Summary: Gandhi, and a group of protesters, including a US sympathizer, are holding placards demanding that the British
get out of India. All around them are the bodies of those who have died of hunger or civil war.
Historical context: On May 23 1947, the British cabinet took the step of agreeing to Lord Louis Mountabatten's proposal
for the partition of India into two states, one Moslem and the other Hindu.
Questions:
1. According to the cartoon, name two groups that want Britain out of India.
2. How is Gandhi portrayed?
3. According to the cartoonist, what will be the result of granting India independence?
Document D
Source: Garretto, The London Graphic Illustrator, May 24, 1930.
Salting the Lion’s Tail
Note: This cartoon shows Gandhi salting the tail of
the British Lion. It is based on an old fold belief that
if you put salt on a bird’s tail you will then be able to
catch it.
Document Analysis
1. What is the old folk belief on which this
cartoon is based?
2. How is the British Empire represented in the
cartoon (what is the lion doing?)
3. What is the date of the cartoon and what
historical event triggered this cartoon?
4. What is Gandhi’s relationship with the Lion?
Does Gandhi regard the British as the
“enemy”?
5. How does this document illustrate Gandhi’s
nonviolence tactics for achieving political
change?
6. What is the source of the document? Does
this indicate that Gandhi’s tactics for
achieving greater freedom for India are
enjoying some success?
Left: Colonel Robert Clive Meets Mir Jafar
Khan, 1757. This represents the sultan, Mir
Jafar surrendering to Clive after the battle of
Plessy.
Bottom: "General Lord Cornwallis
receiving Tipoo Sultan’s sons as
hostages" (c. 1793), painting by Robert
Home (1752 -1834), exhibited at the
Royal Academy 1797
Save Me From My Friends
The Great Game: the afghan Emir Sher
Ali Khan with his "friends" Russia and
Great Britain. Text: "Save me from my
friends."
The political cartoon shows the changes that
India has experienced post colonization.
India was a colony of Great Britain until it
gained independence in the 1940s. The
colonizations caused India to rapidly
westernized, and man y people in India still
and learn English. The cartoon shows
western companies such as Dell, Microsoft
and Apple going to an Air India desk. This
symbolizes the outsourcing of many jobs by
these companies to India. Post colonization,
India has had to res ort to taking many tech support jobs from English or American companies.
Colonization has made India submissive and assimilated to western culture.