Decolonization of India and Indo

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History 12
Ms Leslie
Britain and France bankrupt after WWII.
2. Colonial subjects do not was things to
return to how they were.
3. New super-powers were ideologically
opposed to the concept of empires
1.
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India is a colony of Britain for 200 years
Provides Britain with cotton
The Indian Civil Service was the most
desirable of all foreign service postings.
Britain provided education for the middle
class
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Included modern states of:
 Pakistan
 India
 Bangladesh
 Burma
 Islands in the Indian Ocean
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Huge country = lots of bureaucracy
So educated Indians ran the country
This fostered nationalism
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Formed in 1885
Nehru and Gandhi’s
political party
Want independence
for India
Britain does not
think they are able
to govern
themselves
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he opposed western
industrialization – it
brings misery
Satyagraha
Concerned with the
poverty of the peasants
Wanted to abolish the
caste system – help the
untouchables
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People in the lowest
caste
Jobs: butcher,
removal of rubbish,
manual labourers,
cleaning latrines and
sewers.
segregated, and
banned from full
participation in Hindu
social life.
could not enter a
temple or a school,
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Indian contribution made nationalism
stronger
Woodrow Wilson’s talk of selfdetermination and Lenin’s views on
national self-determination provided ample
encouragement.
1917 promised self-government in the
future
Churchill opposed to this
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1919
Created a diarchy
More government control provincially but
not federally
Promise to consider more concession sin
10 years
Gandhi called for a country wide general
strike on April 6, 1919
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April 13, 1919, in the
Punjab Province, 5
Europeans were killed
in riots.
General Dyer,
commanding the
security forces in the
area resorted to lethal
force in trying to
disperse a crowd of
5,000.
The machine gun fire
killed 379 Indians
Dyer is forced to retire
over this.
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Gandhi organizes
peaceful protest
Sit down strikes
Non-payment of
taxes
Boycotts
non-co-operation
Other Indians are
more violent
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Soon Indians of all backgrounds echoed
the slogan of the Congress Party, “Quit
India”.
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The Simon Commission in 1928
recommended self government for the
Provinces.
The Congress wanted dominion status to
be on par with Canada, Australia, New
Zealand and South Africa.
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March 12, 1930 – Salt
march begins.
He goes to the sea with
80 people to make salt
illegally.
The Costal people
follow his example.
60,000 Indians are
imprisoned.
http://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=WCvuo_NZcj
o&feature=related
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Gandhi, recently released from jail, led his
famed march to the sea to produce salt –
in violation of the law.
Gandhi returned to jail where he goes on a
hunger strike to protest the treatment of
the untouchables.
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London
Congress not present as
they’re in jail
Gandhi shows up for the
last one, in traditional
dress
Churchill calls him “this
malignant and subversive
fanatic.”
Nothing comes of the
conferences and Muslims
and Hindus can’t agree
on government
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Only Defense and Foreign affairs was to
remain in British hands.
Yet, once again Congress was unsatisfied.
The Princes who continued to rule their
own states within India also refused to cooperate.
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Though Congress
desired a united India
(dominated by a
Hindu majority),
Jinnah and his
Muslims sough a
separate Pakistan.
In a region where
Muslim and Hindus
had intermingled
under the British a
division could be
easily managed.
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1 million Indians
fought for Britain
Gandhi supported
as he thought it
would help Britain
give independence
Britain responded
with the Defense of
India Act and the
Rowlatt Act which
made independence
movements illegal.
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India was put into WWII but Viceroy
Linlithgrow with out approval from
domestic political leaders.
Britain is distracted by the war to pay any
attention to India
By 1942 Britain is forced to consider
independence
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Congress leaders and thrown in jail for
speaking against the British
As the Congress leaders re-emerged from
jail, negotiations were opened again, but
Congress leaders found that the Muslim
League had now established themselves in
important political positions in several
provinces.
The struggle between the two parties
intensified.
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Gandhi was opposed to the very concept of
division.
Nehru found it distasteful, but accepted
the political necessity.
Jinnah would consider nothing else.
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Struggle between the Muslim minority and
the Hindu majority
Britain turned heir back on India and
instructs Viceroy Mountbatten to prepare
India for Independence
India to divide into 2 – India for Hindus
and Sikhs and Pakistan (East and West) for
Muslims.
Gandhi against this.
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With the formation of
an interim
government under
Nehru in 1946
(included 2 Muslims),
violence broke out.
