The Indian Independence Movement

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The Indian independence movement was a movement against the British who had ruled over India for over 200 years. They first came to India for their raw resources. India eventually wanted to be self-sufficient and independent. Mohandas Gandhi was the leader of the Indian Independence movement and led a nonviolent revolution. Gandhi’s independence movement is very significant because it changed the life of Indians drastically from being under British rule to becoming independent.
The British easily took over and controlled the Indians because of their superior army and weapons. According to Phillips & Gritzner (46), the British had a puppet ruler and drained the various regions of their resources. The East India Company is a British company that ruled many regions in India. The East India Company had its own army and made many trading posts. Britain just had taken the riches from India and didn’t force the Indians to assimilate, so Indians did not have a huge problem with them and made treaties that helped the British. The British were very helpful by making some changes in the government to reduce corruption and helped built canals, railways, and even a postal system (Philips & Gritzner, 47) These are some of the many things they did to modernize India.
Britain was convinced that their government was better than India’s and forced the British government upon the Indian Kingdoms. They also began to take away local political power, which made the Indians unhappy and let to a rebellion in 1857. The revolt was called the Indian Uprising, and for many, it was the start of the Indian Independence movement. After the uprising, new treaties were made so that there was no interference with Indians and new limits and Indians could hold hig...

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...lly passed on August 15, 1947. After the movement, Gandhi strived to have peace between the Hindu and Muslims. His strive for unity stopped much of the fighting and killing between the two religions. He was assassinated by a Hindu extremist in 1948. One of his followers, Jawaharlal Nehru, who was first on Britain’s side, was moved by Gandhi’s movement and switched sides. He became the prime minister of India and tried making solutions to the problems of the new independent nation. The problems in the future were that their government was British based and also to settle disputes between Hindus and Muslims. This independence movement is very significant because it is the end of Britain relying on India’s raw materials. This is a very rare movement because it takes a very strong country to be able to strive for nonviolence while revolting against another country.

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