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HISTORY'S
CURRENTS
INDIA'S INDEPENDENCE 1947
In
1599 Elizabeth I, Queen of England, signed the charter that
created what would become the British East India Company.
The first English ship arrived in India north of Bombay
and discovered a country that made England seem more like
a backwater province than a large and wealthy nation. By
working through the local Rajas, princes, and other Indian
leaders, the British opened vast amounts of the area to
trade. By using the fears, distrusts, and rivalries of the
leaders of the various Indian states against one another,
the British began to control more of the government. Within
300 years the Indian subcontinent would be the "Crown
Jewel" of the British Empire.
The arrival of the French in 1644 threatened British hegemony
in India. When the French were finally ousted from India
in 1763 after the Seven Years War (French and Indian War),
the British began to consolidate their control using trade,
spreading wealth to the ruling classes, and a local army
of Sepoys employed by the British East India Company. Over
the next century, the British East India Company began to
assume more responsibility for protecting and preserving
the British interest in India. After the British suppression
of the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857-58, the British government
assumed control of the government of India. India became
a British colony ruled by a Viceroy (Governor) appointed
by the government in London. The British continued to use
the Rajas to govern India, while developing trade and an
infrastructure, including railroads, over the entire subcontinent.
In 1885, Indians organized the Indian National Congress
to debate the problems confronting India. The Congress eventually
began to discuss and work toward independence, which upset
the British. In 1906 the Moslem League was formed to preserve
the interest of the Islamic minority in India. At the start
of World War I the British promised India its independence
for support of the war effort. While the Indians kept their
end of the bargain, the British failed to grant India its
independence. In April 1919, a British general ordered his
troops to fire on a crowd of peaceful protestors at Amristar
killing 400 and wounding 1,200 people. The Amristar Massacre
convinced most Indian leaders and people that independence
was a necessity.
In 1920, a British educated lawyer, Mohandas K. Gandhi,
became the leader of the Congress Party. Gandhi began a
non-violent, civil disobedience campaign against the British
rule in India. Gandhi's leadership and non-violent protest
gained the respect of the world. As a result of this non-violent
campaign the Indian people were able to hold the moral high
ground against the repressive British. Gandhi's famous Salt
March in 1930 and the successful boycott of British cloth
won the admiration of the entire world, including the British
working class.
By the end of World War II, the British, facing a stagnant
India and negative world opinion, agreed to give India its
independence. In 1947 Lord Lewis Mountbatten arrived in
India to become the last British Viceroy of India. The question
was not if there would be an independent subcontinent, but
if the area would be one country or two. While Gandhi believed
that Hindus and Moslems could live together in one state,
the leader of the Moslem League, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, insisted
on two countries. The partition of the subcontinent, according
to the Moslem plan, would divide the area along the lines
of religious majority areas. The decision was made to partition
the area into two countries, India for the Hindus and Pakistan
for the Moslems. Pakistan would be a divided nation. West
Pakistan was a large area on the west that included the
Indus River, while East Pakistan was a small area on the
Bay of Bengal that included the huge delta formed by the
Ganges and Brahamaputra Rivers.
In August 1947, India and Pakistan took their places among
the nations of the world. Religious riots broke out and
thousands died as Hindus and Moslems moved out of areas
where their religion was a minority. The tragedy of the
migration and the violence ended only when Gandhi almost
starved to death as he fasted to protest the disorder in
the new countries.
India became a democracy with Jawaharial Nehru as its first
Prime minister. Pakistan developed into a Military dictatorship.
A member of the upper caste who opposed Gandhi's position
on the outcastes (untouchables) of India assassinated Gandhi
in 1948.
India and Pakistan fought their first war in 1949 over the
religious issues and territory in the area of Kashmir.
History's currents or current history? You decide!
Editors Note:
For more information about India's independence read Freedom
at Midnight by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre and
view the 1982 movie Gandhi staring Ben Kingsley.
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