India Overview

Religion, the Caste System, and British Colonialism

Religion in India

• Over 80% of India is Hindu – despite centuries of Muslim rule

• About 10-12% of India is Muslim, Muslim leaders generally were from foreign lands

• About 2.5% are Christian

Tensions between Muslim and Hindus

• Muslims minority controlled most of India• Hindus suffered special taxes, destruction of

temples, and forced conversions to Islam• Tensions eased as the two religions united to

fight British colonization• As independence approached in the 1940s,

Muslim fears of the overwhelming Hindu majority would cause Muslim leaders to seek the independence Muslim nation of Pakistan

Caste System

• Hindu society was divided into major castes or classes

• There are four major castes, but thousands of sub-castes

• People are born into a caste and upward mobility is next to impossible – people only married within their caste

Caste System

• Part of a complex system of job division – each caste had a role within the community

• Strict rules dictated behavior

• Hindu idea of reincarnation played into the system – to advance you must live well and then you will be reborn into a higher caste

Major Hindu Castes

• Brahmins – Priests and scholars

• Kshatriyas – Warriors

• Baishyas – Farmers and merchants

• Shudras – Laborers and serfs

• Untouchables – People who were below the caste system and completed the most undesirable of jobs

British East India Company

• Became leading commercial power by 1757

• Exploited Indian indigo, cotton, and tea

• Ruled India, politically and economically (called raj or "rule")

British East India Company

• Made alliances with different tribes and ethnic groups, employed sepoys (Indian soldiers)

• Considered the "jewel in the crown" of the British Empire

Direct Control

• 1857 Sepoy Rebellion takes place

• Started with misunderstanding that new bullets had animal grease on them (sacred to Hindus and unclean to Muslims)

• British government saw uprising as a sign that Indians could cause more problems in the future and took direct control of government

Culture Clash

• English and Western ideas promoted as elite

• Limited social contact between British and Indians

• Only Hindus who became Christians could hold government positions

Culture Clash

• Instruction in English, became language of the educated

• British did stop suttees (killing wife when the husband dies), child marriages (as early as nine or ten), and infanticide (killing of infant girls because they were too costly to marry)

Impact

• Modernized India (railroads, irrigation, dams, better sanitation and education)

• British held all economic and political power

• Restricted domestic industries

Indian National Congress

• 1885 – Met for the first time to bring more Indians into the British controlled government

• Over then next thirty years they began to push for home rule and then independence

Indian National Congress

• Party members generally were English educated and did not represent the 350 million Indians who mostly worked in the fields of rural India

• Many did not separate the Congress members in their minds from the British because they advocated similar ideas (i.e. industrialization), but under Indian rule

Mohandas Gandhi

• Educated as a lawyer in London

• Spent twenty years in South Africa as a lawyer fighting discrimination against Indian immigrants

Mohandas Gandhi

• Developed and executed non-violent philosophy• His actions were aggressive and provocative, but did not

employ violence• 1915 – Returned to India and began participating in the

Indian National Congress• Influenced an ideological shift – from possible violent

revolt to non-violent action to gain independence

Mohandas Gandhi

• Gandhi changed the focus of movement to improve conditions for rural population

• He also fought against the caste system and called the untouchables “children of god”

• Eventually helped gain India’s independence in 1947

• Gandhi was assassinated on January 30, 1948• Despite his tremendous influence, after his

death many of his teachings and tactics for conflict resolution were dismissed