After watching Freedom from the documentary The Story of India, I learned a lot more about what India went through as a country in the 19th century. During this time period India was going through a lot of changes while they pushed for their freedom. The rebellion of 1857, gaining their independence, and the Partition of the South Asian subcontinent in 1947 all made up the story of India’s freedom. I believe that the partition could not be avoided, however the violence could have.
There are several reasons that caused the Rebellion of 1857. The three main reasons were the EIC political policies, the economic policies, and the belief that Indian religions were under attack. The rebellion broke out on May 10, 1857 at Meerut when Indian soldiers rebelled and killed the British colonel because he had ordered the execution of Indian soldiers who refused to use the new rifles that were created. The soldiers marched to Delhi and they declared Bahadur Shah Zafar the revolt leader. Hindu and Muslim soldiers fought against the British soldiers that came. In the end, this rebellion failed miserably. The EIC had important allies, which is the reason that the Hindus and Muslims failed. This rebellion did have important impacts though. Rebellion leaders were punished, the EIC was banned from ruling India, and the Queen’s Proclamation was created.
Through several movements India worked towards gaining their independence, even though it was a lot harder than expected. In 1885, Indian liberal nationalists formed the Indian National Congress. Their first meeting was held in Bombay and the Indian National Congress organized religious festivals to make nationalism popular. Mohammed Ali Jinnah created the Muslim League in 1906 and they aimed to...
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...e about, the Muslim League and the Indian National Congress. These two parties had various disagreements, which lead to the Partition of 1947, which I believe was unavoidable. Before the Partition occurred the Rebellion of 1857 and various movements pushing for freedom took place, making a large impact on the history of India. In the end, after the partition occurred I believe that the violence and the hundreds of thousands of lives lost could have been avoided.
Works Cited
Wood, Michael, and Jeremy Jeffs. The Story Of India [Videorecording] / Maya Vision International ; Written And Presented By Michael Wood ; Directed By Jeremy Jeffs ; Produced By Rebecca Dobbs. n.p.: [London] : Distributed by PBS Home Video, 2008., 2008. Milner Library. Web. 7 Mar. 2014.
Trautmann, Thomas R. India: Brief History of a Civilization. New York: Oxford UP, 2011. Print.
The British established a strong government over 500 million people and was able to keep India in it’s feet (Lalvani, Doc #3). During their rule, however, the government only served under the British and their needs and only 16% of the government was Indian. The British also established Indian armies and military academies for “protection” of India (Gandhi). However, these Indian armies were trained more to control India than to protect it and they were also were trained to kill their own people in cold blood without second thought. The power that the Indians let the British get ensured that the Indians were not going to be free in their own country for a long
Muslims were the minority group in India before the separation and they felt that they did not have as much power or advantage over Hindus. The Indian National Congress (INC) was formed in 1885 and it was primary goal was to gain a greater voice for Indians in the government. Although the INC wanted to defend all Indians, the Hindus compromised much of their leadership. Because of this, Muslims highly doubted that their voices would be heard due to the Hindu majority and that resulted in many leaving the INC (Patel, 68). This eventually led Muslims to protect their interests which gave rise to the India Muslim League (IML) in 1906.
Under British rule in India, the British were harshly oppressive and only interested in exploiting products from India for their own use, causing many Indians to become extremely poor. They became so oppressed they were on the verge of violent civil disobedience, when Gandhi appeared to negotiate with the British threw non-violent tactics such as sit-ins and hunger strikes. The people were supportive on Gandhi and were set to become violent if anything happened to him. Things were resolved without violence.
