Background Information
Important Dates
1869
Birth of Gandhi.
1887
Gandhi goes to London to train as a lawyer.
1893
Sets up a legal practice in South Africa.
1904
Sets up a utopian community called Phoenix.
1913
Launches a passive resistance against the law requiring Indians to be fingerprinted.
1914
Gandhi returns to India.
1919
Amritsar Massacre by British troops.
1920
Launches a non-violent, non-cooperative campaign for Indian independence.
1930
Gandhi goes on a march against the British salt monopoly.
1931
Visits Britain, where he receives a mixed reception.
1932-45
Lives the life of a wandering teacher.
1939-45
World War II.
1945
Labour victory in the British General Election. Indian independence becomes a possibility.
1947
Indian independence, with the subcontinent divided into (mainly Muslim) Pakistan and (mainly Hindu) India.
1948
Gandhi assassinated by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu fanatic.
Key Terms, People and Events
British India
Viceroy
Princely States
Amritsar Massacre
Diversity
Mahatma
Satyagraha
Partition
Nehru Family
British India
The British first arrived in India in the16th century. They established trading posts which became huge companies - especially the East India Company. They 'colonised' by giving protection to princely states in return for tax revenues. In 1773 the British Government regulated this under the control of the Governor General. In 1857 there was a widespread uprising. In 1858 the East India Company disbanded. The British finally left in 1947 after a prolonged struggle.
Viceroy
The British Crown's representative in India in the late19th and early 20th centuries.
Princely States
Indigenous states ruled by hereditary princes. Some were tiny, some very large. Incorporated within the British Empire but allowed to run their own internal affairs. They made up one-third of the subcontinent.
Amritsar Massacre
The 1919 massacre of 379 Sikh civilians following arrests of protesters against a law that enabled the Indian Government to expel, without trial, people accused of subversion. The illegal mass meeting was dispersed by ten minutes of sustained gunfire from Indian and Gurkha troops under General Dyer.
Diversity
The Indian subcontinent is divided by religion. The different groups are often enemies. The main groups are Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh and Christian. It is also divided by language. In India there are 1,500 languages, including two official languages and 14 others spoken nationwide.
Mahatma
Name given to Gandhi, meaning 'Great Soul'.
Satyagraha
Hindu word meaning the moral force of truth and love. It is the moral basis of Gandhi's non-violent political theory and actions.
Partition
At Independence, the Indian subcontinent was divided, mainly for religious reasons, into (mainly Hindu) India and (mainly Muslim) Pakistan. There were 500,000 deaths during inter-religious fighting at the time of Independence. Later, (mainly Muslim) East Pakistan became Bangladesh. There is also an independent Nepal, and a dispute over the mountain state of Kashmir, which India claims.
Nehru Family
Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964) was the first prime minister of India. His daughter, Indira Gandhi, became prime minister in 1966, and was assassinated in 1984. She was succeeded by her son, Rajiv, who was also assassinated, in 1991.
Background Information
The British Empire owed most of its wealth and strength to its key resource, India. India provided markets for British goods. It provided exotic goods which British traders could sell on. It has vast resources of raw materials and mineral wealth. India also had manpower. Most of the British armies which fought all over the globe had very large Indian contingents, although the press and other media did them little or no justice for their contribution to Britain’s greatness.
The Empire in India really began to consolidate in the mid 18th century when the British East India Company took control of Bengal. For the next 100 years British rule gradually extended to control the greater part of the subcontinent. One of the features of British Imperial government was that it was small scale and cheap. The British relied to a great extent on local troops, local officials and local client rulers generally known as Maharajas. Despite the involvement of Indians in the administration of the territory this was not an equal partnership. India’s vast wealth and resources served British needs and political decisions were made in the Imperial Parliament at Westminster rather than on the ground in India. It would be wrong to suggest that British rule brought no benefits to India, but it would be risking many raised eyebrows to suggest that India would not have been able to develop without Britain’s involvement.
By 1900 the tensions over British rule were becoming apparent. The ruling classes in India were very rich and powerful indeed. The country had rail networks, the cities boasted some impressive architecture and there was a highly efficient police force. However, the great majority of India’s vast population lived in poverty. Famines and devastating epidemics were common. Indians were unquestionably second-class citizens. Only 5% of the civil service were Indians, and they held no senior positions in government or the law. In the early years of the 20th century Indian nationalists began to complain about these inequalities. The British government responded with a number of concessions known as the Morley Minto Reforms (1909). Despite this, India was still ruled by the Viceroy (the English monarch’s representative in India). The Indian nationalist movement was boosted by the 1914-18 war. The US President Woodrow Wilson had put forward the idea of self-determination (self-rule) for all peoples. The British were weakened by the war. Furthermore, India had contributed 800,000 soldiers to the war effort and paid for them herself, some £200 million.
These arguments spurred on the Hindu Congress and the Muslim League to demand self-government. Gandhi appeared to lead this upsurge in popular feeling for an independent India. Gandhi’s campaigns were certainly effective in mobilising Indian and British opinion. In 1919 the British government passed a series of reforms giving Indians greater control of education, health, agriculture and local government. In 1935 the Government of India Act granted further concessions. Despite this, the Viceroy still ruled India, most of the wealth still lay in British hands and any Indian regional Parliaments could still have their laws overturned by Parliament in London. Hardline Hindu Nationalists like Jawaharlal Nehru demanded complete independence. This looked like a possibility by the mid-1930s, but a new fear began to trouble India. The country’s Muslims feared that if India did gain independence it would be dominated by Hindus and Muslims would suffer. The Muslim leader Mohammed Ali Jinnah began to call for independence, but also for the creation of a Muslim state of Pakistan after the British withdrawal.
The Second World War guaranteed Indian independence. Indian troops were heavily involved in the defeat of the Japanese in Burma. The new Labour government elected in 1945 was committed to Indian independence. Sadly, the prospect of Indian independence generated horrific violence between Muslims and Hindus. The British determined that there would be a new state of Pakistan, and duly withdrew from the Indian subcontinent in 1947. India had independence and so did Pakistan, but a terrible legacy was left behind.
