The Crown Jewel: History, Memory And The 1941 Invasion Of Persia

Abstract

In August 1941, the territory of Persia was jointly invaded by Britain and the Soviet Union, a event now largely forgotten. The invasion took place less than two months after the launch of Operation Barbarossa by Hitler, and at the time there was a widely held view that the Wehrmacht’s successes in the West would be replicated in the East. Historical accounts generally identify three reasons behind the British decision to invade. Those reasons are: (1) the (vague) “German threat” comprising sabotage, insurgency and damage to British interests in the country; (2) the strategic British-controlled oil assets and the refinery at Abadan; and (3) the ability to supply materiel to the Soviet Union via the so-called “Persian Corridor”. What most accounts of the invasion do not refer to is the defence of India as a component in the British decision to invade. I review a number of primary and secondary materials – the history of British Imperial interests in Persia, British archives, Indian military history and mass media accounts – which all clearly show the defence of India as a key factor in the decision to invade. I then consider the reasons why the defence of India has slipped from the historical narrative. My analysis draws on a number of the ideas and concepts from the field of memory studies, including thinking about the function of collective memory. I propose that the rapid and dramatic act of Indian independence in 1947, combined with the change in normative attitudes towards Imperialism and the British Empire postwar, resulted in the narrative of the Second World War being the preferred basis for subsequent and contemporary accounts of the invasion, to the exclusion of Imperial factors.