Papers of Henry Vincent Hodson on the partition of India

The collection comprises the correspondence and research materials of Henry Vincent Hodson relating to his book The Great Divide: Britain-India- Pakistan, (1969) on the partition of India. These include oral recordings of Lord Mountbatten, V.P. Menon, Kripalani, Pyarelal Nayar, Mohammed Al Choudary, General Lord Ismay (recorded in 1964-1965), which have been transferred to audio CD.

Henry Vincent Hodson was born on 12 May 1906 and educated at Gresham's School and later Balliol College, Oxford (1925-1928). He was a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford from 1928-1935. Between 1930 and 1931 he was a member of the Economic Advisory Council. He became Assistant Editor of the Round Table in 1931, and Editor 1934-1939. In 1933 he married Margaret Elizabeth Honey. He was the Director of the Empire Division of the Ministry of Information 1939-1941, before becoming Reforms Commissioner of the Government of India. Returning to the UK in 1942, he was made Principal Assistant Secretary and later Head of Non-Munitions D.V., Ministry of Broadcast until 1945. In 1946 he became Assistant Editor of the Sunday Times, and Editor 1950-1961. He was made Provost of the Ditchley Foundation in 1961. He was the Editor of The Annual Register of World Events from 1973 until his retirement in 1988. He died on 26 March 1999.

Hodson's publications include: Economics of a Changing World , (1933); The Empire in the World , (1937); Slump and Recovery (1929, 1937, 1938); The British Commonwealth and the Future , (1939); 20th Century Empire , (1948); Problems of Anglo-American Relations , (1963); The Great Divide: Britain-India-Pakistan , (1969); The Diseconomics of Growth , (1972).

The material has been arranged into the following sections: correspondence (arranged alphabetically by correspondent); other material relating to The Great Divide: Britain-India-Pakistan ; oral archives in the Hodson collection (placed according to Hodson's original arrangement).

Open

Donated in 1990.

Unpublished handlist

Associated Material held elsewhere: Correspondence (1931-1954) with Lionel George Curtis (Colonial Historian) and Round Table correspondence (1933-1953) are held at Oxford University, Bodleian Library, Department of Western Manuscripts [ref. MSS Curtis; Eng hist b 224, c 776-877].