Lighthouse

The Road to Independence

By indianii

  • First European Contact

    The Royal Charter of Britain creates the East India Company, which eventually causes India to become ecomomically imperialized by Great Britain.
  • Period: to

    The Road to Independence

  • East India Company Expands

    The East India Company sets up numerous trading posts in the Indian city of Surat.

  • The Seige of Arcot

    Robert Clive (a British general) seizes the city of Arocot, winning the British total control of South India over the French.

  • Obtaining Opium

    The East India Company monopolizes the production and sale of opium in the Indian region of Bengal. This begins Britain's attempt to imperialize and take over China.

  • The Sepoy Rebellion

    A large group of Hindu and Muslim sepoys rebel against the British army because they were disrespecting their religous values. in order to protest, they took over almost all of North India and fought Great Britain in a number of battles. The rebellion lasted over a year until the East India Company was able to regain control of Northern India and end the fighting-which the British won.

  • Taking Back Control

    After the Sepoy Rebellion in 1857, the Indians began to slip out of the British's hands. Great Britain realized that they needed to take more control over India quickly or they would loose their colony. So, Britain upgraded India's economic imperialism to a colonization and had their queen, Queen Victoria, become the empress of India.

  • Indians get a Say

    As the British gained more and more control of everything in India, native Indians were losing their right to have a say in the decisions made for their country. So, a small group of middle-class scholars decided to create the Indian National Congress (INC). This congress would be the voice for Indians in the British Parliament.

  • No More ISS

    Ghandi begins a draft of a petition to protest the Indetured Servant System (ISS). This system worked so that a native Indian would work for an englishman in exchange for food, clothes, transportation, housing etc. Unlike slaves, who were bound to there owners for life, indentured servants had a contract that stated they would only work for their master for a term of 3-7 years. Just six months after Ghandi sent the petition in to the British government, he got a reply, and the ISS was extinct.

  • The Amritsar Massacre

    In early 1919, one of India's major British commanders, General Reginald Dyer, issued some orders that Indians felt were discriminatory towards their race. Many Indians became upset and decided to hold a protest in the middle of Amritsar Square. However, when Dyer found out about this, he didn't like what he heard and as the protest was occuring, he fired shots at the crowd leaving 379 dead, and over 1,500 wounded.

  • Prince of Wales Comes to India

    Because of the recent violence and unrest between the British and the native Indians, the Prince of Wales decided to travel to Inida to attempt in calming things down without freeing India.Unfortunately, he was greeted by the arrest without trial of 200,000 Indian activists.

  • A Plan is Formed

    A powerful Hindu leader in India, Jawaharlal Nehru, begins to draft up plans to free his country from the British. A year later, he is named the president of the INC.

  • The Salt March

    In 1930, Britain began taxing salt in India and forced people to buy it, even though the Indians had been making salt independently for years. This upsetted many natives so, with the leadership of Ghandi, a large group marched in protest to the city of Dandi and refused to pay the tax. British officials became outraged by their rebellion and on Apr. 6, 25 days into the protest, British police officers arrested Ghandi along with many other protesters. However, Indians prevailed and were succesful

  • Dharasana Satyagraha

    Due to Gandhi's arrest during the Salt March, a protest called the Dharasana Satyagraha occured in the city of Dharasana. Hundreds of Satyagrahis (translated to truth- force) were beaten by soldiers under British command and taken into custody.

  • Jinnah Attempts for Freedom

    A Muslim leader, named Muhammed Ali Jinnah felt his people were being mistreated and wanted to break from the rest of India to form a Muslim nation. So, he led a series of demonstrations all over India trying to help his cause but they ended up turning violent and killing around 5,000 people. However,a British viceroy and the INC president, Nehru, felt that the best way to stop the Muslim violence was to give them their way, so Jinnah succeeded and recieved the region of Pakistan.

  • "Quit India" Campaign

    When World War II broke out in 1939, British officails were extremely opposed to any war efforts whatsoever. They didn't want any democratic involvement in it at all so they lauched the "Quit India" Campaign. Unfortunately, their intentions didn't work out too well and the campaign ended in mass violence and 60,000 arrests.

  • Independence at Last

    In February of 1947, after years of turmoil and trial, Great Britain finally decided to give India their freedom. On August 14, 1947, Britain released India from colonization and Jawaharlal Nehru became the first Prime Minister of a free and independent India.