Nationalism in Indiaand Southwest Asia

“I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and non-violence are as old as the hills. All I have done is to try experiments in both on as vast a scale as I could.”-Gandhi

The effect of World War I

WWI signaled the end of Imperialism The British Empire began to crumble

Stirred nationalist movements in India Turkey Persia (Iran) Saudi Arabia

Indian Nationalism Upper class Indians who had attended

British schools learned European views of nationalism and democracy and began to resent British rule

Two groups formed Indian National Congress (Congress Party) Muslim LeagueAlthough Hindus and Muslims have a rocky

history they could find common ground in resisting foreign rule

The WWI Effect

Indians fighting in the British armies in Europe were offered government promises of reforms in exchange for their service

The ultimate goal of these reforms was eventual independence

In 1918 Indian troops returned home expecting the promises to be fulfilled

Instead they were again treated as second class citizens

The British React to Indian Resentment

Radical nationalists carried out acts of violence against the British in India

The British government pass the Rowlatt Act (1919) Allowed the government to jail protestors without trail

for as long as two years Denial of Trial by Jury was a serious offense to

western educated Indians who had learned from the British the importance of individual rights

What is it that allows the British to pass laws against Indians they wouldn’t pass in Britain?

Resistance and Oppression

Amritsar Massacre – protest to the Rowlatt Act 10,000 Hindus and Muslims flocked to the

Amritsar (capital of Punjab) spring 1919 Intended to fast and pray and listen to

political speeches The demonstration and alliance between

Hindus and Muslims terrified the British The British had banned public meetings

therefore the entire festival was “illegal”

Resistance and Oppression British General Reginald Dyer ordered his troops

to fire on the crowd without warning The shooting lasted 10 minutes British troops killed 400 Indians and injured 1200 News of the slaughter sparked fury across India Overnight millions of Indians changed from loyal

British subjects to revolutionariesHow did the British reaction to the festival change

minds and heart?What examples of extreme reaction can you think

of from today?

The Role of Gandhi WATCH GANDHI Gandhi’s philosophies

blended ideas from all of the major world religions – Hinduism, Islam and Christianity

Gandhi attracted millions of followers

He was soon called “Mahatma” meaning Great Soul

Noncooperation

After the Amritsar Massacres and British failure to punish the offending officers Gandhi proposed his policy of “noncooperation”

Who else used/uses noncooperation as a form of protest?

Civil Disobedience

“It is not desirable,” he said, “to cultivate a respect for the law, so much for the right…Law never made men a whit more just; and by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice.”

  Henry David Thoreau

The demands of conscience are higher than the demands of the law

“This is in essence the principle of nonviolent noncooperation. Its object should not be to punish the opponent or to inflict injury upon him. Even while noncooperating with him, we must make him feel that in us he has a friend and we should try to reach his heart by rendering him humanitarian services wherever possible”

How does this differ from Mao’s view of revolution against oppression?

Which path to change is more effective? Why?

Civil Disobedience Passive Resistance – Satyagraha –

“Truth-force” Deliberate and public refusal to obey an

unjust law “Complete Civil Disobedience is a rebellion

without the element of violence…one perfect resister is enough to win the battle of Right and Wrong”

In 1920 the Indian National Congress Party adopted this policy of civil disobedience and nonviolence

Civil Disobedience

Name a law you find to be unjust that you are obligated to obey (school or government law)

How could you protest the law without violence?

Applying Civil Disobedience

Gandhi urged the people to refuse to buy British goods, attend government schools, pay British taxes and vote in elections

Throughout 1920 the British arrested thousands of Indians

who had participated in strikes and demonstrations

Applying Civil Disobedience

Gandhi’s civil disobedience took a heavy economic toll on the British

Struggled to keep Trains running Factories open And overcrowded jails from bursting

Despite Gandhi’s pleas for nonviolence, riots often broke out

Salt March 1930 the Indian National Congress and Gandhi

declared India independent of British rule Obviously the British ignored this so Gandhi decided to

take his protests to another level He organized a salt protest According to British law, Indians could only buy salt

from the government AND they had to pay a tax on salt To show their opposition, Gandhi and his followers

walked 240 miles to the seacoast and collected their own salt by letting ocean water evaporate

Why is a salt protest so important?

