Independence for India: Cutting The British Empire Down To Size

“Englishmen.. have given the people of India the greatest human blessing - peace.” (Dutt). Merely coming to India in the 1600s to trade, the British East India Company established trading outposts. After ridding of French influence in India during the Seven Years’ War and having Indians mutiny against British rule, Britain gained full control of India. India has been under the imperialist control of the British until their independence in 1947. British imperialism caused some negative effects on India through poverty and persecution, but retained more of a positive impact due to its massive improvements in the modernization of India and the overall improvement of Indian civilization.

It became evident that the British could maintain the empire only at enormous cost. At the end of the Second World War, they saw the writing on the wall, and initiated a number of constitutional moves to effect the transfer of power to the sovereign State of India. For the first and perhaps the only time in history, the power of a mighty global empire 'on which the sun never set', had been challenged and overcome by the moral might of a people armed only with ideals and courage.

In 1757, Great Britain extended its empire into India. This occupation would not fully end until 1947. In the time between, there were many movements by the Indian people to gain independence from the British. The movement that finally succeeded in winning India’s independence was led by one of the most influential figures of the 20th century, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Gandhi’s methods for fighting against the occupation of the British were very different from those of any of the freedom movements before. And that was why it worked. Gandhi did not agree with the general reasoning of the time: that conflicts could be solved through negotiation and forceful resistance.1 Rather, his faith led him to go

The Indian resistance against the British empire is one example of opposition against imperialism. Until 1858, India was controlled by the British East India Company. Thereafter, the crown rule replaced the company rule until 1947. “The slow expansion of the Indian role in public affairs would not have occurred without mounting political pressure from Indian society” (Findley 188). The people of India had tried to cause a reform through a political channel, evident through the slow yet steady participation in political affairs from 1858-1947. In this resistance,

British imperialized India, by indirectly controlling India until the British thought the indians were of use for the British. When the British learned India could help them politically, economically, and socially . The British realized they couldn’t let the Indians overthrow their role so when riots started breaking out in India, Europe took harsher direct rule over India. India did not benefit from British imperialism either politically, economically, or socially.

(Document 5) This shows that even though Britain gave education to Indians they only gave it to who could afford it and hardly anyone could. Lalvani claims that over the 200 year span of British imperialism, India’s religions felt safer and less discriminated against. ( According to Dr.Lalvani) Although the British thought this was true it actually was not. Christians were mocking and discriminating against Muslims and Hindus. (Gandhi) Similarly Hinduism believes in nonviolence so when the protest at Amritsar took place the Indians were brutally slaughtered while being unarmed. (Gandhi) Because of their non-violence beliefs the Hindus had no defense and were killed by what they thought was their

He outed the moral and political philosophy of satyagraha, or nonviolent resistance, which he had developed while in South Africa. His message to Indians was simple: develop your own resources and control the instincts and activities that encourage membership in colonial economy and government, and you shall achieve swaraj or self-rule. Faced with Indian self-reliance and self-control pursued nonviolently, Gandhi claimed, the British eventually would have to leave. When the Depression struck India in 1930, Gandhi asked for his people not to use salt showing his new way of civil disobedience. Salt symbolized tasked the Indians' defeat to an alien government. To break the colonial government's control, Gandhi began a 240-mile march from western India to the coast to gather sea salt for free. With him were seventy-one followers representing different regions of India. Thousands of people met around and encouraging them to hold independence from British rule. (Pollard, Rosenberg, Tignor 2015 Pages

Imperialism is the domination of one country of the political, economic, or cultural life of another country. Imperialism is more often than not fueled by two major schools of thought known as nationalism and Social Darwinism. Nationalism is a feeling of pride and devotion to one’s country. This can drive a person to think that their country is the most powerful, and in essence drives that person mad with power and a hunger to conquer, which not ironically is exactly what many countries did. Social Darwinism is the very idea that a more powerful country conquer the smaller countries. “Survival of the fittest,” as the well renowned Charles Darwin used to say. Imperialism is also sometimes sparked by military motives, such as when USA set up

Britain had a desire to have a more economic, political, and social influence over India. Even though the British never preserved a notable military existence in India, they were able to maintain political control. Many changes were made, which benefitted India, but there were also some changes, which contributed to its deterioration. Despite the negative impacts Britain left on India, imperialism is best understood as a strong country extending its authority, in order to increase its wealth, by bringing more of the world under its control, because Britain helped in the development of India from a nation-state, to a unified country, which is modernly the world’s largest democracy.

