The Work of Ghandi and India's Independence

The Work of Ghandi and India's Independence

In 1857, the East India Company sailed to India and defeated the

Mughal Empire. The British crown took over the Indian government and

Britons were sent to live there. This was known as colonialism, those

who thought it was a good idea to take over others lands and actually

did. One of these lands was India. At the time India was seen a savage

land. Missionaries and legislators wanted to stamp out slavery,

barbaric punishment and sacrifices. Industrialists wanted raw

materials such as gold, diamond and chocolate. They wanted to grow and

sell food, which could not be grown at home. The armed forces found

the country useful as it could use them to fuel ships.

The period in which Britain ruled India is known as the British Raj.

The king or queens representative in India was called the viceroy. In

London also handling Indian affairs was the secretary of state. The

first empress of India was queen Victoria in 1887. Because of its

prosperous lands and raw materials, India became known as the 'jewel

in the crown'.

Gandhi was born in 1869. He went to London to study aw and went on to

become a barrister. He developed ideas of Satyagraha meaning 'firmness

to truth'. This basically means he would protest passively. He

practised this method on South Africa for 21 years fighting for the

right of Indians over there. After he returned to India and joined the

I.N.C (Indian. National. Congress). This party was founded by the new

Indian Middle Class. All these spoke English and most were lawyers.

The first meeting was held on the 28th of December 1885.

Gandhi's ideas of swaraj, (self-rule) came about...

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India's help under these serious conditions, when they really needed

help, when would they?

Gandhi's passive resistance did allow India to gain self-rule during

the years 1918-1939, as it showed the brutal side to the British

Empire against its unarmed subjects. Reported around the world were

horrific scenes of violence which casted the British in a bad light.

This allowed the world to see what the British were really like.

A more violent approach I think would have caused Britain to think the

Indians could not control themselves and so would still be ruling them

now, but on the other hand a more savage approach could have led the

British into backing off. But this I think would have led to serious

casualties. So in all I think Gandhi's work made it more likely for

India to gain independence from Britain.