Page 62 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - India

60  INTRODUCING INDIA

work at the grassroot level in villages
Working alongside Gandhi were several
outstanding Indians, including Pandit
Jawaharlal Nehru.
At first, the movement for freedom
was ruthlessly suppressed, but after World
War II, Britain no longer had the strength
or the will to enforce its rule. Meanwhile,
from 1940 onwards, the Muslim League,
led by Mohammad Ali Jinnah, had been
Crowds of supporters around Mahatma Gandhi demanding an independent state
of Pakistan for Muslims.
The National Movement Finally, at midnight on 14/15 August,
After 1857, nationalist aspirations began 1947, the era of British rule ended, and
to grow, and the founding of the Indian the new nations of India and Pakistan
National Congress in 1885 gave Indians were born. Casting a dark shadow over
a platform from which to demand self- the celebrations was the partition of the
government. A turning point came in 1919, Indian subcontinent into two countries,
when General Reginald Dyer’s troops accompanied by mass migrations of
fired on an unarmed crowd protesting millions of Hindus and Muslims across
against the suppression of civil liberties in the borders, and communal riots in
Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar. More than 300 which thousands were killed.
people died, and Indians of every caste,
class and religion united in their outrage at Independent India
British brutality. By 1920, the leadership of After Independence, the new government
the National Movement was taken over by integrated more than 550 princely states,
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, a which had been semi-
Gujarati lawyer who had recently independent under British
returned from South Africa. rule, into the Indian Union.
Popularly known as Mahatma or In late 1947, a war between
“great soul”, Gandhi’s charismatic India and Pakistan took
appeal and identification with place over the accession to
the poor of India converted the India of the princely state of
freedom struggle into a mass Kashmir, and this continues
movement. His strategy was to to be a major point of
launch a moral crusade of non- dispute between the two
violent resistance (satyagraha) countries. In 1948, Mahatma
to British laws and instit utions, A popular poster of political Gandhi was assassinated by
interspersed with construction heroes, past and present a Hindu fanatic who felt he

1911 Transfer of 1920 Non- 1942 Quit India Movement
capital to Delhi cooperation 1965
1885 Indian announced Movement 1940 Muslim 1948 Mahatma 1962 War
National Congress at the Delhi launched by League adopts the Gandhi India- with 1971 Birth of
founded Pakistan Resolution assassinated China War Pakistan Bangladesh
Durbar Gandhi
1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970
1905 1919 Jallianwala 1947 India attains 1952 First 1961 Goa
Partition Bagh massacre Independence, Partition General liberated
of Bengal 1913 Rabindranath Tagore 1930–32 Civil Election, with from
wins Nobel Prize Disobedience universal Portuguese 1971 Princes lose titles
Gandhi’s spinning wheel Movement The Indian flag suffrage rule and privy purses

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