India
by: Julia Stephenson
Indian Nationalism was threatening the British Empire's hold on India
- construction of railways were aiding in the sense of nationalism and unity
- because it was hard to control a whole country from far away, the British foreigners hired an elite group of educated Indian administers to help in this task
- greatest and most influential struggle: Indian National Congress (1885)
- enlisted support of many Hindus and Muslims
- wanted to bring self-rule to India
- encouragement of the Bristish government
- movement for national liberation
- During the Great War, large numbers of Indians (both Hindu and Muslim) rallied to British cause
- nationalist movements reamined inactive
- when the war started leading to sacrifices of goods and food, social discontent focused on the British colonizer
- Indian nationalists drew encouragement from Washington D.C. and St. Petersburg
- read Woodrow Wilson's fourteen points calling for self-determination
- V.I Lenin appeal for a united struggle by proletarians and colonized people
- British government responded to the rising of natioinalism behavior and activity with a series of violent measures that caused disorder throughout India
- one of the most remarkable leaders of the twentieth century
- grew up in a Hindu household
- married at 13
- worked in an Indian community against a system of racial segregation which made Indians second-class citizens
- embraced a moral philosophy of tolerance and non-violence (ahimsa)
- developed a technique of passive resistance (satyagraha meaning "truth and firmness")
- beliefs of simple living led him to rid himself of possessions, dress in a simple garb and become a vegetarian
- spent an hour each morning studying the Bhagavad Gita ("The Lord's Song")
- became active in politics
- transformed the Indian National Congress from an elitist body of gentlement into a mass organization that became to be an effective part of Indian nationalism
- spoke in a language that the people could understand
- mixture of spiritual intensity and political activism won him a broad section of the Indian population
- people saw him as their "mahatma" or "great soul"
- while he was a member of the merchant caste, he sought to eliminate the caste system
- fought to improve conditions of the lowest caste
- the Non-Cooperation Movement (1920-1922)
- the Civil Disobedience Movement (1930)
- Called the Indian people to boycott British goods and return to wearing rough homespun cotton clothing
- believed economic self-sufficiency was a prerequisite for self-government
- disagreed with those who wanted India to industrialize
- advocated for manual labor and revival of rural cottage industries
- Despite Gandhi's acts against force or violence, British forces responded with arrests
- after years of hesitation and deliberation, the British parliament enacted the Government India Act
- gave India the institutions of a self-governing state
- allowed for the establishment of autonomous legislative bodies in the provinces of British India
- creation of a bicameral (two chamber) national legislature
- formation of an executive arm under the control of British rule
- India Act proved unworkable because sovereign princes refused to cooperate
- Muslims feared that Hindus would dominate legislature
- society was splut by hostility between Hindus and Muslims making national unification a pointless and unattainable goal