Britain Welcomes the President of India

This colourful record of the President of India’s visit to Britain was made on behalf of the Commonwealth Relations Office for showing to audiences overseas, especially those in India where it was released in multiple language versions including Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi and Tamil. The film was made by the commercial newsreel company, British Pathe News, who were commissioned on a regular basis to provide coverage of state and official occasions such as the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh’s tour of India, Pakistan and Nepal in 1961, an event which had in part prompted this reciprocal visit by Dr Radhakrishnan. Although the commentary is guarded to the point of bland, there is nothing to contradict the message that this was a cordial and relaxed visit by a man who is “no stranger to Britain, but an old friend familiar with this country and its people”. As an influential scholar of comparative religion and philosophy as well as former Oxford University Fellow and a Knight of the Realm (an honour conferred by the Queen’s father, King George V) Dr Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan would certainly have been a most welcome guest.

That is not to say that the filming of state visits were without their difficulties. Official correspondence from the early 1960s reveals an ongoing struggle between the Overseas Information Services, who wanted maximum coverage, and the Foreign Office and the Palace over the filming and photographing of the Queen and her VIP visitors, particularly inside Buckingham Palace during state Banquets. As an internal memo of July 1962 explains “the Queen genuinely dislikes being photographed and filmed and will only consent to this when no other opportunity of photographing her with her guests is possible”. That there is so little footage inside the Palace and none at the evening reception and Banquet is a testament to the fact that, on this occasion at least, the Queen’s wishes were granted.