Crusader Extraordinary: Krishna Menon and the India League 1932-1936

During his years in London, Krishna Menon, a leader in the Indian nationalist movement, examined the failure of the Western democracies to contain the advent of Fascism, and as a perceptive observer, he discerned for himself the laws of motion of capitalism. In 1932 Menon, Ellen Wilkinson, Monica Whately, and Leonard Matters were all commissioned by the India League to travel to India to mount an in-depth study of the authoritarian regime initiated by Wedgwood Benn and the cold-blooded tactics employed to enforce its authority. This account follows the group that witnessed a deepening economic crisis, mounting communal tension, increasing ascendancy of official repression against the Congress movement, and the rising pressure for a radical transformation of the Indian society.