Enoch Powell as Viceroy of India

Emperor of Halton

When he was younger, Enoch Powell's ambition was to one day become Viceroy of India. Apparently he made the effort to learn an Indian language (Urdu, I believe).

However, his dream was killed stone dead the night India was granted independence in 1947.

So, if somehow British India lasted longer than in OTL, what chance would Powell have of becoming Viceroy in the first place? If that happened, what would be be like in that position?
 

Lord Douglas

Most Viceroys were from the nobility - in fact all of them were titled and most came from traditionally aristocratic families - the ones that didn't at least came from the gentry or upper middle class. I don't know if this was deliberate policy at least in the latter years of the Raj, but I suspect HMG would send out someone who could impress the Indian Princes and act the part - so a lower-middle class boy like Powell might not fit the criteria.
 

Ak-84

Banned
The Viceroy was from 1919 onwards losing his powers to the Provinces and afyer 1935, elected ministries. So Lord Powell would not have been a a Viceroy like Curzon or Hardinge.
 
V-J

V-J

Powell would be the absolute last person any British PM of the late-Raj period would entrust with governing India. Quite apart from the class/vocational factors Lord Douglas mentions. (A similar sort of favouring of such types seems to have been in operation in respect of the later appointment of Northern Ireland Secretaries, so yes, it would still be effective in the post-war period, even assuming the Raj could go on indefinitely)

If you want a model of the sort of post-war British politician who would be considered ideal viceroy material in a hypothetical post-war Raj, then you need to be looking at the Willie Whitelaws and the Douglas Hurds, not Powell.
 
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