Jinnah inflamed the
situation, calling for
‘direct action’ to
ensure the formation
of Pakistan.
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5,000 people were killed in Calcutta, and
the troubles spread to Bengal.
Muslims killed Hindus, who retaliated and
were in turn retaliated against.
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The British announced, in early 1947, that
the British would withdraw no later than
June 1948.
Viceroy Mountbatten was now well aware
that partition was the only thing that could
prevent civil war.
Fearing that delay would only foster
greater violence, Mountbatten shortened
the length of time before independence,
settling on August 1947 – Gandhi
opposed, but most of the Congress Agreed
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the problem of how to divide the
intermixed religious groups was a
nightmare.
Hindu and Muslim minorities existed in
practically all parts of the sub-continent.
The majority Muslim areas were
furthermore located in two sections, more
that 2,000 miles apart.
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The Punjab and
Bengal, with mixed
populations, had to
be divided.
Millions of people
were stranded on
the wrong side of
the boundary.
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10 million flee Pakistan.
Violent clashes occurred and horrendous
slaughter took place.
In the Punjab about ¼ million people were
killed.
About 1 million die in Bengal.
Gandhi is able to stop the violence by
going a hunger strike.
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It was not until the end of 1947 that the
violence began to die down
it was the assassination of Gandhi (by a
Hindu fanatic) in 1948 during a second
hunger strike against violence that brought
the terrible cost of the violence home to
all.
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The Indian Civil Service, one of the finest
organization of its kind anywhere, was
split in two. 80% when to India and 20% to
Pakistan.
So too was the Indian army
Officers and men were given the choice of
which successor state they would serve.
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All assets – cash and material goods –
along with India’s national debt, were
divided between the two
Some Muslims even called for the Taj
Mahal to be dismantled and shipped to
Pakistan, since a Muslim ruler had
constructed it.
No consideration given to Sikhs
o
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In 1962 India fought a border conflict with
China
In 1965 war broke out between the two
states. Border clashes escalated into full
scale war. With China threatening India on
its northern borders, India was unable to
press the full weight of its superior military
strength against Pakistan. Eventually the
USSR helped arranged a peace based on a
return to the status quo.
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In 1971 Pakistan was divided by civil war.
East Pakistani opposition to the political
dominance to the West encouraged a call
for separation.
The ravaged of a disastrous cyclone and
tidal wave increased the misery.
India intervened, launching an invasion of
East Pakistan in December, 1971, winning
easily to make Bangladeshi independence
a reality.
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Democracy
Mass unemployment, poverty and corruption
AIDS
80,000,000 Untouchables
Army loyal to government
Gandhi honoured for how he was not his politics
A Nuclear power
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After WWII, the French wanted to return to their
South East Asian colony, but their subjects in
French Indo-China really did not want them
North Vietnam had an effective resistance
movement to the occupying Japanese had been
organized by Ho Chi Minh.
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Ho’s Vietminh simply continued the
struggle when the French retuned,
Ho declared an independent Vietnam in
1945.
Ho’s communist guerillas earned the
support of the peasants with land reform.
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The success of the Chinese revolution
brought a steady stream of supplies from
Mao’s China.
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The French, unable to finance the war
against the Vietminh themselves, turned to
the USA for help and were granted
financial and military aid to assist in the
cold war struggle against communism.
The Americans were not in favour of a
continued colonial presence, favouring
independent non-Communist governments
in the Area.
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After the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu
in 1954, the French gave in to the
inevitable and withdrew.
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Formal settlement between Indochina and
France
Laos and Cambodia were given
independence,
while Vietnam was temporarily partitioned
at the 17th parallel, until elections in 1956
could determine its future. Elections never
happened
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the Communist regime of Ho Chi Minh in
the North faced the South Vietnamese of
Ngo Dinh Diem
Ngo Dinh Dien was a catholic governing a
mostly Buddhist population.
Neither could be properly described as
democratic
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Diem’s policies were
anti-Buddhist.
The led to the famous
self-immolation of a
monk in June of 1963
Thích Quảng Đức was
protesting the religions
oppression of Diem
His protest didn’t work
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A guerilla war (Viet Cong) began in the
south, with the Southern Vietminh forming
the basis of the new NLF (National
Liberation Front), armed and supported
Ho’s North.
The North never accepted a divided
Vietnam.
Diem came increasingly to rely on
American support against the spread of
communism.
End :)
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