Gandhi and the independence of India

When we read or talk about the independence of India, one of the images that comes to mind is that of Gandhi. Mohandas Karamchad Gandhi (1869-1948), better known as Mahatma Gandhi (big soul), is one of the great personalities of the 20th century and contemporary history, leading the way towards the independence of India.

In this lesson from a PROFESSOR we will talk to you about Gandhi and the independence of India, therefore, we will tell you how Gandhi became a political and spiritual leader that he managed to awaken in the masses a feeling of independence and at the same time peaceful to the point of being considered a prophet. As we shall see, this could not have happened without the national liberation movements of the colonized people that emerged from the First World War (1914-1918).

Index

1. Short biography of Mohandas Karamchad Gandhi (1869 - 1948)
2. Background to the Independence of India
3. Summary on the independence of India
4. World War II and the independence of India

In this section we will make a brief biography of Gandhi where we will highlight the momentous events in the life of our protagonist classifying it in childhood, youth and his political struggle in South Africa and India and finally his death.

Gandhi's childhood and youth

Mohandas Karamachad Gandhi (1869 - 1948) He was born on October 2, 1869 in Porbandar, current state of Guajarta. He was born into an upper-class family. After primary education, a family arrangement required him to marry Kasturbai at the age of 14.

Like many young Hindus from wealthy families, Gandhi also decided to take his law studies at University College London, in London. This period would mean a before and after in the life of our protagonist, since the humiliating treatment that many received immigrant students in the English capital, aroused a separatist sentiment that would set in motion once he returned to India.

Gandhi as a political activist

In 1891, once in Bombay, he attempted to practice law in the Supreme Court of Bombay, But the heavy bureaucracy of that time together with the ideals of Gandhi made him abandon this task in order to work in South Africa (1893). This new job opportunity also set a precedent in Gandhi's life as he was able to experience the rejection and oppression of the Hindu population in the first person.

This situation motivated Gandhi to creation of a political party to defend the rights of Hindus with whom, after 22 years of struggle and non-violent protests, he earned a respect to be able to negotiate with the South African general Jan Christian Smuts a solution to the conflict.

Finally, in 1915 Gandhi returned to India to continue the philosophical, political and religious struggle that he had followed in South Africa. In his fight for the independence of India, we can highlight two major social protests (in the following sections we will develop this theme): the salt march (1930) and the total demand for the independence of India during the Second World War (1939 - 1945).

Gandhi's death

After achieving the desired independence of India, Gandhi was assassinated in 1948 by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu far-right fanatic who did not share the same religious ideals as Gandhi within an independent and egalitarian India. Mohandas Karamachad Gandhi was assassinated at the age of 78.

Image: Slideshare

Many years before the British colonization of India, it was a successively conquered territory followed by emerging empires such as the Persians, the Greeks, the Scythians, the Arabs, the Afghans, the Mongols, the Portuguese, the Dutch and the French. Therefore, their civilization, one of the oldest in the world, assimilated the culture of their invaders.

It was in the XVII century when the colonization of India by the British, being consolidated in 1757 with the expulsion of the French. This British occupation would last until 1947 after a few convulsive years of revolutions and the influence of the Gandhi leadership.

During the First World War, Indian troops participated in the victorious side of England, a fact that would directly influence the process of independence of India. After the war, the Hindus claimed the long-promised freedom from England. In return, the metropolis decided to respond with brutal repression. Faced with such a situation, during the period of 1920 - 1922 leader Mahatma Gandhi created a resolution deciding the non-cooperation of the people with the colonial government.

As we have said in the introduction, we will start from the resentment created in the participating Hindu troops during the First World War on the side of England. Placing ourselves in the international context, one of the characteristics of the end of the First World War was the elaboration in 1918 of the Wilson's fourteen points (President of the United States) and the self-determination principle from the peoples themselves which undoubtedly gave the Hindus ideological strength to carry out their demands.

It was in the interwar period (known in historiography as the period from the end of the First World War to the the beginning of World War II) when nationalist movements appeared mainly directed for him Congress Party, led by Mahatma Gandhi.

The beginning of these proposals was the mobilization of a civil disobedience campaign consisting of non-collaboration with the British government through non-payment of different taxes; to the boycott of English products; renounces all British titles; non-participation in elections and refusal to attend government schools.

One of the best known measures Gandhi imposed was the abstention from the payment of salt taxes, making a walk with his followers that took them to the sea of ​​Oman, where salt was manufactured. This led to the loss of his freedom because he entered print between 1930 and 1931.

This was an attempt to take independence on the path of non-violence that will be hampered at times by the birth of a muslim nationalism from the creation of the Muslim League led by Ali Jinnah. Consequently, this fact caused that the movement for the independence of India was divided in two religious camps and, therefore, in two different ways of action.

Despite this division, the passive resistance and call for non-violent action led by Gandhi were methods effective, creating a new avenue of innovative and modern political protest that brought together thousands of people between 1930 and 1934.

Image: Slideplayer

With the outbreak of the Second World War, the Hindu leaders refused their collaboration because of the refusal of the government of England to offer them more autonomy. For this reason, around 1942 Gandhi announced a new day of civil disobedience with which the English colonial government responded with the repression and privatization of the freedom of many participants until the end of the war (1945).

With the Labor triumph the situation changed and in 1947 agreed to withdraw the English from the territory of India at a meeting between the Viceroy of the Indialord Mountbatten, Ali Jinah (representative of the Muslim League) and the Congress Party (represented by Gandhi).

Finally, it will be in 1947 when the English colonial government decided to divide India into two dominions: India, in the Hindustan Peninsula, in the Penjab and in Bengal. This division created a series of malaises between the Muslim and Hindu populations. The new constitution was drawn up between 1948 and 1949. After Gandhi's assassination, Pandit Nerú would become his disciple.

In 1949, by a new constitution, India became a Federal Republic of the Commonwealth.

If you want to read more articles similar to Gandhi and the independence of India, we recommend that you enter our category of Story.