“A Vast Publicity Exercise”: The 1952 Colombo Plan Exhibition and the Uses of Propaganda at the End of Empire

Abstract

This article traces the ideologies and practices of British propaganda surrounding the first years of the Colombo Plan for Cooperative Economic Development in South and Southeast Asia. In the early 1950s, British officials hoped that through their strategic use of propaganda the Colombo Plan would help Britain maintain influence in decolonizing Cold War Asia. This dream of cultural influence proved especially difficult, however, as leaders of new postcolonial nations, such as Ceylon/Sri Lanka used Colombo Plan propaganda to criticize British imperialism and write alternative development narratives. Rather than maintain imperial influence, the Colombo Plan further decentered the British state’s political and cultural power in Asia.

Keywords

• United Kingdom
• propaganda
• Ceylon/Sri Lanka
• decolonization
• Cold War