Independence in South AsiaIndia, Pakistan, Bangladesh

Mohandas Gandhi (Mahatma)

• Raised in strict Hindu family

• Married at age 13

• Studied law in London

• Went to South Africa for work

• Protested laws of racial discrimination• Formulated ideas of civil disobedience and passive resistance

• Returned to India to protest racist (British) laws and push for Indian independence• Amritsar Massacre

• Great Salt March

• Assassinated by Hindu extremist who opposed peace with Muslims

Nonviolent Protest--Satyagraha

• Civil Disobedience• Violating laws (and accepting consequences?)

because the laws are unjust

• Passive Resistance• Nonviolent protest against injustice, including

boycotts, sit-ins, fasting, peaceful demonstration, marches, speeches

• Amritsar Massacre

• Great Salt March

• Pioneered by Henry David Thoreau; modeled by Gandhi, and later used by Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, and many others

Independence Organizations

Indian National Congress• Organized in 1885

• Nationalist Organization

• Led by Mohandas Gandhi 1916-1947

• Included Hindus and Muslims

• Achieved Independence from Britain in 1947

Muslim League

• Created in 1906 to protect rights of Muslims in India

• Initially called for unity of Hindus and Muslims in an independent India

• Starting 1940, called for partition of India

• Led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah

Partition and Independence

• Independence granted by British in 1947

• India was partitioned at this time into India (Hindu) and Pakistan (Muslim

• Largest human migration at one time

• Violent conflicts

• According to New Yorker article, the Partition displaced 15 million people and killed over a million

Jawaharlal Nehru

• Leader in the Indian National Congress, partner with Gandhi and Mohammed Ali Jinnah

• First prime minister of independent India (1947-64)

• Established India as independent, secular, and democratic

• Promoted economic modernization

• NONALIGNMENT• Did not choose sides, but worked with both USSR

and US depending on their support of India’s interests

Indira Gandhi

• Daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru

• Prime minister of India 1966-77, 1980-84

• During the Cold War, continued nonalignment policies

• Assassinated

Muhammed Ali Jinnah

• Leader of Muslim League

• Led the Muslims in resigning from the Indian National Congress

• What Muslims and Hindus have in common is slavery to British

• First governor-general of Pakistan

Benazir Bhutto

• Daughter of prominent political family in Pakistan

• Father (Ali Bhutto) was overthrown as prime minister in coup and executed

• Benazir Bhutto educated at Harvard and Oxford

• Benazir Bhutto was elected prime minister in 1988-1990, 1993-97, but accused of corruption. Lived in exile.

• Returned to Pakistan in 2007 to run for office, but assassinated before election

• First female prime minister of a Muslim country

Kashmir

• Territorial and religious dispute stemming from partition in 1947

• Repeated violent clashes

• Both India and Pakistan have successfully tested nuclear weapons

East Pakistan

• When Pakistan was formed in 1947, it consisted of East and West Pakistan

• Conflicts between East and West Pakistan stemmed from• Political and financial control centered in West

Pakistan

• Discrimination against East Pakistanis

• Differences in language. (Pakistan made Urdu its official language. In East Pakistan, most people spoke Bengali and objected, sometimes violently, to being forced to use Urdu.)

Pakistani Civil War

• Began in March 1971, sparked by elections• Awami League won the elections, calling for

greater autonomy for East Pakistan

• Awami League began campaign of civil disobedience when its gov’t initiatives were blocked by West Pakistan

• War crimes committed by both sides, including execution of civilians

• India intervened in support of East Pakistan, which gained its independence as Bangladesh

Bangladesh– Environment and Geography

• Very low-lying, much of the country below sea level

• Prone to hurricanes and flooding

• Very poor; unable to build infrastructure to withstand natural disasters