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Birth
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born. -
Period: to
Indian Independence Movement
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Gandhi in England
At age 19, he went to England to study law. After returning to India, he tried to set up his own law practice but soon joined an Indian law firm in South Africa. Many of the Indians went to South Africa as servants and then settled there. Some prospered while some still remained very poor. Under the South Africa's white rulers, they still sufferef from racial prejudice. -
Ghandi Returns to India
Ghandi returned to India and joined the Congress party. His ideas inspired Indians of all religions and ethnic backgrounds to resist British Rule. -
Amritsar Massacre
A large but peaceful crowd jammed into the heart of Amritsar, a city in northern India. General Reginald Dyer, had banned public meetings, but Indians either ignored or had not heard the order. Therefore, Dyer arrived with 50 soldiers, who, in order to clear the field, opened fire on the unarmed men, women, and children for ten minutes. The Amritsar Massacre, killing 379 and wounding another 1,100, was a turning point for many Indians. It convince them of the evils of British rule. -
Nonviolence
While leaders like Ataturk adopted western solutions to national problems, Gandhi embraced Hindu traditions. Above all, he preached the ancient doctrine of ahimsa, or nonviolence and reverence for all life. He applied this idea to the fight against British rule. By using the power of love, he believed people could convert even the worst wrongdoer to the right course of action. As Gandhi explained, passive resistance involved sacrifice and suffering. -
Western Influence
Gandhi’s philosophy reflected western as well as Indian influences. He admired Christian teachings about love and had read the works of Henry David Thoreau, an American philosopher who believed in civil disobedience. Gandhi also embraced western ideas of democracy and nationalism. He rejected the inequalities of the caste system and fought hard to end the harsh treatment of untouchables. He urged equal rights for all Indians, women as well as men. -
Gandhi Sets an Example
During the 1920s and 1930s, Gandhi launched a series of nonviolent actions against British rule. He called for boycotts of British goods, especially textiles, and urged Indians to wear only cotton grown and woven in India. He worked to restore pride in India’s traditional spinning and weaving industries, making the spinning wheel a symbol of the nationalist movement. -
The Salt March
To mobilize mass support, Gandhi offered a daring challenge to Britain in 1930. He set out to end the British salt monopoly. Like earlier rulers in India, the British claimed the sole right to produce and sell salt. By taxing those sales, they collected money to maintain their government in India. To Gandhi, the government salt monopoly was an evil burden on the poor and a symbol of British oppression. Everyone needed salt to survive. With 78 followers, he set out on a 240-mile march to the sea. -
The Salt March
Gandhi waded into the surf and picked up a lump of sea salt. He urged Indians to follow his lead. Even though he was soon arrested and jailed, coastal villagers started collecting salt. Congress party leaders sold salt on city streets, displayed it to huge rallies - and went to jail. As Gandhi’s campaign gained force, tens of thousands of Indians were dragged off to prison. -
An Effective Tool
All around the world, newspapers became an effective tool. It revealed to everyone how the police brutally clubbed peaceful marchers who tried to occupy government saltworks. The Salt March embarrassed Britain, which took pride in its democratic traditions. But in India, its officials were jailing thousands who asked only for basic freedoms that the British enjoyed in their own country. -
Toward Freedom
Ghandi's campaign of nonviolence and self-sacrifice of the follwers he had slowly forced Britain to agree to give some of the power back to Indians and meet other demands of the Congress party. -
A Seperate Muslim State
The Muslim League gained an able leader in Muhammad Ali Jinnah who like Ghandi, came from a middle class background and studied law in England. At first, he represented the ideas of the Congress party, but then it soon developed into the idea of a seperate state for Muslims. He insisted that Muslims have their own state, Pakistan. Riots between Hindus and Muslims helped convince Britain to partition the subcontinent. -
World War II
Britain outraged Indian leaders by postponing further independence and then bringing them into war without consulting them. Nationalist were angered and launched a campaign of noncooperation and were jailed by the British. Milions of Indians did however help with the war. -
Two States
British officials hastily drew borders to create Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan. Pakistan was made up of two widely separated areas that had large Muslims populations. -
Tragedy Unfolds
Drawing fair borders was impossible because Hindus and Muslims lived side by side. Therefore, millions of Hindus and Muslims crossed the borders of India and Pakistan in both directions. During the mass migration, centuries of mistrust plunged northern India into savage violence. Hindu and Sikh mobs massacred Muslims fleeing into Pakistan. Muslims slaughtered Hindu and Sikh neighbors. An estimated 10 million refugees fled their homes. As many as a million or more, mostly Muslims, may have died. -
Death
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was shot and killed by a Hindu Extremist. When Gandhi died India went into a depression because they considered Gandhi one of their heroes who had a huge influence on their way of life. -
After WWII
Indian nationalists had demanded independence since the late 1800s. After WWII, Britain finally agreed to these demands. As independence neared, a long-simmering issue surfaced - the idea of a Muslim minority living in a Hindu-dominated India.