Civil Disobedience

Soon after the Salt March to Dandi demonstrators planned to march to a factory where the British processed salt

Police officers with steel tipped clubs attacked the demonstrators

An American journalist on the scene described the “sickening whacks of clubs on unprotected skulls and people writhing in pain with fractured skulls or broken shoulders”

Salt Marches Effect

The salt march gained worldwide attention and sympathy

Indians throughout the country took up the protest and began illegally processing their own salt

Eventually 60,000 people as well as Gandhi himself were arrested

Great Britain Grants India Self Rule

Eventually the protests and international pressure were too much for the British to ignore

In 1935 they passed the Government of India Act – giving limited self rule to the Indians The Hindu Indian National Congress was

the party in control and this quickly offended the Muslim league

Fight for Power

Over the next few decades the Muslim League conflicted with the Indian National Congress in the ruling of the country

The Hindus outnumbered the Muslims and they feared lack of representation in the government

They fought the Indian National Congress’ control of the government on every front

Stay Tuned!!

The rest of the Indian Independence story doesn’t pick up again until after World War II when the British finally lose the ability to control India from abroad and give up in 1947… opening a whole new can of worms with the creation of Muslim Pakistan

Nationalism Spreads to Southwest Asia The people of the Middle East also launched

independence movements during this time of weakening European Imperialism

-Turkey- Iran- Saudi Arabia

Turkey At the end of World War I, all that remained

of the Ottoman Empire was Turkey The Greeks were eager to expand and rebuild

their ancient empire at the expense of the weakening Ottomans

The Sultan was ineffectual in stopping the invading Greeks

Turkish Nationalism Mustafa Kemal led Turkish nationalists in

overthrowing the Sultan in 1922 1923 – Kemal became the president of the

new Republic of Turkey Kemal introduced many reforms,

transforming Turkey into a modern state

The New Turkey He separated the laws of Islam from the laws

of the nation Abolished religious courts, created a new

legal system based on European law Women were given more freedom, the right to

vote and to hold public office Launched government programs to

industrialize Turkey

Persia Becomes Iran Great Britain and Russia fought over

influence over the ancient empire of Persia After WWI the Russians were wrapped up in

their Bolshevik revolution and the British tried to seize the opportunity to expand in Persia

1921 – Persians revolted against the ruling Shah who had allowed the “invasion” of foreign powers

Iran A Persian Army Officer – Reza Shah Pahlavi

overthrew the Shah in 1925 and established himself the ruler of Iran

Set up public schools, built roads, railroads, promoted industrial growth and extended women’s rights

Unlike his revolutionary counterpart in Turkey, Pahlavi gathered all power into his hands

Saudi Arabia Going in the opposite direction the Saud family led

by Abd al-Aziz Ibn Saud began a successful campaign to unify Arabia under strict Islamic law

In 1932 he established Saudi Arabia (named after his family)

Ibn Saud carried on many Arabic and Islamic traditions, alcoholic drinks were outlawed

Ibn Saud brought some modernization to his new country but not as much as Reza Shah and Kemal

OIL In the midst of nationalist awakenings in the

middle east a new economic advantage was being discovered

During the 1920’s and 1930’s western powers began oil explorations throughout the region and discovered huge reserves in Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

Foreign business invested Huge sums of money into the oil field

Eventually it would be realized that the Persian Gulf region held 2/3 of the world’s oil reserve

This new economic power of natural resource would shape the coming century Western powers would find the resource too

tempting to leave in native control without their influence in the politics and economics of the region