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India - 1900 to 1947

In 1900, India was part of the British Empire; but by the end of 1947, India had
achieved independence.
For most of the Nineteenth Century, India was ruled by the British. India was
considered the jewel in the crown of the British Empire. Queen Victoria had been
made Empress of India and the British had a major military presence in India.
Indian nationals had no say in central government and even at a local level, their
influence on policy and decision making was minimal.
In 1885, educated middle class nationals had founded the Indian National
Conference (INC). Their aim was to get a much greater say in the way India was
governed.
In response to this development, the Morley-Minto reforms were introduced in
1909. Morley was the Secretary of State for India and Lord Morley was Viceroy of
India. Their reforms lead to each province in India having its own governor and
Indian nationals were allowed to sit on the councils which advised these
governors.
After 1918, nationalism within India intensified. This was probably due to 2
reasons:
1. Many educated nationals in India were far from satisfied with the Morley-Minto
reforms. White Englishmen still dominated India and there had been no real
decrease in their power or increase in national power. The INC (Indian National
Council) wanted a lot more.
2. Woodrow Wilson had stimulated the minds of many people with his belief in
national self-determination i.e. that people from a country had a right to govern
themselves. The whole concept of national self-determination undermined the
basic idea of the British Empire that the British governed this empire (or people
appointed by the British to do the same). For national self-determination to fully
work, India would have to be governed by the Indians living there.
As early as 1917, Britain had toyed with the idea of giving India a measure of
self-government: the gradual development of self-governing institutions with a
view to the progressive realisation of responsible government in India as an
integral part of the British Empire.
In 1919, the Government of India Act was introduced.
This introduced a national parliament with two houses for India.
About 5 million of the wealthiest Indians were given the right to vote (a very
small percentage of the total population)
Within the provincial governments, ministers of education, health and public
works could now be Indian nationals
A commission would be held in 1929, to see if India was ready for more
concessions/reforms.

However, the British controlled all central government and within the provincial
governments, the British kept control of the key posts of tax and law and order.
Many Tory MPs in Britain were against the whole idea of giving anything
whatsoever to India in terms of self-government. They had two complaints about
the whole idea:
1. If you gave India some form of self-rule, where would it end?
2. Would it start the process that would lead to the break-up of the British
Empire?
The reforms were introduced very slowly and their spread throughout such a
large country was equally as slow. This angered many as there was a general
belief that the British were deliberately stalling on introducing these reforms to
ensure their continued supremacy in India.
Riots did break out and the most infamous was at Amritsar in the Punjab where
379 unarmed protesters were shot dead by British soldiers based there. 1200
were injured. This incident shocked many in India but what caused equal outrage
was the British reaction to Amritsar the officer commanding British troops at
Amritsar, General Dyer, was simply allowed to resign his commission after an
inquiry criticised his leadership during the riot. Many national Indians felt that he,
and others in the army, had got away very lightly. The more radical Indians felt
that the British government had all but sanctioned murder.
As a result of Amritsar, many Indians rushed to join the INC and it very quickly
became the party of the masses.
After Amritsar, no matter what compromises and concessions the British
might suggest, British rule would ultimately be swept away.

The most vocal opponent of the idea of some form of self-rule for India was Lord
Birkenhead whole was Secretary of State for India from 1924 to 1928. With such
an opponent, any move to self-rule was very difficult at best, and probably
impossible in reality.
In India, the 1920s saw the emergence of three men who were to have a huge
impact on the future of India:
Jawaharlal Nehru
Mahatma Gandhi
Muhammed Jinnah
Gandhi persuaded many of his followers to use non-violent protests. They had
sit-down strikes, they refused to work, they refused to pay their taxes etc. If the
British reacted in a heavy-handed manner, it only made the British look worse;

essentially, the British would come across as bullies enforcing their rule on the
bullied. However, there were those in India who wanted to use more extreme
measures.
Part of the 1919 Government of India Act stated that a commission would be
established after 10 years to assess whether India could/should have more selfrule. This first met in 1928 the Simon Commission.
This commission reported in 1930. There were no Indians on the commission. It
proposed self-government for the provinces but nothing else. This was
unacceptable for the INC, which wanted dominion status, granted immediately.
During the time the Simon Commission reported, Gandhi started his second civil
disobedience campaign. This included Gandhi deliberately breaking the law. The
law in India stated that only the government could manufacture salt. After a 250mile march to the sea, Gandhi started to produce his own salt. This produced a
violent clash with the British authorities and Gandhi was arrested.
At this time, a sympathetic Viceroy to India had been appointed Lord Irwin. He
believed that India should have dominion status and he publicly expressed this
idea. Irwin pushed for the issue to be discussed. He organised two Round Table
conferences in 1930 and 1931. They were both held in London.
The first conference failed as no INC members were present. Most were in Indian
prisons. Irwin pushed for their release and he persuaded Gandhi to travel to
Britain to take part in the second conference. Despite this development, the
conference achieved little as it broke down over an issue that was to haunt India
in future years religion. Those present at the second conference, argued and
failed to agree over what the representation of Muslims would be in an
independent Indian parliament.
In 1935, the Government of India Act was introduced. Britain, at this time, had
a National Government and progress was made over India purely because
Stanley Baldwin, the Tory leader, and Ramsey-MacDonald, the Labour leader,
agreed on a joint course of action. Winston Churchill was bitterly opposed to it.
The Act introduced:
(i)

An elected Indian assembly to have a say in everything in India except


defence and foreign affairs.

