Indian Nationalism & Decolonization

1858

British take political control of India

Causes of Indian nationalism:

1. discontent with British rule

2. India unified

3. leadership

4. common language

5. new print culture

6. 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,” self-

sufficiency 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, 1920s-1930s

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: 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

IndependenceAugust 14, 1947 – Pakistan (Muslim majority)

August 15, 1947 – India (Hindu majority)

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 (1947-

1964) goal: modernize India,

via socialist economics & democratic politics