India Post-1945

Essential Questions

• Who was a leader of the Indian independence movement, and what tactics did he use?
• What were the outcomes of the Indian independence movement?

The Regional Setting

• The Indian Sub-continent includes the countries of:
• India
• Pakistan
• Bangladesh
• Sri Lanka
• Prior to 1947, this region was called British India

Regional setting for Indian Independence

• Indian Sub-continent
• India (Majority Hindu)
• Pakistan (Majority Muslim-Formerly West Pakistan)
• Bangladesh (Formerly East Pakistan)
• Sri Lanka (Formerly Ceylon, until independence from Britain in 1947)

For over two hundred years, India had been controlled by the British East India Company and become the "Jewel of the British Empire"

The Indian National Congress

Mohandas Gandhi

Gandhi's methods

• PASSIVE RESISTANCE: achieve one's goals by symbolic acts of protest
• CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE: refusal to follow British law without the use of force or violence
• SELF-RELIANCE: Gandhi and others promoted Indian made goods, foods, textiles-done by their own hands-increasing NATIONALISM
• BOYCOTT: Asked Indians to refuse to buy British goods, stop paying British taxes, voting, etc.

Famous Quotes from Gandhi

• "Be the change that you want to see in the world."
• "An eye for an eye will make the whole world go blind."
• "The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others."
• "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, -then you win."

Results: British lost all credibility and were seen as tyrants. World opinion turned against them. Gandhi maintained economic, political, and social pressure.

The SaLT MArch

These same methods will later be used by Dr. Martin Luther King in during the Civil Rights Movement in America

INDEPENDENCE AND RELIGIOUS CONFLICT

• When Great Britain finally agreed to Indian independence in 1946, Muslims and Hindus began to turn against one another
• Sadly, rising religious conflict overshadowed the independence movement
• By 1947, British rule ends and two countries are created INDIA(Hindu) and PAKISTAN(Muslim)
• Gandhi is heartbroken over the partition of India and the bloodshed that followed

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Gandhi is Assassinated!

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Jawaharlal Nehru

India Today

• Nehru supported western-style industrialization of India
• Republic of India became world's largest democratic nation
• Adopted a Federal system-giving many powers to the states
• Political tensions with Pakistan, both are NUCLEAR armed, and Kashmir dispute

Indian Democracy today

• Gandhi tried to end discrimination of the "untouchables" and the caste system in India
• 1950 Constitution tried to prohibit caste discrimination and help women gain rights
• Ethnic, religious tensions have caused problems for democracy in India
• Huge gap between rich and poor

British policies and India’s demand
for self-rule led to the rise of the
Indian independence movement,
resulting in the creation of new
states in the Indian sub-continent.


The Republic of India, a democratic
nation, developed after the country
gained independence.