(ii)

The eleven provincial assemblies were to have effective full control


over local affairs.

The nationalists in India were not satisfied with this as the act did not introduce
dominion status and white dominions were allowed to control their own defence
and foreign policies. Also the princes who still ruled areas of India still refused to
co-operate with the provincial assemblies so the second strand of the Act would
have been meaningless.

The acts major failing was that it ignored the religious rivalry between the
Muslims and Hindus. Nearly two-thirds of Indias population were Hindus and the
Muslims feared that in an independent and democratic India they would be
treated unfairly. In the 1937 provincial elections, the Hindus, who dominated the
Congress Party under Nehru, won eight out of the eleven provinces. The Muslim
League, under Jinnah, demanded a separate state of their own, to be called
Pakistan. Both Gandhi and the Congress Party were determined to preserve
Indian unity. Such a rivalry between the Hindus and Muslims could only bode ill
for the future of India.
World War Two shelved the Indian issue albeit temporarily. The Indians provided
valuable military help in the fight against Japan especially in the campaign in
Burma. The British promised dominion status for India once the war had ended.
In 1945, the newly elected Labour government headed by Clement Attlee wanted
to push ahead with solving what was seen as the Indian Problem. However, the
religious rivalry in India was coming to a head and made any potential solution
very complex. Attempts to draw up a compromise constitution that was
acceptable to both Muslims and Hindus failed. The British plan was to allow the
provincial governments extensive powers whilst central government would only
have limited powers. The Labour government put its faith in the hope that most
Muslims lived in one or two provinces and that the governments in these
provinces would reflect this in their decision making. If this plan worked, the
need for a separate Muslim state would not be needed. The plan was accepted in
principle but the details for it were not.
The Governor-General of India, Lord Wavell, invited Nehru to form an interim
government in August 1946. Wavell hoped that the details of such a government
could be sorted out later but he hoped that the creation of an actual
government headed by Indian nationals would be supported by all. The Hindu
Nehru included two Muslims in his cabinet but this did not succeed in stopping
violence. Jinnah became convinced that Nehru could not be trusted and he called
on Muslims to take direct action to get an independent Muslim state. Violence
spread and over 5000 people were killed in Calcutta. India descended into civil
war.
Early in 1947, Atlee announced that Britain would leave India no later than June
1948. A new Viceroy was appointed Lord Mountbatten and he concluded that
peace could only be achieved if partition was introduced. The Hindu Congress
agreed with him. Mountbatten became convinced that any delay would increase
violence and he pushed forward the date for Britain leaving India to August 1947.
In August 1947, the Indian Independence Act was signed. This separated the
Muslim majority areas (in the north-west and north-east regions of India) from
India to create the independent state of Pakistan. This new state was split in two,
the two parts being 1000 miles apart. The act was not easy to put into action.
Some people found themselves on the wrong side of frontiers especially in the
mixed provinces of the Punjab and Bengal. Millions moved to the new frontiers

Hindus in what was to be the new Pakistan moved to India while Muslims in India
moved to Pakistan. Where the two moving groups met, violence occurred
especially in the volatile Punjab province where it is thought 250,000 people
were murdered in religious clashes. By the end of 1947, it seemed as if the
violence was on the wane but in January 1948, a Hindu assassinated Gandhi. In a
gesture that summed up the whole problem of India, the Hindu detested
Gandhis tolerance towards Muslims. However, the murder of Gandhi shocked so
many people, that ironically it ushered in a period of stability.

Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru, along with Ghandi and Jinnah, was to play a very important
part in Indias history in the Twentieth Century. Nehru was born in 1889 and died
in 1964.

Nehru was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge. When he returned
to India in 1912, he practised as a barrister. This was hardly an unexpected move
as his father was the famous journalist and lawyer Motilal Nehru.
Nehru became involved in Congress after the massacre at Amritsar in 1919. In
1921, Nehru was arrested and put in prison for activities associated Congress.
Between 1921 and 1946, he spent 9 years in prison. When he was out of prison,
he had his freedom of movement heavily restricted by the British authorities.
In 1929, partly as a result of his ability and fame and also because of Gandhis
support, Nehru became president of Congress. As a result, he became a lynchpin
in the negotiations that were to take place between the British and Congress
over independence. He tainted his reputation by failing to give the British full
support for their campaign against the Japanese in the Far East during World War
Two. However, when India was given independence in 1947, Nehru was the
obvious choice for Prime Minister and Foreign Minister.
As Indias leader, he kept the nation non-aligned. He kept this independent
stance to acquire money from whatever source as he realised that India needed
outside funding if she was to modernise. Nehru attempted to mediate in the
Korean War and during the 1950s crisis in Vietnam. He was idolised by the
Indian population and his death in May 1964, robbed the Third World of its
natural leader. He was succeeded as prime Minister by Lal Shastri, who in turn
was succeeded by Nehrus daughter, Mrs. Indira Gandhi in 1966.

Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi became one of the pivotal figures, if not the main figure,
in Indias history in the Twentieth Century. Along with Jinnah and Nehru, Gandhi
shaped Indias history up to its independence in 1947.
Mahatma Gandhi was born on the 2nd of October 1869 and he died on the 30th
of January 1948.
Gandhi was born in Porbander in western India. In 1888, he went to London to
study law. He returned to Bombay to work as a barrister but went to South Africa
to work in 1907. In South Africa, he took part in passive protests against the
Transvaal governments treatment of Indian settlers who were in the minority in
the region. In 1915, he returned to India and, after joining the Congress
movement, he emerged as one of the partys leaders.
Gandhi encouraged Indians to boycott British goods and buy Indian goods
instead. This helped to revitalise local economies in India and it also hit home at
the British by undermining their economy in the country. Gandhi preached
passive resistance, believing that acts of violence against the British only
provoked a negative reaction, whereas passive resistance provoked the British
into doing something which invariably pushed more people into supporting the
Indian National Congress movement.
Gandhi was imprisoned in 1922, 1930, 1933 and in 1942. While in prison, he
went on hunger strike. His fame was such that his death in prison would make
international headlines and greatly embarrass the British at a time when Britain
was condemning dictators in Europe.
In 1931, Gandhi came to Britain for the Round Table conferences. Nothing was
achieved except for the publicity that Gandhi received for dressing in the clothes
of an Indian villager; Gandhi saw this type of dress as perfectly normal for a man
who represented the Indian people. The British representatives at the conference
were more soberly dressed in formal morning dress.
When in India, Gandhi took on the British where possible. He famous walk to the
sea to produce salt was typical of his actions. Britain had a monopoly on salt

production in India and Gandhi saw this as wrong. Hence, his decision to produce
salt by the sea.
He realised that the religious issues of India were too deep for any remedy to
work. Hence he collaborated with Mountbatten and Wavell in the build up to
independence in 1947. This association with the break-up of India was to cost
him his life. There had been one assassination attempt on Gandhi on January
20th 1948 it had failed. Just ten days later on the 30th January, he was
assassinated by a Hindu fanatic who could not forgive Gandhi for his belief that
Muslims had equal value to Hindus and no-one was better than anybody else.

Muhammed Jinnah
Jinnah, along with Ghandi and Nehru, played a fundamental role in Indias history
in the Twentieth Century. Jinnah was born in 1876 and died in 1948.

Jinnah is considered to be the founding father of Pakistan. His followers called


him Quaid-e-Azam which translates as Great Leader.
Jinnah joined the Indian National Congress but resented the fact that it was
dominated by Hindus. He also failed to support Gandhis belief in the use of civil
disobedience. In 1934, he left the INC and organised a rival to it the Muslim
League. The Muslim League had been founded in 1906 and it had originally been
a cultural and religious organisation. Jinnah turned it into a more dynamic
political organisation and, in 1935, those Muslims who had remained in the INC
joined Jinnahs Muslim League.
!937 witnessed provincial elections in India. The split between the Muslim League
and Congress became apparent when Congress refused to join coalition
administrations with the Muslim League in areas with mixed religion. The political
scene was set that was to lead to post-1945 violence in India.
In 1940 at Lahore, Jinnah called for the creation of an independent state to be
called Pakistan in which Muslim could live away from Hindus. This, he argued,
would bring stability to the nation and end any potential for religious violence.
Jinnah supported the British in World War Two whereas Congress failed to form
any form of collaboration.
The end of the war witnessed elections in India. The Muslim League won nearly
all the seats in Muslim areas while Congress did the same in predominantly
Hindu areas. Polarisation was now obvious. Jinnah demanded a six-province
Pakistan essentially those provinces that had supported the Muslim League.
Congress rejected the break-up of India and Jinnah called on Muslims to engage
in direct action the opposite of Gandhis passive resistance. In riots between
Muslims and Hindus in Calcutta, nearly 4000 people were killed. Between 1945
and he end of 1947, many millions of Indians were killed in the violence that

occurred as Muslims moved to the new Pakistan, with Hindus moving away from
what was the designated land for Pakistan to Hindu dominated India.
Jinnahs dream of a Muslim state became a reality in August 1947 when Pakistan
was created. Jinnah became its first Governor-General. However, he was in poor
health and he died of tuberculosis in 1948.

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