Gandhi is considered by many around the world as the father of the Indian independence movement. Gandhi spent over 20 years in South Africa working to fight discrimination. It was in South Africa that he developed his concept of Satyagraha, a non-violent way of protesting against discrimination. The first time Gandhi used Satyagraha was in South Africa beginning in 1907 when he organized opposition to the Black Act. In 1907, the Black Act was passed, requiring all Indians to keep registration documents on them at all times.

During World War I, Gandhi had an active part in recruiting campaigns by launching his new movement of non-violent resistance to Great Britain (Byers 202). When Parliament passed the Rowlatt Acts in 1919, Satyagraha, which means insistence on truth, spread throughout India, recruiting millions of followers. British soldiers massacred Indians at Amritsar as a demonstration against the Rowlatt Acts. In 1920 the British government failed to make peace, which resulted in Gandhi organizing a campaign of non-cooperation (Andrews 103). There was chaos in India as the public

This essay will focus on the decolonisation of India by the British Empire and the problems they encountered. It will also aim to bring recognition to the struggle decolonisation brought upon the world after World War II. Pierce states that “after the War concluded, a worldwide process of decolonisation commenced in which Britain granted independence to all of its major colonies, beginning notably in India” (Pierce, 2009). India had struggled with uprisings and conflicts for the many years of British occupation but when Gandhi began sharing his social efforts; the perceptions of colonialism began to change leading to the collapse of the British colonial Empire. Gandhi began changing the lives of regular Indian’s with his popular visions, he also advocated for the people of India in a non-violent

The Indians were easily manipulated by the thought of partial autonomy with the British Empire rather than fighting for a self-governing rule from the beginning (A&E Television Networks, LLCA&E Television Networks, LLC, 2016). This goal of partially governing themselves is what drove the martial forces of India to assist the British and subsequently opened fire on their own people during the massacre. These Indians also believed that they were looking at the bigger picture, that if they remained loyal, they would be rewarded. Luckily, non-violence leader Mahatma Ghandi, realised that this was not right, not right for the people of India. (A&E Television Networks, LLCA&E Television Networks, LLC, 2016) (Beazley & Almond, 2002, p. 151) That India was entitled to their own government and to be able to put themselves first rather than

The stagecoach drivers asked him why he was sitting in first class, and that no man or woman of color should be sitting in a seat where the whites sit. Gandhi refused to give up his seat, which led to the stagecoach drivers beating him and thrown off of the train. This was just one example of what was happening all across the world to people of different color. Gandhi realized that something had to be done in order for Indian people to be treated as equally as the white people. He created a passive resistance called satyagraha, which would begin a movement that would spread across India. The satyagraha under Gandhi started with only a small minority of Indians, however with the help of Nehru and Jinnah, Gandhi was able to speak upon other Indians to join and help end the rule of Great Britain over India. In the 1982 movie, Gandhi, Director Richard Attenborough depicted a scene where Gandhi gave a speech to the Indian people that this movement would only work when the entire population works as one, without creating violence against the British. This speech was cut short soon after the British soldiers intruded and threatened the people in the village that any one else who burns their identification cards shall be put in prison. Gandhi’s fearless act of never giving up showed the Indians that you shall remain strong and allow punishment, because the authority will soon realize that what they are doing is wrong. Gandhi suggesting a protest without

In my search for a research topic, all I knew was that I wanted to learn more about a country that I knew almost nothing about. I’ve always been intrigued by India with its beautiful land and culture, but in my years of school I have never learned too much about it and had always wondered why there was such a heavy British influence there. Little did I know, this English influence began long before I imagined and will mostly likely continue to exist for quite some time. Furthermore, I have chosen to research and write about India’s break from the British Raj (rule) of almost 100 years of imperialism. The leader I chose in this movement that proved to be extremely significant for its success is Mahatma Gandhi. Through my research I wanted to focus on how India, aided by Gandhi, fought the increased interconnectedness forced upon them by the British to show how this resistance movement was successful and brought about change. A significant question that I want to answer in this paper is, what does India’s example of resistance show us about both imperialism and globalization? To effectively analyze their resistance movement, we must consider the many causes for the tension and need for separation, the nature of the resistance movement, and most importantly, whether or not it was effective. From my research, I learned that there were countless causes for resistance towards Great Britain due to the fact that so many issues had been building up between the two countries overtime,