Inda was fighting a war within themselves over religious differences. The country was divided by the Muslims and the Hindus. Both religions thought that they were the supier ones and the other was ludicrous. The two religions used cricket, a sport that was once their safe haven, as new grounds to deteriorize eachother for their religious choices. (Doc 7) Peace makers like Ghandi tried fighting for peace between the two religions but the hatred of one other overbeared the love both religons shared for their country. Ghandi was later murdered because of the never ending hostility of the two religions, but not before he was able to express his opinion on cricket tournament teams being seperated based on religion. He spoke about how religiously based teams were taboo and unsportsmanlike, and that the desciosn to draft the teams like that never made sense to him. (Doc 8) The religous conflict wasn’t even resolved when India and Pakistan split into different countries in 1947 because of their pronounced religious tensions. If you were a Muslim still residing in India after the split, you were expected to cheer for the Hindus, and celebrate when they won. It was considered shameful to be upset about the Muslims losing. (Doc 9) If you wanted to cheer for the Muslims, it was only accepted to do so in Pakistan. The battle between the two religons is still as strident today and it was over a hundred years ago. At this point,
The “Sepoy Rebellion”/the first Indian war of independence did not start from one crucial event that may have triggered it all. This rebellion/war was a product of many small and big situations adding up. When the British East India Company first took over, they started with restricting the Indian ocean trade, which was a heavily relied on, as a source of income and goods in India. This restriction largely impacted and made a new economic structure. With the Indian trade restricted, the British benefited. The British Production system was able to flourish because they were able to use the Indian trade routes to export their goods. Most people living in India, at
To begin, British Imperialism had many political effects on India’s people throughout the years. The forcefulness of Europe’s invasion brought plenty of fear and destruction among the government, which in the following years would become run completely by British officials. According to document two, “The Indians have no control whatsoever over their own taxation...The entire civil government is now carried on by men who live lives quite remote from the people they govern.” According to Dr. Lalvani in paragraph twelve, Imperialism brought Indians together. He states, “perhaps the most innovative of all was the bringing together of several different states into one unified India.” That may have been the result in sight, but the truth is, as shown in document one, when Gandhi states, “For a hundred years, you have done everything for us. You have given us no responsibility for our own
The Causes of the Rebellion of 1837-1838. The rebellions of Upper and Lower Canada were in the interests of self-government but were doomed to failure from their beginning. Each of these two colonies encountered a great deal of problems right from the institution of the Constitution Act of 1791 and the problems continually got worse until the only choice for some seemed to be rebellion. There were several problems that led to the rebellions of 1837-38.
4 # Stein, Burton (2001), a History of India, New Delhi and Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. xiv, 432, p.222
During the Cold War, many regional conflicts occurred and were noted as the significant battles which later led to decolonization. One of the regional conflicts were India and Pakistan fighting for their independence. In 1947, India was released under Great Britain’s control and gained its independence. However, the country was divided between Muslims and Hindus, which share different religions. Muslims wanted church and state to become unified while Hindus wanted a separation of these two establishments. Since these two ethnic groups disagreed, it was difficult to create a new government. Therefore, India was divided into two nations: India for the Hindus and Pakistan for the Muslims. Hindus and Muslims were racing to the border in order to get to their nation state which led to killing 500,000 people due to rioting. Although, Mohandas Gandhi, an Indian National Congressman, wanted to obtain peace between these two religions. Pakistan refused the H...
Sri Nandanandana, “Preaching in India’s Northeast For Cultural Preservation” VaiShnava News February 21, 2003; Retrieved information Dec. 9,2003 http://www.vnn.org/world/WD0302/WD21-7837.html
‘The catastrophe witnessed during partition of the subcontinent was only a proportion of what could have happened if the two communities had lived together.’
Despite numerous conflicts with the British and with the Muslims, India fought for its rights by doing what they felt was right. India under the British rule had some benefits as the new school system and outlawing sati but they did manage to trouble the Indians with taxation and other laws. Gandhi who was an outstanding, important figure in India’s way for independence who taught to fight with nonviolence.
India is, by no doubt, the second largest nation known to mankind both in terms of area coverage and population. This being the case, it forms one of the major points of interest of study to both political scientists and other social scholars. Studies have identified and confirmed that national political movements in India are the most influential elements whose ideologies and transformation agenda dates back to the pre-colonial times. Indian National Congress has been the most influential and transformative movement since its establishment on December 28, 1885. India, which most Indians are proud of today, owes much to the activities of this movement.
Mann, Harold H. 1929. “ The Agriculture of India.” Annals of the American Academy of Rolitical and Social Science. 145: 72-81. Accessed November 15, 2013. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1016888
India, before 1947, was a country divided by many regions, languages, religions and cultures. On August 14th, 1947, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan became independent. On August 15th, 1947, the jewel of the British Empire, India, was granted independence. India had been divided, primarily along a religious line, into two pieces.