India-+20th+century

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India’s notes:
 * India proved to be the largest of the European imperialist empires.
 * The importance of charismatic leaders in he spread of the anti- colonial struggle to the peasants and urban masses, and a reliance on nonviolent forms of protested and continually repeated in colonial settings.
 * The National Congress Party that received the approval of high-ranking British officials and was also made up of educated Indians led to the independence of India. It also governed India through most of the early decades after the war.
 * The first few decades after war, the Congress was able to serve the government fairly well, but soon issues such as petitions to the government were controlled by the elite-centric issues that involved the removal of barriers to the Indian employment in the colonial bureaucracy and increased Indian representation in all- Indian and local legislative bodies, little emphasis was places on the poverty that was taking place in India, and the people believed that relief was bound to come once the issues were addressed by he British rulers.
 * The Indians soon discovered that there existed racism and that it didn’t matter where they came from, they all had poor salaries and unlimited opportunities, and therefore their growing contacts through the Congress party gave rise o a sense of common Indian identity that had never before existed in a south Asian environment that was more diverse linguistically, religiously, and ethnically than the continent of Europe.
 * The Indians believed that the British were draining their sources by the favoritism they showed the British merchants and thought that the British rebuttal that a price had to be paid for the peace and good government that had come with colonial rule was too high.
 * The expenses, that the Indian colony and others that were part of British rule, proved to be the emphasis placed on the relationship between a manufacturing European colonizer and its raw-material-producing overseas dependencies were maintained.
 * The chronic poverty and homelessness that resulted from the production of cash crops convinced the Indians, that the British didn’t care about them and only did things when it was too late.
 * Leaders such as B.G. Tilak emerged during this time period and demanded that the new nation be built on Hindu beliefs which translated into no women education and rising the already low marriage age, and he wasn’t willing to make deals with the British but in fact threatened them with a violent rebellion.
 * Due to the genuine mass following that Tilak seemed to have the British as well as other Hindus, Muslims, and other followers of religion were on edge, and so once evidence surfaced that linked him to underground organizations that advocated violent revolt, he was sent into exile in Burma and the following he had once had ceased to exist.
 * Other threats that involved young terrorist also were crushed by the start of WWI. Due to the programs on how to use firearms and make bombs, they proved to be a powerful threat that assassinated British officials and government buildings.
 * Leaders that preferred a peaceful, constitutionalist route to decolonization emerged and gained they gained followings. The Morley- Minto reforms of 1909 provided educated Indians with considerably expanded opportunities both to vote for and serve on local and all- Indian legislative councils.
 * At first, leaders such as Gandhi went around selling British war bonds but soon since it become obvious of what was happening signs of social unrest began to emerge.
 * While war inflation put more Indians in bad situations, the British were getting better salaries due to the profits earned in war productions. Many localities suffered from famines, which were exacerbated by wartime transport shortages that impeded relief efforts.
 * During the war, the Indians were promised a self governed government and it was believed because of the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms from 1919, but they were angered by the Rowlatt Act that restricted this newfound freedom. At around the same time, Mohandas Gandhi emerged as a new leader that forged this localized protest into a sustained all-India campaign against the policies of the colonial overlords.
 * Gandhi’s stress on nonviolent but quite aggressive protest tactics endeared him both to the moderates and to more radical elements within the nationalist movement. His advocacy of peaceful boycotts, strikes, non-cooperation, and mass demonstrations which were labeled as satyagraha, that proved to be an effective way of weakening British control without letting them use their superior military strength.
 * Gandhi’s experience led him to have a strong following among he middle-class, Western educated Indians, who had long been he dominant force behind he nationalist cause. During his leadership, nationalist protest surged in India during the 1920’s and 1930’s due to the appeal he had on people and the even greater influence he had among nationalist politicians.
 * Civil disobedience became apparent once the efforts that the Indians were trying to make a deal with the British were shut down which led to the Quit India Movement that began in the summer of 1942.
 * There was a struggle of decolonization in South Asia, and there were a lot of leaders that were arrested as a response from the British.