What is now
India
Pakistan
Bangladesh
Sri Lanka
 India was a colony of
Great Britain
 1757-1857 India is run by the East India Tea Company
 1858-1947 British Government rules India using royal
governors and viceroys
 British use raw materials
from India to build their
Empire
 INC – Indian National Congress
 Formed in 1885
 Mostly Hindu
 After independence, became India’s main political party
 Muslim League
 Formed in 1906
 Political party in Pakistan and Bangladesh
 More than 1 million Indian troops
serve in British Army during war
 Indian wheat and cotton used in
war effort
 1917 British promise to work
toward self-government
(same year as the Balfour
Declaration)
 Why did Indians call for independence after World
War I?
 Indians felt that the British did not deliver the
significant reforms promised during the war as
acknowledged for their services. Amritsar massacre
intensified dissatisfication.
 Harsh laws enacted after
WWI leading to many arrests
 British pit Hindus vs. Muslims
 In Amritsar, all large gatherings are banned
 British threaten to use force
 10,000 unarmed demonstrators in walled garden
 Local British commander decides to set example
 Blocks entrance and opens fire when crowd doesn’t leave
 400 Dead, 1200 Wounded
 Increased desire for Independence, lacked unity.
 Known as “The Mahatma” (great soul)
 Born in 1869 (4 yrs after Civil War)
 Family was middle class, Hindu
 Married at 13 in an arranged marriage
 Went to college in London, became a lawyer
 1893-1914 lives in South Africa and fights against
apartheid
 Returns to India during WW I and begins “fighting”
for independence
 Pacifism
 Civil Disobedience
 Henry David Thoreau
 Martin Luther King Jr.
 Nelson Mandela
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Joins with INC to work toward Indian independence
Urged “non-c00peration”
Ahimsa, nonviolence and reverence of life, “love”
Arrested in 1922 for sedition, served 2 years
Series of arrests and hunger strikes
Fought to end harsh treatment of Untouchables, members
of the lowest class
 Urged Indians to boycott British
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made goods
Only wore Homespun clothing,
symbol during protests was the
spinning wheel
Believed that denying British the
profits of colonialism would lead
to independence
1930 – Protest against salt tax
charged to citizens
Marched 240 miles to the sea to
make salt
British arrest 60,000
 What methods did Indians under Gandhi use to resist
British rule?
 They staged boycotts and other nonviolent protests.
They increased their own industries so India would be
more self-sufficient.
 What did the salt march symbolize?
 Indian protest against oppression.
 1935 – Government of India Act
 Increased suffrage
 Limited self-government
 Hindu – Muslim Disputes
 Hindus outnumbered Muslims 3-1
 Controlled 7 out of 11 provinces
 Muslims wanted a separate country
 INC led by Jawarharal Nehru and Gandhi wanted one
united India
 British agree to grant independence
after WW II
 Violence continues between Hindus
and Muslims
 1947 Independence achieved
 India
 West Pakistan and East Pakistan
 Migration ensued, over 100,000 deaths
 India
 2nd most populated country – over 1 Billion People
 Economic power
 US imports many Indian goods
 Many US jobs outsourced to India (technology)
 Nuclear Weapons
 Pakistan
 US Ally?
 Home of Bin Laden?
 Nuclear Weapons