INDIAN NATIONALISM &NATION-BUILDING

1858-1947

IF AN INDIAN CITIZEN WERE

ASKED TO GIVE PROOF OF THE WAYS BRITISH RULE HARMED

INDIA, WHAT WOULD HE OR

SHE SAY?

IF A BRITISH COLONIAL OFFICIAL WERE ASKED TO PROVIDE EVIDENCE OF THE WAYS BY WHICH BRITISH RULE BENEFITTED INDIA, WHAT WOULD HE SAY?

1858-

1947

ROOTS OF INDIAN NATIONALISM

If the Indian people want independence, what could possibly unite them in hopes of achieving that goal?

common desire to see British removed

cultural unity

But was India really united culturally? -who are the Indians really?

Hindu Indians? ( =majority) Muslim Indians? ( =minority)

There were many

different cultural

groups in India & many

Indian nationalist

movements w/ various

strategies to meet their

goals.

THE INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS an early Indian nationalist

organization established 1885 led by European-educated

Indians

after WWI, became interested in winning freedoms & independence for ALL Indians

early members: Mahatma Gandhi Jawaharlal Nehru Muhammad Ali Jinnah

many Muslims left in 1906 formed “Muslim League” different goals

for independence

The Muslim League Goal:

independent Indian nation for Muslims (Pakistan)

Key leaders:Jinnah

Strategy: satisfy & support

the British so they’ll eventually create a free Muslim nation from India

TWO NATIONALIST PATHS TO INDEPENDENCE…

Indian National Congress

Goal: independent nation for all Indians

Key leaders: Gandhi & Nehru

Strategy: civil-

disobedience passive

resistance

“We [Muslim Indians] want a separate state of our own. There we can live according to our own notions of life … We should be free … Is Britain going to stand with its bayonets and hand over authority to the Indian majority?”

Muhammad Ali Jinnah

“Be the change you wish to see in the world.”

-Gandhi

Image: Gandhi practicing civil disobedience by producing cotton cloth in his own home, thus breaking the British law forbidding Indians from producing their own.

1930S-40S: STRATEGIES FOR INDEPENDENCE

Gandhi’s Civil Disobedience:

refused to comply with certain laws seen as unfair or unjust as a peaceful form of political protest

encouraged peaceful strikes, boycotts, marches fasting

example: Salt March, 1930

Jinnah’s Muslim League: built up fears amongst

Muslims that Hindus would dominate them after independence

encouraged Muslim Indian support for British

GANDHI’S SALT MARCH, 1930

Part of Gandhi’s civil disobedience campaign to convince Britain to grant India its independence

Non-violently protested against the British salt monopoly in India

Gandhi led peaceful protestors on a 24 day, 240 mile march to the Indian Ocean to produce salt without paying the salt tax

Gandhi’s Salt March created global awareness of Britain’s mis-rule of India and brought large numbers of Indians to the pro-independence movement.

Gandhi & Nehru

A NEGOTIATED INDEPENDENCE: 1945-1947

After WWII, British Parliament agreed to independence. negotiations with both nationalist movements end result partition [division] & independence of India, 1947:

BRITISH INDIA

• created where Hindu majority lived

• Nehru = 1st prime minister

• Indian National Congress

• world’s largest democracy

• created where Muslim majority lived

• Jinnah = 1st prime minister

• Muslim League• Islamic republic

became a dictatorship

INDEPENDENT INDIA

INDEPENDENT PAKISTAN

INDIA & PAKISTAN: RESULTS OF PARTITION

12 million forced to migrate across new borders refugee crisis

Hindu-Muslim violence intensified

conflict over Kashmir continues

nuclear arms race terrorist attacks