Post on 18-Dec-2014
description
transcript
India Overview
A Supplement to Gandhi
Part 1: Introduction to India
Demographics
• Over 500,000 villages• Over 2000 cities
India• 80% Hindu, 13% Muslim• Today: 1.13 billion people
Pakistan • 90% Muslim, 2% Hindu • Today: 168 million people
1920: 300 million
Caste System
• Hindu society was divided into major castes or classes
• People are born into a caste and upward mobility is next to impossible – people only married within their caste
• Caste determined job within community
• Connected to Hindu belief of reincarnation – live well and follow rules, then you will be reborn into a higher caste
Major Hindu Castes
• Brahmins – Priests and scholars
• Kshatriyas – Warriors
• Baishyas – Farmers and merchants
• Shudras – Laborers and serfs
• Untouchables – People who were below the caste system and completed the most undesirable of jobs
British East India Company
• Became leading commercial power by 1757
• Exploited Indian indigo, cotton, and tea
• Ruled India, politically and economically (called raj or "rule")
British East India Company
• Made alliances with different tribes and ethnic groups, employed sepoys (Indian soldiers)
• Considered the "jewel in the crown" of the British Empire
Direct Control
• 1857 Sepoy Rebellion takes place
• Started with misunderstanding that new bullets had animal grease on them (sacred to Hindus and unclean to Muslims)
• British government saw uprising as a sign that Indians could cause more problems in the future and took direct control of government
Domination
• English and Western ideas promoted as elite – including education and dress
• Restricted domestic industries, forced Indians to purchase British goods
Part 2: Indian National Congress
Indian National Congress
• 1885 – Met for the first time to bring more Indians into the British controlled government
• Over then next thirty years they began to push for home rule and then independence
Indian National Congress
• Party members generally were English educated and did not represent the 350 million Indians who mostly worked in the fields of rural India
• Many did not separate the Congress members in their minds from the British because they advocated similar ideas (i.e. industrialization), but under Indian rule
Part 3: Hindu / Muslim Tensions
Map of the Muslim World c.A.D.900
Map of the Muslim World c.A.D. 1100
Map of the Muslim World c.A.D. 1500
Muslim Conquests
• 711 CE – Muslim invaders take Lower Sind
• 1200 CE - Delhi Sultanate in Northern India
• 1500 CE – Mughal Empire established
• 1750 CE – British East India Company begins control
Ongoing Conflict
• Muslim invasions were bloody conflicts
• Hindu temples razed, Mosques built in place
• Violent uprisings by Hindus throughout Muslim rule
• British used differences to help maintain control
• Bitterness between the two lead to great violence during the independence process