Independence in India

15th, August 1947

Activating prior knowledge The

British RajPeriod of direct British rule of India, and the system of

governance it instituted, between 1858 and 1947

India was seen as “ the jewel in the crown” of empire. British built the richest empire in the world on its profit from India tea and cotton plantations.

British changed India fundamentally, they introduced English as the language of education for the elite, created and India civil service to carry out British policy and collect tax, and helped to develop a sense of national unity among English-educated Indians.

The British exploited existing religious and class divisions within Indian society to strengthen their rule.

The concept of ‘nationalism’

Nationalism is a political ideology (idea) that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals defined in national terms, i.e. a nation/country.

However, what nationalism means in practice can vary considerably and include one or all of the following ‘common’ elements:

- Shared language

- Shared religion

- Shared political beliefs (e.g. democracy)

- Shared culture (traditions, beliefs and practices, social structure)

- Shared environment/land (e.g. country or national boundaries)

Q1. Considering the various features of ‘nationalism’. To what extent was India in 1947 able to be considered a united ‘nation’? (i.e. where there more similarities or differences between people)

(Record the question and answer in your exercise books)

The development of political nationalism- Indian National

Congress (INC)In 1885, the India National Congress( INC) was formed as the opposition political party to the lead the country to independence.

Revolutionary nationalist: Mohandas K. Gandhi

He advocated for equality or all (abolish the caste system), self-government (swaraj) based on nonviolent struggle (ahimsa) and a philosophy of ‘soul force or truth force’ (satyagraha).

Indian nationalist Gandhi

Gandhi called on English-educated Indians to abandon the material possessions and status they had won through collaboration with the British raj and to live simply like Hindu peasants.

Gandhi pressed for liberation not only from the British, but also from injustices of traditional Indian society such as caste system

Truth force or soul force: independence could not be won though violence ,that the end could not justify such means; rather; it had to be gained through ahimsa(nonviolence)

Model for nonviolent resistance and the effective use of mass civil disobedience campaigns: The most famous campaign: 1930s salt satyagraha campaign when millions of Indians joined Gandhi in breaking the British law against the making of salt by Indians.

Q2. How do you think various sections of the Indian population reacted to Gandhi’s beliefs? (think about Hindu population, different castes, Islamic population, Indian Princely States, British Raj)

Opposition to Gandhi

The All India Muslim League (AIML) was formed in Dhaka in 1906 by Muslims who were suspicious of the Hindu-majority Indian National Congress. They complained that Muslim members did not have the same rights as Hindu members. A number of different scenarios were proposed at various times.

Among the first to make the demand for a separate state was the writer/philosopher Allama Iqbal, who, in his presidential address to the 1930 convention of the Muslim League said that a separate nation for Muslims was essential in an otherwise Hindu-dominated subcontinent.

Q3. Read p.217-218 of the textbook and consider the information on previous slides. How did the religious divisions between Hindu’s and Muslim’s impact upon the 1947 ‘Partition’ of India?

Q4. Whilst the partition of India into three sections ‘India, East Pakistan and West Pakistan’ was clear on a map, what happened in reality? (How did this division impact upon the daily lives of individuals living in these regions)

NOTE…..YOU WILL HAVE FEEDBACK ON YOUR FIRST FORMAL POSTING (IN YOUR WIKISPACE MAILBOX) BY MONDAY’S LESSON!

PLEASE BRING TEXTBOOK TO MONDAY’S LESSON