Indian Nationalism &
Decolonization
1858
British take political control
of India
Causes of Indian nationalism:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
discontent with British rule
India unified
leadership
common language
new print culture
nationalist orgs.
Political Nationalism

desire for  political freedoms:



suffrage
 Indians in government
independence
Cultural Nationalism


development of “Indian” cultural identity
rewrite histories



Hinduism
math/sciences
art
Indian National Congress





1885
1st – Indian elite only
1920s – mass
movement (Gandhi)
moderate
constitutional
methods
Alan Octavian Hume, founder of Indian
National Indian National Union, which
became INC
Swadeshi Movement


early 1900s
Swadeshi = “one’s own country,” selfsufficiency




boycott British goods
Indians produce own goods
nationalist education
nationalism = mass movement
Muslim League


1906
seek Muslim political
rights
Muhammad Ali Jinnah – leader of
Muslim League, founder of Pakistan,
and first Governor-General of Pakistan
Gandhi (1869-1948)


leader of INC, 1920s1930s
nonviolence
(satyagraha)
Chronology - early life & training for his
future role:

1869 – born in Gujarat

1888-1891 – study law in Britain

1893-1899, 1902-1915 – fight racism in SA
Chronology – protest against British rule
builds & Gandhi becomes Indian leader:

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
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1915 – Satyagraha Ashram
1919 – Amritsar Massacre
1922-1924 – imprisonment
1924 – fast: Hindu-Muslim unity
1930 – Salt March
January 1948 – fast: Hindu-Muslim unity
1948 – assassinated
Gandhi and followers on the Salt March
On the beach at Dandi, the end of the Salt
March
Issues in the Indian nationalist movement

method – nonviolence vs. violence

religion – Hinduism vs. Islam

women’s rights

Q of westernization/modernization
Independence
14, 1947 –
Pakistan (Muslim majority)
 August
15, 1947 – India
(Hindu majority)
 August
India before (left) and after (right) 1947
Post-Independence Violence




Hindu vs. Muslim
1 million deaths
12 million relocated
Gandhi’s fast  success
Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964)


1st PM of India (19471964)
goal: modernize India,
via socialist economics
& democratic politics