-9d5e-11ef-be1c-2ff62fe02e61/AirwaveMedia.com%20">AirwaveMedia.com </a>to find other great history shows. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://megaphone.fm/adchoices">megaphone.fm/adchoices</a>

<description>British retaliation for the massacres and mutinies of 1857 is immediate and brutal. Mass executions of Indian prisoners and civilians follow the armies of reconquest, with only minimal interest in whether any of them were guilty. The leaders of the rebellion - Nana Sahib, the Rani of Jhansi, Tatya Tope, and the last Mughal, Bahadur Shah - are defeated, driven into exile, or killed in battle. But the East India Company does not survive either. The government of Queen Victoria dissolves its Indian Empire, and takes it under direct royal control as a crown colony - the British Raj.
Subscribe to the mailing list at LangnessMedia.com
Thank you to my guest historians:

Christina Welsch, Assistant Professor of History at the College of Wooster, and author of The Company's Sword: The East India Company and the Politics of Militarism, 1644-1858 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022)

Kim Wagner, Professor of Imperial and Global History at King's College London, and author of The Great Fear of 1857: Rumours, Conspiracies, and the Making of the Indian Uprising (Witney: Peter Lang, 2010)

Mark Condos, Senior Lecturer in Imperial and Global History at King's College London, and author of The Insecurity State: Punjab and the Making of Colonial Power in British India, 1849-1935 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017)

Rudrangshu Mukherjee, Chancellor and Professor of History at Ashoka University, and author of Awadh in Revolt, 1857-58: A Study of Popular Resistance (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985)

Benjamin R. Siegel, Associate Professor of History at Boston University, and author of Hungry Nation: Food, Famine, and the Making of Modern India, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018).

Joanna Simonow, Assistant Professor at Universität Heidelberg (Heidelberg University), and author of Ending Famine in India: A Transnationalk History of Food Aid and Development, c. 1890-1950 (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2023)

Thank you to my guest voice actors:
Bry Jensen, co-host of Pontifacts.

Go to AirwaveMedia.com to find other great history shows.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices</description>

The British Empire crushes the Indian Mutiny. The Mughal Empire is destroyed, but it takes the East India Company with it.

British retaliation for the massacres and mutinies of 1857 is immediate and brutal. Mass executions of Indian prisoners and civilians follow the armies of reconquest, with only minimal interest in whether any of them were guilty. The leaders of the rebellion - Nana Sahib, the Rani of Jhansi, Tatya Tope, and the last Mughal, Bahadur Shah - are defeated, driven into exile, or killed in battle. But the East India Company does not survive either. The government of Queen Victoria dissolves its Indian Empire, and takes it under direct royal control as a crown colony - the British Raj.
Subscribe to the mailing list at LangnessMedia.com
Thank you to my guest historians:

Christina Welsch, Assistant Professor of History at the College of Wooster, and author of The Company's Sword: The East India Company and the Politics of Militarism, 1644-1858 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022)

Kim Wagner, Professor of Imperial and Global History at King's College London, and author of The Great Fear of 1857: Rumours, Conspiracies, and the Making of the Indian Uprising (Witney: Peter Lang, 2010)

Mark Condos, Senior Lecturer in Imperial and Global History at King's College London, and author of The Insecurity State: Punjab and the Making of Colonial Power in British India, 1849-1935 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017)

Rudrangshu Mukherjee, Chancellor and Professor of History at Ashoka University, and author of Awadh in Revolt, 1857-58: A Study of Popular Resistance (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985)

Benjamin R. Siegel, Associate Professor of History at Boston University, and author of Hungry Nation: Food, Famine, and the Making of Modern India, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018).

Joanna Simonow, Assistant Professor at Universität Heidelberg (Heidelberg University), and author of Ending Famine in India: A Transnationalk History of Food Aid and Development, c. 1890-1950 (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2023)

Thank you to my guest voice actors:
Bry Jensen, co-host of Pontifacts.

Go to AirwaveMedia.com to find other great history shows.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

S1.E4 - Two Empires in One Grave

The Sun Never Set on the British Empire... until it did. Dr Samuel Hume explores the history of Indian Independence with captivating narrative and joined by expert guests. If you love learning about the past, and discovering why the world is the way it is, then listen to Winds of Change.

Winds of Change

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