The History Book

298

AT THE STROKE OF

THE MIDNIGHT HOUR

WHEN THE WORLD

SLEEPS INDIA WILL

AWAKE TO LIFE

AND FREEDOM

INDIAN INDEPENDENCE AND PARTITION (1947)

F

or more than a century,

India had been the crown

jewel of the British Empire,

but on the last stroke of midnight

on August 14, 1947, it became an

independent nation. In India’s

Constituent Assembly, Delhi,

a special midnight gathering

of parliament was convened.

Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime

minister of India, rose to his

feet to declare India’s freedom.

However, this independence also

opened a social and geographic

wound that has yet to heal.

The new Indian state was split

into two independent nation states:

Muslim-majority Pakistan and

Hindu-majority India. Pakistan

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

End of empires

BEFORE

1885 The Indian National

Congress (INC) is founded and

campaigns for Indian rights.

1901 Australian colonies

are united to form the

Commonwealth of Australia.

1921 The Irish Free State

(four-fifths of Ireland) gains

independence from Britain.

1922 Egypt is given limited

independence by Britain,

but British troops remain to

protect imperial interests.

AFTER

1947 The Commonwealth of

Nations is formed—all former

British colonies can take part.

1960 The Declaration of

Decolonization asserts

the rights of all peoples

to self-determination.

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299

See also: The formation of the Royal African Company 176–79 ■ The Siege

of Lucknow 242 ■ Nkrumah wins Ghanaian independence 306–07

Mohandas Gandhi

The Indian national leader

known as Mahatma, meaning

“great soul,” Mohandas

Gandhi (1869–1948) led his

country to independence

from Great Britain. He came

from a Hindu family and

studied law in England before

spending 20 years in South

Africa trying to secure rights

for the Indians living there.

Gandhi’s involvement

in Indian politics began in

1919, and he soon became the

unquestioned leader of the

independence movement.

He preached the doctrine

of Satyagraha (soul force,

or passive resistance) which

he applied against the British

with great effect. He adopted

a simple life believing in the

virtue of small communities

and campaigned against

Indian industrialization.

Gandhi’s life work was

crowned in 1947, when India

finally won independence,

but the concessions he had

made to the Muslims led

to his assassination the

following year by a Hindu

fanatic, who blamed him for

the partition of India, although

Gandhi himself bitterly

opposed the dismemberment

of the subcontinent.

itself was split between northwest

and northeast, because both wings

had a Muslim majority. Immediately,

millions of Muslims trekked to West

and East Pakistan (the latter now

known as Bangladesh), while

millions of Hindus and Sikhs headed

towards the newly independent

India. Thousands never reached it,

and many died from malnutrition

and disease. Across India there

were outbreaks of sectarian

violence, with Hindus and Sikhs on

one side and Muslims on the other.

By 1948, as the great migration

drew to a close, more than 15

million people had been uprooted,

and between 1 million and 2 million

were dead. India was independent

and India’s Muslims had their

own independent state, but

freedom came at a great cost.

The road to independence

The spirit of nationalism in India

gained ground in the mid-19th

century and was strengthened in

1885 by the formation of the Indian

National Congress (INC). During

World War I, expectations for greater

self-governance were raised when

Britain promised to deliver self-rule

in return for India’s contribution

to the war effort. But Britain

envisaged a gradual progress

toward self-government, beginning

with the Government of India Act

(1919), which created an Indian ❯❯

THE MODERN WORLD

Indian independence is achieved,

and the country is split in two.

Gandhi

attracts

millions with

his call for

non-violent

disobedience.

The Muslim

population

clamors for an

independent

state of their

own.

Economically

weakened by

World War II,

Britain is unable

to defend

its empire.

Indian nationalists demand independence from Britain.

Britain makes some concessions,

but they don’t go far enough.

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